Novidades

I’ve been in my new site, Meconta, for exactly two months. Situated in Nampula province, it’s only about 6 hours away from my old site, but the experience is entirely different. It’s the district capital, and one of the nearest towns to a major city, so there are shops, administrative buildings, and businesses (at my old site, everyone was a subsistence farmer). After living for so long without electricity, cell phone service, or internet access, the village of Meconta is basically a city. 

Having electricity in our house is great, as we are no longer obliged to go to bed at 7 P.M. Our house is in an area where a lot of high-ranking officials live, and is therefore one of the nicest in town. Its only flaw is its diminutive size (little known fact: it was the inspiration for the classic Hobbit Hole), but Jamie and I are adjusting to living very closely with a puppy, a kitten, and each other. We still get our water carted in from a well, but enjoy warm bucket baths now, thanks to the magic of electricity. 

We arrived in Meconta on the first day of school for the last trimester of 2013, and started teaching in the same week. I was assigned to teach 8th, 10th, and 12th grade chemistry, but all my classes are scheduled for Thursday and Friday mornings, leaving the rest of my week free. After only one week of this schedule, I was already going crazy, so I organized English classes for some of my fellow teachers. These went well for the first few weeks, until the school director got annoyed that teachers were missing their classes to attend English lessons. After that, attendance dropped off, but we’re hoping to resume these classes in the next school year. 

Escola Secundaria de Meconta-Sede

The Mozambican school year ends this week, and then my summer vacay begins! Next week, Jamie and I are flying up to meet my dad in Tanzania for a safari followed by a SCUBA trip. We are hosting Thanksgiving in Meconta, then spending December in South Africa and southern Mozambique. 

It’s the time of year to say goodbye to friends who are completing their Peace Corps service. We’re also welcoming the next group of trainees to the Mozambique family, which sort of makes us the sage, all-knowing seniors. My first year of service has greatly exceeded my expectations, and I’m incredibly excited to see what changes the next year will bring (including more frequent blog updates). 

Maluca

Simba

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

I love Mariri. I love my students, my neighbors, and my JUNTOS group. However, even from the start, it’s been a tough love. After recently experiencing a third security incident, Jamie and I came to the conclusion that we’re in an unhealthy relationship with our site.

Unexpected Perks

The area that is now Cabo Delgado, my province, was the last land in Africa to receive a charter for development. I live, quite literally, on the final frontier of Africa. As Peace Corps has developed over the last 51 years, there are very few Peace Corps sites as rural and isolated as mine. Along with its obvious drawbacks in comparison with American life (i.e., lack of access to Target stores), there are some pretty great unexpected benefits to the traditional Peace-Corps-hippe-granola life.

New Roommate

Jamie and I have been getting along so well, we decided to take a big step in our relationship by adopting a baby.

Who are all these people who keep calling me professor...?

On the first day of school in America, you usually show up at 7 A.M.: new clothes, new backpack, and new school supplies. Teachers read and pass out syllabi, you forget your locker combination a bunch of times, and you hope no one gives homework on the first day. Students and teachers are, collectively, excited and nervous for the following weeks. 

On the first day of school in Mozambique, Jamie and I showed up at 7 A.M.: eight students and one other teacher in the entire school. The class schedule was still incomplete. Each classroom should have about fifty students, according to enrollment, and there are thirty two high school teachers. We waited around for a bit, then everyone went home.

Bem Vindo a Mariri

Mariri is very, very mato. Mato is Portuguese for “in the middle of absolutely nowhere.” Our town lies 10 miles off the main road, and is isolated due to its lack of a market, electricity, or running water. Seriously, no one comes to Mariri.

I think that maybe two people in our town own private cars, and there is one chapa (public bus) that goes to the city once every day, but everyone else rides bicycles or motorbikes.  Needless to say, we don’t get out much! Fortunately, our house is less than a five minute walk from the school, so the transportation nightmare doesn't haunt us on a daily basis. However, we don’t have access to groceries or supplies without going into the next town, so we’ve been eating a lot of stuff like rice and canned fish, rice and onions, rice and potatoes, rice and water, etc…

Mariri is, however, beautiful! I feel like I live in a park. The school grounds were part of a mission and seminary before the war, so there are many mature mango and papaya trees, as well as palm trees, banana plants, and gorgeous Portuguese trees. The ground is very sandy, and right now the entire area is very lush and green; we have three lakes (full of catfish) and a beautiful green mountain. 

The town consists of three neighborhoods, one of which is at the top of the mountain. We climbed it last week to attend the church (yup, I climb a mountain to go to church!), which was an experience in and of itself. For many of the kids in the very isolated neighborhood, Jamie and I were probably the first foreigners they had ever seen, and they all repeatedly called us “white people” in the local language. The church experience was interesting, too: communion was distributed out of a Tupperware, I’m pretty sure the presider wasn’t actually a priest, and the altar boy asked me to marry him.

It was a cool cultural experience, though, and Jamie and I are planning to go back in order to better integrate in the community. And that mountaintop view isn’t too bad.