*Always accepting questions you may have about my life and experience here in Mozambique! Feel free to comment on this post or send me a message via social media!
LIFE:
Do people that live
in Tete ever travel places?
Short answer: yes… But Tete is a huge province so… Long
answer: yes/no
There are a lot of people who live in Tete who will most
likely never leave Tete. There are a lot of people who live in Manje who don’t
have the money to even go to the capital city. There are also a lot of people
in Tete who may never visit the rest of Mozambique but will travel to Zimbabwe,
Zambia, or Malawi to see family (as borders work very differently here than we
as Americans are used to). There are also people with government or industry
jobs that get to travel frequently! And plenty of other people who just have
money and are able to own a car and go wherever they like. The reality for most
people though is similar to a situation that just happened to my host family…
my host brother who recently turned two was battling malaria for yet another
time (believe he has had it four to five times now) and got very very ill. The local
hospital in Manje wasn’t able to help – so they found the money to go to Tete
City, but the doctors there were also not able to help. They decided to go to
Malawi where care is better… but this was very expensive. My host mom and
cousin went to Malawi with Elias and stayed in a border town, Zobue, for a month.
During that time my host father was working and trying to care for the other
five kids left at home. My host mother wasn’t working (aka going to the farm)
so no food was being brought home daily – and nothing to sell either. All the
while they were spending money on transport, lodging, food, and medical bills
far away from home. The reality of travel for most Mozambicans is out of
necessity or for family time to celebrate the holidays. A lot of citizens
travel far from home to try to further their education and others have
government jobs which force them to move to other provinces. Tete is a
relatively rural province and a lot of people who have higher paying jobs
travel to and from their work communities and the capital city but only long
breaks, big holidays, and emergencies are cause for travel for leisure.
Who owns cars?
The wealthy… cars are few and far between in Manje. Likewise
in the capital Tete City. Nowhere near as many cars as in the States.
Doctors/some teachers/government officials/police/industry workers tend to have
vehicles. In Tete City there are a lot of businesses that work in the coal industry
– most of the higher up mine workers have trucks. However, a lot of the
Mozambican employees get bussed to and from work everyday. Public transport
accounts for the majority of travel within province. Walking accounts for the
majority of travel around town… to and from sites. Many of my students walk an
hour or more to school from nearby towns. Most people walk hours to their farms
each morning. Walking is the reality. For long trips, say to the city, you take
a chapa…
How far away is a
major city?
Tete City, the capital of the province, is approximately 2.5
to 3 hours away in a chapa. In a private car the trip is much faster but the
roads are also slowly deteriorating which makes the trip longer no matter what
your mode of transportation. Chapas are like the airport vans that have four
rows… only here you fit four people to a row and then four people in the
backwards facing row behind the front seats as well. All chapas have at least
24 people (including the two in front, the driver, and the cobrador or the
money collector/door opener/people finder). Oftentimes, chapas are full of 24 adults
plus any number of children sitting on laps and any combination of baggage and
animals (chickens, goats, pigs). Depending on the number of stops for drop-offs
and pick-ups the trip takes longer.
What do you do in
your spare time?
What do you do in your
free time?
Spare time and free time sound the same but they feel very
different. Spare time here is rarely free… usually in my “downtime” there are
people at my house. Whether a neighbor stops by to chat for at least an hour
(neighborly visits are never quick) causing me to stop what I’m doing and
entertain, or kids come by to ask to play, or teenagers come by and want to
watch Harry Potter (which selfishly means I can’t watch Peaky Blinders) it
feels like there is very little alone time. And to be fair – that’s part of the
deal, that’s what you sign up for in a lot of ways. But sometimes you just need
to be alone in the silence. I’ve gotten very good at ignoring people who come
to the door. The custom here is the say “com licensa” which is like excuse me…
nobody knocks here. Kids will stand at my door and say “licensa” or “censa” for
what feels like an hour. I’ve always wondered why they hold out hope for so
long. In theory, no one knows if I’m actually home or not… I could be in the
market, I could be at my site mates house. But nope, they yell into my windows forEVER.
In the beginning, I always answered… now I know that 8 times out of 10 someone
wants something from me. It could be a fellow teacher asking me to get him an American
phone and he’ll pay me back, or students asking for water (there is a well on
the school grounds they could use), or kids asking for candy or to borrow my
soccer ball (which I would probably never track down again). In the beginning,
I was much more open to all of these requests… but now it just feels like I’m a
“renewable resource” for people to use use use. It can get old quick. Granted,
I do have an incredible amount of shit compared to most Mozambicans and I would
probably ask me for things too. I wish I would have started posting earlier so
I could compare my posts from early on up until now. At 18 months in – I’m just
tired. The PCV 24/7 line isn’t a joke… and it does start to wear on you… even
when you’re just being lazy most of the time. I feel lazier than ever and
simultaneously drained always. SO, in my free time… I like to travel around Moz
and other countries and see as much as I can! I also enjoy getting to the beach
when possible because it always soothes my soul for a little bit. Free time is
spent with fellow PCVs and friends. Something we all talked about recently at
mid service conference was how hard it is to make true deep lasting friendships
with people in our communities. Often because of the language barriers and
differences in everyday life… I feel the most connected to two teenagers who
hang out at my house pretty regularly. Because I get to be sassy and candid and
don’t have to overthink everything I’m trying to say – and they understand my
Portuglish. So in conclusion, sometimes I make up tasks so as not to have spare
time… but I cherish my free time and the ability to hang out with friends and
get a taste of my full personality again.
Do you see wild
animals everyday?
Do dogs count? Short answer, no. Long answer: there are
goats EVERYWHERE. They just run around wild all the time. So probably not the
wild animal you meant…. But… there are also guinea fowl, some really ugly sheep
looking animals, cows, pigs, ducks, chickens, and cats that are always on the
loose. However, safari type animals, no. There are stories though of elephants
killing people and you can hear hyenas at night (which my students think are
the spirits of the dead). At the end of the day, we are in the WILD so to
speak… and there is always the possibility of the “wild” getting too close but
for the most part there are enough people in my town that animals don’t traipse
through on a regular basis. Also, snakes. They’re the worst.
FOOD:
Where do you go
grocery shopping?
I will be the first to admit when it comes to food I am
bougie beyond belief! One thing Ro and I agreed on early on was that we wanted
a fridge with a freezer. Thankfully, this allows me to buy food in the city and
store it for as long as I please! Once a month when we get paid I go to the
city and go shopping at a South African grocery store called Shoprite. It has
everything you could need… they also have Caribbean Onion & Balsamic Vinegar
Lay’s and let me tell you Y’ALL ARE MISSING OUT! I am going to miss this
splurge so much when it comes time to leave! But anyway, I buy peanut butter,
chick peas, coconut milk, chicken/beef, (recently) frozen shrimp (I told you
bougie), fresh veggies that I can’t get at site like… peppers, green beans,
carrots, and fresh fruits… (Manje is severely lacking in the fruit department!)
apples, peaches, grapes. Lastly, yogurt and cheese when I’m feeling like a
splurge which is always. It’s nice though to have some “American” style snacks
to supplement my diet here because it is very hard to feel healthy on just the
market diet. I like to make chia pudding for breakfast, coconut curries, and
hummus. The nice thing is by freezing a lot of these things they can last the
whole month, especially when I’m only cooking for one! Cooking has become such
a stress release for me here and I love experimenting with new dishes. The
market in Manje has: bread, noodles, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage,
bananas, mangoes/guavas seasonally, rice, dried beans, dried fish, and an
abundance of bolos (little cakes/doughnuts that everyone eats as a snack). Some
of the seasonal foods in Manje are: pumpkins, green peppers, papayas,
cucumbers, and watermelon (not pink). A staple in most of Moz is corn. People
eat it raw, grilled on the cob, dried/ground into a flour that they use to make
xima (sheemah) which is most often compared to grits… but it is just a
flavorless flour/water mixture that plumps up. People eat it with EVERYTHING.
Or rather, it is the everyday meal… for a lot of families rice and beans are
too expensive and so nutrition levels are low. Keep an eye out, I’m currently
working on a food post.
How do you cook your
food?
I am incredibly lucky to have electricity and therefore I
can use an electric stovetop. The majority of families use carvao (charcoal
essentially). I will get into this more in the food post.
What appliances do
you have?
Again, I am SO LUCKY and also incredibly bougie. I have a
fridge/freezer, electric stovetop, chaleira (hot pot/electric kettle), a fan to
use when it gets over 95/100 degrees, and I recently bought myself a birthday
blender (which has been a GAME CHANGER). I would say on average; Mozambicans
maybe MAYBE have a deep freeze (but this would be wealthier families where I
live). The nice thing about PC houses though is that they get passed down. So
not everything in my house I bought… although a lot of it Rossana and I did buy
together which also made it easier. Some PCVs live alone and have to front the
cost all themselves, also, some PCVs are first generation volunteers and so
they live with significantly less. The older the site (longer it’s been open),
the more volunteers that have contributed to it. Whoever moves in after us is
going to have it GOOD! Rossana and I really spent a lot of time making
improvements in order to make the house feel like a home! It’s really important
to have a cozy home base. We got shelving units built for our rooms/storage,
shelves for the living room for all the books and toys the volunteer before us
had. We had shelves put in around the house for kitchen ware, we repurposed a
desk as the main kitchen area, I recently bought a wicker couch and end table.
We had a fence put up both for security and privacy (our house has two doors
one on the front and back). Little by little, our house has become a true home.
HOUSE:
Where do you go to
the bathroom?
I have a pit latrine in my backyard. It is in one half of a
cement building. The other half is the concrete square room where I take bucket
baths (on occasion). I’ll try to post pictures. But, it’s not that bad really…
you get very used to it.
SCHOOL:
How many different
classes do you have a day?
It depends. High school here is set up more like college in
the States. You don’t have the same classes everyday… so for example I teach
Tues, Wed, Thurs and my schedule is like this:
TIME
|
TUESDAY
|
WEDNESDAY
|
THURSDAY
|
12:30 – 1:15
|
9A
|
------
|
9D
|
1:20 – 2:05
|
9A
|
------
|
----
|
2:10 – 2:55
|
9B
|
9D
|
----
|
3:15 – 4:00
|
9B
|
9D
|
9B
|
4:05 – 4:50
|
9C
|
------
|
9C
|
4:55 – 5:40
|
9C
|
------
|
9A
|
That is actually my schedule, times and everything, this
year I have a lot of down time! Last year I taught all 6 tempos T/W/Th and had
18 hours, this year I have 12 hours. But I am so appreciative that my school
lines up my schedule the way they do so that I teach my dupla (hour and a half)
classes first and then give my soltas (forty-five minutes) second each week. It
allows for me to stay on track with all of my kids and not get mixed up with
lesson plans… some teachers get reallllly bad schedules and could have for
example 4, 8th grade classes that meet three times a week but none
of them are in order or line up… so that teacher has to keep straight what each
class has been taught already. (Also, I only teach English)
How many kids per
class?
This varies on the day, but enrolled on each class roster is
around 50-75 students. I would say on average I have 40-45 present in the
classroom.
What age are your
students?
This is also very different than in the States. There is no
set age for certain grades… for example last year I had a 26 year old in my 8th
grade class. This year I’m not sure of everyone’s ages yet but 9th
grade usually varies from 13-24.
Do you have school 5
days/week?
School is in session five days a week but I am very lucky to
have Monday’s and Friday’s “off”. These are days I use to get my planning done
for classes, work on grading, and structure/plan my secondary projects.
PEACE CORPS:
How do people treat
the PC people?
We are treated so so well! Oftentimes too well. There is
definitely an attitude towards white people that allows for extreme privilege. This
is difficult question to answer to be honest. Some days I feel like people
think I can’t do anything and I could easily feel like people think I’m more
qualified for a task than I actually am the next day. There are a lot of ways
that day to day life is drastically different in Mozambique and people can
assume that because I come from a life filled with amenities that I am
underqualified for simple tasks. An example of this would be when I lived with
a homestay family who assumed I didn’t know how to hand wash laundry. But then
there are times where the school wants me to do some big time consuming project
because they think it would take me less time because I have a computer or some
magic software. It’s a balance. Overall, we are treated very well. The people
in Mozambique are incredibly kind and always so giving.
What has been your
most rewarding experience thus far?
I really enjoy working on secondary projects outside of the
classroom. I feel the most fulfilled when I get to teach students about
malaria, HIV, and pregnancy prevention. Those projects feel really good when
they’re done and you know kids are actually walking away more educated about a
topic! I also love showing kids Disney movies - they get so into it and love the songs! Lastly,
just living in Manje and being in a community where I get to experience a
culture and language different from my own has been very rewarding.
