The last week and a half has been an emotional roller coster ride for the pre-service training group. Once we got back from our site visits everyone was very happy becauswe we all had so much fun getting to see a day in the life of the current peace corps volunteers. However soon after we returned we discovered that one third of all the people in the group did not pass the language exam that we had taken prior to our site visits. I was very happy that I had passed the test but overall I was sad that the group as a whole did not perform as expected. This feeling was shared by many as we feel like it was more a group failure that the failure of individuals. It is still quite a mistery as to how such a large percentage of us did not pass as we have all been very enthusiastic about learning the language. So now instead of moving on to learn local languages, our trainers have decided that we will just focus on learning portugese for the next few weeks. Before I was in a language class of people that all lived close to me. Now I am in a class of people that had the same score as me. I feel like I am learning a lot more portugese now and even though I will not be learning a local language during training I feel like I will come out of training with strong portugese.
The day after we were told the bad news we had our placement interviews were we were able to express what time of site and job we would like to be placed with ofr the next two years. I told them that I wanted to do organizational development of a smaller local Mozambiquan NGO and also simultaniously work with a larger international NGO. I told them that I would prefer to be in an area with several other volunteers and that it would be nice to be in a larger town so I could focus on learning Portugese and not a local language. Then from Friday (the day of the interview) to wednesday the day of site anouncements) everyone was just crazy anxious with anticipation. I even had a dream a few night before site anouncements where i saw a sheet of paper with eveyone's name on the left side and their towns on the right side. In the dream i scroled downwith my hand to my name and then saw the name of a southern mozambiquan city next to it.
And then it was wednesday....We were all standing together in a school basketball court with a chalk map of Moz in front of us and the names of all the site writen out on the map. We were given envelopes and said that when we were tole to open the envelope we would all open ours at once and then go stand on our site on the map. 5.....4.....3...2....1....."Open your envelopes!" it took me way longer then it should take a normal human being to open an envelope becauser I think my hands were shaking a bit. Finaly I tore it open and looked at the piece of paper. For the first few seconds i only saw the words describing the NGO I would work with and I was very frustrated that I could not see where it said what site i was going to (that was a very long 2-5 seconds). And then I saw it. "HOLY S#!t!" it was the same damn city i had the dream of. Crazy! So I went over to my site on the map and saw the group of people i would be living close to for the next two years and the ni looked over my sholder and saw the 2 thirds of my group that are all going to be living and working in the North of the Country. it is a little sad that so many of the people I have become friends with will be living so far away but it just gives me reolve (and resorces) to make a big trip through the north of the country at some point in the next 2 years.
More or less everyone is very excited about their placements and group moral is at an all time high. Though we are all so ready to get to site now that we for sure have trouble paying attention during the technical training sessions. I will be working with a larger local mozambiquan organization that runs the spectrum of HIV prevention and treatment. They recieve funding from 2 large INGOs and the US embasy. So it should be a really good experiance. I will be living in a city that is very beautiful and I am excited about exploring it and the serounding area.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
A day in the life
I am in one of my extremely vivid Larium dreams right now. I am in some sort of situation that is completly not my life at all. All the people in my dream are people I know from different times and places of my life but for some reason they are all in this dream world as well, but the way that I know and relate to the all is completly different from real life. This dream is dragging on and on as if it were a full day and everything feels so real. Even my sence of smell is more real in my dreams since I started taking Larium.
Suddenly i am awakened by the sound of screams! Wait, no thats roosters...and now is dogs...and pigs squeeling too...and now cats. It is still dark but all the animals in the town have decided that it is time to wake up at about 3:30 in the morning. The mix of animal noisies blurs together and creates what I would amagin to be the sound track to hell. The wind is blowing hard, cold air is pooring through small cracks and the vent hole at the top of the wall and my room is getting colder by the second, good thing I am wearing a sweater, sweat panta and thick socks. The wind is blowing twigs and dust on the tin roof above me and i combination with the cats on the roof it sounds like im in the inside of a snare drum. i get up an relieve myself over the black bucket I have in my room because the out hose is always locked in the night.
I then go back to sleep for another round of Larium dreaming. At 6:30 I am woken up by my host mother and told that it is my turn to takea bucket bath. I walk into the bathing room which is a small room with a small drain at one end and underwear hanging from the walls (it is not considered proper in mozambique to dry your underwear outside so people do it in their bathing rooms). The air is still cold but the water is worm so I crouch over the bucket and bath myself. After i get dressed i eat breakfeast. Today I am a lucky boy my homestay mother made me frenchfries and a deep fried egg for breakfast. I only get this about once a week. Usually it is peanutbutter on bread. I eat my food and drink tea before grabbing my language books and note books before heading to class at 7:30.
I walk over to a neighboring coleague`s house were i and three others share the attention of our Portugese teacher for two hours. We take a five minet break to eat a snack that each of our home stay mothers have packed for us. Mostly we get juice and crackers ant are slightly sweet. The crackers make me think about hard tack that sailors used to survive off of, because we all have been eating these for almost 2 months now every day for snack once in the morning once in the afternoon.
After Language class we go to our technical training session where we learnign about how to become good peace corps health volunteers in Mozambique and sometimes we get guest speakers from the Mozambiquean government or from the US embacy. Then we walk back home for lunch. I live down the road downhill so myself and my language class coleagues always spend about 15 min walking back home and 20 min walking back to tech class after lunch. My lunch us usualy plain pasta with vegtable oil, breat and a lemon soda. Today I am lucky, I have a little extra time to wash some cloathes durring my lunch break. I take two buckets of water I place my dirty cloathes in one bucket and soap them up and scrub them between my fists then I rinse them off in the bucket with clean water. Then I empty out the bucket with the dirty water and fill it up with clean water and rinse the cloathes out in the water for a final rinse. Then I squease them as best I can and hang them out to dry on the cloaths line beforegrabing my back pack and walking 30 min to the building where we are having a session on preserving our own health.
The woman that does all of our personal health sessions is the head doctor for the Mozambique Peace corps. She is supper funny and has tons of crazy stories, but in general she is a very sweet woman and everyone is very happy when she comes to speak with us. if we ever get sick she is our main go to person.
Its about 4:30 now and we are finnished with our classes for the day. Now it is time for all of us to get in some chill time and hang out with eachother. There are just under 30 of us. Overall it is a very positive and easy going group. There has not been any drama to my knowledge and everyone gets along pretty well. So we hang out for a couple hours at a small bar/restaurant to chat. Im enjoying a nice dark South African beer and a piece of meat with spicky sauce becauce I do not eat dinner until 8. We have a cerfew of 7 so at 6.30 I am walking some people home. Less than a third of the group is male and a lot of the girls get cat called so I am walking a few of the girls that live by me homein a big group.
I am at home by 7 and my home stay mother is at night school and my father is about ready to head out to teach a night school class. I sit with the 2 year old girl and her 15 year old aunt and we watch Portugese who want to be a millionare and I do my Portugese home work. Then i take another bath (you want to take two baths a day when you live in a town where all the trash is burned) and at 8 I eat dinner (a bunch of rice with chichen in a salty tomato broth) Then I brush my teath, change into sweapants and a sweat shirt, climb under my covers and fall into a larium dream in the protective bubble that is my mosquito net.
Suddenly i am awakened by the sound of screams! Wait, no thats roosters...and now is dogs...and pigs squeeling too...and now cats. It is still dark but all the animals in the town have decided that it is time to wake up at about 3:30 in the morning. The mix of animal noisies blurs together and creates what I would amagin to be the sound track to hell. The wind is blowing hard, cold air is pooring through small cracks and the vent hole at the top of the wall and my room is getting colder by the second, good thing I am wearing a sweater, sweat panta and thick socks. The wind is blowing twigs and dust on the tin roof above me and i combination with the cats on the roof it sounds like im in the inside of a snare drum. i get up an relieve myself over the black bucket I have in my room because the out hose is always locked in the night.
I then go back to sleep for another round of Larium dreaming. At 6:30 I am woken up by my host mother and told that it is my turn to takea bucket bath. I walk into the bathing room which is a small room with a small drain at one end and underwear hanging from the walls (it is not considered proper in mozambique to dry your underwear outside so people do it in their bathing rooms). The air is still cold but the water is worm so I crouch over the bucket and bath myself. After i get dressed i eat breakfeast. Today I am a lucky boy my homestay mother made me frenchfries and a deep fried egg for breakfast. I only get this about once a week. Usually it is peanutbutter on bread. I eat my food and drink tea before grabbing my language books and note books before heading to class at 7:30.
I walk over to a neighboring coleague`s house were i and three others share the attention of our Portugese teacher for two hours. We take a five minet break to eat a snack that each of our home stay mothers have packed for us. Mostly we get juice and crackers ant are slightly sweet. The crackers make me think about hard tack that sailors used to survive off of, because we all have been eating these for almost 2 months now every day for snack once in the morning once in the afternoon.
After Language class we go to our technical training session where we learnign about how to become good peace corps health volunteers in Mozambique and sometimes we get guest speakers from the Mozambiquean government or from the US embacy. Then we walk back home for lunch. I live down the road downhill so myself and my language class coleagues always spend about 15 min walking back home and 20 min walking back to tech class after lunch. My lunch us usualy plain pasta with vegtable oil, breat and a lemon soda. Today I am lucky, I have a little extra time to wash some cloathes durring my lunch break. I take two buckets of water I place my dirty cloathes in one bucket and soap them up and scrub them between my fists then I rinse them off in the bucket with clean water. Then I empty out the bucket with the dirty water and fill it up with clean water and rinse the cloathes out in the water for a final rinse. Then I squease them as best I can and hang them out to dry on the cloaths line beforegrabing my back pack and walking 30 min to the building where we are having a session on preserving our own health.
The woman that does all of our personal health sessions is the head doctor for the Mozambique Peace corps. She is supper funny and has tons of crazy stories, but in general she is a very sweet woman and everyone is very happy when she comes to speak with us. if we ever get sick she is our main go to person.
Its about 4:30 now and we are finnished with our classes for the day. Now it is time for all of us to get in some chill time and hang out with eachother. There are just under 30 of us. Overall it is a very positive and easy going group. There has not been any drama to my knowledge and everyone gets along pretty well. So we hang out for a couple hours at a small bar/restaurant to chat. Im enjoying a nice dark South African beer and a piece of meat with spicky sauce becauce I do not eat dinner until 8. We have a cerfew of 7 so at 6.30 I am walking some people home. Less than a third of the group is male and a lot of the girls get cat called so I am walking a few of the girls that live by me homein a big group.
I am at home by 7 and my home stay mother is at night school and my father is about ready to head out to teach a night school class. I sit with the 2 year old girl and her 15 year old aunt and we watch Portugese who want to be a millionare and I do my Portugese home work. Then i take another bath (you want to take two baths a day when you live in a town where all the trash is burned) and at 8 I eat dinner (a bunch of rice with chichen in a salty tomato broth) Then I brush my teath, change into sweapants and a sweat shirt, climb under my covers and fall into a larium dream in the protective bubble that is my mosquito net.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Into the Bush
Last week everyones life here in training was about tests. We had a writen portuguese exam on tuesday, an oral portuguese exam on friday and an oral technical exam on friday as well. We will not know the results untill later on the week but depending on how we did on the portuguese oral exam we will either be able to move on to studying a local mozambiquan language and continue technical training or be placed in intencive portugese classes. I feel fairly confident in how I did on all exams. I have been learning Portugese very6 rapidly copmpared to other languages I have studies in the past. The small language group sizes combined with the home stay family experience has really forced a lot of portugese into my head. Additionally the previous latin languages i studied have helped me get a hold of the gramar.
On SUnday all of us trainees we sent out on shadowing visits with active volunteers. One of my coleagues and myself were sent off to a small district capital in the center of the Gaza provence. We were very close to the city of Chokwe, if you feel like google maping it. The volunteer we shadowd has been there for over a year and a half so it was good to get some insights from someone who had experienced the majority of the 2 year service. She was also supper busy and supper experienced. She is totaly proficiant in portugese and knows basic chengana (local language), works with the local cealth center, a large INGO and a couple small comunity based organizations. So I was able to get some insights into whatever my responcibilities may end up being eventualy. My fellow trainee and I we also very lucky because the volunteer we visited and her education volunteer site mate cooked us awesome curry and pasta dishes. Mmmmmm.....
On Monday we went out into the "community" which is an other word for a small town out in the mittle of the african bush, It was very cool to take a chapa for 15 min and then get out and walk down a dirt road through the bush for another 20 min before getting to a village with not running watter or electricity. We then did house visits with a local health activist. The job of the health activist is to check up on people with health problems in the community and make sure they are taking care of themselves properly. A lot of the time this inculdes people that are HIV positive and need to be keeping up on their meds. So we walked around a large area in the "community" for about 3 to 4 hours visiting about4 or 5 houses. Then my coleague and myself called it a day but the volunteer we were visiting went ot the health center to help out with an overflow of patiants.
The next day We went to the health center qand had a little tour of were people recieved treatment and where the babies were waied and given vacinations. If someone has an easily treatible condition then they are treated in the health center by health technitions (there is only one doctor per health center because for the whole 22 mill population of mozambique there are only 1000 doctors) If someone is very sick then the health center will put the on an ambulence to the closest hospital. If the hospital is having trouble carring for them because they are really really really sick, then the hospital will put them on an ambulance and send them to Maputo. Ambulances to not puck people up from their home they are so few that they can only be used for taking peoplefrom one health building to another getting to a health post orhealth center if you are sick is your own resboncibility. The volunteer showed us all the paperwork she usualy has to do throughout the day for the hospital and the INGO she works with it was a lot of info but it made me think "hey, I could do that and that would be somthing I could do to really contribute to a health center." So that was very encouraging and in general the whole experience made me feel very eager to get out of training and into my site (which I will not know for one more week).
On wednesdaty I navigated 4 chapa rides from the small town, then to Chokwe, then the big bus/chapa terminal just outsode of Maputo, then to a smaller chapa terminal in Maputo, wandered around maputo with my coleague (causiously and with care to my seroundings and my belonings and to always know how to get back to the chapa terminal of couse, no worries mom). Then When we went back to the smaller chapa terminal in Maputo we mety up with some other trainees who had gotten back from their visits. We waited around for about an hour for the correct chapa to show up. Our group was first in line but when the chapa showed up a bunch of Mozambiquans tried to cut in line in front of us but the people that worked on the chapa argued with them for about 10 min and made sure that we got on first because we were first in line. That was very curtious. In my experiance the chapa drivers and the "cobradors" (guys that controle who gets on and oof a chapa nad colect all the money. Are some of the most reliable and trusworthy resorces when traveling (I was origonaly suspicious of them but the volunteer I visited confirmed my geneneral trust of chapa drivers and cobradores). By the time I got back from maputo to the town we are doing training in I stoped in a little bar/restaurant and got a cheap bowl of soup half, a large piece of bread and a big beer. It was excelent and exactly what I needed after the long day. Then I went to my host family's house took a bucket bath, watched a Brtazilian soap opera episode, ate dinner, told my family baout my trip, gave them some cashews straight form the region they are grown and went to bed.
On SUnday all of us trainees we sent out on shadowing visits with active volunteers. One of my coleagues and myself were sent off to a small district capital in the center of the Gaza provence. We were very close to the city of Chokwe, if you feel like google maping it. The volunteer we shadowd has been there for over a year and a half so it was good to get some insights from someone who had experienced the majority of the 2 year service. She was also supper busy and supper experienced. She is totaly proficiant in portugese and knows basic chengana (local language), works with the local cealth center, a large INGO and a couple small comunity based organizations. So I was able to get some insights into whatever my responcibilities may end up being eventualy. My fellow trainee and I we also very lucky because the volunteer we visited and her education volunteer site mate cooked us awesome curry and pasta dishes. Mmmmmm.....
On Monday we went out into the "community" which is an other word for a small town out in the mittle of the african bush, It was very cool to take a chapa for 15 min and then get out and walk down a dirt road through the bush for another 20 min before getting to a village with not running watter or electricity. We then did house visits with a local health activist. The job of the health activist is to check up on people with health problems in the community and make sure they are taking care of themselves properly. A lot of the time this inculdes people that are HIV positive and need to be keeping up on their meds. So we walked around a large area in the "community" for about 3 to 4 hours visiting about4 or 5 houses. Then my coleague and myself called it a day but the volunteer we were visiting went ot the health center to help out with an overflow of patiants.
The next day We went to the health center qand had a little tour of were people recieved treatment and where the babies were waied and given vacinations. If someone has an easily treatible condition then they are treated in the health center by health technitions (there is only one doctor per health center because for the whole 22 mill population of mozambique there are only 1000 doctors) If someone is very sick then the health center will put the on an ambulence to the closest hospital. If the hospital is having trouble carring for them because they are really really really sick, then the hospital will put them on an ambulance and send them to Maputo. Ambulances to not puck people up from their home they are so few that they can only be used for taking peoplefrom one health building to another getting to a health post orhealth center if you are sick is your own resboncibility. The volunteer showed us all the paperwork she usualy has to do throughout the day for the hospital and the INGO she works with it was a lot of info but it made me think "hey, I could do that and that would be somthing I could do to really contribute to a health center." So that was very encouraging and in general the whole experience made me feel very eager to get out of training and into my site (which I will not know for one more week).
On wednesdaty I navigated 4 chapa rides from the small town, then to Chokwe, then the big bus/chapa terminal just outsode of Maputo, then to a smaller chapa terminal in Maputo, wandered around maputo with my coleague (causiously and with care to my seroundings and my belonings and to always know how to get back to the chapa terminal of couse, no worries mom). Then When we went back to the smaller chapa terminal in Maputo we mety up with some other trainees who had gotten back from their visits. We waited around for about an hour for the correct chapa to show up. Our group was first in line but when the chapa showed up a bunch of Mozambiquans tried to cut in line in front of us but the people that worked on the chapa argued with them for about 10 min and made sure that we got on first because we were first in line. That was very curtious. In my experiance the chapa drivers and the "cobradors" (guys that controle who gets on and oof a chapa nad colect all the money. Are some of the most reliable and trusworthy resorces when traveling (I was origonaly suspicious of them but the volunteer I visited confirmed my geneneral trust of chapa drivers and cobradores). By the time I got back from maputo to the town we are doing training in I stoped in a little bar/restaurant and got a cheap bowl of soup half, a large piece of bread and a big beer. It was excelent and exactly what I needed after the long day. Then I went to my host family's house took a bucket bath, watched a Brtazilian soap opera episode, ate dinner, told my family baout my trip, gave them some cashews straight form the region they are grown and went to bed.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Church, SIDA, And the 2nd of july
Last weekend I went to a Methodist chruch in the town. It was a small cinder block building and about fifty people sitting sholder to sholder on a few benches. There was no preacher or anything just a girl in the front of the church that called off songs for everyone to sing. That lasted about an hour. The next hour was filled up with individuals getting up and singing and if anyone liked their singing then they gave the person a few coins. The singer would then deposit all the coins in the collection tray. Then at the end, everyone kinda formed a conga line to the collection tray and gave more money. I had thought that over two hours of church was quite a lot (but im no expert). Then I found out that some of my colegues were taken to an apcolistic church. They arrived a 9 in the morning had a lunch brreak at noon and then went back to church until 5 in the afternoon.
During this past week we have been focusing on the AIDS epidemic in mozambique (11.5% of the population is HIV positive). Part of everything we learned has been very depressing because the problem is so big and there is no easy way to counter it. The idea of using a condom just is not taking hold and in addition to that, infadelity is not just common its expected. However. about 50% of people that get HIV in Mozambique get it from a faithful spouce that had contracted the virus from a previous partner. The good news has come from all the advances in anti retro viral drugs and an effort to make sure people that are HIV positive get a good diet and good nutrition. There are people that have been living with HIV for over 10 years in Mozambique by simply kepeing up with their meds and having a good diet and their immune systems are still doing well.
yesterday we had a 4th of july party on the 2nd it was really great to hang out with all my coleagues informaly and eat some hamburgers and cake.
During this past week we have been focusing on the AIDS epidemic in mozambique (11.5% of the population is HIV positive). Part of everything we learned has been very depressing because the problem is so big and there is no easy way to counter it. The idea of using a condom just is not taking hold and in addition to that, infadelity is not just common its expected. However. about 50% of people that get HIV in Mozambique get it from a faithful spouce that had contracted the virus from a previous partner. The good news has come from all the advances in anti retro viral drugs and an effort to make sure people that are HIV positive get a good diet and good nutrition. There are people that have been living with HIV for over 10 years in Mozambique by simply kepeing up with their meds and having a good diet and their immune systems are still doing well.
yesterday we had a 4th of july party on the 2nd it was really great to hang out with all my coleagues informaly and eat some hamburgers and cake.
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