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.