A point of view to ponder

Today someone offered me a ride from by my house to the main road (which is about a 5 minute ride).

After I got in and said good morning, thank you, how are you etc. The driver said:

"I had to offer you a ride because your race is blessed. They shouldn't walk far"

I'm not sure I handled it well but I said "I don't agree. I can walk just like a Mozambican. "

He said "I even wish I was white"

Then we arrived and I got out.

Four Month Reflect (almost)

It's almost been four months now and a lot of things have changed since my first few weeks; therefore, I thought it is about time for a little reflect and share.

Trees of Africa.

Just like I discovered when I moved to Portugal back in 2006, it takes about 3 months to settle in and start to feel comfortable. My first month was super busy with work, travelling around getting things sorted with Mary and seeing all the new sites (AKA beaches). That month was mixed with lots of hospital visits for my gross infection, trying to get a grasp on the new vocabulary I should use so they understand me (small things like saying telefone instead of telemóvel etc), understanding their way of talking, getting to know the way things work in the working world (which requires a lot of patience) and generally finding my way around the town/ market and my kitchen-- dun dun duuun!

The second month was filled with writing reports and trying to find a work space. Spending my birthday with random (but amazingly lovely) strangers at the best beach hostel ever. And getting the foot infection again. Not being able to walk around freely in a place where you walk absolutely everywhere, sucks. A lot. I was getting a bit of cabin fever and feeling a bit useless but then, as mentioned in a previous post I met Naira and was immediately invited to birthdays and get-togethers with the other volunteers of Quissico.

Isa, me, Alex and Theresa at Amizava Festival

I will admit, before meeting Naira and the group I was super short on patience and probably wasn't the nicest to be around. Those cultural differences seem amplified when you have no one to sympathize with you or you have no one to compare notes with. And, as always, I was frustrated that everyone wants to speak English with me. Although this time it's not because I am Canadian but because I am white and therefore must speak English-- which, of course, I do so I only encourage that stereotype.

Take a deep breath and relax. Life is Good. 

(Like my ringtone says...)

They also call me blonde which I think is funny. And, I have quite a few people ask me why I have so many 'pimples' on my skin or ask what's wrong with my skin. I'm tempted to tell them my Freckles are contagious.

I think one of the more challenging situations to handle (everyday, all the time) are the men. They aren't aggressive and nor do I feel scared but they are, for lack of a better word, extremely annoying. Of course, there are really nice guys and I have met lots of really cool guys that I consider friends, But an alarmingly high number of them think that saying a few catch phrases in English and being super duper insistent is appealing. Often they learn really inappropriate things to say in English just to say to us mulungu (white) women. It's nice to have other whities to talk about this with because if you just keep it inside it starts to bubble and become a big issue when really, walking away and forgetting about it usually does the trick.

Power is out as per usual. Time for romantic candle light.

Lately, I have been hanging out lots with the family that I went to the Traditional Festa of in an earlier post Maezinha and her three kids. Mana Bea is teaching me to cook (although, it's been hampered by my constantly being sick or infection footied) but I look forward to learning more seeing as I am useless in the kitchen; her brother, Dércio, started taking me to volleyball practice that have English lessons before for the little kids.

Maezinha

Mana Bea

I have also been hanging out with a friend I made in Inhambane (about 2 hours north of my town, close to Tofo Beach-- which is a perfect free place to stay ;) ), Theresa. Works out well because I come up to visit her and get my pizza fix!!

Theresa and I being awesome

I am still going to the Lagoa once a week to visit Isa's sister and do some physio exercises with her-- but Isa had malaria on Saturday so I didn't go.

That's how you cook for a party.

Work is finally starting up again! Our specialist trainer got his visa so we are scheduled to start training on September 30th. Now I really have to get my stuff in order and organize so that we have a fantastic training so that the program will be super successful! I am excited and feeling good about the month to come!

English lessons!

AMIZAVA

Hello! Sorry for the long delay… I’ve been too busy having a great time in good ol’Moz.

August 30-31 was AMIZAVA 2014 (Amigos de Zavala or Friends of Zavala) which is the local festival to celebrate the Timbila—local instrument made from an endangered tree, Mwenge, and dried masala fruit shells as resonators—a type of xylophone. The Timbila tradition was declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005. Traditionally  a Timbila orchestra had 55 musicians and 25 dancers but due to poverty in the 1930s and then the civil war (1977-1992) the culture itself is also endangered.

During the festival we watched the traditional dancing and listened to the Timbila with a beautiful backdrop of the two lagoons and the ocean. There were also lots of booths selling different products and foods. The Peace Corp group gave away Mosquito Nets and were selling hammocks, head bands and nuts. The JICA group (Japanese International Cooperation Agency or Japanese Peace Corp as I call it) sold delicious ginger chicken, T-Shirts (so awesome!) and had lots of information for the festival goers. I used part of their space to show some information on my program but I also wanted to check out the festival so I ducked out early.

The Friday night of the festival JICA and Peace Corp (PC) had a party at our local JICA members house, Hide, the German group Freiwilligenarbeit and the Canadian group (just me) attended too. I helped cook the chicken and the rice (lots of rolar-ing the coconuts for the rice) with our Mozambican friends who were doing the cooking. We made Xiguinha (coconut water, cabbage, ground peanut and potatoe), Xima (corn (maize) meal but not cornmeal like in North America mixed with water, boiled and then stirred so that air fluffs it up), coconut rice, normal grilled chicken and chicken that was boiled in a special sauce and served with the sauce after grilling it (but I forget the name), salad and the cake. I made one cake called Bolo de Bolacha (Cookie Cake- a Portuguese thing) and the local PC guys made Banana Bread.  We made everything over the carvão which is a coal stove so it takes awhile to do anything.

My Cake and Maezinha or Mama Sonia

After listening to the Timbila and napping on Saturday we all went out to celebrate and I was joined by a friend, Alex, I had met in Tofo (beautiful beach town- worth a google image search) the weekend before with Theresa (Freiwilligenarbeit) and Alden (PC). He spun fire and impressed all the little Mozambican kids. It was a fun night!

Tofinho Beach (next to Tofo)

On Sunday we were in need of some chill time so after a quiet morning of Alex trying to pack all his stuff into two bags instead of four, we went over to my Mozambican friend Isa’s house and had two chicken lunches so we could try different cooking styles. During this lunch conversation Isa told us her sister was sick and since Alex is a Traditional medicine (for lack of a better term) practitioner he offered to go see her the next day.

On Monday after work we headed down to the lagoon where Isa has another house that her sister is staying at. I went to help translate for Alex as he is only travelling through here and does not speak Portuguese. After a thorough history and quick physical assessment by me and then translated to Alex, I mentioned I thought it may be Parkinson’s or Parkinson’s like, he performed a smudging ceremony and then gave her a few different herbs and such to make tea out of it. I explained it all and asked to see what medications she was on so we could look up if they are compatible with the herbs (if possible) and it turns out she was on Parkinson medication already and best to our googling abilities it was compatible with the random roots and wild garlic she was given. I promised to come back and do some physio exercises with her in the next week.

Smudging Ceremony

Alex continued on his grand travel journey back to Tofo and then onward to Zambia. I worked all week and then...

More to come soon on the next post!