Written July 24, 2012

Posted – I should really stop guessing.

Good evening all – its about 7:45 here in Namaacha, I have just finished dinner with my family – we had a fish “stew” for lack of better terms, it had a peanut base is served with some rice (very tasty except the massive bones in the fish). They don’t de-bone fish here, they chop off the head and peel the scales off, leaving the skin on, and then toss in the fish. Its generally served in a stew type thing called a “caril” or curry, even though its not the traditional curry flavoring. Hard to explain, and that was a very poor attempt, my apologies.

So this week, we are starting to get “in touch with reality” or so our weekly schedule is titled. The volunteer I visited on site shadows is here this week, so its nice to spend time with her again. We have an overlap time of a month and a half when I replace her in Quissico, so that’ll be a nice transition. I will be living in a separate house for those 6-some weeks, so that’s a bit sucky (having to pack, unpack, and repack) most of you know that I detest packing and moving, so to have to do that twice in a span of 2 months is going to be annoying. In addition, her and I are going to try and work out a good transition and how we are going to go about whats going to happen with items like a stove/pots/pans etc. I don’t want to amass too many things in the tiny room across town I’ll be living in for a month or so to then have double of things, and have more things to move. The second move I am guessing will be on foot as it is only across town, a town of loose sand and hills.. . . moving is going to be a bitch.  Alright, I’m done complaining – sorry, its just kind of stressing me out these days. How pathetic right? There are people here with genuine problems (problems that I see every day) and here I am worrying about if I will have enough pots/pans to cook in. pathetic.

Anyway, we have had some really great tech sessions lately- yesterday we learned about different skills of non-formal education and facilitation – something that will be used in just about every training we do here in Moz. Many people here are illiterate or have only had “formal” education where the professor stands and lectures. There isn’t a lot of room for creative learning, let alone attention paid to different forms of learning/apprehension. So we learned some creative ways to get people involved in our training/education sessions. Funny right? I’m a “community health volunteer” but a lot of my work is going to be educational sessions, it just happens to be about health-related topics, and not in a classroom setting. . . I think I really prefer it this way, I can gear lessons/talks/events towards what the community wants and needs, rather than having a set lesson plan. It’s much more flexible and really focuses on the needs of the people from their point of view.

 We have also had some really interesting Technical sessions about behavior change, focusing on health education, and one today with a woman from the CDC, she was fabulous. Very charismatic and spoke with a true passion for change and advancement of the health system here in Moz. It was one of the technical classes that really got me into the mindset as to why I’m here, which is a plus. I think these classes really give different things to different people. Some draw great information and positive encouragement, while others fall asleep. I suppose that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

So, as it is hard to truly measure the Peace Corps “impact” on a community in a numerical manner for tax payers and our government, every 6 months, volunteers are mandated to fill out a VRF (volunteer reporting form) that describes what work you have done, the number of people involved etc. This could range from a large group workshop of 15 people to a small palestra given to a group of 8. But it gives the higher-up’s numbers to crunch. In my humble opinion, its not the type of work that you can ever put a number on. I consider the talks I have with my host family here to be beneficial – last night; I compared the cost of a mosquito net (150Mts) to the amount of money they spend weekly on sweets and pop. The discussion came from me asking if they use nets in the hot season when mosquitoes are more likely to be out (even though they should use them all year around), the answer was that yes they have one net for the family, and that the children sleep under it sometimes. So of course, I continued to be nosy and ask why they don’t have more than one- answer, “its too expensive”. So I tried to relate the cost of a net to something they are more familiar with – spend 5/10Mts a day on sweets, crackers, pop etc, low and behold, if they went without these unnecessary (and unhealthy I may add) goodies, they could save enough money for a mosquito net in a matter of 2 weeks. They were a bit shocked by this thought (saving money? Who knew?!) and that’s when it hit me, things like planning and thinking outside the box tend to be foreign (cue the irony of me being an American) ideas.

My host mother said she would start putting money aside to buy another net. . .fingers crossed that she does. Not only do I not want to see my 3 year old nieces/nephews here get Malaria, using nets helps prevent the spread of it, and will eventually help irradiate it from Moz. (long term goal yeah. . ) My evening concluded with drinking some nice tea on my friends porch in the setting sun (tea time is possibly my fave part of Moz culture), a nice bath from my bucket (washed my hair today! Yay!) dinner with my family, my Mozambique version of a pedicure, and lots of language homework. Oh! We had a debate today in language class – the pro’s and con’s of technology. It was pretty good overall, and I’ve decided that when I can fully argue in Portuguese, I will know that my language skills are fine-tuned.

I wish I had more exciting things to write about . . . if anyone has questions, please let me know! I’d be happy to write responses in my blog. Or in personal emails. Either way. Thank you to all those sending me updates about their lives, and what’s going on in America – I miss being able to watch the news/read the newspaper. I finally was able to get onto the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website the other weekend, but internet cut out halfway through a story. So it goes. 

Well kids my bed is looking mighty comfy, and my latest book is waiting for me.  So I’ll say goodnight.

My future mailing address (starting August 12^th) is:

Taylor Morsillo

C.P. 5

Inharrime

Provincia de Inhambane

Mozambique

As of now, I have yet to receive any letters. . . from what I hear, letters only make it about 40% of the time, when packages usually get here about 85% of the time. . . don’t ask me why. This country confuses me on a daily basis.

X’s and O’s to all –

T