sunsets, conferences, and festivals

Sunsets – an absolutely beautiful phenomenon that happens each and every day. Fortunately I have an incredible front porch from which I can watch them on the daily! Imagine, if you will – a comfortable chair, some chilled mint tea, and a slight breeze blowing through your hair. The sun is still warm, but doesn't have the full affect that it does earlier in the day. Looking out over my porch, yard and further all you can see is palm trees upon palm trees. It's a veritable sea of green waving fronds. The sky is a crystal clear blue, not a cloud in sight- the sun still a vibrant yellow. But as it descends from above to kiss the horizon, an array of burnt colors arise from its glowing aura.  A blood red, burnt orange, and deep mustard yellow illuminate the forest of palm trees creating silhouettes found only in a tropical paradise. As the last bit of sun escapes from the sky, a deep purple color fades in along the horizon. It is a spectacular sight.

My mid-service mark has come and gone! I am officially into my second year of Peace Corps. GAH! Where did the time go? And at the same time, I still have another YEAR to go?? Yikes.

Actually, I’m kind of coming to terms with being here for another 10 months or so. At first it was shocking that this tiny grass hut was the first permanent residence I have had since I was 17 (moving in and out of college, then apartments) this is the longest I’ve lived in one particular location during my adult life.

So we had our Mid-Service conference in the capital city of Maputo last week, it was wonderful to see all of my friends (all of Moz 18) especially those who live in the northern provinces that I don't see often. The sessions were good, some boring, some very interesting – one in particular on plants/nutrition. . . think of this “if you were stranded on a desert island, and had 5 seeds in your pocket for plants, what would they be?”. Mine were; moringa, cacao(coffee), papaya, a spinach/couve/green veggie that I could cook, and garlic. The nutrients from the moringa would also provide me with protein, I cant live without coffee, papaya has so many uses its beyond ridiculous, I love a green leafy veggie, and garlic has medicinal uses and a great taste.

What would yours be?

So our sessions ran from 8am until 12pm generally, leaving the afternoons free for medical tests, meetings with our director, shopping, lunch and dinner with friends etc. I used a lot of this time (when I wasn't in the doctors offices) to prep for the big festival here in Quissico. I had to leave Maputo a day early, to prepare for the festival – so unfortunately didn't get to say any personal goodbyes. Never fear, I will be heading to the North next month for the REDES leadership handover, so I will see some friends then!

I drove up to site with Rachel (my boss) her husband Marco, and my two fellow PCV’s Kyla and Hannah who are the Malaria coordinators! The festival on Saturday was, in my mind, a big success. We had a spot where we hung a mosquito net, provided coloring for kids, did small informational sessions about malaria under the net, and ever hour or so we did a ‘net giveaway’ where people had the opportunity to answer/take an oral test and if you answered the questions correctly you got the net! My neighbors won one! Yay! They have so many kids, that end up sharing the bed with them just to be under the net, so now they can all sleep protected!

In addition to the malaria information/activities, my organization sold the Moringa smoothies again, giving us a chance to get some income, and give many health talks about what moringa is! We reached out to many people (taking a tallied count for every activity- monitoring and evalutation!). We also had a space where we talked a bit about what Peace Corps is, and our secondary projects REDES and Juntos. I even did a radio spot!! That's right, yours truly was on the local radio doing a quick info session about moringa, malaria, peace corps and what volunteers do in this country! Woo! Basically I’m a famous celebrity now. Ok . . . .thats a bit of an overstatement. Haha but let me live in the limelight for a minute, it was my 10 minutes of fame!

The only thing that could have made the festival better- would have been other volunteer participation. We had a core group of like 5 volunteers (myself included) that worked the booth all day- while others did whatever in town. Now, this had happened last year as well and to avoid such happenings I made a schedule and posted it/handed it out to people. Clearly that meant shit though, and people either didn't show, didn't come to work, or arrived super late…. Whatever, shit happens, its in the past, overall it went really well – so I’m not mad. Nor am I one to hold a grudge. I realize shit happens, and sometimes there is just nothing we can do about it. Life goes on.

So now that the insanity from the past few months is FINALLY OVER – life is getting back to normal. I went to work yesterday, today as well, going to both CBO’s and to the hospital, and holding my REDES meetings, I’m finally finding the time to cook again, making good healthy food, and working out. Kicking some bad habits, trying to get a workout in each day, and eating healthier. Woo!

Anyway. Just an update from your friend here in Mozambique! Let me know what’s going on in Americaland! I hear the Bucco’s are still in 1^st place?! And the Steelers suck?! Sigh . . . .

Xoxoxo

t

just a quick hey, hi there, how ya doin

Well fancy seeing you here. Thanks again for taking time out to read my blog… I know it is not always the most exciting literature, and that most of the time I ramble on about absolutely nothing - so the time and dedication you put into reading this is appreciated.

The weekend passed quickly! Friday night, I spent relaxing at home with the dog and a good movie. The original plan was to travel north to Inharrime to welcome Julia (the new moz 20 volunteer) to the family, but unfortunately her car departed from Maputo rather late. So plans have been postponed.

Saturday morning, I had big plans to sleep in, and have brunch with myself. . . .and then my darn internal clock got me up at 530am like always. Sucks. I decided to be productive that morning, and did all of my laundry, my dishes, cleaned my house, and gave myself a manicure and pedicure… stopping to have brunch of eggs and pancakes along the way. Yummo.

Saturday afternoon, I ventured down to Chidenguele to celebrate in a combined birthday party of Yuri and his roommate! It was full blown Moz traditions for the birthday celebration, the cutting of cake, singing of songs, dancing, and lots of good food. Celebrating birthdays is done with gusto here- and we did just that. That evening it POURED rain, so I woke up in a lovely puddle. The water, having seeped through the edges of the tent and then my sleeping bag was cold and uncomfortable, especially for someone dealing with a “slight” headache. Sigh…. I will not miss sleeping on the ground in Mozambique.

Sunday I spent the morning at home, alternating between napping and watching movies, awaiting the arrival of my friend Alexis. She lives in Niassa province, and I hadn’t seen her since November at our Reconnect conference for Peace Corps. She is doing a massive “southern adventure” of Mozambique, and is heading to South Africa this evening. We spent the night catching up over dinner, watching a movie, and just hanging out. It was so lovely to spend some one on one time with her, and I am really looking forward to seeing her in a week’s time. It sucks being so far away from her, and some other volunteers in the North who are just such lovely people.

On tap this week – organizing things for the festival in two weekends, preparing for mid-service conference, and the normal work meetings in any week. I am going to head to Inharrime this morning with CCS to present Julia to the team/the hospital there. I haven’t been to Inharrime since Jasmin left, so it will be a bit strange. I am also taking some things for the modista (seamstress) to fix/make for me. Time to expand my capulana wardrobe! Tuesday I head to Inhambane for our official CCS welcome meeting. Working on getting things together for this partnership between CCS and Acomuza!

That is all for now.

Short post just saying hi, recapping my weekend, and letting you all know that ‘its all good’ in Moz.

xo

what is a timbila?

Well, I am almost to the close of another week. It has been a busy one, with lots of exciting things happening.  The time ticking down leads me to be days closer to the arrival of the new volunteers, and one more week closer to our mid-service conference, and then the big festival here on the 24^th. I am looking forward to our new colleague’s arrival to their  respective sites, and even more so to the Mid-Service conference, where I finally get to see all of Moz 18 together (it has been since November of last year). The festival that is happening here, August 24/25^th is the one I wrote about last year.

The Timbila Festival (M’saho) – a local tradition, which has turned into a national event. Every August for the past 18 years, people travel from far and wide to listen to the timbila’s in the central amphitheatre of Quissico, located at the overlook for the lagoon. It is a fantastic, culturally rich festival located in my gorgeous town, think breathtaking clear blue lagoons, framed by rolling green dune forests.

The timbila itself is a xylophone made up of wooden slats of the sneezewort tree called “mhwnjhe” in Chopi (the local dialect), and dried masala fruit shells “calabashes” as resonators. In Chopi culture the playing of the timbila isn’t just for the annual festival, it was traditionally used as an initiation passage for boys into adulthood, and often the male children would play alongside the village elders. Each orchestra of timbila’s consists between 5 and 50, of varying size and range of pitch. Accompanying each of these orchestras is a group of two to twelve male and female dancers.

This year, similar to last, we are going to have a Peace Corps booth in town. It is my idea to use this space for a few things; to promote and or sell things from the secondary projects of JUNTOS and REDES, while encouraging more teen’s to get involved in the programs, have mosquito net demonstrations, make and sell the moringa smoothies while simultaneously giving small informational sessions about the plant moringa I also want a small space for Peace Corps itself, to explain who we are, the work we do etc. With my organization with the hospital, I want to try and get a mobile testing centre for HIV stationed in the town. And lastly, a spot for PCV’s to sell anything from their organizations and such as an income generation opportunity.

I was given permission to leave Mid-Service Conference on Friday morning after one of our sessions, so I can be here Friday evening to do some prep-work, and set up early AM on Saturday. It is going to be a whirlwind of crazy, but I feel that we can pull it off!

In my normal life of work here in Quissico, things are going well. I am working on combining my NGO at the hospital with one of my CBO’s. Which will hopefully provide my small community organization with some funding, and help the NGO reach a wider client base in the field. We are really focusing on the people who have abandoned treatment, getting to them, getting them back to the hospital to re-start treatment etc. as well as a new initiative of focusing on children under the age of 5. Starting them directly on medication, and teaching the mothers about diseases, and treatment. It is exciting stuff, and while I am working a lot “behind the scenes” doing the organizational development stuff, it is helping to reach more people and provide some with better opportunities.

With my REDS groups’ things are going well, we are coming down from the high of having the Workshop here, but our sessions are still going well. This week we are talking about self-esteem, and how important it is to be supportive of ourselves and other girls/women. We are also working on putting the final touches on our earrings – I need to find a place where I can buy backs for them… like yesterday.

And with my other CBO, things are….. going. It's a huge challenge with them because they mean so well. . . but don't have the organizational skill or strength yet. And everything that I have proposed, they shoot down with excuses, or agree to – and then nothing ever happens. Prime example, the volunteer before me did this great “machamba” (gardening) project with them. And while I set them up with a monthly calendar that defined who was to care for the garden on what days- it has fallen into disrepair. The excuses are numerous, and yet no one is stepping up to actually fix the issue.

They cant care for a garden, but have recently proposed the idea of building an orphanage. . . . I sat in on this meeting shaking my head. When it got down to arguing about the budget if we would need two ink toners for a printer I had to leave. We don't even have a door or windows for our office, we cant take care of a garden. . . but we are going to ask some big international corporation for funding for an orphanage? Please, someone tell me, does anyone know how to work a computer? Who is going to care for these children on a day-to-day basis? Oh, and most importantly, where the heckkkk would you like to put this structure? On top of our failed garden project?

Sigh…. Like I said, the best of intentions. . but they don't really understand that you have to learn to walk before you can compete in the 400m hurdles I the Olympics. 

Anyway, I have a meeting with said organization today (the first one in 2 months) so we will see what happens. Stay tuned.

Other than that, things are good. I’m getting back to a happier place. My neighbor and I celebrated our birthday the other day with a chocolate banana cake I made for us (her bday is on the 5^th). It was a perfect afternoon spent with my “family”. . . I never expected to feel such a connection with neighbors haha its really fantastic, and reaffirms my reasons for being here.

-tay

puppy love

Good Morning, Mozambique.

It's a chilly morning here, I can see my breath, so I’m writing this post from inside of my mosquito net, snuggled underneath a fluffy blanket.

So I finally left site for a bit for social recreation this weekend, working my way to Chibuto (a town in interior Gaza province) Friday evening for a girls night. There was music, dancing, and tequila. It was really great to be with friends after the semi-crappy week  I had. On Saturday we had a 90’s theme party, so side pony-tails, jean jackets, and hilarious music was played. Great times.

I had not been away from site on a personal trip since April, so it was really fantastic to spend time with friends I have not seen in a while. It seems that although many things have happened since we have all seen one another at Beer Olympics, we are all sort of on the same page with what service has been so far, and what it will be in the future. Sort of a “mid service life crisis”.

I am still trying to figure out what is going to be next after PC … another year here? Coming home? Travel?

Who knows. . .stay tuned.

Yesterday I was struggling with some stomach problems, so I left work at the hospital early and just hung out at home. Gave Lua a bath, and her and I had good snuggle time. She may be a huge pain in the ass sometime, and its defiantly stressful to find someone to feed her while I am gone, but I am so thankful to have her. She’s my buddy, always around to play and make me laugh and has helped keep me sane through the many things that have happened here. I would say that it is true puppy love. *awwww*

The tentative plan for the week is REDES meetings, going to the hospital, my two community organizations each have their meetings this week, and preparing for the big festival the weekend of the 24^th. I may have to leave my mid-service conference a day early to be here to set up/get the prep work all taken care of. Hopefully other volunteers will come to the festival so we can show a good united front, and get some word out about our program/secondary projects.

Stress level is back on maximum here in Quissico… and honestly I just do not love this ‘party planning’ aspect of projects here. I can check that off the “things I want to be when I grow up” list. I just need to make it through this month. Yeesh.

-- had to take a break for a puppy snuggle --

whenever I find myself freaking out a bit I give the Lua-girl a good hug, and she usually returns it with a nice slobbery kiss, or a nibble. She’s sitting on my lap as I write this, and thanks to the bath, she smells lovely. I don't think she’s going to get any bigger than she is now, which is odd, because she is an awkward size. Not small, but not in the medium category either . . .figures. She is an awkward looking dog, so why not have her be an awkward size as well? Sigh…

Well now that this blog has been primarily written about my dog I think I will sign off.