Hello everyone! I am safe and sound in my little grass shack
here in Quissico, Mozambique.
I arrived Saturday evening to the capital city of
Maptuo, and then Sunday afternoon to my town of Quissico. Thankfully all of the
flights were easy, I had very little trouble with my bags, my checked bag made
it through the airports/security/theft without problem, and I have been able to
give gifts to many people.
It was wonderful to be able to come home, to be with my mom
and dad, help in small ways in his recovery, and just generally “be” with them
and my brother. I was also able to spend time with other family members, my Oma
and Opa came in a few times, and I was able to talk with them on the phone a
bit, my Aunt Sara came to stay for a few days – her and I had a great time
exploring the cheese counter at Penn Mac in the Strip District, and chatting
about life in Peace Corps (she was a former volunteer in Kenya), my other set
of grandparents came in for a lunch with the family, and many others. I was
also able to see a number of good friends from college and my past life in the
states. It was unreal seeing everyone.
That's the theme of this blog, how surreal huge changes can
feel. I can remember quite clearly, the Monday before I went back to the
states, “wow, its amazing how normal life here feels”…. Foreshadowing much? To
then get a series of emails that had me on 5 different planes to get back to
Pittsburgh, PA. It really hit me that I was going back to the steel town when I
boarded the final plane from Paris to Pittsburgh, and everyone on board had
some sort of Pittsburgh sports team jersey, logo, bag etc. . . turns out, many
of the fans who traveled to London for the Steelers game the week before were
heading home on this plane (having done the European circuit for about a week).
I never thought I would have missed hearing “hey yinz guys!” so much.
As the plane landed, I took note of a scene I had totally
forgotten about- Autumn! The leaves all changing colors, the brilliant yellows,
reds, and oranges, mixed with the fading green, it was spectacular. My best
friend was waiting for me at the airport, and my goodness, we could not have
been more opposite. There she was in her business skirt suit, high heels and
everything…. And then there was me – I had capulana pants, beaded sandals, and
a billowy scarf on, hair in braids… could you guess which one of us just came
back from Africa?
It was wild being in the passenger seat on the right side of
the car, driving on the right side of the road, hot running water at my old
apartment, a HOSPITAL! Wow… so the
hospital enough was to send me into a small internal panic attack. Its
huge! I work in a hospital every day. . . and its maybe an 1/8th of
the size? My hospital here is lucky if we have gauze pads, the hospital my dad
was in had a specialized wing just for cardiac patients…. Yeah. America’s
health system isn’t all that bad, people need to quit their complaining.
Seeing my dad in the hospital was tough. I don't know if it
was from the travel exhaustion, the overwhelming fact that I was actually in
Pittsburgh, or seeing him hooked up to tubes and whatnot. But I lost it when I
saw him. And the worst part? I couldn't hug him because of the surgery that he
had! I went almost two weeks at home without really being able to hug my dad –
someone I had just literally jumped on (from a running start) in June in the
Johannesburg airport.
-side
note, going through that airport was a mind trip because the last time I was
there, was with him, and he was perfectly healthy. It was at that moment, that
I became so thankful that this all happened when he was in the states, and not
here in Mozambique.
So the first few days were really intense in America, lots
of unexpected culture shock, and I think the thing that freaked me out the most
was how NORMAL things felt. The first time I drove, it was wild. My body just
knew exactly what I was doing, while mentally I was freaking the fuck out. I
remembered how to speak fluent English, I knew exactly how to unload a
dishwasher, etc. (I know those are weird examples) but yeah, things I hadn’t
done in over a year just came back like no time had passed. Which freaked me
out. My life is so different from stuff here, how can this feel normal?!
Grocery stores, going down to the Strip District, and the fact that everyone
always had change when I was purchasing things, WILD. I bought some fruit the
one morning, and hande the woman a twenty dollar bill, immediately apologizing
I didn't have something smaller, and began looking for small change – she looked
at me with the strangest contemplation, and opened a cash register that was
chock full of change! Who knew…
It was so great seeing friends and family, eating great
food, taking advantage of hot running water etc. . .but it didn't feel right.
No matter how much I was enjoying myself, there was always a small thought in
the back of my head saying “this isn’t home” and its true, my life, my work, my
home is here in Mozambique.
But now that I’m back, things here feel surreal as well. I
wasn't gone that long, it was an equal amount of time to that of my northern
adventure the month before, but because of the drastic culture change (from
couches and cable, to pit latrines and speaking Portuguese) I felt a bit off my
first day here. In my mind I was freaking out “wow, I know how to speak
Portuguese”, when I got home, it was strange how NORMAL all of it felt. And the
whole while I’m just thinking “when will something feel right?!”….
I’m now in my second full day here in Quissico, yesterday I
walked all around town, went to all my orgs, called people to tell them I was
back etc…. today is pouring down rain, so I’m taking the opportunity to write
this post, study for the GRE’s, and hang out with my neighbors. I brought back
lots of crayons and colored pencils, so we are just going to color until our
hearts are content! Yay!
Its always the little things.
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