Written on November 30, 2010:
I hope you all had good Thanksgivings! We did it up big over here, even borrowing the bread shop’s massive oven to cook several turkeys. I went the easy route and spent the afternoon leisurely drinking wine and making dill & garlic mashed potatoes with a couple of friends before feasting at our volunteers’ potluck. The spread turned out surprisingly well, considering none of our houses have ovens. But being so far away on Thanksgiving made me homesick, thinking of the various traditions going on without me: lunch at Mimi’s, dinner at the Wingos, a good meal in Harrisburg, and of course my “urban family” in NYC (the mental image of Fish gently massaging herbs into the chicken two years ago comes to mind…)
It’s a big week here. Training has pretty much wrapped up and I officially swear in as a Peace Corps volunteer on Friday. The ceremony is at the American ambassador’s house in Maputo and will be nationally televised (but don’t be too impressed… it’s like public access). One of the volunteers wrote a song about Mozambique that some of us are going to sing, and we’re also doing a traditional tribal dance (I volunteered for both, obviously). We’ll all be wearing clothes we had made out of capalanas (multi-purpose Mozambican fabric), so it should be quite a spectacle to behold.
After that I’m off to a two-day conference in the beach town of Bilene, where I’ll meet at least one representative from the organization I’ll be working with for the next two years. Then I head to my permanent site in Mabote, Inhambane province! I should be arriving sometime around Dec. 10th or 11th (after probably two days of driving, er riding). I found out more this week about my placement, after talking with a Peace Corps staffer and receiving a couple of reports from current volunteers who are familiar with my site or organization.
The organization I’ve been placed with is called AMAMUD, which stands for Association of Mobote Women in Development (the acronym only works in Portuguese). They are a small, community-based women’s agricultural association that also provides home-based nutritional, drug adherence, and moral support to people living with HIV/AIDS. From what I understand, they grow and sell cashews, cashew jam and preserved mangos as income generation. (“Cashew jam” is practically my new nickname, especially among the other people who wanted my site… can’t wait to see what this delicious-sounding spread is all about!)
But what has really made me fall in love with (the idea of) my assignment, other than the cashews, of course, is the town itself and my house. My site—lovingly referred to as the “mato”, or “bush” by all—has never had a volunteer before. So, my organization built me a little cane house… yes, like a hut! (Could it be any more stereotypically Peace Corps? No, I really don’t think it could, and I love that.) But it’s still the district capital so it should have basic things I need food-wise. District capital just means it’s the center of commerce for all of the other extremely small, rural communities in Mabote district.
But there are no banks, no internet, no post office, and the power is only turned on from 6am to 9pm, though some of the barracas (like little stands/bars) have generators. I heard that they’re even planning to hook up power to my house this week, which is kind of a big deal I think. I also hear that the cell service is good (at least as good as it is anywhere in Mozambique…)
Below are a few of my favorite highlights about my site from a current volunteer who works in Vilanculos, the beach-y resort town three hours from Mabote where I will have to go for banking, mail, internet, etc. She works with the international org CARE and travels to Mabote sometimes for projects.
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“People will gawk at you like no other, but integration into your community should come easily as very few (if any) foreigners live there. This means you will be the talk of the town and will probably stop traffic for a while, but before long every single person in the town will know your name! People are incredibly friendly and the town is very safe.”
“Mabote is located 115 km inland from the coastal town of Mapinhane via a bumpy, unpaved road with only the occasional school or community in between the two towns (and no cell coverage on the road). At the halfway point, villagers often sell skewers of antelope meat grilled outside in a makeshift tree-trunk oven, and they are delicious and worth a try!”
“Construction on your house was just recently begun at the time of my visit, but is shaping up to be a cute little one room cane house with a thatched roof. It will be tiny, but very cozy and you can probably sleep a guest on the floor. You are living in the same yard/compound as a few other NGO workers, a nurse from CARE, and someone from AAA [German Agrarian Action, in Portuguese] and INGC [not sure what that one is, and guessing they are all Mozambicans since she doesn’t know of any foreigners who live in Mabote]…
Your toilet will be a latrine right outside the house and there is an attached bathing area, which the owner says he is mosaic-ing, and an outdoor kitchen area which will have a covered roof … There is no running water, but the nearest pump is very close and they are putting a large clay pot right outside your house that holds a TON of water so that you or your empregada doesn’t need to carry water constantly.” [empregada = domestic help; extremely common in Mozambique, and cheap]
She also shared some of the challenges that Mabote faces:
“Mabote is extremely poor with many of its residents (particularly out in the most rural communities) subsiding on less than one dollar a day. Many NGO and other international projects operate here, either constantly or seasonally. The HIV rate is high, compounded by the relative isolation and the transient workers (such as de-mining workers who have been working on the road for quite some time now). [She’s talking about landmines, but don’t worry, I won’t go wondering off in the bush.] They come into town on the weekends, party and get drunk and spread HIV and then leave. There is definitely a lack of access to information in this area and opportunities to raise awareness of HIV and basic health.”
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So that’s the low-down on my site, from what I know now. Because I won’t have internet in my village, and I’m only allowed to leave my site once (for the holidays) during the first three months, my communication is about to seriously drop off. The internet on my phone has also been pretty much useless lately. I think there’s something wrong with it and am going to try and get it fixed when I’m in Maputo again later this week for swear-in.
But it’s possible that, once I start heading north this weekend, I won’t be able to send or receive any emails until around Christmas when I go to another volunteer’s house in Vilanculos for a week or so. (She lives on the beach and has wireless internet at her house… and this is her backyard.)
But I have a hut! And in case you don’t believe me, but mostly just because I’m obsessed, that photo at the top is of my hut when it was still being built. :)
Ok, until Christmas!
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