So, what's it like?

Written on October 9, 2010:

I've been in the town of Namaacha living with my host family and training for a week now, but it feels like it's been a month... I've experienced so much just in one week! My life here is so different from my old life. It's a lot to get used to, but I'm actually surprised at how quickly I've adjusted. Now that I've settled in, I'm really enjoying it here, especially living with my host family. They have really welcomed me into their home and family and seem to have unending patience with my inability to communicate very well in Portuguese so far.

So, what's it like? I'm like a 5-year-old learning how to communicate and take care of myself in a completely new environment. Although I've learned a lot more Portuguese in the last week than I would have thought possible, I still have a loong way to go. But being communicationally impaired can be funny at times. I've been having a lot of what I refer to as "Helen Keller moments" this week: when I finally understand something through a combination of simple sentences, looking things up in the dictionary, and -- my favorite -- charades. We laugh a lot at our house (mostly at me, but that's okay).

My host family consists of two parents: Olivia and Salvador, who are mid-30s and really good, fun people, and three hilarious, adorable, sweet, awesome kids: Larson (3), Carmen (10) and Jacinto (14). Salvador works at the local casino, I think dealing cards, and also goes and does odd-jobs at the border with Swaziland which is really close. Olivia runs the house and also does tailoring and sells clothes that she sews from home.

Tonight we all had a good laugh when they strapped Olivia's friend's baby to my side with a capalana, a colorful piece of cloth they use for everything, including carrying babies. I then took a little tour of the neighborhood to show off my new baby-carrying skills and amused several neighbors. I love the closeness of the community here. There are always tons of friends, neighbors and kids running around, and we spend a lot of time at home just hanging out (cooking, eating, doing chores, watching tv, waiting for water to boil, whatever).

Namaacha is also a very walking-heavy town, with a lot of unpaved roads and few cars, and sometimes Carmen and I walk around and run errands or visit other people's houses. On Sunday, she and a friend of hers whose family is also hosting a Peace Corps trainee paraded us around the neighborhood with flowers in our hair and bouquets that they picked. It was like they were showing off their new pet Americans... it was pretty cute.

The house has power (though it's been going in and out last night and today) but doesn't have running water. That means every other morning when I get up at 6, I help carry water in these big, heavy jugs from the spicket nearby. There are 2 bedrooms including mine, plus a living room and sewing room that doubles as another bedroom. The kitchen has a charcoal stove and an electric stovetop with two burners, plus a freezer that is only turned on sometimes because it shares a power source* with the electric stove (*power source = dangling wires that wrap around the electric prongs, but don't worry it's fine!). The bathroom has a toilet of sorts that you "flush" by skillfully pouring a bucket of water into it. It also has a sink and a drain where you stand to take a bucket bath. I actually don't mind the bucket bath thing. It's warm water since they mix in boiling water.

I feel like I'm learning the meanings of some common sayings this week. For instance: "running around like a chicken with its head cut off". It's actually true... I witnessed it when my family slaughtered two ducks, which we then had for dinner last night. They were flailing for at least 5 minutes after their heads were cut off. I was traumatized :). And: "your room looks like a pig sty". Pig sties are actually really disgusting and smell unbelievably bad, I learned that first-hand today when I visited a friend's host family who has a pig out back. And "gathering around the watering hole"... in the morning at 6am when people line up to get water, it's the happening place to be.

Namaacha is really gorgeous, with mountains in the distance, huge, bent over trees with knarled roots, and branches that make a flat ceiling over some of the roads. The colors here are so vivid: rich, red dirt (I feel right at home!) and these trees with almost unnaturally bright purple blossoms. When the blossoms fall off and land on the red mud, the contrast almost hurts my eyes when I look down (I'm not exagerating).

There are animals and machambas (small family farms) everywhere you look. Today on the way to one of the training sessions, we walked past a momma goat and her two wittle bittie babies that were about the size of miniature pinchers. They were the cutest things ever... I lost all control and started making high, squeeky noises that (hopefully) only dogs could hear.

The food so far has been good, though they have this thing here about eating (and bathing). They do both, A LOT. We eat five times a day and most people bathe 2-3, though I'm getting away with 1 bath a day somehow. All the volunteers are trying to come up with creative ways of getting out of eating all the food that's being forced upon us. It's good, just a lot!

One girl in my language group actually had to go throw up one morning just to get rid of some of the food she felt pressured into eating that morning. I think I've got things under control now after several explanations of how good the food is, but I just can't eat anymore, thanks. ("I have a small stomach, it runs in my family... etc."

Based on conversations with some of the visiting current PC volunteers, they say it goes back to the fact that people here are used to having to worry about having enough food, so having a full belly is the best thing there is. And being fat is good because it's a sign of prosperity. Plus, I'm the guest of honor so I'm supposed to eat most of all. Two of my favorite dishes so far are things that remind me of home: Xima (pronounced "shee-ma"), which is like Mozambican grits, and Fejiado, which is like Mozambican beans and rice.

The town, I've been told, is unlike any other rural community in Mozambique. I think that's because it's a border town near both Swaziland and South Africa, and it's not that far from Maputo, the capitol of Mozambique. So it's significantly better off than most rural places, but still seems pretty poor to me.

The first, most visible issue I see is a lack of infrastructure. Even families like mine that are comfortable by Namaacha standards (have enough food, kids go to school, both parents finished high school and seem to have enough income to get what they need, etc.), don't have running water. And trash is everywhere. What I referred to as the smell of barbeque in a previous email from Maputo actually turned out to be burning trash. Everyone burns their trash here because there's no organized waste disposal. And there's so much litter, especially along the roads.

That's all for now... hopefully I can share some photos soon. I haven't taken any yet because I feel so conspicuous carrying around a camera taking photos. (But we all attract so much attention when walking around anyway, what's adding a camera really going to do?). Ate logo... (until soon)