I realized I am cutting it very close to not making my monthly blog quota, so another dose of Laurie and Chris’ adventures are coming at ya! The good news is that a lot has happened in the past month and a half, so I won’t bore you with filler material. No, instead I’m going to tell you about the end of our first trimester, a visit from Chris’ cousin, Passover #2 in the bush, and a reunion with my dad in Lisbon. Get excited, people!
We finished our first trimester of school with little
fanfare, which is good because we officially feel like we know what the heck is
going on now. All the standard administrative stuff, although tedious when not
using a computerized system like a developing country would, is now second
nature. Instead of being taken aback with a one day notice that provincial
exams would happen, we planned our classes with the assumption our last couple
weeks of the trimester would be a wash do to standardized testing. And the ridiculousness of the tests
themselves, well, where do I begin? The content rarely includes topics on the
government issued curriculum even though it is the government who is
administering these tests. Huh? How are teachers supposed to know what to teach
then? And the content is so high above the student’s level, it’s just silly.
For example, the 11th grade provincial exam for English had a
reading passage about the complexities of green energy and biofuels, which I
was having trouble understanding even as a native English speaker! Ok, but
enough of my bitching. Really the point that I am trying to make is that
despite the head-scratching things we’ve faced in the Mozambican school system,
at least we know what to expect. And really, that has been the theme for us
during this second year of service. Our living situation, our job, our life has
just become so normal. I’ve realized that no matter how nutty or different it
may be, your life simply becomes your life once you get used to it. But then an
outsider comes along prompting you to think that indeed, it is not normal to view
the stunning Indian Ocean on a weekly basis or to ride in public transportation
with live chickens. Jess, Chris’ cousin, reminded us of that when she came for
a visit at the end of March. She was lucky enough to be placed in Mozambique
for a few weeks to finish up her medical school requirements. Although her
assignment location was at a hospital in the capital, Maputo, she still wanted
to make the 10 hour bus trip to see us. So for her first time in Africa, she
braved getting on a 4am bus where no one was speaking English in a completely
unfamiliar country. Man, she is a trooper! As a side note here though, she
probably could win an award for the number of family members who have served in
the Peace Corps which includes her mom, sister, aunt and uncle (Chris’
parents), other uncle (her mom’s bro) and her cousins (Chris and I) and I am
probably forgetting someone. But you get the idea that Peace Corps is kind of
in her blood so maybe that’s why she was so low key about this kind of
traveling! Once she reached our site, I took her on a quick tour of Mapinhane,
we visited Chris’ classroom full of students who later said they hoped to make
her their wife someday, then cooked up fresh beans, tortillas and guac to share
our favorite burrito feast. We then spent a couple of days in Vilankulo, where
we got to show her around our “big” city and relax on the beach. She also got
to meet some other PCV friends of ours who were in town for the weekend. All in
all, we had a really great couple of days with Jess. Having someone from your
old life come to check out your new one can really put things into
perspective. And of course, it’s great
to see family after being so far away for so long. After Jess left, I hosted
our second annual Mapinhane Seder and it turned out even better than last year!
The complete Seder plate, hardboiled eggs and matzo ball soup all made an
appearance again. I was able to find almost all the traditional fixins’ I
needed to pull off practicing Judaism in the bush except for horseradish. So, I
did what any seasoned PCV would do, I improvised. I did find wasabi which
actually turned out to be a fine substitute. Yes, haroset and wasabi on matza
tastes great! We were getting bored with
our standard grilled chicken, so another change up this year was shish kabobs.
Chris marinated chicken pieces with veggies and grilled them for a delicious
Passover main dish. Oh, and we were so fancy this year, we even had a flourless
chocolate cake for dessert made by chef TJ! It was a great evening with food
and friends from our region who traveled here to be a part of it. Like last year, we passed around the Mad Men
era haggadah so that everyone could participate in the Seder readings. NEXT
YEAR IN ISRAEL!...Ok, probably not but at least it will be in America! And I
can tell you that now that I’ve pulled off two Seders here, it’ll be a piece of
(flourless chocolate) cake to do it back home.
After the excitement of cousins and matzo and kids
whining about their grades calmed down, we got to check out a new continent, Europe!
My Dad and his girlfriend, Chris (Yes, that’s right, we both awkwardly have
significant others with the same name), took us on a vacation to Lisbon,
Portugal. The main purpose of the trip was to spend time together because we
hadn’t seen each other since our departure in September 2011. But also to
explore a cool city that none of us had ever been to. So we hopped on our 11
hour plane ride from Maputo to Lisbon and settled in by watching movies and
eating pasta from mini trays. This alone felt like luxury as we’re used to
spending the same amount of time in a cramped, uncomfortable bus with no beverage
service just to travel to Maputo. But once we got to our beautiful hotel, we
felt even more extravagant than we did on the airplane! The week’s amenities included hot showers, an
awesome breakfast buffet and comfy robes. When you live like we do in Moz,
simple things can be such a treat as you’ve heard me get excited over seemingly
minor comforts shared in this blog. I think going to South Africa in December
broke our “OMG, we’re back in civilization” seal so the impact of first world
comforts wasn’t as dramatic this time but we’re still suckers for hi-speed
internet and air-conditioning. So ok, I realize I am getting a little too
excited about our accommodations so let’s move on to other things about the
trip:)… The week began with a slow motion run and a hug for my Dad in the
airport since it was the first time I saw him in 1.5 years. It was a good way
to remind him that I’m still kind of a wiredo too :). We headed to our hotel (which you’ve already
learned ALL about) in a great location in the city that had tons of restaurants
and shops around. Or if we wanted to venture elsewhere, Lisbon had no shortage
of public transport options: Buses, subways, cable cars and trains, inclines,
elevators, GEEESH. We spent our days site-seeing in different areas of the city
like Belém and Sintra, which all included walking uphill on narrow
classic-looking European streets and checking out a castle built hundreds of
years ago. We’d end the day at a restaurant where I indulged in things like
spinach ravioli and garlic shrimp. And we’d top off the evening with a pastry
from one of the many delicious pastelarias (bakeries) around town. That’s the summary of our trip, but let me
share two interesting tidbits we learned while in Portugal #1. My Dad is a hash
magnet. Apparently, middle-aged American men are coming to Lisbon to get their
smoke on because every time we’d go to the main square, dealers would seek out
my Dad to ask if he wanted to buy hash or marijuana and the occasional offer
for Coke. Really? He’s walking with 2
Peace Corps Volunteers and they make a b-line for him? So weird. But, it did
make for good jokes throughout the week. #2. Everyone will speak English to
you, even if you speak Portuguese. Initially, I was a little nervous about
speaking my Mozamba-fied Portuguese but I certainly wanted to give it a try.
But everywhere we went, the Portuguese people wanted to speak English, even
when we’d try to switch the language. When Chris and I were off by ourselves, we
had an easier time of it and there were a couple of occasions where people
assumed I was Portuguese just by my look so that afforded us the opportunity to
speak. But overall, we really didn’t use it as much as we thought we would or
as much as we wanted to. I will say the accent is MUCH different than what we
are used to here in Mozambique but we were able to figure most things out. Unfortunately, Chris got a lot of speaking
practice in the TAP airlines office since our flight back was messed up. Long
story short, our flight was moved to a day later and no one at the airline
bothered to tell us. Chris had to argue with them to put us up in a hotel room,
but they finally did. And the good news was we had an extra day to spend in Lisbon.
So we had an awesome time laughing and catching up with my dad and Chris, and
gallivanting around in the beautiful city. After the long flight back to Moz, then
another 10 hour bus ride back to our home we were surprised at how the travel
just didn’t seem like that big of a deal. Flying from Columbus to Chicago
seemed like a big deal to me back in the day. I guess becoming an easy traveler
is a perk of living real far away from home and doing tons of traveling in
crappy cars with no entertainment options except staring out the window. And
cute babies.
That’s all to share for now in the land of Moz. I don’t
have a witty ending for you this time so I’ll just practice my Portuguese with
you since I didn’t get to do it as much as I wanted to in Portugal. Ate a
proxima!
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