And Were Off and Running Again

Not only have we begun our second school year, but we’ve finally started to pick up one of our favorite past habits. We can proudly call ourselves “runners” again, now that we’re braving the African summers to clock a few miles a day.

Before we came to Mozambique, we were both pretty dedicated to hitting the pavement several times a week. Our hope was to continue here, but our motivation got lost with the countless adjustments we were dealing with last year. Then after 15 months of a carb heavy diet, we were starting to see the results of our slacking. The physical aspect is a part of it, but it’s mental too. Running was a release of tension and a time to unwind after a long work day or way to get your mind right first thing in the morning. Happily, our Moz life is generally much calmer and the stress level is way down, but regardless, I was missing that time of tranquility and the endorphins that follow. So during the lull period after our South Africa trip and waiting for school to start, we begrudgingly laced up our Nike’s and headed outside. The first few times were a bit of a struggle but very quickly I remembered why I used to like to run so much. It’s not easy while you’re doing it but the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction you feel when you’re done can’t be beat. I definitely needed that burst of good feeling too because at the end of December while sitting in my house with nothing to do except sweat in the unbearable heat, I started thinking, “whoa, I’ve got one more year of this?” I’ve heard it’s not uncommon to hit a wall between your first and second year of Peace Corps service, but I was sure I wouldn’t be one of those people. I figured if I didn’t go home for the holiday break, I’d be immune to the mid-service slump but that wasn’t the case. For months on end, time seemed to run away from me and then all of the sudden, I was counting every hour.  I’d made it through much harder times during this experience, so I had enough foresight to know I’d be out of the funk shortly. Putting back on my running shoes helped to put things into perspective. You see, Running for miles can require you to play a sort of mental game in order to make it to the end. There are times when you’re hot, tired and the ipod has died on you, making it seem impossible to take one more step forward. So, you tell yourself if only you can keep running until that tree in the distance, you can walk the rest of the way. It’s all about tricking yourself into a new goal so you don’t feel so bad about stopping. But the surprising part is that 99% of the time, you don’t start to walk when you reach that tree. In fact, you keep running until the end, to that mile marker you initially intended to reach. My mid-service slump forced me to seek out a “tree”, the first time I had to do so since the initial challenges I faced during training and first getting to site. As of today, I already reached that tree and I’m still running to the 27-months-of-service finish line.

Starting to teach again brought me back to the reason I am here and reminded me of the satisfaction I so frequently feel. And the beginning of the school year gave another reminder as to how far we’ve come. Now, we understood both the language and cultural context of the school’s opening ceremony and parents meeting. We already know school policies and procedures, most of the teachers and students, and are bracing for our schedule to be changed numerous times. It’s really cool to be at a point where we are no longer doing something new, but starting the cycle over again. We can finally put all of the lessons and experiences to good use.  This year, we walked into our classrooms for the first day of school with confidence and poise. I can already feel a difference in my teaching and it’s only been a few weeks.  My style and timing are much more natural, I’m not afraid to switch to Portuguese to discipline if needed and lesson planning is a breeze. Chris is no longer clutching his notebook to read a Portuguese script for his Chemistry lesson. Instead, he’s got a command of the language and knows which activities will work for a science class. We’re happy to be teaching the same subjects as last year except for one minor change. I teach 11^th and 12^th grade English and Chris teaches 8^th grade chemistry and 9^th grade math (instead of 10^th grade biology). He’s excited about math since Peace Corps trained him to teach in that subject and he enjoys it more than biology.  Another welcome change is less classes and less overcrowding, both due to the new secondary school in our village. We’re hoping this weeds out the kids who only want to “brincar” (to play around) and our school regains its reputation as one of the best in the country.

Aside from running and teaching, there have been a few other positive events that have brought us to the upswing. Mapinhane is lively with teachers and students and although the privacy during the summer vacation was nice, it’s even nicer to feel part of a community again. Our new site mate, Karina, is settling into her new life. We’ve enjoyed helping when she needs it and having another American just around the corner.  I got to see one of my favorite Americans, TJ, after a 2 month hiatus due to our South Africa trip and her visit back in the states. It was an exciting reunion with beef tacos (a rarity here) and a swim in the ocean.  Then back at home, we received a very special Peace Corps guest.  The director for all PC countries in the African continent made a visit to Mozambique and we were lucky enough to have him check out our humble abode in Mapinhane. He came with our Country Director (the head of PC Mozambique) and we showed them our school and house and chatted about our experiences. It was encouraging to meet someone so high on the PC ladder who was genuinely interested in what we were doing and open to our opinions. And today, I’m writing this blog during the conclusion of the kicker of positive events, and one of the main reasons for my rejuvenation. We just finished our Mid-Service Conference, where my training group shared successes and plans for the next year. It was the first time all members of Moz 17 had been together in over a year, and man did it feel good! Everyone is more cool, calm and collected and we’ve finally all seemed to find our way in Mozambique. Not only did we have an awesome time hanging out together which included dinners out and voting on group superlatives, but I gained some solid ideas for what I want to accomplish this year. I’m getting my plans together for my girl’s empowerment group, English theater crew, and children’s book readings. And I’ve got to get a move on because if you can believe it, I’ve only got 10 months left in country and that finish line doesn’t look very far at all.

Mid-Service Vay-cay

With over 2 months free for summer vacation between the first and second school year, many a PC education volunteer plans a trip. The halfway mark is a great time to get out of dodge, a time to recharge before starting the second and final year strong. A good amount actually head back to the US for a few weeks to spend the holidays with loved ones and take in all the comforts of being home.  Chris and I initially thought we would do this as well, but after looking at the cost of a plane ticket and taking into account that our families are spread all over the country (making it very difficult to see everyone anyway) we decided to hold off until our permanent return home. Also, we’re lucky enough to be seeing both of our families this next year during planned visits and trips. And besides, we wanted to take advantage of our close proximity to a country that seems so far and exotic when you’re in the US, but is just over the border from here. South Africa would be a place much harder to get to once we get back and would also provide plenty of opportunities to indulge in the many luxuries not found in Mapinhane. In fact, all of those things I noted in my last blog that I was hoping to encounter, we found and enjoyed! The last Twilight (hold your judgment on my movie choice, please) was seen in a real movie theater while eating M&Ms, a Big Mac never tasted so good and I actually still know how to use a blow dryer! But we had so many more exciting adventures than just sitting in steady streams of air conditioning and wandering around seemingly never-ending shopping malls.

The trip began with a 5 day jaunt in Mozambique’s capital city, Maputo. It’s not the best city in the world but it’s certainly grown on me tremendously since that initial touchdown from Philadelphia 15 months ago. We’ve been there a handful of times over the last year, usually for a Peace Corps conference which doesn’t give us a lot of time to leisurely explore so it was nice to be there on our own schedule. We needed to go to the city to catch the bus into South Africa to start the first leg of our journey, but decided to go early so that we could attend the swear-in ceremony of the new group of volunteers we met in Namaacha a couple of months back. It was a proud moment seeing Moz 19 take their oath of service, both because I was happy to have helped them reach this occasion by being a part of their training, and to think of how far I’ve come since sitting in their seats a year before. Aside from the swear-in, our vacation started off right with good food and accommodations graciously provided by a couple we met earlier this year who works for at the American Embassy in Maputo. We enjoyed family dinners and chats in the living room after they’d come home from work, which gave us a sense of the home we could have been feeling if we did make the trip back to the US. After 5 days of great “family time”, we boarded the bus to Nelspruit, where we were picked up to begin our 3 day safari in Kruger National Park. We figured we might as well check out one of the most popular game parks in the world if we were in the neighborhood. I mean, what’s a trip to South Africa if you don’t see some elephants and lions? And oh did we! During the first evening of our arrival, we got a little too close for comfort on the night drive.  Our guide drove down a small, but steep hill on an unpaved road to shine a light on 4 of the most sought after creatures to spot, lions. They were chilling about 30 feet from us with only a little shrubbery between us. Wondering why they seemed not to notice us, I asked the guide what it is they see when they look at our safari vehicle. He explained that they can only see the silhouette of the jeep, which looks like a large but non-threatening animal to them if anything. Waving a hand or other body part out of the car could draw attention. Ok, that made sense so I was very careful not to move much since I was sitting on the side closest to these kitties. We started to reverse up the hill when one of the wheels stopped moving. Our two guides initially tried to solve the issue while staying in the jeep but we weren’t going anywhere. So, they ended up jumping down to investigate and found a piece of wire fence stuck in the wheel. Uhhhhhh, didn’t they just say we shouldn’t break our silhouette? And isn’t it pitch black so we can’t see anything? Awesome. We all nervously laughed and joked in the car as the guide would periodically move his flashlight from the wheel they were fixing to the lions just to make sure they weren’t getting hungry for unsuspecting tourists. After what felt like forever but was probably only a few minutes, the wire was removed and we were on our way as I was left with the realization that this sure isn’t like a zoo! But not all game drives are that exciting, in fact the can be quite tedious because of the fact you’re not in a zoo with animals in a confined area. These animals are roaming around a gigantic park and so sometimes you can drive for hours without seeing much of anything. But throughout our numerous drives and walks we were pretty happy with the amount of classic safari animals we saw. Other than lions, we spotted elephants, zebras and giraffes, yaks and monkeys, hippos and a rhino, and animals I don’t even know the name to.  So we definitely got our safari fill, then moved on to our next part of the trip, the city with the best reputation on the planet, Cape Town. Seriously. Any time I mentioned we were going to visit to someone who had already been there, they would rave about how wonderful it is. Even before I came to live in Africa, I heard nothing but overwhelming praise about this magical city. Well, we’re definitely part of the chorus now. This place did not disappoint. Everything you hear about how it’s one of the few places that perfectly mixes a big city with natural beauty is so true. Our home base for our 8-day stay was a lovely guesthouse right in the center of town. The place converted 3 classic Victorian homes for a cozy yet modern feel with great personal service and a delicious breakfast included each morning. Not to mention the beautiful and comfortable rooms with all the amenities which we enjoyed to the fullest. I could even walk barefoot without fear of stepping on a cockroach, a welcome change from my daily life! But enough writing the brochure for the hotel. Let’s talk about all the fun activities! We climbed up the city’s landmark, Table Mountain, a steep climb but well worth the good workout and awesome view from the top, and rode the cable car down. We took a ferry ride to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated. We went on a tour around the Cape of Good Hope, a beautiful area near the bottom of the African continent. On our way, we stopped to see numerous breathtaking beaches and even one filled with penguins. We later relaxed on one of those beaches and learned that the icy arctic water they have makes for quite a stinging sensation on your skin. The water is much colder than our Indian Ocean beaches, but it was still beautiful none the less. On more than one occasion, we walked around areas densely populated with a selection of great restaurants and a variety of places to shop, like the V&A Waterfront and Long Street. Speaking of which, the food exploration was all part of the fun too, as Cape Town is known for its high quality options. Aside from good Italian food and sushi, we frequently found ourselves in well stocked grocery stores to ogle at goodies we haven’t seen in a while. And I already mentioned going to a movie theater, eating American fast food and using modern appliances. Of course it can be fun to check out these things in any city you visit, but as deprived Peace Corps Volunteers, these were some of the main attractions of our trip. Another highlight was that we got to share many of these experiences with our fellow volunteers. A few were vacationing in Cape Town the same time we were there, and so it was a nice change of pace to enjoy time with them in a backdrop of a developed city. When it was time to leave the place that became Chris’ “favorite city on earth”, we were glad to know we had one more adventure left before heading home. A 26 hour train ride to Johannesburg with a lounge, dining car and our own sleeping compartment! It would have been much faster and cheaper to take a plane, but we thought it would be a unique experience to take a sleeper train across Africa. Well, a unique experience it was, but not as expected. The train departed 2 hours late, the air conditioner was not working as we rode through the desert (which led all the available ice to melt), there was barely enough food to go around and the staff was all but incompetent. Long story short, we encountered mishap after mishap from the beginning until the end of the trip. So much in fact, that when we arrived to Johannesburg, the customer service manager was waiting to tell all passengers we would receive almost 50% of our money back.  Some of you may have seen my Facebook pictures where I called it the “Hell Train” and maybe that was US standards Laurie coming out. I mean, it was still somewhat enjoyable since it was our first fancy sleeper train experience. And really, how much can I complain considering my current living conditions :)?  But we paid a pretty penny for a more luxury train experience that was anything but, so it was still a bit of a disappointment. Anyway, we did gather lots of good laughs from the experience which kept us busy while waiting for 12 hours in the bus station to get our ride back to Maputo. Our journey back to Mapinhane was thankfully, pretty uneventful. After we reached Maputo, we decided to stay for a couple more days to enjoy one more jaunt in a city, then caught the early bus back home to the bush.

The long rides home gave me time to think about how things would be when I returned. I worried all this first world pampering would make it hard to go back to bucket baths and dinner by lantern light. Surprisingly, getting right back into the swing of things was not hard at all. In fact, after being reminded of pre-Peace Corps life, it made me appreciate my home here even more. I’ll have the rest of my life to treat myself to all those things I experienced during my mid-service vacation but the way we live now is truly special. If you had told me I would live without modern comforts for so long, I probably would have told you I couldn’t do it.  But we’ve done it for over a year, and will do it for another and somehow, we make it work. And actually enjoy it.

While I appreciate my life back here, that doesn’t mean it can’t be boring. As we hang out in quiet Mapinhane, I am reminded of when we first got to site last year and no one was around. Students and teachers have left for the summer so it’s pretty dead here. But, we’re also enjoying the solitude and privacy, something we don’t get much of when school is in session and students are constantly stopping by.  We had a low-key Christmas in Vilankulo with some of the new volunteers in our area and will probably ring in the New Year around here (and celebrate Chris’ December 28^th birthday somewhere in between!). After that, mid-January will come before we know it and our second year as teachers will begin.

We want to wish everyone happy holidays and a healthy, happy new year.  As great as it was to visit South Africa, it’s nice to know that next year we’ll get to spend these festive times at home :) Fica Bem Amigos!

Turkey and Trainees

Hey there, friends! We just returned from a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration where we chilled on a beautiful island and yes, even ate some turkey.

 We spent the holiday at our friend TJ’s house in Inhassorro which provided us the opportunity to relax on a beach, use electricity for cooking and a gracious hotel’s facilities for our meal. The original plan was to take a boat trip to an island on Thursday and have our dinner on Friday night since a few of the guests were not able to make it until then. But due to weather issues, the trip had to be moved to Friday.  But, not all way lost since TJ does live right on a beach. None of us really complained about spending some time in the ocean that day, even if it wasn’t off an island. And, it gave us time to prep some of our feast the day before. My contributions were cranberry sauce, stuffing and sweet potato casserole. Of course we had to make some modifications here in Mozambique. I used dried cranberries instead of fresh ones but I was really surprised at how delicious the sauce turned out. Stuffing was an easy job since it only involved boiling water and butter for 4 boxes of Stove Top stuffing, a classic crowd pleaser. The sweet potatoes were a little trickier since we had no luck finding the veggie here this time of year, so my adaptability skills came in handy. I had remembered that cassava root tastes remarkably like a sweet potato, especially the ones here since they’re not as sweet as you find in the states. Cassava, something we never see at home and I had certainly never eaten until I came here, is a common staple all throughout Africa so I thought it would be a culturally appropriate twist anyway.  I used all the same ingredients you find in regular sweet potato casserole, complete with browned marshmallows on top, and it turned out to be a hit at the buffet table!  I have to give a BIG shout out to my wonderful family who never lets me down with my care package requests. This and many American food wonderfulness I’ve had in the past year would not be possible without you. Thanks guys! So, we woke up Friday morning with half of our dinner prepped and excited to take a boat trip. Our destination was Santa Carolina Island, one of the islands in the Bazaruto Archipelago, a group of gorgeous, government protected islands in our region of Mozambique.  We boarded our dhow, a traditional colorful wooden boat and enjoyed the beautiful breeze on the open water. We reached the small, uninhabited island and had a relaxing day on the beach. We walked along the coast looking for shells, swam and snorkeled and laid in the sand. Chris and I received an impromptu walking tour from one of our boat guides as well. He saw us peeking to see what was on the other side, and offered to take us around the entire island. I always say that Mozambique is where the screen saver people go to take pictures, and our walk around this island presented many opportunities for these photo ops! We saw beautiful ocean scenery from every angle and the ruins of a once bustling and elegant hotel. It was an awesome unexpected detour in our day. We sailed back home, then hurriedly finished making all of dishes in time for dinner. In true Moz fashion, the energy went out as we were all partaking in electric stoves and ovens, but it turned back on just in time for us to finish up. Once things were ready, we headed to the hotel to get everything set up. TJ works at a vocational school for tourism and they run a hotel at her site. The hotel was kind enough to allow us to use their kitchen, dishes and silverware and beautiful location on the ocean to have our Thanksgiving. After warming things up and getting them nicely displayed on our buffet table, we partook in quite a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Aside from my side dishes, we had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, a salad, squash and green beans. We even had pumpkin and cherry pies for dessert! Everything was just awesome. I can’t imagine having a more authentic TDay meal than if we were actually in the states. Both the food, the company also lended itself to all the coziness that makes this holiday so great. We all went around the table to say what we were thankful for, we chatted and laughed and made fun of each other. They say that your fellow volunteers become your family during your service and that is definitely true. While they are wonderful friends, they also act as your family away from home. Aside from PCVs for every region, we got to share with other Americans visiting, and an Italian and a Mozambican. It was an eclectic mix which actually, is pretty indicative of the Williams’ family turkey days as Chris and his family like to joke about. So it was another nice reminder of home :) The whole day was wonderful, from the boat to the stuffing. At the end of the night, Chris and I decided that years from now we’ll be saying about this day, “hey, remember when we had that awesome thanksgiving in Mozambique… ”

A few weeks before Thanksgiving, we hosted two site visitors in Mapinhane. Trainees are sent to sites all over the country so they can get a feel for what life as a volunteer in Mozambique actually looks like. You might remember reading about our site visit experiences last year which were a lot of fun for both of us, so we were hoping to do the same for our guests. Aside from our two visitors, we had a gaggle of trainees visit volunteers in our region, and we thought there would be no better way for them to enjoy the freedom outside of their homestay families and a relentless training schedule then to hang out in Vilankulo. The whole Northern Inhambane province crew showed these trainees everything we love about the area like the gorgeous beaches and available pizza and ice cream. After two days of living in the “posh corps”, it was time to take our visitors back to Mapinhane to experience the real deal. We spent the next few days showing them that while the “posh” part of their stay was over, there are a lot of great things about our daily life in rural Africa. We relaxed by lantern light, walked around our village, chatted with some neighbors and demonstrated various forms of cooking without a standard oven or refrigerator. All in all, it was a great visit and I think the girls left really encouraged and excited about the 2 years ahead of them.  Then, a week after their departure we got some great news:  Karina, one of our visitors who I also spent a lot of time with in Namaacha at training last month, is going to be our new site mate!  For years, Mapinhane only had a private school (where Chris and I work) in our community which was a challenge for many local kids because they could not afford the fees to attend.  A new public secondary school just opened up this year providing more opportunities for kids to go to school, and an opportunity for our community to receive another volunteer. It won’t be easy navigating a new school and living in a one room hut with no electricity, but Karina is a tough cookie and she’s up for the challenge. Luckily, she was able to see the house and the school when she came for a visit so she knows what to expect and was hoping to be placed at this site. And, of course, we’ll be here for guidance along the way if she needs it. :)  Chris and I loved our experience of being the only PCVs in Mapinhane for the first year, but we are really looking forward to sharing our ‘hood in year two. She’ll be joining us at the beginning of December and unfortunately, we won’t be here to help her navigate her first couple of weeks, but we hope to be reachable if she needs us.  But, our absence is for a very exciting reason. We are going to enjoy our summer break in South Africa! We’ll be taking a 3 day safari, spending 8 days in Cape Town and ending with an overnight train ride complete with sleeping compartments and a dining car! We’re very excited for this adventure not only for the itinerary, but to enjoy some of the “first world comforts” we’ve regularly lived without for the past 14 months. We are hoping a movie theater, a real hamburger and possibly a blow dryer are involved at some point in our journey.

Can’t wait to catch you up on our South African adventures in our next post!  We hope all of our friends, family and blog followers had a lovely Thanksgiving back in the USA. <3