Culinary Adventures in Africa

“Wait, I’m moving to Africa, so I guess this means I won’t be able to have things like pizza and cinnamon rolls and chocolate”, I thought as I pondered my dietary options in Mozambique. The stereotypical images of a skinny Peace Corps volunteer, depriving their taste buds by eating beans and rice for two years straight was what came to mind. In actuality, just this weekend I ate pizza and cinnamon rolls and chocolate, oh my!

Already during training, I started to realize that eating here would not be nearly as much of a struggle as I had imagined.  Our Mozambican host family, who was responsible for feeding us three meals a day, had a steady supply of peanut butter and regularly provided chicken, rice, vegetables and fruit, bread and eggs. We learned that Mozambique’s climate allowed for a large assortment of tasty fruits and vegetables, grocery stores existed in bigger cities, and that many volunteers used an electric stove and portable oven for cooking. And, we received “You Can Make it in Mozambique”, a cookbook written by previous volunteers full of awesome Mozambican appropriate recipes. “I can make this food thing work!”, I thought. “See ya later beans and rice!”

…And then we got our placement in Mapinhane where the electricity was supposed to be on for two hours a night, but that never actually happened. So, how was I to live out my dreams of good eating in a village with no electricity and a tiny market? A gas stove, charcoal grill, Dutch oven and a weekly trip to the town of Vilanculos is how! I’ve learned that a gas tank attached to burners works quite well, we’ve found the tricks for starting a fire on charcoal and Dutch oven-ing is actually quite easy as it only involves putting a smaller pot inside of a bigger pot over flames. Electricity is definitely not a prerequisite for good cooking options. You might think a glaring issue would be life without a fridge, but you learn that many things last longer on the shelf then the “refrigerate after opening” label would have you believe. Sure, it would be nice to pull a cold drink out once in a while, but that’s a reason to go to Vilanculos! Thanks to South African tourists, this town with power lines is stocked with an array of delicious ingredients in their small grocery stores, and is only an hour chapa ride away. While we can get some basic fruits, veggies and cooking supplies in Mapinhane, Vilanculos is where we find our treasures like cheese. But I would be remiss to not give a shout out to all of the wonderful people who send us care packages as well. The regular influx of spices and candy certainly help in our quest for deliciousness!

So what is it that I make in my powerless kitchen?  On Thursday, I busted out flour, cinnamon, sugar and raisins to Dutch oven some tasty cinnamon rolls. Last night, we made fresh pizza dough, sauce, grated some mozzarella, and cut veggies for homemade pizza. I’ve made pasta salads, homemade mashed potatoes, and brownies. Usually, I make my spicy vegetable coconut curry once a week and a special breakfast on Sunday mornings with cinnamon French toast or banana pancakes. By the way, our daily breakfast consists of powdered milk and cornflakes, something else I thought I would never be able to eat here! The majority of what I cook has to be made from scratch. Of course, part of this is out of necessity as there is little accessibility to things with the word “instant” on the package. But, one of the many benefits to the slower pace of life here is that I have time to experiment with cooking and realize I actually enjoy making things that don’t come out of a box.  At home, I would squeeze in cooking somewhere in my 40 hour work week and it often involved using less ingredients than I can count on one hand. I felt like I just had too much going on to test my culinary skills, and restaurants were always such an easy second option for dinner. Here, I generally take off from cooking only one night a week when we ask our epregada (hired household chore helper), Catarina, to cook up the delicious traditional Mozambican dishes I have not yet mastered (I could probably write a whole blog on traditional Mozambican dishes but we’ll save that for another time!). Anyway, I definitely plan to take my new found love for cooking from scratch, and that handy cookbook, back to the States.

Now don’t get more wrong, we are not in the amazing food mecca of the United States of America so there are things I still miss dearly. One of the first things I want to eat when I get back is a good cheeseburger as you just can’t find one here! And a fresh, hot bagel with cream cheese.  And blueberries, oh how I miss blueberries!!! And, we miss going to restaurants. Going out to eat was always a fun, relaxing treat for Chris and I and we did if often. Here, there is little variety of food at restaurants, the service leaves much to be desired (i.e. customer service does not exist here) and let’s be real, a Peace Corps volunteer’s living allowance does not really allow for regular nights out on the town. So when groups of us volunteers get together, it’s not uncommon to engage in what we call “food porn”. Discussions of things like chipotle burritos, Dairy Queen cones dipped in chocolate or filet mignon.  But I still laugh to myself when I think of how bad my food situation could have been.  I mean, I love the occasional beans and rice but man I am glad that it only has to be occasional!

Orlando and Picture Books

When my alarm goes off at 5:30am, I sometimes have the thought that all I want to do is go back to sleep or lounge around or really, do anything but teach. Although I love it, there are times when I just don’t feel like doing it, as is the case with any job… And then I see Orlando. Where do I even begin to describe this ball of positive energy? It’s no easy feat to be a student in class 12A with a name I actually know considering there are 64 students (and just to be clear, one teacher!). Orlando sits front and center to make sure that he doesn’t miss a second of the lesson or an opportunity to participate. And, you can’t help but be happy when you see the toothy smile radiate from this tall, goofy, freckled kid’s large mouth.  His desire to learn, and particularly to learn English is inspiring. Although learning the language doesn’t come as naturally to him as some others, I see him studying his butt off to improve and every test and evaluation has shown that it’s paying off.  He will take any chance he gets to practice his English skills. Whenever I see him at the water pump or on my way to the market, he says in his booming voice, “Hello Teacha!!! How are you?” to strike up a conversation. I generally try to speak Portuguese when I am outside of the classroom, but it’s wonderful that some of the students don’t think that 5 hours a week of formal instruction is enough. When I am the first to greet Orlando I say “Bom Dia (Good Morning)”, but he will not have it! “Good Morning, Teacha!”, he says, making sure I know that he only wants to speak English. As we talk, I can almost see the wheels in his head turning as he carefully thinks of how to communicate. It’s never perfect, but he always gets his point across and does it with such enthusiasm. I tell ya, I’m envious of his gusto. I wish I had his same courage when I speak Portuguese. Orlando also wants to continually expand his vocabulary. Almost every day he will ask me the meaning of a word, usually relevant or sometimes completely random like, “Teacha, what it mean ‘wooden’?”. I have no clue where he heard the word “wooden” but I’m always happy to provide a definition for his inquiring mind (and it’s actually a great exercise for me to learn more Portuguese!). I know that I will sincerely miss this kid’s perseverance and heart in my classroom after he graduates.

But, I am beginning to find motivation outside of the classroom too. My goal was to begin secondary projects during our second trimester which started last week, and the things are already in motion!  I have talked to my potential Mozambican counterpart about starting the girls club and she is interested in helping. I have a handful of excited students who are pumped about the group and keep asking when we will have our first meeting. And, I just started a new project that will hopefully instill a love of learning in some future Orlandos! Yesterday, I biked down to Mapinhane’s Primary School with 10 books in hand with the purpose of starting an impromptu reading session.  Peace Corps has partnered with Books for Africa, an organization dedicating to improving literacy, and they have provided all PCVs with 50 picture books to take out to kids in our community. I knew this would be a great opportunity to connect with the cute youngins’ of Mapinhane, so I’ve been looking forward to getting into this project. As soon as I entered the primary school, 2 boys yelled over to say hi. They were hanging out right next to a tree trunk, which looked like the perfect place to start my story time. I asked the boys a little about themselves like what grade they were in and their age, then if they’d like me to read to them. They nodded their heads fiercely to say yes. I pulled out one of the picture books I liked best (FYI- All books are written in Portuguese so I’m trying to read them all myself first. Nothing can kill story time quite like bad pronunciation!). As I read aloud, the boys listened intently and then began to read with me which was great since I wasn’t sure about their reading level. I let them take turns reading pages and by the end of the story, we had about 8 more amigos join us. Over the next hour, I brought out a few more books and took turns reading aloud with those who wanted to show off their reading skills. And over that hour, my group of 2 had grown to about 40 thrilled, adorable kids who couldn’t wait for me to turn the page. It was wonderful to see such excitement! As you can imagine, resources are scarce here, and that includes books so this was a real treat for them. When it was time for me to go, the 40 kids wanted to follow. I’ll admit, some of them probably wanted to chase me only because of their curiosity of the wired white person, but I truly believe that most were amped by the story session and didn’t want it to end. Seeing their enthusiasm gives me tons of inspiration and motivation to continue with this initiative. I plan to go back once every week to hang out and read with the kids. And, I talked to one of the third grade teachers who wants me to come read to her class and maybe teach a little English too. I’d like to check out their library situation, if one exists, so that I can have a structured place to keep the books once I leave here. If not, maybe I can help set one up. I’m also thinking about having the girls in my soon-to-be girl’s club come with me to read to the kids. Really, the possibilities are endless. I feel like there is a ton I can do with this over the next year and a half…

And so I end this blog with a big thank you to Orlando and cute kids for making me realize that a year and a half more here is totally doable. :)

Changing Seasons

As of last week, a new occurrence has begun during the evenings. We find ourselves reaching for the extra blanket in the middle of the night, snuggling underneath. Finally, after what has pretty much been a year of summer for us, winter is coming to the southern hemisphere. And, yes, believe it or not, it does get cold enough in Africa for blankets, sweatshirts and hot chocolate. We’re only at the beginning of the cold months which apparently last through September and for once in my life, I am looking forward to it. Anyone who knows me has probably heard me say “I could live without ever seeing snow” and though this is still true, the sometimes brutal heat of Africa has given me a new appreciation for the season I used to dread. I also find it comforting to know that while most of the time my friends and family are experiencing the total opposite weather pattern above the equator, we are now going through a transition time together. While you’re all heating up, we’re cooling down but I’m sure we have some days where our Fahrenheit and Celsius match up.

It felt strange to go through holidays like Halloween, Hanukkah and Christmas when it was so hot and sticky outside, but I finally succeeded in recreating a holiday here where it actually felt like home. The food, the customs and even the chill in the air on Friday night seemed right when I hosted my first Passover Seder. A fellow PCV who lives in our region suggested that we do a Seder at our home. He has a little bit of Jew in him, but not enough to know how to put on the full production. Of course I wanted to do this, but I was a bit nervous about how I would pull this off considering I would be working with no electricity or running water and had not even hosted a Seder in the States with all the amenities. But, Passover has always been one of my favs, particularly because it is such a cozy holiday with its rich traditions, foods and family time.  So I decided I had to find a way to pull this off. I wondered how I would make haroset (a must-have Passover staple) without the key ingredient, walnuts. And, what the heck could I find in Mozambique that could take the place of matza. Oh man, If only we had a kosher section in the Mapinhane market. :) And, most of all, I worried if I had the right stuff to be the fearless Seder leader as I would be the only 100% Jew in the room and they’d all be looking to be for guidance. Luckily, all my fears subsided. I received my care package with boxes of matzo and matzo ball soup mix just in time, I miraculously found walnuts in our closest large city (and another Passover classic, horseradish!) and I looked through the Haggadah I brought from home to brush up on my Seder 101. We made soup and chicken and potatoes and fixed up a full seder plate. I was ready. Two of our PCV friends and our Mozambican teacher buddy joined us and as we sipped our grape juice and took turns reading from the Haggadah, I could feel the cool air outside, and for a moment, had the pure feeling of home. NEXT YEAR IN ISRAEL!!! Err, umm, Mozambique again.

And while the season is changing, other things are too. Our first trimester comes to an end next week as we wrap up test corrections and grade averaging exercises. We were caught by surprise a few weeks ago when the Provincial government decided that, with only a day or two notice, all students needed to take a week’s worth of standardized tests in each subject. With only three weeks left in the trimester, it threw off the rest of our lesson plans and gave us a hasty crash course in attempting to control wandering eyes in a classroom of 60 while the students churned out test after test. It was a bit of an exhausting week, even more so for me then when I have my regularly scheduled classes. Although it gave me a break from planning and teaching my normal 20 hours, I found it more exhausting to sit and survey a room of students (sometimes rabidly cheating ones) for an hour and a half at a time. Not to mention that our schedule for proctoring and grading changed daily, something that still drives me a little crazy. Although I am learning to roll with the unstructured nature of things here more, I will always be a sucker for set schedules. But when all is said and done, we survived our first trimester and already have an idea of how we can be more comfortable and improve for our next one. During the break we will be attending our reconnect conference, where we will join PCVS from our training group to digest our first 3 months at site and continue to learn how we can best benefit our community. Both Chris and I are looking forward to hearing more about secondary projects since we now feel comfortable enough with teaching, we’re ready to delve into new things. He’s already got a lot of things bubbling like helping with a cultural group, guitar club and science fair. I’d like to start a REDES group (a club to foster growth and empowerment of girls) and maybe get an English club going. Hopefully, we’ll have a blog post in the next few months to talk about these new developments! And all of these new prospects are good for us especially because we realize something else has changed; We are past the “everything is shiny and new” phase of our Peace Corps experience. We’ll never be 100% integrated (even after 2 years because we are foreigners after all) but we are more settled in then when we first came and we recognize that’s made us a bit restless; Still feeling fulfilled and loving the experience, but restless. This is apparently pretty common for PCVs around their 6^th-7^th month. Oh wait, did I mention that as of the end of March, we have officially been in Mozambique for 6 months!!!! Who-hoo! Anyway, I think a new side project might be just the thing to move us into the “it’s ok that everything is no longer shiny and new” phase.  In the meantime, I’ll continue to enjoy the cooler weather as we move into winter and will imagine we are sipping tea at the same time as you move into spring.