Playing catch-up

As I write this, I’ve been in my site for two weeks. Been in Mozambique for around 3 months now.Gonna try to make the next few entries like those movies in which you know the ending, but the plots are revealed slowly as storyline progresses. *ahem* First, I wanna say that I’ve not had access to the internet from PST’s beginning, so it’s with most sincere regret and apology that I say that I haven’t been able to update this blog for the longest freaking time. I’ve had so much to say, so much time to write (and even have written some) but without a way to post here, and a faulty iPad that erased my entire journal *rageface*, it’s been tough to faithfully record my life on “paper”. This is my attempt at making up for lost time. Where to begin? PST? Yeah.

 

Panorama of the paisaje from the Math Hub

Bairo Fronteira (Biology/Science Neighborhood)

Bairo Vila Pouca (Math/Physics Neighborhood)

A well in Bairo Vila Pouca

Chiquey house in Bairo Fronteira

A entrada de namaacha

Blue skies on the way to class.

Namaacha is a town almost right on the border with Swaziland in the west of Maputo province in the south of the country. It was, for the most part pretty temperate, compared to the rest of Mozambique when it wasn’t soaked in rain. The word “matope” (mud) was recited sporadically almost every rainy day by PCT and Mozambiquian alike; it’s indispensable when talking about the Namaacha experience. Sticky, clingy mud that cakes on your shoes, and dirties your pants from the mid-shin and down. Now, I miss the slippery muck… It was a welcome presence in the stead of heat that occurs everywhere else. Namaacha is located inland, a little higher in elevation than Maputo atop beautiful green hills (they were so green because September-December is within the rainy season there). There is a teacher-training institute, or IFP (Instituto de Formação de Professores da Namaacha), where we met during HUB days (I’ll explain what they are later), several primary schools and one secondary school. The people of Namaacha are very used to groups of foreigners because they not only have Peace Corps groups there for training, but there are also PCVs and JICA (Japanese International Cooperation Agency) workers in the town. It’s a pretty simple town with a sizable population. There’s one main paved road which stretches throughout town upon which lies the IFP, hotel/ casino, secondary school, market, gas station and chapa terminal (you’ll hear about chapas. Oh, you’ll hear about chapas). I can’t put into words how beautiful the scenery is and how serene I felt in the mornings when I would go to classes as well as the peace  I felt when I was making my way home from Bairo Fronteira at night, walking under the brightest stars I’ve ever seen. It wasn't what I thought Africa would be like. I tried to come here with an "empty glass," i.e. without expectations, but I was always with the notion that Africa was a big desert and a bunch of poverty. The big blue sky, rain, wind, thunder storms and variety of houses, people, languages, socio-economic classes, technology, lack of technology, sense of community and cultures slapped my preconceived image of Africa in the face. And that was only the beginning! Namaacha is what I would call "fake Africa" because it was our transition phase into PCV life, and I was always surrounded by Americans. It was also a great learning experience. I'll definitely say that I'm so happy that they picked Namaacha as a training ground for PCV life; my retrospective thought regarding Namaacha, that I can remember from the other day as I was riding in a chapa back to my site from Chokwe, was thus: "I'm glad I did this."