This afternoon when I was heading out to the bathroom, I realized that many of my friends and family reading this blog have no clue what daily tasks are really like in Namaacha. P.S. tasks such as washing dishes and clothes are not as simple as turning on the wash machine or the dishwasher. I will explain some of the more basic tasks and hope that this entry also ends up in the hands of future Peace Corps volunteers heading to Mozambique.
Showering:
Where do I start? When I arrived in Namaacha, I had three buckets lined up in my room; one for laundry, one for showering, and one for bathroom emergencies.
Showering directions: in your room, wrap yourself in a capulana and throw your towel over your shoulders. Grab your bucket, soap, and shower sandals (shower sandals are ESSENTIAL). Fill bucket with water (I fill my bucket with two pitchers of regular water and one tea kettle of hot water) and take bucket out to the wash-house (a cement room with a step/stump in it). Place bucket of water on the step. Rinse, lather soap, rinse, and repeat as many times as needed until you feel sufficiently clean.
Helpful hint for females- bring dry shampoo unless you have the patience to wash your hair regularly. Also, I have found that if I'm washing my hair, I do not have water for anything else so I wash my hair on days with less sweat.
My mom is insistent that I take two showers a day and the warmer it gets here, the more pushy she is for a third mid-day shower. Instead of fighting her, I comply with her rule of two showers, but often times take a pseudo-shower. There are days when I will stand in the shower soaking my feet for ten minutes and other days where I will stand out there and brush my teeth. I have been called out a few times by my sister for not taking long enough showers on a few of my pseudo-shower days. Note to self: I will have to work on my acting skills over the next six weeks of training...
Laundry:
As I mentioned before, you get three buckets, one of which will be used for laundry. Gather three additional basins and fill each with water. Add soap to the first basin and wash your white clothes (if you were foolish enough to bring white clothes to Namaacha) followed by the dark clothes. After scrubbing clothes in the first basin, wring them out and transfer them to the next "rinse" basin. Rinse, wring, and transfer clothes to the last basin. Hang clothes inside out and let them hang outside on the line for only as long as needed (unless you want all of your clothes to look faded).
Helpful hints: heavy cotton clothes are so hard to get soap out, so wring their water out over the first soap basin to avoid getting soap in the rinse basins.
I should also mention, that after washing your clothes, you are expected to wash your shoes and sandals in your basins. To me, this is one of the funniest things in the world, because minutes after putting your clean shoes on, they are dirty again. We have a brush designated for shoe cleaning- I accidentally used that brush to clean my feet the first week here.
Animals:
Lizards in Mozambique are like squirrels in Wisconsin.
Chickens, turkeys, and ducks in Mozambique are like rabbits in Wisconsin- they are procreate like crazy!
Dogs in Mozambique are like wild wolves in Wisconsin (Mozambicans see one and run like mad).
The other night my youngest brother, Ricardo, went out to take a bath after dark. Since he was bathing after dark, he decided he would put his bucket alongside the house and not use the wash-house. Ten minutes after being outside he screamed and seconds later started yelling and crying. He made it into the house in a matter of seconds and managed to pee himself in the doorway.
My sister, Zaida, had a look of complete fear on her face. All I could think was "what in the world made Ricardo cry? He is the toughest seven year old ever- just last week he chased me around with a cockroach in his hands". Ricardo stood in shock for five minutes and finally told us that he had just seen a dog!! Mozambicans are DEATHLY terrified of dogs. Ricardo did not say a word for the rest of the night (which is a first for him). Even to this day, if you say the word dog he flinches and walks away with a painful look in his eyes.
Buying Phone Credit:
Buying phone credit makes me feel like I'm on a James Bond ultra-secret mission. Sellers (mostly teenage males) wear these fluorescent yellow vests with the MCel logo and line up on the main streets in Namaacha. Before picking my vendor (it is a buyers' market), I get my money and phone ready, because I want the process to go as fast as possible. I usually pick the vendor that is not making kissing noises at me and ask to buy 100 MT of credit. The second you start talking to one vendor, three more rush over and try to pull out the credit slip before the first vendor. The process after that is not as exciting- you type in a REALLY long code and verify you got credit before paying the vendor.
Buying credit makes me feel like such a secret agent. I started to buy credit just for the rush of the mission and not because I actually need it...
Bagias:
YUM! I got my first taste of a bagia sandwich on Tuesday and it was delicious. Bagias are fried bean patties (very similar to falafel). You put them on a fresh loaf of bread and enjoy your extremely cheap meal (it costs 13 MT which is approximately 43 cents). Since discovering them after Lena and Maria got one, I have been dreaming of a bagia sandwich (it has become an unhealthy obsession). I am constantly looking forward to the day when I can get my own sandwich!
Other Foods:
I have gotten off the hook pretty easy in regards to eating "strange" foods. The line, "Eu tenho medo" (I am scared) seems to work for almost everything. I have been using the line to get out of eating more chicken feet (I already accidentally ate one, and do not think I can stomach another just quite yet), chicken organs, fish head, and other mystery meats. Sadly, the line stopped working this week. My sister made fish curry for dinner and I was so excited for the curry, not the fish (we had mini-fish which are about as big as sardines). My mom was furious when I skipped the fish and asked why I did not take any. "Eu tenho medo", I responded. The line failed. She got up, put a fish on my plate, took the spine out, and told me to eat it. I am so disgusted by food with bones on/in it- does not matter what the food is, I will not eat it. I put on my brave face, and ate my fish, despite the numerous mini-bones still inside of him. I'm a changed woman!
For now, the hitchhiker's guide to Namaacha is ending. Typing blogs on my phone is causing severe arthritis. I have a busy next few weeks and am looking forward to site visits from November 5-10 (aka a vacation from lessons and teaching).
Ate logo!
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