A Week In Review

Here are some highlights from this week.

Monday, October 17: Field trip to Mbuzini (pronounced "buz-ee-knee"). Today we traveled to Mbuzini, South Africa to honor the first president on Mozambique.

October 19, 2011 marks the 25th anniversary of Samora Machel's death. He stood for peace in a country of violence and ruins. We paid our respects to his legacy along with people from all over Mozambique and Africa.

Crossing the border was an interesting experience. Peace Corps volunteers alongside tons of Mozambicans entered South Africa in groups of 20. We were not allowed to leave the country until 13:00 when we were instructed to grab a mystery box lunch and wait for guards to clear us out of the country. Crossing the border was this overly/underly official process.

Tuesday, October 18: Cross-cultural cooking day. Today our language class gathered in my kitchen to commence our four and a half hour cross-cultural cooking lesson. Dylan, Sara, and I assisted our families in making a Mozambican dish, a green leaf curry with rice and xima (pronounced "she-mah").

Afterwards, Dylan, Sara, and I made tacos (a very "American" dish). Our families looked so upset when they found out we were making "salad sandwiches", but to my surprise, everyone loved the tacos. My mom asked me to make them again on Sunday for my siblings!

Today marked the day I killed another chicken. This was the first chicken I killed sozinha (alone). I was so surprised I worked up the courage to kill the chicken alone that I walked around the neighborhood and boasted of the job I had done. My mom walked taller the entire day and was especially proud of me!! I am hoping that she will stop bringing home chickens for me to kill now that I showed a proficiency in killing chickens (I will be tested on household proficiency tasks during week five of training).

Wednesday, October 19: Sick. I stayed in bed all day as a result of food poisoning. I am feeling much better now and looking back, I really appreciated the day off.

Thursday, October 20: Ngoma time. Ngoma time is time set aside for cross-cultural experiences. We taught our language teachers tons of American games (wheel-barrel races, three-legged races, the crab walk, etc.) and they loved it. Some volunteers even performed a line dance for the teachers. Ngoma time is a nice way to relax at the end of a long day.

Friday, October 20: De-braiding. With help from Lena and Marie, the project took about thirty minutes. All my hair can say is "BAM!". My hair fluffed out like a peacock showing off its feathers. While having braids was great, I am thoroughly enjoying having long locks of hair again.

Saturday, October 21: German bakery and Mozambican wedding. This morning, I wandered over to the German bakery for a snack in-between sessions. Yum! It is worth standing in line for the fresh bakery. I got two treats- one was a cookie sandwich with a jam filling and the other was a puff pastry with a jam filling and a bit of frosting. I'm not doing justice to either treat, but they were delicious.

When I got back from my sessions today, my mom informed me that her cousin (my second cousin) was getting married and we were going. Sadly, we missed the ceremony, but we made it to the reception. Mozambican weddings are WILD and full of singing and eating.

On our way to the reception, we saw the wedding party leave the church (I should note that Lena and I saw the truck stuffed with members of the wedding party swerving down the main road in Namaacha on our way to the bakery hours earlier). I thought we would get to the reception at the same time, because the wedding reception had to drive up the road about 100 meters before arriving and we had a bit farther to walk, but I was wrong! The wedding party took at least another hour and a half to arrive. When they arrived, the newlyweds were greeted by the entire community. After entering, the bride, groom, and either his or her mother and father cut the first piece of cake. The bride and groom ate their first piece together and then took their first drink together. Following that, the bride shared a piece of cake with the man (either his or her father) and then a drink, while the groom did likewise with the woman (either his or her mother). Finally the bride and groom were allowed to share a kiss.

Dinner started with everyone washing their hands and then making a mad dash for food. I'm not quite sure how my mom got our food in that dash, but I was thankful for it. The food was AMAZING. She only brought me a small sample, but we had rice, beans and a crushed peanut sauce, potatoes (two different ways), chicken, and bolachas (bolacha is cookie in Portuguese).

Following dinner, the couple received their presents. Groups of families sang and danced their way to the front table to drop off their presents to the couple. The gifts were given to the bride who then passed them to the groom who then passed them to the woman (either his or her mother) and then they were passed to the man (either his or her father) and then put into a pile. This was one of the most beautiful parts of the reception- the songs were full of blessings for the newlyweds. During presents, I was sent home by my mom (I had been at the reception for 7 hours and it was getting dark). Rumor has it, the party was just beginning!

Sunday, October 23: Day of rest? Today I slept in until 5:15 and stayed in bed until 6:30! My mom was shocked I stayed in bed so late, and as my mom in the US said, "she is going to think you are a princess"- my Mozambican mom definitely called me a princess.


After getting out of bed, I started my chores- sweeeping and mopping my room and the dining room. I did my laundry (by hand), finished my two lessons for this week, cooked tacos for lunch, and baked bolachas for Chris (my family's first volunteer who is visiting this week). I am glad they consider Sunday the day of rest- I would hate to do more work than I already did!

This upcoming week is going to be packed. I am teaching two chemistry lessons in Portuguese! We will also be traveling to a school in Matola to observe chemistry lessons. I am also looking forward to my mock LPI (language proficiency interview) and two permagardening sessions.

Ate logo!