It is Official!

On December 8, I became an official Peace Corps Volunteer! The ceremony was hosted at the US Ambassador's private residence (thank you US tax-payers) and it was a huge success.

After the swearing-in ceremony, we were taken to the VIP Maputo Hotel for the night. Being in the hotel and having the chance to clean up was great. Showering with hot running water was incredible. To put it into context for those of you who have had running water for the last ten weeks, having running water for the first time was just as amazing as that first shower you take after a long camping trip.

We all enjoyed a buffet dinner and the next morning a wonderful breakfast full of granola, milk, fruit, and, of course, pastries. I said my goodbyes to those volunteers heading to the central and northern regions and we started our trip to Beline.

The supervisor's conference was a smashing success! We started the weekend off with a delivery from the Peace Corps. They dropped off our two cardboard boxes, our black chests, our bags from Namaacha, and our two-year bags that have been waiting in the office. The excitement of opening my two-year bag was the equivalent to what I imagine children feel on Christmas morning. IT WAS GLORIOUS! It didn't even matter what was in there- I was just excited for new clothes and tons of scarves.

After a weekend of beautiful weather and plenty of time to enjoy the beach, we headed to our sites (I should mention- I saw a stingray and tons of jelly fish at the beach- no whale siting this time though). The drive to Inharrime was about three hours of hills and forests of palm trees. Crossing the provincial border from Gaza to Inhambane, the changes in scenery were remarkable. The land went from flat and relatively level to hilly with forests of palm trees. Looking over the cliff's edge in Zavala made me think of paradise; there were tons of palm trees and below them at the bottom of the cliff was the most pristine and beautiful blue water I had ever seen. I am realizing more and more how lucky I really am...

I have been enjoying the fresh baked goods and the wonderful mangoes and papayas the sisters have been feeding me! I am looking forward to these next two years more and more.

Now that I will be settling down at site, if any teachers are interested in signing up for the Peace Corps WorldWise Schools Correspondence match, please let me know. For more information, please see: http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/

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Gems from my Journey

Here are a couple more photos of me in the past 10 weeks. (click on image to start a slide show)

My homestay family and me on the night of Ricardo's seventh birthday.

My homestay mom and I. 

View of the inside of a classroom at the Secondary School of Namaacha. This is one of the classrooms I taught in during Model School.

This is a pile of garbage we swept out of a classroom at the Secondary School of Namaacha. There are no trashcans inside of the rooms so students are accustomed to throwing their trash on the ground during lessons.

My bedroom in Namaacha.

The monument in Mbuzini to honor Samora Machel and the others that perished in the tragic plane crash 25 years ago.

Doing my part to help clean the Secondary School of Namaacha

The Badger alumnus before the swearing in ceremony.

The look of Mozambique

the beach at Beline

The feast! The results of our cross-cultural cooking lessons.

The shores of Beline

Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving. 

Beach.

Chicken sans head. . .

Turkeys. Gross.

Monster snail!

Sara, Dylan, Dylan's Mom, and I cleaning the freshly killed chicken.

Namaacha

Moving On Up

As I am getting packed and ready to leave Namaacha, I have been reflecting on my last eight weeks here. I have compiled a variety of short stories highlighting some of the fun times I have had in Namaacha.

Super Dolie- Protector and Saver of the World:

When it rains in Namaacha, my sister gets up from whatever she is doing and puts a white lacy dolie on the television. Granted my Portuguese is not perfect, but the rationale I got for the dolie is that it will protect us from getting struck by lightening through the television. This is one of the many myths in Namaacha I am planning to submit to "Myth Busters".

The Day I Saw Too Much Mae:

The weather in Namaacha has this uncanny ability to change in the snap of a finger. One second it is so hot I am begging for a third bath of the day, and the next I am wearing my Uggs. In a matter of 24 hours, I went from wearing a skirt, tanktop, and sandles to wearing jeans, two tanktops, a longsleeve shirt, two coats, and my Uggs. Thank goodness for homeostasis and internal regulation!

Back to the story... It was one of those really hot days in Namaacha. Even when you were sitting perfectly still, you could not avoid dripping in sweat. I went home for lunch (as usual) and was greeted by my mom, sister, and brother. My mom had gotten out her bamboo/straw mat to sit on and was drinking a boiling hot glass of tea (tea drinking never ends, even if it is over 100 degrees). I was served lunch and was munching away when my mom shouted and demanded I turn around to face her and talk. BAM! There she was- her top half exposed for all to see. I was so embarrassed, but she sat there and acted like nothing was out of the norm. After comparing stories with Lena, I'm starting to realize that going topless is a method of cooling one's body. Why not skip the boiling hot tea? Or, why not invest in a fan?

The thought of my topless mother brings back the confusion of the Mozambican dress code. Why is it acceptable for my mother to expose herself, but I am not allowed to wear a skirt or dress that shows my knees? Understanding the dress code is one battle I will never win- I am resigning today.

Mean Teacher Face:

I am proud to admit, I have a mean teacher face! On Tuesday, I taught my first chemistry classes to Mozambican students. My lessons were well-received and for the first time in a long time, a chemistry class was engaging and exciting for these students!

My brother was so excited about chemistry, during dinner he repeated my lesson for my mother and sister. This was a huge accomplishment for me, because he didn't pass his grade this year and skipped school more times than he attended. To inspire a student to be interested in learning again was more than I expected from model school. He even went to school early on Wednesday, took tons of notes, and even asked me questions about the material he learned on Wednesday!

Despite my welcoming smile, I do have a mean teacher face. One of my eighth grade students thought he could send text messages during my class. Think again! I walked over to him and with the meanest face I could put on I told him I did not want to see his phone in my classroom ever again. He has been our best student since!

The Most Authentic Thanksgiving:

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! My mother from the United States wrote me a huge email telling me that I should stay busy on Thanksgiving to avoid getting sad and lonely. Little does she know about the most authentic Thanksgiving ever!

On Tuesday, Sam, Sean, and Derek chased, caught, killed, cleaned, and prepared our turkeys for our Thanksgiving Feast! Meanwhile, Joanna, Lena, and I started a hand turkey station and tons of volunteers had flashbacks to kindergarten when we all made hand turkeys and wrote what we were thankful for.

On Friday we has a potluck filled with some of the best foods ever. Lena, Ariel, and I made a banana bread pudding, peanut butter fudge, and apple crunch cake. Everything was delicious- I was so overwhelmed by the variety of colors and flavors of our dishes. Sorry Wisconsin, this Thanksgiving is so much more authentic (and fresh)!

PS I have so many pictures from Thanksgiving and cannot wait to post them (it is a bummer that the picture of me holding the turkey won't make it to the Kaufman Thanksgiving picture, but maybe next year?!?)

Imported Roosters:

I have a theory that the roosters in Mozambique have been imported from across the world. In books and movies, roosters only call at sunrise. In Mozambique, at least one rooster calls every hour. I justify their obnoxious calls by telling myself them must all be from different time zones- somewhere in the world it must be sunrise.

This week I will begin my brief local language training with our language teachers. I hope to pick it up fast, but my mom gave me a sample of the local language and it sounded like a bunch of random sounds stuck together. Looks like learning the local language will be harder than expected.

I am getting more and more excited to move to site next week, but I am trying to enjoy the time I have left with the Peace Corps volunteers (especially those that are going to sites up north).

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The Moment We Have All Been Waiting For

After more than seven weeks of anticipation and excitement, I finally know where I will be serving as a Peace Corps volunteer. I will be spending the next two years in Inharrime at the Escola Secundaria Geral Comunitaria Laura Vicuna. Inharrime is located in the beautiful Inhambane province in Southern Mozambique. I could not be happier or more excited for the adventures to come.

I will be arriving at my site on December 11 following the swearing in ceremony on December 8.

These next few weeks will be packed with model school, additional Portuguese lessons, local language lessons, and packing. I will write another blog as soon as possible, but please be patient.

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26 People! No Way!

November 10, 2011 I arrived in Namaacha safe and sound after an exhausting adventure. Here is a brief recap of my 5-day site visit.

November 5: At 4:30 am I was up and out of bed. My mom scrambled around the kitchen and made me a safe travels breakfast of eggs, sausage, bread, and tea. By 5:10 we were out the door, hand in hand, and on our way to the science hub (it is very common for people, even strangers, to hold hands). My mom dropped me off and the group of PCTs headed on our way to Maputo. About 40 minutes into our trip, we realized we were missing two people-the buddy systems fails when both buddies are missing! Alden and Jonathan were rushed by a Peace Corps car and met us on the way. Everyone was dropped off at their respective locations and I was taken the Peace Corps office where I met Eddie and Mark, current PCVs in Boane and Macia respectively. We went for breakfast at a cafe owned by a returned PCV and then headed to the fish market for the experience of a lifetime!

The fish market is a giant market with tons or raw fresh seafood. I cannot even name all of the different species there, but Mark and Eddie picked out 5 kg of oysters, 5 kg of prawns, and two types of larger fish. We sat at their favorite barraca and gave our raw seafood to the owner to cook for us. Shortly thereafter, two heaping bowls of oysters came out with three loaves of fresh garlic bread. I made a garlic bread-oyster sandwich and ate more than enough oysters. The next course came and the two large fish coated with garlic butter were served. When we thought we could not eat any more, the cook brought out 5 kg of prawns.

Pleasantly full, we traveled the rest of the way to Macia. The ride was less than eventful until the last ten minutes of our trip when a drunk Mozambican man sat next to Peggy (a PCV). His pants were down, he was fully exposed, and he could not seem to keep his hands to himself!

November 6: After breakfast, we walked across the field from Mark's house to the school. The school was built less than a year ago by the Portuguese government and it was in great shape (and even has running water). After our tour, we headed to Mark's host family's house for "coffee". I am writing coffee in quotations, because coffee turned out to be the biggest meal I have eaten in quite some time. Mark's mom made a coleslaw salad, rice, matapa (pumpkin leaf curry), beef, potato salad two ways, a chocolate cake, a vanilla cake, fish, and a corn and bean dish (it is a traditional Mozambican dish). It is safe to say I grew a food baby during her four hour "coffee".

Afterwards we took a tour of a Macia and headed home for a long night of digestion.

November 7: Today we headed from Macia to Bilene and spent the day on the beach. We took a thirty minute ride across the water and spent the day on the island facing the ocean. I saw a whale and started to love the Peace Corps life more and more.

November 8: As if one day was not enough on the beach, we headed out of Macia early and traveled to Xai Xai beach. It is safe to say I thought I was in paradise!

After a day at the beach, we headed to Chongoene to spend the night at Michelle's house (Michelle is a PCV).

November 9: We headed from Chongoene to Xai Xai to explore downtown Xai Xai. We walked around the market filled with miscellaneous goods ranging from onions and used clothes to electronic goods.

I enjoyed a soft-serve ice cream at KFC before heading back to Macia. I never thought my first trip to KFC would be in a third-world country. What are global markets doing to this world?

November 10: A long day of traveling... We left Macia around 9:30 and did not get back into Namaacha until 17:00. We did however manage to squeeze 26 people in one chappa (chappas are meant to hold no more than 12 passengers- we showed them)!

On Wednesday I will know what the next two years hold... I will be sure to update people as soon as possible.

The Chronicles of Namaacha

I am compiling some stories and adventures from my first four weeks at training that did not make a blog so far. Enjoy!

Crime and Punishment.

I woke up at 5:00 to the sound of my mom shuffling in her room getting ready to leave for work. Like clockwork, at 5:15 my mom shouted at my "tudo bom?" ("Is it all good?"), "tudo bem" (it is good), I responded. That marked the start of a bad day. She woke my sister up and left for work.

I carried on with my usual routine; I made my bed, cleaned my room and the dining room, and took a bucket bath. Upon returning from my bath I realized that the house was abnormally quiet- the television was not blasting American music and there were no screaming children in sight (turns out that my sister decided she did not want to wake up that morning). So I sat at the table and watched the minutes pass by until 6:40 rolled around. I was desperate- there was no food in sight, I searched high and low until I came across an old thing of bread. I covered it in peanut butter, inhaled it, and finished getting ready for school. At 6:50 my sister decided to wake up, turn on the television, and proceed to act like she did not do anything wrong (although she is responsible for making my breakfast and buying the bread every morning). I finally had had enough! I was so sick of not getting the food I wanted when I wanted it and I decided that I was going to rebel. I walked over to the freezer, took the last yogurt out, and left for class. My sister had an expression on her face that looked like I had just taken 1000 MT from her wallet. I walked to school with a bounce in my step.

As I have been taught, every action has a consequence. I thought I had done the time for my crime when my sister refused to talk to me during lunch (the silent treatment was devastating). I was wrong, Zaida had planned to fight back until the end. The next day, I had to take my lunch to the IFP because we had Peace Corps sessions the entire day. She packed my lunch with a smirk and wished me a good day. At 13:00 I realized why she had a smirk on her face- she had given me chicken feet and pasta for lunch! She placed the feet so that the claws were reaching out at me when I took the top off of the tuperware. GROSS.

Two points Zaida. One point Anna.

Cookie Monster.

I am changing my name from Anna to Cookie Monster. Since being in Namaacha, I have been dreaming of cookies. Cookies and cakes are always on my mind.

I have gone cookie crazy- I even have an intricate trading pattern set up. I trade my "agua e sal" cookies (the equivalent to saltines sans the salt) with Dylan because he gets fancy cookies every day and is getting sick of them. I trade my juice box with Mary because she gets "Marias" (shortbread cookies) because she does not like them and her family insists on giving them to her because her name is Maria in Portuguese. Every once in a while I get "agua e sal" from Maria and use those to trade with Dylan or other volunteers desperate for the blandness of "agua e sal" crackers. I am hoping that there are no trade embargos in the near future...

Cookies and cakes have become the focal point of my life in Namaacha. I am not looking forward to seeing my reflection in a mirror larger than one inch in diameter.

Paternity Test Requested!

My siblings finally got bold enough to ask about the "spots" all over my body (do not worry I have not picked up a deadly disease... In English we would call these spots freckles). I explained what freckles were and that my mom also has freckles. "What? You mean your father does not have freckles?" They frantically asked in disbelief. I calmly explained that not everyone has freckles, and that my father is among the many people whom do not have freckles. Somehow for them that translated into my father not being my actual father... maybe I will need a Paternity test to prove that Gary (sans freckles) is actually my father.

Leaky Roof.

A few nights ago I woke up soaking wet from my knees down. I was startled and in disbelief- I thought I had outgrown peeing myself in the middle of the night. When my brain finally turned on, I realized that I had not peed myself- the roof was leaking! (Come to think of it, I'm not sure which scenario is better). I sat and watched the rain slowly, but steadily drip from the crack in my tin roof. I decided there was nothing I could do, scooted to the other half of my bed, and went back to sleep. When I woke up, I verified that it was actually rain coming down from my roof and got to thinking of the possible solutions. Solution 1- try to explain to my mom that there is a hole in the roof. Solution 2- move my bed a foot and a half towards the wall. I struggled between the two solutions all day- on one hand I did not want to explain to my mom that there was a hole because looking up all of the words necessary to express the problem would take way too long. On the other hand, moving my bed a foot and a half might lead to the discovery of cockroaches or worse, a colony of mice that might be living under my bed.

I sat on the two solutions all day. When I got home, I closed my eyes and pressed against my bed. I did not discover cockroaches or mice and, I have stayed dry the last few nights it rained! Difficult Portuguese words averted until next time...

I am spoiling everyone- two blogs in one week! This will most likely be my last blog for a week or two, because I am heading out for site visits on Saturday and will not return to Namaacha until Thursday. Upon returning, life will be a whirl-wind of interviews and preparation for model school.

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The Medicine Man aka My Uncle

My uncle is a man of medicine, cures, treatments, language, culture,and knowledge.

My uncle claims to know 27 languages, and when asked to list the languages he knows he lists two, gets side tracked, adds three more to his list and then gets side tracked again. I am not patient enough to wait for the entire list of languages and I doubt he actually speaks27 languages. Often times I catch him talking to my mom in English when she is speaking to him in Portuguese. News flash- my mom does not know English!

The first time I met my uncle he talked to me for four straight hours. I had just gotten back from class and stopped in the kitchen to say hello to my mom. There he was, waiting like a lion excited to jump on his prey. He talked, and talked, and talked mixing Portuguese, English, and some other unknown languages into four painful hours.

I forgot to mention, he is also a financial advisor and during our four hour conversation suggested that I invest in a chicken processing factory in Mozambique. Here is a summary of his advice, "you are a white woman so you must know a lawyer, an engineer, and a health inspector". (He was right about two of those associations, but I will have to meet a health inspector before finishing the trifecta).  Still contemplating the chicken processing factory business venture, I can see the headline already: "Ex-vegan Gone Wild in Mozambique"!

This weekend, my uncle decided to grace us with his presence. He had just walked 100 miles and needed to show off his magical discovery. He found the plant that has the ability to cure AIDS, reverse paralysis, and aid in weight loss. The treatment involves eating the roots... enough said. My uncle is the medicine man!

Before eating, my uncle demands that he washes his hands, because he must teach the white woman how to act. We all roll our eyes at him as he puts on a giant performance for the white woman (and then I realize that I am the white woman that he is acting for). He insists on using a separate plate and separate silver wear for the different "courses" of our meal. Now that I'm writing this, I am realizing how common that is in the United States. To clarify, in Namaacha, everyone in my family gets a spoon and a plate with raised edges (I get a spoon and a fork when we have soup). If we have soup, you eat that first, followed by rice and whatever the curry is for the night. We do not use knives (we only have two knives in the house and one of those two is the chicken butchering knife) and we do not use separate silver wear for different courses- it is a one spoon does all household!

During dinner with my uncle I tried to explain why one of the male volunteers was wearing a dress (it was Halloween). I asked my uncle what the word for "holiday" was in Portuguese and he kept shouting, "yes, holiday, holiday" in English and not in Portuguese. Sadly, my mom does not speak English so she still does not understand the significance of Halloween (she thinks it is a night for men to wear female clothing).

I am hoping that everyone can enjoy the tales of my crazy uncle and get a good laugh out of these stories.

Training Update: I will be heading to Boane on Saturday for site visits. Boane is one of the three Peace Corps sites located in the Maputo City Province. I am looking forward to a five day "vacation" and hoping to take a day trip to Maputo for shopping at the art market!

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to Peace Corps Training in Namaacha

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).

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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!