Our New Home

Most of our first week at site has been spent fixing up our somewhat derelict house. We had to add mosquito netting to our windows, fill some holes in the walls with cement, have a carpinter build us a bed for two and fix our broken sofa, and we had to paint some of the walls. We also spent a lot of time sorting through all the stuff left to us by previous generations of volunteers, much of which is very useful (like a small fridge, an electric stove, an oven, various water buckets, lots of books and a bookshelf), while some of which is more in the junk category (like old science projects, a hair dryer, various AC electrical adapters for appliance we don´t have, etc). Janet is especially exited to have the toaster oven, we have already made very successful banana bread and buttermilk biscuits. Our house is made of bricks and cement and has a corrugated tin roof, which gets very hot and when it rains it sounds like we live inside of a drum, but it keeps us mostly dry, except for just a few leaks. We have a porch, where we interact with neighborhood kids, an outdoor kitchen for our coal barbeque, a squat latine, and a shower room, which is just a room with a drain. We provide the shower with a bucket of water and a cup (which Luc calls The Splasher). We also have an indoor kitchen, when we have electricity and spare bedroom, for when you all some and visit us. Some of our doors are a little low (watch out tall people!). We also have a huge mango tree, which attracts lots of people with long sticks and tree climbers since we are in full mango season right now. There are plenty of delicious mangos for everyone. Overall, we are content with our new home and hope you will all come and stay with us!

Our New Community

Our town is medium-small border community right next to Malawi. We can walk across town in 20 minutes, unless we get lost, which happens frequenly as most of the footpaths wind crookedly around the abnormally shaped living compounds. There is a small stream through town with several precarious tree trunk foot bridges. We are surrounded by several large granite monuments (think mini-Half Domes!) that jut up in an otherwise rolling-hill countryside. There are lots of small farm plots in the outlying areas, which grow mostly corn, with some beans, manioca and lots of fruit trees, especially mangos. Our town has one medium-sized market and another selling area under a large acacia tree along the highway. We can get most of what we need for daily eating here: beans, rice, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, onions, garlic, bananas, greens, oil, eggs, salt, margerine, pasta, flour, tea, lettuce somtimes and more occasional items. We have delicious fresh bread every day, which is especially good when Janet transforms it into garlic toast in our small electric toaster oven. We live less than three minutes from our school, which is made up of two buildings with three classrooms each, plus a computer lab, courtesy of previous volunteers and the US government. Our school director took us around town to introduce us to the local officials, such as the administrator, police chief, immigration, head of the politial party, Frelimo, and the director of the health clinic. The school is on summer vacation right now and the school year will resume January 15.

Even though it is the rainy season, the weather has been dry and hot this first week. While the countryside is still very green, people are getting worried about their mashambas (farm fields). The predominant ethnic group here is the Chewa, as in many parts of Malawi. Within the Chewa culture there exists a secret society, like a brotherhood, called the Nyau. Men are introduced into the group in their youth and they serve as spirit forces in the community, donning elaborate masks and costumes like animals. When you see a Nyau, you are expected to run away in fear and hide, as they are scary animals, usually brandishing machetes. They have been out and about lately to scare away the crazy people who are making the rains stay away. Last night on our evening run/walk in the fields we had to hide from two marauding Nyau, out to help the rains come. And today... we have rain! Way to go Nyau. Our neighbors are very happy because they will have a good corn crop this season, if we continue to get rain. We are happy because the rain has cooled things off. On the negative side, the power is usually out when it rains, meaning cooking is more of a challenge. Last night we were about to light our coal barbeque to cook our dinner, when we heard cheers in the distance and music, a sure sign that electricity has been restored. We had a much easier time making our spaghetti using our electric stove than stoking the flames of our little barbeque!

Site Delivery

Our site is far away from the rest of Peace Corps, so we were delivered by one of the Peace Corps vehicles. On the day of site delivery, we got up early and ate a big breakfast at our luxury hotel´s sumptuous buffet. We had a long day in front of us and probably wouldn´t eat again until supper, so we stocked up on bread, peanuts and bananas for the car, our favorite travel snacks in Africa. Our Peace Corps Project Director, our school Director, and the Peace Corps driver all accompanied us in the Peace Corps Land Cruiser, full of all of our Peace Corps stuff, mostly books. We were very glad we didn´t have to haul all this stuff on buses! We left around 8:30am and basically spent the whole day in the car, with some delays due to bridge repairs. The landscapes from the windows were varied and striking, beginning with the green hills of Chimoio, with huge rock mountains (iselbergs, if you´re interested in the technical term), and continuing to the flat, dry plains of Tete province, spotted with massive baobab trees (this is probably the type of African semi-wooded savanah landscape you would imagine from National Geographic). We had to wait a long time in Tete city because the suspension bridge across the Zambeze is only open in one direction at a time. We got very lucky because they closed traffic in our direction three cars after we passed. Once we crossed the bridge it was less than two hours to site. The last stretch started in the hot, coal-mining region of Moatize, and got more and more green and fresh as we climbed in elevation to our site, near the Malawi border. Our Land Cruiser tried to drive us all the way to our house on a narrow footpath, but after smashing several corn plants in our neighbor´s yard, we realized it was not feasible. Luckily there was a large contingent of youth waiting to carry our stuff the final distance to our home. We said our goodbyes to our Peace Corps staff and there we were, in our site finally! Fortunately the school has arranged a nice lunch/dinner for us at a local restaurant overlooking the valley and mountains. The views are astonishingly beautiful and we felt very fortunate to have two years in this beautiful place.

Journey to Site

We have been getting ready to move to our site for over a week now. We packed up all our stuff into boxes, including all the many manuals and books the Peace Corps has provided us with. Every time we brought out another box, our host mom would tell us how sad she was that we were leaving. It was a bittersweet farewell after ten happy weeks with our host family. Our mom had been hoping we would have a site near enough to visit her on weekends, but unfortunately we're almost as far as possible! Mozambique is a very large country and it takes a long time to get anywhere. Basically, if our training town were San Diego, our site in Tete would be up in Oregon somewhere, but there's no Highway 5 in Mozambique - or highway of any kind. So we flew to Chimoio, the captial of Manica province, on a very small plane. In fact, the plane was so small that half of our central region colleagues were left in Maputo, along with most of our stuff! But we are Peace Corps Volunteers, so we are flexible, and we all made it eventually to our supervisor's conference where we met the directors of the secondary schools where we will be teaching. We also got to stay in a very luxurious hotel, which has wi-fi - hence all the photos and blogging! (Click on the link in the right column under our picture to see our photos). We still haven't arrived at our site yet- we still have another 500 km to travel tomorrow. But due to the difficult travel conditions, we will be driven there in a Peace Corps vehicle, with all of our stuff. We didn't come to Africa with that much stuff, but Peace Corps has bestowed upon many resources, including water filters, mosquito net, bedding, a library of materials, a huge medical kit, etc. So basically we are traveling with 4 boxes and 4 suitcases of junk! So tomorrow we will arrive in our new little house, unpack, meet the neighbors, and begin the process of getting to know our new community.

Swearing In as Volunteers

So we are officially Peace Corps Volunteers now! Parabens a nos! (Congratulations to us!) Mozambique doesn't have an ambassador right now, so the Charge d'Affaires, the acting head of the US mission in Mozambique, performed our swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday, December 8th at his luxurious residence in Maputo overlooking the Indian Ocean. For any of you unfamiliar with this type of event, just think back to President Obama's swearing-in, but on a bit of a smaller scale. All members of the US government must take a very similar oath to protect the US Constitution.

We almost didn't make it to the ceremony; our chapa (Mozambican minibus) overheated three times in transit and our driver got lost (we had to resort to asking random people on the street where the ambassador lived). That's why we always schedule extra time when we take local transport. We all had to wear something involving capulanas (local cloth). The men decided to have matching ties made (which unfortunately did not iron well, i.e. Janet burned a hole in Luc's tie!), and most women had dresses or skirts tailored. Janet was a little intimidated to wear the full three-piece outfit she had made (it was a little too different), so she just wore the skirt with a white blouse. :) It was a very hot day, we were wearing lots of fancy clothes, and there was a beautiful pool there, but unfortunately swimming wasn't on the agenda!

All of our Portuguese teachers and technical trainers, Peace Corps staff, as well as many dignitaries and guests, including one of Luc's friends from Peace Corps Honduras who now works at the Embassy, came to watch us swear-in. Luc was chosen to give a speech in Portuguese, which he did beautifully. Then the ambassador and the Peace Corps Director said some words. We then all raised our right hands and recited the oath. All of the Mozambican press was there, consisting of 2 TV stations, 2 newspapers and the radio. Luc did interviews with them and made it on the evening news and into the paper!

Photos finally!

Hi everyone! We are in Chimoio, the capital of Manica province, on our way to our site. We will write a proper update tomorrow but just a quick note that we posted some photos going back quite a ways on the blog so go back through the posts if you want to see them! :) Hopefully we'll get a large facebook album up tomorrow. We are doing great and will write more soon.

Homestay Celebration

Our ten weeks of training have passed quickly and this is already our last week before we swear in on Tuesday and depart for our destinations of service across this large nation. Since this also means the end of our stays with our host families here in our training site, we held a large celebration to say thank you and good-bye. The families slaughtered a cow for the occasion and consumed an entire Land Cruiser-load of firewood in wood preparation. Also, as a surprise, all the host families presented us with African type clothes tailored from colorful local cloth. It wasn´t that much of a surprise for Luc since our host mom had sent him to the tailor to be measured! But it was a very nice gift and it was fun all wearing matching prints. Like all Mozambican events we began with formalities, including speeches, thank yous and certificates, and ended with eating, music, dancing and cake. Many of the volunteers are eager to get started in their sites. Living so fully immersed with a family in a foreign culture is difficult for some of our colleagues, especially with communication difficulties, tummy trouble, changing weather, leaky roofs and a general lack of control over our physical conditions and daily scheduling. But most people have learned a lot from the experience and enjoyed it. We have really enjoyed our time here and are sad to leave our family, the delicious food and overall hospitality. We hope to return and visit when possible, although we know it will be difficult given the great distance that will separate us once we depart to site.

Hiking in Mozambique

We enjoy getting out and exploring our surroundings during our infrequent unscheduled hours, usually Saturday afternoon or Sunday after cleaning our clothes and room. There is a nearby waterfall we have visited several times. The walk descends through a beautiful valley with lots of trees and even a family of wild monkeys; it really makes you feel like you are in Africa! The first time we visited the falls were completely dry, with just a few stagnant pools, but now with all the rains it is a splendid sight full of crashing water. We have also hiked to the top of a nearby mountain where the borders of South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique all meet and views extend in all directions.

We also like to walk out to the very end of our neighborhood where the town transitions into farmland and the river forms several large pools behind the various irrigation dams, where children swim and fish and women wash clothes. Fortunately/unfortunately there are no crocodiles or hippos. Walking here is very safe and peaceful and we are always surprised by how many people we thought were strangers greet us by name! We are looking forward to some great hike exploring at our new site, although it might be difficult going into monsoon season!

International AIDS Day

December 1st we commemorated International AIDS Day here in Mozambique. Given the extremely high HIV prevalence rates in the country (over 15% nationally within the adult population and close to 25% here in our border district) the days activities are somber and recognized by all the authorities and activists in the community. We began the day with a march down main street to the local AIDS memorial where the distract official laid a wreath in remembrance of all who have perished in the epidemic, as we sang the national anthem, which we have now memorized since we sing it every morning we teach classes. The cold wet weather did not discourage those present from singing or dancing or passing out condoms. We continued to celebrate with speeches, skits and songs while people volunteered to be tested and learn their HIV status. We concluded with a small lunch and Mozambique´s favorite soft drinks, Coca Cola and orange Fanta. It is sometimes hard to believe that HIV/AIDS is so prevalent here, people don´t look sick and no one talks about it, but reminders are everywhere: the omnipresent red ribbons painted on public spaces, announcements on TV, radio and billboards, and most poignantly, all the recently-filled graves in the cemetery with youths born in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. We have been working hard to incorporate HIV/AIDS messages into our school lessons and strategizing on how best to contribute in reducing this scourge which has so deeply decimated the southern region in Africa.

Thanksgiving in Mozambique

We hope you all had a wonderful day of gratitude back home! We celebrated a day early here, on Wednesday, with a huge potluck feast, including turkey (which is called Peru in Portuguese!) and all the trimmings. Everyone began the day with some serious nerves though because we would find out our sites at some point that day. The schedule was all mixed up, so we didn´t know exactly when the news would come, but eventually we all got our site envelopes and opened them simultaneously. Most people seemed pretty happy, although there were some surprises, including our placement. We will be going to Tete province, in the mountains near Malawi. We will both be teaching in a small school grades 8-10, living in a nice house in the town with lots of neighbors. There will only be 2 other PC Mozambique volunteers in our province, but luckily we have each other, and possible some volunteers from PC Malawi on the other side of the border. Hopefully since our town is in the mountains it won´t get too hot, although we are expecting lots of rain from the monsoon, which begins now in December. We will finish up with our last week of training and then celebrate our Swearing-In as volunteers next Tuesday the 8th. Then we fly north! We are very grateful for this opportunity to serve together here in Mozambique and for our family and friends around the world. We will be thinking about you all during the holiday season! Also, our house has a spare bedroom, so we will be able to host any visitors ready for adventure! (Photo is of our Thanksgiving touch football game!)

Model School

We teach in a large school built by the Portuguese in the time before the revolution. In it day it must have been a magnificent building, with large windows, high ceilings, and hand painted tiles. Today a general sense of neglect and disrepair conveys the feelings that no maintenance has occurred since the colonial powers left in 1975. Broken panes of glass, cracked porcelain sinks in the bathroom, faded paint covered in murals, drawing and grafitti, and low lighting conditions all contribute to a post-apocalyptic atmosphere that would be perfect for a haunted house zombie movie. But it is not Knott´s Scary Farm, it is a functioning secondary school. Currently, we the 40 Peace Corps Education volunteers in training, just finished running a two-week academic session for local students. We face many difficulties in our effort to teach our classes: our only resources are the chalk and blackboard, our students´only resources are their pencils and paper and anything our creativity can scrounge up (in the case of my lessons "colors and clothing" I brought in different pieces of Janet´s and my wardrobes). When it rains outside of the classroom (which has been frequent lately!), it rains inside of the classroom as well. When the wind blows outside, it blows through the class as well. When it is nice outside the classrooms are pleasant. Most of classes have about 20 students, but the rooms still have about 50 empty spaces which will be full during the academic year, when some of us will have classes of up to 125 young Mozambicans. In general our students have been eager to learn, but have difficulty retaining the information we impart. They love to repeat in chorus, but are more intimidated by any assignments that go beyond that. Now as we walk around town we receive many more greetings and smiles from the youth, and a lot more people know our names, although it is very difficult to remember all of our students´names. We are very excited to get out to our little school in the north and start teaching when the new academic years begins in January.

Traveling and placement nerves

It has been a bit longer than usual since we updated because we´ve been traveling! Last week we split up and went to visit some current volunteers in two very different parts of Mozambique. I headed up the ´volunteer super-highway´to southern Inhambane province. There are many volunteers placed all along the coast, so many trainees went to this area. Luc went to the mountains and lakes of Manica provice, but I´ll let him tell his stories. I stayed with a wonderful volunteer biology teacher who lives in an amazing coastal town with views of the coast to die for. The town has lagoons vbetween it and the beach: crystal clear semi-salty water, safe for swimming and lined with coconut palms. It was breathtaking. I had lots of chances to swim, practice Portuguese with teachers from her school and try my hand at cooking Ámerican recipes over a coal stove. Overall, the 5 days were inspiring and fun to see a volunteer thriving in a really spectacular setting.

When all the trainees returned with new perspective about a better idea of what life may be like, the suspense about where we will all be placed has gone sky-high. We are sscoping out the list of possible sights, prioritizing our preferences and waiting impatiently for the big reveal day. Emotions are all over the place in our training group, but we are crossing our fingers for a great placement! Wish us luck!

Festivities

While most of you were celebrataing Halloween in the USA, we were also celebrating Halloween in Mozambique, where no one knows what Halloween is, which would explain the extra stares as Janet and I walked to our party dressed as a flower and a tree in our costumes made mostly out of materials gathered from local vegatation. Our fellow trainees exhibited great creativity in assembling costumes from market products and recycled items. Some host siblings also participated in the festivities; they particularly enjoyed the concept of trick-or-treat. Later on we danced the night away at the local ourdoor disco to mostly American music was a few Mozambiquan dances thrown in, which Luc was very bad at executing. It was the first time we stayed up past 10pm, as we usually go to bed soon after dinner at around 9pm! We finished off the weekend fun with a birthday party for one of our colleagues. Her host family threw quite a bash, including a huge buffet, dancing in their yard and a cake, which they cooked somehow without an oven. We´re learning how to ´skake-it´Mozambique-style, with dances such as the ever-popular marrabenta and passada. Admittedly, most of the kids we´ve seen are way better dancers than we could ever dream of. All in all, a wonderful weekend. We love it here in Mozambique!

Hitting the half-way mark

Here´s an update on our Peace Corps training in Mozambique! Elections took place last week in a mostly peaceful process. No major surprises occurred, the FRELIMO party, which has ruled since independence in 1975, won another landslide victory (75% of the vote) so they are in charge for another 5 years. We´ll miss FRELIMO´s catchy jingles, which until now have dominated the airwaves. As a result of the smooth elections the US embassy has lifted the nationwide standfast travel alert for Americans, which is especially meaningful for us because this next week we are scheduled for site visits. All of us trainees will spread out across Mozambique to visit current volunteers at their sites to see what Peace Corps is really all about. Janet will visit a rural beach site in southern Inhambane province - supposedly one of the most beautiful PC sites in the country (or world!). It will involve most of the day in various types of ground transport on Saturday, but she´ll be with other volunteers. Luc will spend the visit in the mountainous interior province of Manica, near Chimoio. He will travel by air because of the great distance, which he does not like very much!. Everyone is very excited for a chance to see more of the country and get a little break from our routines. We have spent most of our training hours focusing on honing our Portuguese (and Changana, the local language) and preparing our technical skills for teaching large classes with very limited physical resources (lots of practice at the blackboard!). We also have weekly cultural exchange sessions called Ngome(drum) time, which usually involve lots of dancing and skits. This week Janet´s group led us in the playground fortune-telling game of MASH and Luc attempted to portray American culture by painting himself blue and beating our rhythms on trash a la Blue Man Group. Last week we had a two day training session dedicated to permaculture - how to use simple agriculture techniques to increase food production in small sustainable family gardens. It was very fun getting out and digging in the earth, even though it was raining and we later had to spend extra time while cleaning our clothes to scrub out all the red clay dirt. Next up after site visit is our Model School, a two week school simulation organized by Peace Corps in which all of us Peace Corps education trainees teach classes to local secondary school students currently on vacation, which we anticipate will more accurately reflect our future jobs than our current mock teaching assignments which involve presenting English/Biology lessons to our peers, who already speak English/majored in Biology! Training is flying by quickly, we are just about halfway done!

All Chickened Out

On Friday I had my first really difficult cross-cultural experience so far in Moz - not with a member of our host family or with someone in the market, but with a chicken. Poor little chicken! Our Portuguese classes had cooking lessons on Friday with our host mothers. We met at my (Janet) house and cooked over coal stoves in the backyard (instead of on the gas range in our modern indoor kitchen to be more authentic). On the menu: matapa (manioc leaves with coconut and peanuts), xima (maize paste very bland), rice and ... frangu (chicken). There they were, two scrawny white chickens tied up in a basket.

Now I had decided that it would be a good learning experience to kill the animal that i am about to eat. I thought I´d feel more connected to my food (can you hear ´The Circle of Life´from the Lion King playing the background?). We Americans don´t have the opportunity to see the animals we eat everyday. They just arrive in little styrofoam packets from the market, all ready to go. So I thought this would be cool, I can handle gross stuff usually pretty well, it would be interesting but fine.

Well when I was handed the knife, I wasn´t fine anymore. My heart was racing, I was starting to doubt myself. Then they gave me the chicken by the wings, I had to stand on them with one foot, stand on the legs with the other, hold the beak shut with my left hand and - gulp- cut with my right.

I was thoroughly freaked out at this point. I squealed like a baby, closed my eyes and started to cut. It took awhile because the knife wasnt super sharp and becáuse my eye were closed. It was horrible. I was honestly so shocked at how difficult it was, emotionally, for me. I eat chicken all the time! How could I not stay rational and practical and just be businesslike about it like our Mozambiquan friends? I was trembling for at least a half hour after, mostly coming off a huge adrenaline rush.

My friend Megan killed the other one with a similar reaction. Well the fun didn´t stop there. We still had to pluck with things. You dip the carcass in boiling water to loosen the feathers (it smells rather unpleasant) and then it cook 10 to 15 minutes to get all them off. Then we had to cut it up, take out the innards and marinate it with garlic, tomato and onion. At this point it looked similar to what I know chicken as at home.

When it came time to eat, I was hoping to feel some sort of deeper meaning to the experience, like, wow, now I understand where it came from and I can appreciate it better! Mmm... not so much. It was delicious chicken, but no revelations as yet. I don´t think we will be eating much meat when we get to site!

A Typical Sunday with a little Adventure

This Sunday the Catholic church was extra packed with people filling all of the pews and chairs, the balcony, and still more standing where they could. Janet had debated whether to come with me or enjoy sleeping in on our only day of the week without early morning classes. About three hours into the ceremony, Janet was regretting her decision. Today was a special day, with baptisms and confirmations, and despite the priest´s efforts to perform confirmations the close to 50 rites in an efficient streamlined fashion it still ended up as a marathon service. Janet had hoped to get online to communicate with the outside world, but by the time we got to the cybercafe there was already a group of our colleagues waiting to use the one machine with an internet connection - maybe we´ll have better luck next time. Now it´s time for a delicious lunch: soup, fried chicken, rice, green beans, tomato and onion salad and papaya for dessert. After a short nap (a weekend luxury) we sit on our cool porch to plan our 45 minute model lessons as an afternoon thunder storm rolls over - the dark tropical clouds punctuated by brilliant lightening. With our work done and the sky appearing to clear up, we decide on an afternoon hike to explore some of our town´s outer neighborhoods. Everything changes as you walk away from the center of town. Brick and cement homes become mud and stone dwellings, roads become broken footpaths, and white people (mulungus) become an uncommon site worthy of celebration. By the time we reach the river we find ourselves in the fields and small garden plots (mashambas). We only have a brief chance to appreciate the scenery and take a few pictures before the wind picks up and begins to blow some menacing clouds in our direction, sending us racing back home in a mad dash to beat the rain. Just as the sprinkles begin, we see a baptism celebration, an entire extended family crowded under a small porch roof hiding from the moisture while eating cake, drinking, dancing and showering the recently bapitzed with gifts also amongst this chaos, we see one of our friends, who invites us to squeeze in and take shelter from the rain- how fun! We eat and celebrate with them, and when a break in the storm comes, we dash home, just beating the real downpour. What an exciting afternoon! We drink tea, relax, eat dinner an discuss the days events with our host family as the power fades in and out due to the storm. By 9pm we´re ready for bed and use our last energies to try to finish the Sunday crossword puzzle in our NY times book, but fall asleep before we can complete the task. Every day is full of life here in Africa!

It's easy being sick

Well, you all knew it would happen eventually, but in week 2 of training? Already? Yes, I (Janet) was sick this week for a few days, but probably not with what you're guessing... (anyone remember my India saga? not even close!). I had some sort of virus that tons of trainees got. A mild fever and tons of fatigue kept me in bed on Tuesday and Wednesday but with lots of rest, some TLC from Luc and our family, some meds from our PC doctor and plenty of chicken soup (mmm) I am doing fine and just have an unpleasant cough to enjoy for another week or so. Hopefully my next sick story won't be for quite some time!

Field Trip to Maputo

On last Saturday we went to Maputo in a mini-van type transportation system called 'chapas' which look like a Eurovan without the poptp except in seats 20 people. Some of the larger volunteers didn't enjoy cramming in, but we're medium sized, so we didnt' mind. It takes about 1 hour to get to Maputo, or longer if you pull over to put air in the tires or gas up, which Janet's group had to. Maputo was probably super sweet before teh wars, but now the city's crumbly and neglected, but still ahs lots of energy. There are nealy 70 of us trainees, so walking around was a major production, which seemed to entertain the locals. Most volunteers wanted to get cell phones, penut butter, hand sanitizer, and voltage stabilizers. This took four hours as we went store to store in the modern American-style 'shopping center.' After a hard day's work we all ate pizza and European coffees (Janet). Unfortunately with all teh sopping we didn't get to visit any cultural sites like the museums and fortress or enjoy views of the bay and river. That will be for next time. After a hectic chapa ride back to our little town it felt great to sit wtih our family and drink cha and eat cookies!

Our New Routine

We have now been in our training site for a full week and we are settling in to our new routines for the next 2 months. I (Janet) am surprised by how gnerall relaxed and happy I have been since we arrived, having expected more stress and adjustments. It already feels like home here!

Our homestay in wonderful! 'Nossa mae' is an amazing Portuguese teacher, she is so considerate and warm, we feel like royal guests. We wake up around 6 and I take my bath first. Mae brings a teapot of hot water into the bathtub (we have a full 'wester' bathroom but no running water). Breakfast has been getting larger everyday, with eggs, sausage, yogurt fruit and bread. In general the food is fabulous and not terribly exotic bcause our family is quite WEstern and middle class, an exception to the norm.

After breakfast we walk to our Portuguese classes, which are groups of 5. We both placed into 'Avancao' classes and are actually speaking quite well already or at least understanding (Luc is still speaking Spanish!) Next is usually classes on teaching, which we have together under a big tree. It's been cool so far, but the rain and heat will be here soon. After lunch at home (rice, chicken, soup, green veggies) we have more Portuguese, but 'applied' meaning trips to the 'mercado' or greeting people in our 'bairro'. We meet at home to 'tomar cha' then Luc and I usually take a 'paseo' around town before it gets dark.

At dinner we watch the news on TV and chat with our mae. Sometimes her son is home from high school in the capital or her little granddaughter is there playing .We finish up with some Portuguese homework and call it a night by 9pm. Our group of volunteers is a great bunch, including 3 other married coupesl our ages! Everyone is adjusting quite well, although many are jealous of our homestay becuase it's possibly the fanciest one! Yesterday we had a rainy field trip to Maputo, where we bought a cell phone (number to come in an email) and ate piza. There are a few internet places here in town, so we should be able to check in on most weekends. Send us news from home! We miss you and hope all is well!

Greetings from Mozambique

Lucas and I have arrived safely in our training site. Our journey was long but smooth and we are healthy and happy. We spent 2 luxurious nights in the capital of Mozambique, Maputo, getting over our jetlag and getting lots of shots! We are living in the home of a family in a small town on the border with Swaziland. Our house is very nice and our host mother and her son are very welcoming and friendly. The son likes to listen to Jay-Z really loudly and he also disapproved of Kanye West interupting the MTV Awards. Today we went to Catholic church with our 'mai' and there was lots of singing and dancing and people wearing colorful clothes. Since there are so many volunteers here and this is the third year as the training site, people aren't that impressed with seeing foreigners, but it's nice to not have people trying to approach us to see things. We are doing well with Portuguese, since people basically understand Spanish. I'm feeling like we'll be able to learn quickly once language classes start. We start training on Monday, tomorrow. For the first few weeks we'll be focusing on language in small classes of five volunteers hosted in the homestay family homes. We probably won't be able to use internet that much since there are only two computers in the town (we ran across the place walking around today but it will soon be inundated by all 66 volunteers!). We will probably be getting a phone when we go to Maputo next weekend (Janet is especially excited about this!). We hope everyone is well and we miss you already but we are very happy and having fun getting to know our new home.

Boa Viagem!

Departure day is rapidly approaching and we are getting very excited! Here's the plan:

We leave for Philadelphia next Monday the 28th in the morning where we will stay for two nights to meet up with all the other volunteers and turn in paperwork. Then all 60? of us fly from JFK airport to Johannesburg (15 hours!), followed by another short flight to the Mozambiquan capitol of Maputo. In Maputo we'll be staying in style at the second fanciest 4star joint in town where we will be confined to the hotel premises for 4 days, doing orientation, crash Portuguese and health interviews. You mean we HAVE to hang out at the sweet pool all day? Well, ok, if we must!

Then on Sunday Oct 4th we move in with our homestay family for our 10 weeks of training. We'll be staying in the town of Namaacha on the border with Swaziland. Our mornings will be full of Portuguese and our afternoons will vary from technical training (science ed for me, teacher ed for Luc) to safety to cultural issues and more! Towards the end of our 10 weeks we'll find out our placement for the next two years!

In the mean time we're enjoying our families and friends as much as possible. We had a blast at our last Dodger game for quite awhile, winning in the 13th inning!

We had a wonderful going-away party last night with lots of food that we most likely won't have in Moz (ham, thai chicken, fresh salad, asparagus). We got to share our plans with everyone at the awesome Mozambique info table they set up with maps and books (since really who knew where this country was anyway?) :)

We are in the process of packing, which I enjoy a little too much and Luc not as much! Some fun projects include: making a photo album to share with our future Mozambiquan friends, getting a book of crossword puzzles since we love them so, trying to figure out just how can it really get in tropical latitudes (do i really need a fleece?), purchasing a new camera since our old one died in India, and getting fun teaching supplies like colored chalk and markers.

Here are a few photos of our wonderful farewell party for you to enjoy! Stay tuned for our final post before we leave on a jetplane!

Note that the tablecloths are the colors of Moz!


Look at this feast!

All the Arribas men

Checking out the info center

Neal also wanted to learn about Mozambique

One more baby pic because he's just too darn cute!

MOZAMBIQUE!!!

It's official, we are heading to Mozambique as education volunteers September 28, 2009. It has been awhile since we've been on this page. We've been in India - you might have heard about our adventures on our other blog (arribaslayton.blogspot.com) which we've discontinued for the moment. This will now be your best way to monitor our foreign service.

We are currently filling out our passport and visa applications and learning Portuguese as best we can. Janet will be teaching Biology in a high school in Portuguese and Luc will be training Mozambiquan English teachers. We are still learning about this country because it wasn't really on our radars already. So far we know it has really sweet beaches, a developing game park and a lot of foreign investment in their burgeoning economy after 2 decades of civil war following independence. It's also extremely hot, with winter lows dropping to a mere 75 degrees F. Start making your plans to visit us now (you can combo it with South Africa, World Cup 2010).

So in the mean time, we're hanging out in LA this summer, planning and getting excited. We will make more posts as we near the big day, but we won't start in earnest until we get in country, where things will really get interesting. Stay tuned!

Placement delays

Well, Luc and I both had interviews with our Placement Officer last Thursday. She wanted to find out a little more about us and our motivations. It was pretty straight forward. Luc had to call from India but it all worked out. She told us that the placement country we were originally slated for is now full of couples, which means that she's going to be looking around at other placements in Africa in July to see if we can go to one of them. We will likely have different programs too, which she asked us about. She asked if we would be willing to do English teaching and we both told her it was on the bottom of our lists! Hopefully we won't be offered that. I'm hoping that now I'll get a health program, actually, which would be a better use of my skills.

So we'll find out by email in the next week or two what our 'options' are. I hope we get a few choices! If she can't find us a spot in a July program then we'll be looking at September, which wouldn't be the end of the world for us. It would actually be pretty nice to have some more time before we leave. So we're feeling pretty good about things and hoping for some exciting placement news by email from India! I leave next week to join Luc there and we both can't wait!

Medical Clearance!

Finally! We have been medically cleared for service. FINALLY. Last Friday we got a website update saying there was ANOTHER letter in the mail. Exact same message as when we got deferred, which was frightening at first. But after some more expert googling I discovered it can mean good news too. So today I was expecting a letter, but instead I got an email from a lovely placement assistant asking me to fax my certificates (CPR, HIV) so she can give them to my Placement Officer. After medical clearance files go to the placement office for assignment to a country. So if they have our file, it means we've moved on! I was so elated! I emailed Luc, who's in India, and annoyed my workmates with some subdued screaming over the cubicles. :)

This process has been emotionally exhausting. Every time I get excited about the next step, something goes wrong! So this feels really really good. Now it's just a matter of trying to hurry the placement process so we can get our paperwork before I leave the country too (there are lots of signatures when you are placed). So now we wait for more mail to find out what country we're going to. I have 100% convinced myself it will be Niger, we'll see if I'm right!

Sort of cleared

After many phone calls and faxes and a couple of doctor's visits, I think we're really close to being medically cleared. There are just two more things to send in and I should have them by next week. It seems like every time we make progress, more steps appear in the process. I think I'm getting jaded a bit. I'm letting myself be a little more excited, but still guarded against disappointment.

Luc is off to India tomorrow. You can read his blog at arribaslayton.blogspot.com. So many exciting transitions and changes!

Hopefully my next post will be titled 'Medical Clearance'!

~Janet~

Disaster Hopefully Averted

It looks like we might still be leaving in July now. There are still a lot of variables out there but if we can get everything straightened out we still have our spots in July. It was a big relief when we found out we hadnt been bumped to much later, especially since there is a huge increase in PC applications with the economic downturn. We're crossing our fingers and slogging through the bureaucracy (eg luc re-faxing his labs because Peace Corps didn't read them correctly). Cross your fingers for us!

Bad News

We were in Canada when we received the e-mail alert notifying us Peace Corps had made a decision concerning our medical status; we had to wait an entire week before getting back to check our mailbox for the letter. We went through a whole range of emotions contemplating the different messages that letter might contain, but hoped for the best. Unfortunately we got disappointing news - our application has been deferred because of a medical condition. Our Peace Corps dreams are now on hold. It is very tough to have an event your looking forward to for an entire year disappear so suddenly. All of the excitement and mental preparation quickly transformed into sadness and frustration. Hopefully we can resolve this issue and get back on track for service. We will have to improvise our living situation in the meanwhile. We have already committed to moving out of our apartment and made plans that now complicate Janet's professional status. Luckily we have each other in this trying situation. We know we have so much to be grateful for and that just having the opportunity to apply to a program like Peace Corps is a privilege.

Too stressful!

Peace Corps sent us an on-line update informing us that they have made a decision regarding our medical status and that we should look for a letter in the mail. We can't tell if that's a good sign or a bad sign. Janet is stressed out that we'll get deferred or denied, complicating various plans we've made so far. We are still dreaming of Peace Corps, but the anxiety levels continue to rise. We went to the basilica de Notre Dame here in Montreal today to ask for patience during this process and fortitude in accepting what ever may come in our future.

Getting VERY excited!

Peace Corps has now received our dental and medical examination paperwork. We've both passed dental and we're waiting on medical clearance. We have been using various internet sites to learn as much as possible about programs starting in July in the sub-saharan region, but we have not been able to pinpoint our exact country: Mali? Niger? South Africa? Cape Verde? The anticipation is exquisite. We are tempted to just call the office and try to demand our assignment, but we know this would not be right. We will continue to eagerly await our letter of invitation and continue to google everything Peace Corps Africa.

Getting excited!

We just completed out Medical review and mailed the big envelopes this morning. I am finally getting really excited! As the time gets closer, my anticipation is buildling. I've been searching through current PCV blogs and decided it was time for us to join the pack! Check out this directory of blogs for some fun browsing: www.peacecorpsjournals.com.