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.