A New Web-Log

Web-log 03/25/2009

Well since I last updated I have
1) Moved out of my old site and am currently sleeping on pullout bed at my supervisor’s house
2) Started work!

1) I moved out of my old house February 20th when I was picked up with all my possessions I have in Mozambique. Most of my things were then moved to our office with the exception of my guitar and two suitcases (one full of my clothing the other of my various electronic items), which are with me at my supervisor’s apartment. I was surprised how quickly I was adapted to life without electricity and running water so that it was kind of a major change to live in a place where I can shower everyday (instead of bucket bath) and also watch television (mostly Portugues or English with Portguese subtitles). For the first week I went with my supervisor each day to the office and then out into the field where I met all of our Women First groups and the various women in those groups (still trying to remember all the names, its going to take a while since for just my groups that’s about 50 women). I didn’t really do anything this first week besides observe and introduce myself to the different groups, but it was a good experience I think as it would have been kind of nerve racking for me to just be transported to some small group in the bush and then be told to start giving a talk about health.
After this first week I then went to Nampula for In-Service Training (IST) which was kind of a “how are you doing at site” get together the first day for us Moz 13ers and the following days after that were some group training sessions in Portuguese for us (Moz. 13 PCV’s) and our work counterparts. The trip to and from Nampula was… ‘interesting’. But I’ll get to that later. The weekend then was Regional’s for the North, so I finally got to meet all of the Moz 12 volunteers and all the people for Peace Corp “North” Mozambique (even though in terms of Mozambique its actually more central but for PC, its considered north!). I had a really good time seeing other volunteers who some I had not seen since the end of training in December and others never in my life before. Also there was tons of good food so I tried to eat as much as I could since certain people demanded that I eat more, as my weight I guess was shock. Though when I first arrived in Nampula I was a bit shocked to see…. Streetlights!! I couldn’t believe Nampula has streetlights, I guess I’m not used to the “big city life” they have there. I did feel a little bad that I didn’t have a lot to say or show for my first three months at site since I hadn’t yet started work but was excited that I would be starting soon.
As for the trip to Nampula, from Quelimane it was about a 10-hour bus trip. But the bus trip I took was a little bit different from the bus trip’s I’ve taken in the United States. First off the bus was very full. When I mean very full that means every seat was filled up as well as people standing in the aisle, filling it from the front to the back and also people sitting on the floor between the drivers seat (think a coach bus) and the first passenger seats. Full. So I’m sitting on the bus at 5am waiting for it leave when as soon as the lights come on the lady next to starts ruffling through her bag. I bored so I watch was she’s doing and see that she is taking out some sort of pamphlets, then I see they are some sort of religious pamphlets, Christian as I see some bread and wine on the back of one. The lady then says to me that she is a Jehovah’s Witness and that she has some literature for me to have and read. I smile and thank her for the pamphlets (while quietly thinking to myself greaaaat, 10 hour bus ride next to a Jehovah’s Witness…nothing against Jehovah’s Witness’s I just prefer that people keep their religious beliefs to themselves ☺). She then asks if I can read Chiawabu also (the pamphlets I had were Portuguese) I laughed and said I was still working on Portuguese but was glad she didn’t assume that I couldn’t (though I guess she had reason too lol). She starts explaining to me that our lives need purpose and asks me if I know Jesus Christ. I say that I may have heard of this person before in the past. Then she explained to me that the back of the pamphlet, which featured bread and wine, signified Christ’s body and his blood. I smiled and thanked her again and told her I would read it later perhaps. So I read the first story in one and then as soon as the bus left turned my iPod on and went to sleep. I woke a few times to the guy next to me leaning over looking at the pamphlets so I asked if he wanted to read them and he said yes so I told him to go right head. He took one to read and a few hours later when I woke up he had all my pamphlets. Out of my hands now! It turned out though I didn’t have much to worry about as the lady did not bother me as other people have in the past and didn’t mention JC or the pamphlets for the rest of the trip.

On the trip back a baby peed on my leg.

Remember how I said the buses get full? Well on the trip back I had an aisle seat and the person standing in the aisle right next to me was a women with a small human wrapped up in a capulana on her back. At one point when I noticed the baby was about at my eye level I hoped that it wouldn’t need to crap during the trip as my god that would stink. But a few hours in I was listening to my iPod as I suddenly felt my upper thigh getting wet and saw the baby was peeing on my leg and all down the woman’s back. Instinctively I jumped out of my seat into the one next to me (sorry Denys) and looked about in shock. The women quickly shifted the baby out around to the front of her took it out of the capulana held it in front of her at arms length while it finished peeing out in the aisle of the bus. I seemed to be the only who noticed this. After resolving not to put my backpack on the floor anymore and wondering how I managed to get peed on twice (the other time was a goat strapped to the chapa roof) while traveling, I got back in my seat and went to sleep.
2) Shortly after I returned from Regional’s I had a meeting with the other Health monitors and we made a schedule for the next few months of what we were going to do. We decided what topic we would discuss with the groups each week and also planned which monitor would be going to each group. Then the week following the meeting I started work!.
a. So each day I go out in a car with other monitors of business and monitors of health and we are dropped off with different groups. The women then buy more products and get business advice and then afterwards I basically give a little health talk. Also lately while the women are buying products I also have been trying to get them to teach me Chiawabu (the local dialect). So for example last week our health topic was HIV and the Immunes System and this week is Transmission through Sexual Relations. So then my challenge is then to basically be able to break the topic down into terms and stories that are easy to understand (and also the challenge of doing all this Portuguese). One example I used was a house. Houses have windows doors and they keep many things out of the house like snakes, mosquitoes and thieves. But if we were to take out the windows and doors and just leave holes in the house any of those things could easily enter the house and cause harm. The analogy being a healthy person has an immune system that can protect the body and keep most infections at bay or recuperate from them. But HIV will slowly remove these defenses of the body and over time leave your body open and vulnerable to many times of sicknesses.

Otherwise I’m doing fine and now keeping busy. I have Internet access a lot more these days also!

Take care,
Luke