And so begins 2008...

I had a great time in Angoche for Christmas and I returned to Monapo for New Years because I didn't feel comfortable leaving our humble abode for that long. And lo and behold, someone had stolen our capulana tablecloth through a little hole that isn't covered with netting on our barred back windows. I'm actually fairly impressed, besides being disappointed at the loss of my capulana. They went fishing for that sucker and got it. With that much work, they can just have it. If I see someone walking around with that capulana on though, I'll know that they stole it or got it from someone who stole it because it's a capulana from Maputo and they seem to vary with regions.

I am in the city for the day and it's turned out well. At the beginning, not so much. I caught a chapa where the cobrador (the guy who takes the money) was practically sitting on my lap (he should have been paying me) and I was pushed up against a young mother who was continually breastfeeding her baby. Being from a non-public-breastfeeding country, I wasn't sure where to look. My knees weren't crammed against the seat in front of my though so I had little cause to complain. The real problem came when I got to the chapa stop and I was stopped. They claimed that my passport copy wasn't suitable and that they required the real deal. I assured them that it was an official copy from Maputo, pointing out the stamps and signatures. When they kept pressing me, I told them I could have them talk to my contact person in Nampula and he would sort it out. Then one of them said "so you have a lot of credit to talk?" So he was basically saying, you have a lot of money. To this, I said "no, I am going to have him call us." They didn't want to talk to him though (surprise, surprise) and after about 10 minutes, they let me walk away. It wasn't scary. Just an annoyance really because I definitely got the drift they were looking for money and I wasn't about to buckle. And when I got to the Peace Corps office, I found I'd gotten packages from the family and my next door neighbor in the states (thank you, thank you, thank you!). Using the internet to talk to everyone and pick up mail makes the cobrador's lap dance and the passport stop totally worth it. :)

I have been reading like a fiend at my house while I am waiting for life to become busy. I am also writing four pages in my journal pretty much everyday and going to the market, so I am not lacking in things to do. It is lonely but not that bad. My roommate should be coming back tomorrow or Monday from Angoche so I'll be able to speak in English again. Hallelujiah! :) I have been chatting with a tailor who has a sewing machine on the side of the main road in Monapo each day too and I told him I'd buy a capulana and have him make me a skirt out of it. At first when he started speaking to me, I thought he was talking in Macua but it was portuguese. I felt pretty stupid.

There is a little boy who comes by our house about once a day and yells out for my roommate and when he tires of her not responding (since she's not there and I'm too lazy to get up), he calls for me. Yesterday I told him I would play soccer with him after lunch but then it started to downpour. The rainy season is starting here but I'm excited because that means that more vegetables and fruit are coming down the line eventually. I have been eating a lot of garlic bread and egg sandwiches, which I must admit, are delicious. It seems like one out of three eggs is usually bad though so I always have to crack them open in a bowl first to make sure they're not going to make me use the bathroom at 2 am.

Here's my address for packages and mail now that I have moved north. It's in the city but I'll be coming here probably once every two to three weeks to check on mail and buy stuff.

Erin Lynum, PCV
Corpo da Paz
Rua dos Continuadores No. 24-A
C.P. 526
Cidade de Nampula, Nampula
Mocambique

Merry Christmas/Feliz Natal

Hello everyone!

And so begins our third week in Nampula province. Everything is running smoothly. The house is in running order (I killed a large flying cockroach last night with my Tevas and gave it a sailing grave out into our backyard, a lizard fell from the ceiling yesterday as we cooked dinner and a snail somehow made it's slimy way into our back porched in area - we are the Dr. Doolittles of Monapo. We are considering taking a puppy from a PCV in Mousseril once his dog has her puppies). We go out to the market everyday to buy food. We have improved our food situation slightly. I cooked pasta with sauce from Nampula City and we have actually made egg sandwiches. So, yes, we have strayed from just eating bread with peanut butter and mangos. We aren't sure what we'll do once mango season is over. We have heard that the orange season starts right after. I guess the oranges here are much more acidic but don't worry Mom and Dad, I'll make sure I brush my teeth afterward to make all those years of dental work on my pearly whites worth it.

Nia and I made a trip to Ilha the other weekend to visit with Katie on the island. It's an awesome place so I can see why it's such a tourist destination. I never had tried squid before or eaten shrimp with the heads still attached and unpeeled. Before, in the states, my idea of seafood was fishsticks and the thought of those poor lobsters with their claws tied in those circular death tanks. I claimed to be a hater of seafood but after trying Katie's fried squid, I have converted. We went to a music festival on the island and watched Katie perform some songs with her guitar in front of a crowd of probably 2,000 Mozambicans. Pretty awesome. We also went to the beach and attracted a large horde of small children. The three of us were just sitting there talking, doing absolutely nothing interesting and about 10 children came up and laid on the sand in front of us, only about five feet away and stared at us. So I stared back at them to make a point but they just laughed and continued staring. At first, their curiosity is endearing and cute, but after they just wouldn't leave, it got irritating. And when they ask for your water. Or for your sunglasses. Or your hat. I'm getting really good at just saying a blunt ''no.'' I feel like I used to be more of a pushover but not now.

I'm excited because we're heading to the beach for the Christmas and there will be several of us Americans in one apartment overlooking the ocean. And apparently, someone has A Christmas Carol to watch on a computer. I really have a desire to watch Christmas Vacation, but alas, it is not to be. Today we are in Nampula, converging to buy things for the holiday, various foods and gifts for Secret Santa. We left our house in order when we left, with the embrigada to keep an eye on it with everything locked up. I still can't help feeling nervous leaving our house for more than during the day. I left her our numbers in case of an emergency or if anything happened. We went to the police station next to our house yesterday to introduce ourselves and the police officer was like "yeah, someone robbed your house before when the other two lived here but we caught them,'' tossing a thumb in the direction of the jail out back. All in all though, I feel like Monapo is a pretty safe place. I never let my guard down though or let my things out of my site. Better safe than having to spend money on a new phone or camera.

This morning, as Nia and I were getting ready to come to Nampula, she started singing '' It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas'' and we couldn't help but laugh. It doesn't feel like December 21st. It feels like July 21st. Although last night it got somewhat chilly and I used my wool blanket for half an hour.

I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and possibly a happy new year, since I don't know when I will be able to get online next because I'm sure hours of internet places change around the holidays. Please watch Christmas Vacation for me, listen to Christmas music on the radio (the only christmas music I have is what Kara added to my music selection and I thoroughly appreciate it - thank you, Kara), enjoy the lights on the Christmas trees and the decorative lights outside. It's tough being away but it helps to have my peace corps friends as another family. Feel free to buy phone cards and email me for my phone number. :) I love you all and hope everyone is doing well. Merry Christmas!

Love from Moz,
Erin

estou aqui

So I am in my new site in Monapo, Nampula. Woot woot. Our house was pretty much already set up for us, which was nice. We have a quaint little house with a fence around it for privacy. It seems like a top location for a dog because it could wander around the yard. We have more things than a dog to think about right now though. We have a front porch area where we can receive visitors, a kitchen with two bedrooms of the exact same size to the left and then a back, screened in area where we keep our water. It pretty adorable. There are bars on the windows and a lot of locks so it seems secure. We also have an embrigada (or a housekeeper) and she has worked at the house for 3 or 4 years so she knows what´s up. She washed our clothes today and carted water for us. She seems pretty awesome thus far.

Monapo is a big, long town. I would say that half the population or so is Muslim and another some percentage are Christian and other. It is hot here too. It seems hottest in the early morning too when you would think it would be hotter later in the day. There isn´t a ton of food here right now but there are the basics. Once the rainy season begins there starts to be a ton of fruit and vegetables and my roommate and I are looking forward to it. We have to figure out how to cook with a gas stove too. It´s a whole new ballgame.

I miss Namaacha and my family there. I called them yesterday to say hello after I hung up with my number one family from the states. I feel like I am going to have issues with separation anxiety by the time I return to the US, what with all this leaving people business.

I have to keep a list of what I want to write here because right now, everything escapes me. Right now I am content and a little nostalgic over the US. I miss the people and the material girl inside me misses some of the stuff. Like an oven or running water and a shower. But I know that what I am doing is good and I don´t have any regrets.

And hey, it´s not too different here in comparison with Namaacha. We have cockroaches and bats in our bathroom this time. Heck yeah (pump my fist).

i chase chickens out of bathrooms

The other day there was a snake in the bathroom. It was 5 am and I was just getting up. I opened the door to see a snake coiled up after I shut the door. Ugh, disgusting. I was just like "sai, sai!" and it went through the wall. After it went away, I realized that the snake probably didn´t understand that I was telling it to go because last I checked, snakes don´t have excellent ears. My bathroom is crazy. In fact, I would probably say that it´s an 8 year old American boy´s dream come true. I have chased a chicken out of the bathroom, yelled at a snake, seen plenty of lizards and many centipedes. I am just waiting for an unpleasant experience in the bathroom/outhouse revolving around an animal living in the latrine.

So we´re nearing the end of November here in Namaacha and I now know where I am going to in Mozambique for my two year stint. I will be living in Monapo in Nampula Province, which is in the northern part of the country. I am going to be moving there with another Moz 12er, Nia, and we´re going to share a house that is actually located at a school. It sounds like it´s a pretty secure site, especially since our house is right next to a police station and the primary school. I am excited though because according to PCVs I´ve spoken with, our site is going to be at a good location, about two hours or less from Nampula City and about an hour away from Ilha de Mocambique, which is supposed to be gorgeous. I´m happy with my site placement but I´m dreading saying goodbye to my host family since we´ve become close. I hope to visit though, depending on the price of plane tickets.

I apologize, since I haven´t been able to download pictures as of yet. I am technologically impaired enough as it is but put me on a slow slow computer and you might as well take away the computer and hand me a calculator. Anyhoo, I hope everyone is having a wonderful fall season. It´s Turkey Day soon and we Americans here in Namaacha are going to have a little festa. I wish everyone well!

happy november

So it´s November. Holy crap. Time has flown. Anyway, everything is going well here. I have just found out that I will be traveling to Tete next week for a site visit. And Tete is pretty much the hottest place in Mozambique. So what did Peace Corps do? Send the sweatiest volunteer to Tete. How wonderful for me. Christmas has indeed come early. I am excited tho, nonetheless. The volunteer I am going to stay with sounds nice and I even bought shoes for it today - at the shoprite in Namaacha, which is basically a big flea market of clothing from China and given from the US. I even saw a Dare shirt. I felt like I was in fifth grade again. Hmm. What else? I am still eating rice and I had ice cream today. It was strawberry chocolate ice cream. I pretty much died and went to heaven and I bought one for my brother too. I am not even worried about gaining a little weight because I sweat so much here and everything is always uphill. It´s like jazzercise every morning on the way to language class, minus the pumping jams and an addition of small children and adults staring at you. I went to church last sunday for 7 hours and it was 7 hours full of dancing and singing church songs. Pretty impressive actually. Definitely beats St. Mary´s at home in the entertainment department. Me and Jamie, another volunteer, don´t know what´s going on most of the time but we go for the music and for a fellow American´s company. My brother is a translator from Changana into Portuguese, which is pretty interesting to watch.

That´s all for now I suppose. When I return to Namaacha next week I am going to try to download my pictures onto the computer, onto my Flickr site to give you all a little slice of my world.

Charcoal and KitKats

Life is good so far. I have only had a few down moments. For example, yesterday, I was helping my host family with dinner and neighbor children were over. I was just sitting there and all three of them were just staring at me. I was going a bit bonkers so I decided to hightail it to my room for some privacy before dinner. Other than that, it´s just been some language setbacks and homesickness. It really helps having Americans around though. I´ll break down some things for you: 1 - I eat rice...and I mean A LOT of rice 2 - They have delicious bread here 3 - You can´t spit without hitting a mango or papaya tree 4 - Women can carry a helluva lot of stuff on their person. I saw one woman with a baby tied to her back and carrying a bag with a crate of 24 full bottles (not cans) of pop on her head 5 - Roosters crow here at 2 in the morning and do a call and response with each other for as long as they want 6 - People stare and you have to get used to it since there´s no way of blending in I was in a storeroom with my 18-year old brother, helping him sort empty bottles of Fanta and Coke and this large rat or mouse scurried down the side of the building. I freaked out and jumped out of the room and he just laughed. We had talked about the cartoon Tom and Jerry before and now we refer to the storeroom as "a casa de Jerry." I was helping my sister and brother with a meal and we were breaking apart clumps of charcoal for the burners. My hands were pure black so to goof around I did a McCauley Culkin with my hands and they were horrified. Cleanliness is such a huge thing here. I was late leaving for school this morning and my host mother was like "your sandals are dirty!" I was just like "nao tenho uma problema con isto para agora." I don´t have a problem with this for now. My sorry portuguese. And I washed my clothes with her the other day and she and their neighbor laughed at my technique. Washing clothes is using four different buckets filled with different amount of water and detergent. And that´s all I´ve got for now. I found KitKat bars at the market today and I am going to go home and savor every last bit of it like a weirdo, as long as it doesn´t melt.

ola, oi, bom dia...etc.

So we have internet here! Hooray! I am really liking my fam. They are great. I have two brothers. One who is 2 and one who is 18. And then two sisters who are both about 12 or 13. The girls are SO quiet. I put eyeshadow on them the other day and they thought that was hilarious. They work so hard! I have my own room in my house which makes me feel bad because then the two girls, the 2 year old and the parents all share one room. I feel like such a jerk but I think that peace corps required that it be that way. I have a cell phone! I really only use it for text messages and for people to call me because it´s hella expensive to call the US. It´s funny here because I wake up to rapping by Busta Rhymes or to a rooster. I have wanted to strangle the roosters by my house. They start crowing at like 2 am and do this call and response with each other. Today, when I woke up, my brother was playing Shania Twain. And I went over to his mom´s house the other day and we watched music videos. And in response to Kara´s comment on the last post, yes, they LOVE Justin Timberlake. I went over to my friend´s family´s house the other day and they were watching JT´s music video. I taught my brother Sudoku puzzles and he copied some to take to school to do when he gets bored. It wasn´t that difficult to explain how to do sudoku puzzles in my sorry portuguese surprisingly. I have also shared the wonders of my digital camera and iPod with my family. They even changed their clothes to have their picture taken.

Language training is a bit arduous. It´s for the entire morning every day of the week and it makes the morning move incredibly slow. Otherwise, I like my group and it´s nice to have fellow PCTs suffering under learning a new lanugage with me. I suppose I should scoot. My brother has sat here, waiting for me for about 45 minutes and I feel bad for him. He has even been looking at the telephone book. Ate logo para agora!