Site visits were this week, and it has been a cluster of
events and emotions. Everyone going north of central Moz got to stay overnight
in Maputo in a hotel that would probably have not met my standards a month and
a half ago but now seems luxurious…mainly because of the HOT SHOWERS! Staying
in the capitol has other perks too, like pizza and burritos and gelato and crunchy
peanut butter and cheese and wine and the best coffee milkshake you can find
anywhere! So yeah the perks mostly revolve around food and I think I ate more
on Saturday than I ever have in my life. It was beautiful.
What was not beautiful was me on Sunday morning because we
had to wake up at 4 AM to catch a ride to the airport and board a plane (if you
can really call it that) to Chimoio. My host volunteer Jamie met us there in
the PC office and after running some errands in the city we headed to Sussundenga.
Both of these cities are in the province of Manica in the center of the
country. It’s about an hour chapa ride from Chimoio to the lovely mountain town
of Sussundenga. About halfway through the chapa passes through the market of a
smaller village and you can buy produce from the vendors as they come up to the
windows and try to entice you with their enticing selection of onions and
tomatoes.
The first full day in Sussundenga was nice because I
basically got to see all of it...and because we had some delicious french toast. We walked about 6 and a half miles going around
the lower half of the village and hiked a bit up into the mountains to look at
the amazing view. We passed through all of the local mercados (markets) and at
one of the clothing stands I found an ADII shirt from Baylor. Basically Africa
is the end of the line for your clothes that got donated but never sold in
America. They call them calamidades (literally calamities) and they’re pretty
awesome sometimes.
The next day we walked around the top half of the village
and I got to see the new secondary school and another gorgeous view. We ended
the day eating dinner with a local family there. We ate rice and beans and I
must say that you haven’t had rice and beans until you’ve had it here.
Mozambicans definitely know how to cook beans.
I left the next day for Chimoio to overnight there with the
other volunteers since we had such an early flight the next day. We spent the
day in the city which was surprisingly nice. I don’t really like big cities,
even in the States so I couldn’t see myself living in one here but after
visiting Chimoio I really don’t have a preference one way or another. Despite
it being urban we met a lot of nice people and the volunteers placed there seem
to love it and feel at home. I also felt a lot safer than I expected to feel in
the city. Also it helps to have pizza and soft serve ice cream available on
command. Overall there were things I liked and things I didn’t about both
sites, and I still have no strong convictions on the type of site I should
request. Honestly I’m just ready to find out where my new home will be for the
next two years!
Mountains in Sussundenga
On the way back from our lovely site experience we had a
handful of headaches at the airport and then in Maputo at the Peace Corps
office and basically had to hike across Maputo luggage in tow in order to catch
a chapa back to Namaacha today when we were expecting to have another night at
the hotel. But that’s Peace Corps for ya so whatever. As soon as I arrived back
home I was tackled by my niece and nephew (who I recently learned are really my
half brother and sister) and my sister Lidia and then Mãe. As soon as I saw
them I was overwhelmed with how much I had missed them. I am so happy to be
here, home with my family. And they made me my favorite dinner, Matapa!
So now I’m exhausted and we of course have a long day of
core classes tomorrow, which I of course will not be paying attention to since
we find out where our sites are this week.
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