Mexican in Mozambique

September 16, 2012 My head is cheia (full) of endless thoughts/questions. The writing bug has bit me again and I feel like there are so many things to share, so I apologize if this doesn’t make much sense. I feel like my life has become full/representative of all those lame clichés (sayings) you always hear growing up. You know those things you hear your parents say all the time, like “you learn from your mistakes,” & other sorts of nonsensical bullshit we try to tune out? Well. Ahaha. These little sayings are alive in my life now more than ever, not because I keep hearing them, but because I am finally starting to see so many of them actualize in my personal life/experience as a PCV. You guys know what I’m talking about, right? Those —-  “experience is the best teacher?” .. “love is blind,” …etc..? This experience is still new and fresh, but I feel myself learning and growing a lot already. & not always in a really deep and meaningful level (although...

September 14, 2012 Two days ago marked my first month at site. This entire process is still so new… I feel like such a ‘newbee’ in every sense of the word. I spend a lot of time with other PVCs from earlier groups and its quite an interesting dynamic. A lot of the near by volunteers (and the volunteer I’m replacing) belong to Moz15. Their group finishes their service in the coming months and COS (Close of Service) has been the topic of the hour in almost every gathering lately. I’m so curious as to how they are feeling, and of course, I’ve already pestered many of them with this question… but it seems like there are so many questions left unanswered. But these questions that fill my head are questions which I will figure out as I go… that no amount of advice can give me the answers to. I look at them and I see myself and I recognize that we are on two complete opposites ends of the spectrum- they are finishing up their service while mine is still commencing. I look at them an...

It’s Saturday afternoon. Today I saw a dead dog on my way into the cty center, discovered where all the cheap Chinese lojas (stores) are in town (thanks to one of my site mates), and I also got mugged. I was walking to the Peace Corps office with one of my site mates after doing a little shopping around town. We were walking down the main avenue, 25 de Setembro, after stopping by this little shack to get some cokes and a little bite to eat. We’re walking… it’s a little after 12pm and I notice some guy following closely by… I noticed he was right behind us, so I turned to ‘let him pass,’ but when he realized I had noticed him- he grabbed towards me but only managed to grab the plastic bag I had hooked to my backpack strap. My site mate (Shane) looked at me, “did he grab your stuff,?” and immediately pushed the guy back. The bumb stumbled back and muttered some demands. Shane yelled at him to give me my bag back, but I asked him to let it go. We walked away (with all of our valuable...

Thursday night-8:03pm, August 30 th .  The days are passing quickly. I feel like the time is flying by… I’m tired… and I haven’t even started any projects yet (as far as work is concerned; & I probably won’t for another few months).  My ‘work’ is pretty flexible and relaxed for the time being (although I have an indication that it will probably remain like this for my time here). Some days I don’t feel like writing. Nothing seems worth sharing. Other days- my head is filled with funny, quirky, or aggravating anecdotes. Like I mentioned in my last post, I’m keeping this blog in order to share my experience with those back home (& frankly, anyone who thinks my writing is worth the read), but also because the act of writing is therapeutic to me. Writing helps me get my thoughts in order… it helps me make sense of things… and it helps me reflect on my own actions, thoughts, emotions, etc. Sometimes I find myself thinking, “god, I hope this isn’t boring...

Tuesday night, Aug. 28th: Listening to ‘California Love,’ and ‘Going back to Cali’ (Biggie)- back to back…. “say what you say, but give me that bomb beat from Dre, let me serenade the streets of L.A, from Oakland to Sac-town, the bay area to back down, Cali is where they put their mack down…”   <3 Ahhh. Currently dealing with a combination of stomach sickness and nostalgia. I think I may have eaten some bad cheese earlier today…. But that’s not what I want to write about. True, I’m feeling a little sick and maybe a little more vulnerable than usual…. Which certainly adds to my nostalgia from home. It’s going to be hard to get sick over here and not have my Mom in the other room preparing some of that bomb caldo de pollo or sopa de fideo to make me feel better. (yea! I miss my Mom, I’ll admit it! Thuggglifeee. ahahah) But, I’ll be fine. So, seeing as I wasn’t feeling so great…. I came into my room, cuddled into bed with my laptop and opened up my media folder ...

I have been at my site for a few days and I am feeling really good. My house is spacious- it has a kitchen, living room, indoor bathroom, bedroom, and an extra little room that would be ideal as an office space if I could afford to furnish it. I have electricity but no running water in my house. I live next to a family and they are great. They are really kind and they even have a good sense of humor. On Tuesday, I went to get some water in the front yard from the torneira (water spout) but the water had been turned off by then… I guess the water system gets turned off in the late afternoon. Since the water wasn’t running minha Mae told me I would have to fetch my water from the well. The well is really deep so you have to lower a plastic container with a tied rope to the bottom and then pull it up once it feels full. During this new life lesson, I remember thinking “I’m a real volunteer now!” ahahah. And “I’m not in the palacio anymore!” When I carried my two buckets of water back to...

Hotel VIP for Supervisor's Conference Maputo, Mozambique

Sitting in the outdoor, palm-tree-filled veranda in our hotel with seven fellow amigos.. . This is our last night in Maputo before we depart to site. The last two days have been characterized by gluttonous indulgence- mostly indulging in limitless quantities of cheese… I never realized how much I liked cheese until I found myself on the other side of the world with limited access to dairy products. We left Namaacha early on Wednesday morning and went directly to the PC office. We took care of some logistics and then headed to the hotel to check-in. When we got to the hotel, we only had an hour to run up and get ready/dressed for our swear-in ceremony. Our ceremony took place in the afternoon and it was attended by some Mozambican government officials, Mozambican health professionals, and Americans working here in Mozambique (“ex-pats”). To our surprise, the new U.S. ambassador to Mozambique was able to attend our ceremony and swear us in…  he recently arrived in country s...

Oficially Peace Coprs Volunteers (PCVs)! We are the 18th group of Volunteers to serve in Mozambique. Sworn in August 8, 2012

A few details/tips for anyone who does want to send a little care package/letters/etc: -letters rarely get delivered from what I hear… it’s better to send a padded envelope for any personal letters and/or small packages. -don’t bother Expressing anything over… the Mozambican postal service is a little slower to what we’re use to back home. Sure, the package will arrive in So. Africa fairly quickly… but it will probably get stuck in Mozambique for a few wks, so it’s not really worth it and its much more expensive. -I hear that the U.S. postal service has a flat rate box for $57, doesn’t matter how heavy as long as it fits in the box… -Anything you send over will probably take a minimum of 3-4 weeks to get to me, just FYI… *Supposedly, the people at customs are less likely to steal if the package is addressed to a Nun/Clergy person, so some people have their friends/family address their packages to “Irma…” (Sister….) and cover the package with religious paraphernalia o...

Me fui, Pa’ echarte de menos Me fui, Pa’ volver de nuevo Me fui, Pa’ estar sola Me fui… Porque estaba tan cerca casi tan cerca Que no puedo ver lo que tengo cerca de mis ojos

Hola! Un gran saludo a todos que se encuentran por D.f y Michoacan… quise escribir un ‘blog entry’ en español para poder cominicarme con todos ustedes y contarles sobre mi aventura en Africa. Como les conte… fui aceptada como voluntaria en una organización llamada ‘Peace Corps’ ( www.peacecorps.gov ). Peace Corps es una organización Americana de Desarrollo Internacional que trabaja alrededor del mundo. Mandan voluntarios al Caribe, a Latino America, a Africa, y a partes de Europa y Asia; normalmente, a paises pobres que necesitan asistencía en su desarrollo social y economico, etc. El proceso de aplica ción fue largo, y como les conte, atrazaron mi viaje por 7 meses. Al principo, iba ir al Oeste Africa en Octubre del año pasado. Los planes fueron cambiados y me invitaron a servir en Mozambique y aprender Portugues. Acepte y por fin estoy aqua! Mozambique se encuentra en el sur-este de Africa, en la costa, pegado al Indian Ocean (Oceano Indio?)… Sali de Los Angeles el 28 de Mayo...

July 11, 2012 I just got back from a short trip to the northern province of Gaza… I visited a current volunteer in a barrio called Fidel Castro, which is about a 30 minute drive from the capital of Xai-Xai. The trip was definitely a learning experience… a lot of questions ran through my head during the last few days, and although I did not fall in love with the barrio of Fidel Castro, I am glad I got to see first hand what the PCV experience is like. I think that in general, the Peace Corps experience is characterized by highs and lows. Sometimes you are happy to be here and other times you can’t seem to stop asking yourself what the hell you signed up for… These last few days have certainly followed this pattern…. My alarm went off at 2:40-ish on Saturday morning. I got dressed, gathered my things and set off to meet the rest of the volunteers by 3am. I walked over to our meeting spot with Carla and her host mom in absolute darkness. There was a power outage right as I was ...

Monday, June 27, 2012. Week FOUR of training has been flying by! A lot of interesting things have been happening this week, but honestly, I almost don’t have the energy to sit here and go through the details of my week… so, I’ll just write about the highlights- The U.S. Ambassador to Mozambique came to visit us on Wednesday! We had a little palestra (a talk) with her, where she told us about her career and then took the time to answer our questions and give us advice. It was really exciting to get to meet someone that has dedicated her life to foreign service. She had a lot of interesting stories and facts about Mozambique in general, but also about International Affairs careers. She has lived in several countries through her life- Turkey, Brazil, China, Portugal, Costa Rica, Mozambique, and of course, the U.S. It was fascinating. Although I am not necessarily interested in the position of ambassador, I would love to live and work around the world throughout my life. It is one o...

I’ve been feeling the urge to update this blog throughout the week but I haven’t felt that I had anything new/interesting and/or deep/thoughtful to share. At the same time, I am also so critical of my writing that composing a casual post turns into an hour long endeavor or longer. And frankly, after a full day of training, writing a new entry just seems so daunting and time consuming. Earlier today, I was at my usual hang-out spot (Casa Dos Dois) with some of the other trainees and we were talking about what it’s going to be like when we return to the states. We know we’ve only been here three weeks (as of today!) but its little things that we never paid much attention to that seem to consume our reflections and frankly, the majority of our conversations. For example, today we had about an hour long information session on diarrhea. To quote one of the trainees, “I think I’ve talked more about shitting in these past two weeks than I have during my entire life!” When you become a Peac...

June 14, 2012 I started my day with 2 hours of language lessons (from 7:30-9:30am), followed by a meeting at the HUB for some more presentations and info sessions. Highlight of my day: the simplified “Development” presentation by our Country Director. It felt unreal to be theorizing this subject that until today felt like a distant goal. But today, I spoke (briefly) about development issues …IN AFRICA! For those of you that know what a nerd I am, you can imagine me sitting in room having a Nerdgasm (yes, I just said that) It was fucking great. It was really cool for me to hear our country director stating that Peace Corps volunteers ARE in FACT “grass-roots development practitioners and professionals” I was like, “yesssss! I AM a grass-roots development practitioner! … Or at least I will be by the end of this 27 month journey.” Ahaha. Anyway, I learned some new interesting facts. For example, out of the 187 countries on the Human Development Index (a composite statist...

June 13, 2012 Every night that I crawl into bed (covered by my mosquito net), I get nostalgic about my childhood. After I get ready for bed, I let my mosquito net drape down and I go through the perimeter of my bed and tuck in the loose corners. Usually, I lift up ¾ of the net in the morning (like seen on fb) so that I can make my bed/use my bed to sit down or put stuff down. I turn my head lamp on and throw it inside the draped bed, I turn off the light in my room (the switch is by my door), and then I crawl into my little mosquito net-fort. It makes me feel like a kid all over again. When I was younger, my brother and I use to take all the sheets and blankets in the house and make a fort by draping the sheets over the chairs/dinning table and pretty much anything that would hold the sheets up. I feel 8 years old again. I feel like little Wendy, hanging out in my make-shift fort/tent, day dreaming about adventure and childhood games. It’s kind of a calming and soothing feeling. Re...

June 5th, 2012 “a palavra na rua” I have arrived in my training site, the border town of Namaacha. We have been here only 2.5 days and already, we are finding small ways to amuse ourselves. My language group was trying to figure out how to say ‘word on the street,’ in Portuguese and we ended with “a palavra na rua.” “A palavra na rua, Wendy lives is a palàcio!” This has been the running joke in my language group since…. they came over to my home stay house. It’s true. I live in a very nice house. We have electricity, a gas stove, a refrigerator, and two TV’s. Overall, it’s a pretty modern house. The house is well insulated, has 3 bedrooms, and two indoor bathrooms. These may sound like pretty standard amenities back home, but here in the town of Namaacha, many homes (from what I have been told) have outside latrines and outdoor coal stoves. We were told that this town was where the Portuguese built their vacation homes for the weekend back in the day- that explains the colonial sty...

June 1, 2012 I am in Africa! After the longest trip of my life, I arrived in Maputo, Mozambique yesterday! We left the hotel in Philly at about 2:45am and arrived at JFK Intl. Airport at around 4am. Since South African airlines didn’t open til 7:00, we basically took over the area and set up a camp. It was pretty epic. Imagine 31 volunteers, each with about 2 check-in bags, a backpacking back pack, and a personal back pack. Some had a little less, and I completely envied them. What was I thinking bringing all this heavy shit all the way to the other side of the world?! Hmm, whatever. It makes me feel good knowing that I will leave 95% of it behind when I return to the states after my service. Anyway, we arrived at the Maputo airport after a 5 hour lay-over in South Africa. We were picked up by the Mozambique country director and Peace Corps staff. They brought us to a really nice hotel in a snazzy part of town. All of us are taking it all in, knowing that this will be the nicest p...

May 30, 2012 I’m sitting in my hotel room in Philadelphia, on gmail chat with Sal, and listening to Julieta Venegas. My roomate, Jimi, is on her bed…. It’s 12:29am here and we are suppose to be downstairs and checked out by 2am. I got here yesterday around 7pm (east coast time). We had our staging/orientation today from 12pm-7:30pm or so, where we met our training group. So far, there are 31 trainees in our group, of which only 6 are guys. Orientation/staging was pretty long but it was reassuring to meet the rest of my cohort and find that pretty much everyone has the same fears and anxieties- fear of being isolated, feeling unwelcome, fear of getting sick, fear of not integrating successfully into our communities, etc. It’s comforting to know that you are not the only ‘crazy’ (or so it feels sometimes) who is leaving all the comforts of their everyday life to go to the other side of the world to a place unknown, not sure of where we will live, who we will live with, and what ...