PST Week 4: Traditional healer, Independence day, Orphanage visit, and 25th birthday

                                  

Traditional healer visit- June 24:

We visited a traditional healer in Namaacha. He told us that the spirits chose him and that it wasn't his choice to become a traditional healer. He also explained how the process is when a patient come to see him. They would first put money under this animal skin thing and then he throw a bunch of shells on top of it as he ask the patient if the problem is for themselves or for someone else. The reads the way that the shells fall and then take a bite of something (forgot what it was) and spit a small piece out. Then he told us about the different things he would do depending on what the problem is. I'm very skeptical about this and don't really believe in it.. I think a lot has to do with placebo effects but it was an interesting experience learning about what traditional medicine is and how it works.

Dia da Independência- June 25:

I went to praça dos heróis with my mãe to attend Moz's Independence Day ceremony and then we all walked to IFP to watch the rest of the programs. It was a lot of singing, dancing, and talking. Afterward, my host family had a small family gathering so I met my other host brothers, sisters, brother-in-law, niece and nephew. I taught my sister and niece how to fold origami and they loved it :) My other sister was going to teach me how to dance Mozambican style but there wasn't any music on the computer :(

Orphanage visit & 25th birthday- June 28:

We had our 1st visit to Irmãs Francsicana. The kids there are wonderful! We introduced ourselves and then sat down with them for a bit before we helped serve food. Afterward, we played games and helped them with math and reading. We also met the older kids and got to talk to them for 30 minutes. 

After training today, I went out for dinner with my fellow trainees. The food was amazing! Thank you everyone here and back at home for making my birthday special! :)

Both of these boys drew a picture of me! haha :)

They sang happy birthday for me in Portuguese and in English :)

Other highlights/things I've learned this week:

-Successfully avoided killing a chicken again! My sister ended up killing it in front of me and then said next time it's my turn :(

rip ):

-I'm building up tolerance for cockroaches, spiders, and lizards. They're not so bad.. As long as they don't come near me. There was a hugee cockroach chilling on the end of the tub when I was taking my bucket bath one day. Thank goodness it didn't move at all or else I would have jumped out screaming. Later it was crawling inside the tub when I was brushing my teeth :( I have to check the tub before I take bucket bath from now on. 

-I took the 3rd dosage of rabies vaccine this week so I'm finally done with shots for the rest of this year! I hope.

-I'm finally used to the 24hr format that they go by here. It took a month before I didn't have to do quick mental subtraction to figure out what's 16:30 or 20:00 is.

-I feel a lot better about my portuguese. Im still a bit worried for the mid LPI test this coming Friday but not as stressed as before. I got to talk to the volunteer that lived with my host family before me (a Moz 19er) and a volunteer from PSN (peer support network) called me this week to check up on how I'm doing. Everyone including the visiting volunteers said to don't worry about the language and that it will come eventually.. Especially when we're at site and won't be surrounded by 25 other Americans so we're forced to speak only Portuguese. 

-I learned about HIV/AIDS in Moz this week.. The myths and misconceptions, drivers and challenges, and socioeconomic factors.

-I dropped my camera (on my birthday too! boo..) and now the lens is stuck :( I'm still trying to figure out how to fix it but it doesn't look good.. I'll have to use my phone camera to take pic for now.

-I got to paint my toe nails!! I regret not bringing any nail polish :( I miss my typical blue shades that I always use. My empregada brought over her bright pink polish for me to do mine after I complimented on her nails the day before

-I received my first marriage proposal in Moz this week! I was washing my clothes with my empregada and an old man came up to me multiple times to ask me to marry him and that he has a lot of money hahah I kept saying não quero (I don't want to) and my Mãe and empregada laughed and helped get rid of him for me. 

PST Week 3: Cross Culture Cooking and Permagardening

                                    

This week felt faster than the previous 2 weeks. Lots of exciting things this week. 

Cross culture cooking:

My language group spent the whole morning (4-5 hours) cooking American food for our mães and they cooked Mozambican food for us. We made veggies patty, mashed potatoes, guacamole and salad. They made rice, grilled chicken, and folha de abóbora (my fave Mozambican dish so far). The amount of work put into preparing lunch is unbelievable! It takes a lot of efforts doing everything from scratch. Thank goodness we didn't have to kill the chicken ourselves. I had to help skin it though. I only ate a small piece of chicken afterward but I felt really bad :( I don't think I can eat much meat for the next two years if I have to kill and make it myself :( 

us with our host moms

crushing and grinding peanuts

scraping coconut meat

Herbert the chicken.. before he died. Sorry buddy ):

Time to finally eat! :)

Shadow visit site:

During week 6, we get to shadow a current PCV to see how they live and work. The selection was randomly assigned (we picked out of an envelope) I was hoping for a site up north and... I got it!! Im going to Pemba, Cabo Delgado!! I'm super excited!!  

Permagardening:

Agriculture is hard work! We learned how to make compost pile and then we made the garden. We learned how to develop water controlling swales and berms, how to double dig, and prepare the soil for optimal growth. 

making the border of the garden

End of day 1

Finished! End of day 2.

Other highlights/things I've learned this week:

-I got a 90% on my first Portuguese test! It was a written test though. I'm much better at reading and writing.. my speaking and listening skills still sucks though :( 

-I got my modem stick this week so I was finally able to upload pictures onto facebook for friends and family to see. Yay! 

-Carl, our country director, made delicious chocolate pecan pies for us

-A group of little girls caught up to me when I was walking back from training and asked me to try on their sunglasses.. so random haha

-I practiced with another trainee for the next ngoma time. We're going to do a short self defense act :)

-I found the lizard that was in my room last week (or it could be another lizard). I was taking a nap when I heard noises in my plastic bag of dirty clothes. I managed to get my clothes out and tied the bag to bring it outside of my room. I jumped and dropped the bag on the ground outside when it moved. My empregada was outside and saw that I was scared.. but I didnt know how to say lizard in portuguese :( She laughed after she realized what it was... hahah :( 

-There are some political unrest right now in Mozambique between Renamo and Frelimo but don't worry, I'm safe in Namaacha. 

Lizard, bug and mosquitoes net

I love love LOVE my mosquito net now. I feel safe under it!

So I was in bed studying when I kept hearing a noise near the plastic bag of goodies on top of my trunk at the corner of my room. Then I saw something peeking up from behind the trunk. I froze while debating if I should take the bag out and try to attack what I thought was a big rat at the moment. Then it climbed up the wall really fast. It was a relief when I realized it's only a lizard. Lizard is better than rats. I took my camera and zoomed in to take a picture and thats when I saw the bug in its mouth. What is that thing?? Flying cockroach?! :( I should thank the lizard, but please stay out of my room too :( I can still hear the noises of the bug trying to escape.. 

PST Week 2

1/5 way done with training! This week felt long again and I'm starting to feel overwhelmed and stressed (mostly because of language) 

Highlights/things I've learned this week:

-My headlamp is probably the best thing I packed so far. There was a lot of black out this past week plus there's not enough lighting in my room. I spent most of my night in bed studying with my headlamp now.

-I wish I brought more warm clothes with me! It's winter here and it gets reallyyy cold at night in Namaacha. Im using 2 blankets now and I practically live in my one sweater and sweatpants haha 

-Portuguese lessons are going well.. I love my language professor, but I'm still having problems with pronunication and grammar so I'm definitely feeling stressed out. We have a written test this coming Monday and then our mid LPI language oral test in 3 weeks. For only 2 weeks so far, I think I'm doing pretty well at this rate but it doesn't feel like it since I'm still having a really hard time trying to talk to my host family. My mãe laughed at my portuguese this week when I was trying to explain to her that I cant come home for lunch and need to bring lunch to training with me :( hahah training is also getting tougher with more work to do.

-I did yoga for the first time this week! One of the volunteer is a yoga instructor so she's doing classes for us on MWF. It was very relaxing and definitely a good exercise and something to do aside from all these technical and language training we're having. 

-Rode on a chapa (the local transportation here.. usually a pick up truck or a mini van) to the market for the first time this week as part of our language application. We had trouble identifying and finding a chapa on the way back from the market so we ended up walking halfway before getting onto one. We waved to a pick up truck that wasn't a chapa so they were probably laughing at us foreigners haha 

-A girl working at the gas station complimented my hair and then asked if she could cut it and have it.. haha

-I had my 1st site placement interview this week. It was an informal one just so they can get to know me more and see what my interests are. It was the first time since I've been here that I got asked "why did you joined the peace corps".. which made me realized how cool it is being around other trainees that have the same aspiration (to help) even if our reasons for joining the peace corps is different.

-I discovered a beautiful landscape just right down the road from my house! Across on the other side is Swaziland! (Namaacha is really close to the border)

-We met leaders of organizations that we will be working with for our practicum. If they don't switch our language groups, then I will be working with a faith-based organization called Irmãs Francsicanas. They work with 70ish orphans ages 6-18.

-We visited the hospital nearby and got a tour of it. It's really similiar to the hospital I volunteered at in Tanzania so I was not surprised with the sanitization, lack of equipments, etc. I learned that the average age for pregnancy in Mozambique is 13.. So young!!

-We had our first Ngoma time this week. Ngoma time is when we exchange cultures so our language professors sang the Mozambique national anthem and us trainees sang the US national anthem. We also had a dance group that came to sing songs about HIV/AIDS and proverty in Africa and an art exhibition. 

-I am soo slow at cutting onions, carrots and tomatoes. I'm starting to get used to the knife but it's still hard not to be paranoid. So the knife they use here is really dull because they practically use their hand as a cutting board but I'm still not used to cutting things toward me and in my hand :( I've been helping around the house with house chores more (washing dishes, sweeping, mopping, and cooking.. It's hard work!)

-I watched movies on my laptop with my irmã and try to explain to her what's happening in Portuguese since i dont have subtitle for her and it's a good practice for me

-We took the chapa to Maputo (about 1.5hr away) to do our errands. I was able to buy more phone credits, lotion, conditioner, and chocolates!! Saving the chocolate for days when I'm really craving home haha 

-I taught my irmão and sobrinha how to play fruit ninja!! And some other games.

-Had a work out session today (Sunday). One of the volunteer is a personal trainer so he made a work out session for us. It was short but very tiring! Definitely needed it since I've been eating a lotttt of carbs.

Church

This morning I walked  to church with my mãe and pai. I normally don't go to church but my mãe asked me to come with her earlier this week and I thought it would be nice to see what church service is like in Mozambique.

Church was at 8am and ran a little over 2 hours but it was enjoyable. There was a lot of singing in the local language and the whole service was either in portuguese or the local language.. I couldn't tell (that's how bad my portuguese is going :( haha) Toward the end caught me by surprised.. my mãe told me to go up to the front but then I saw other volunteers going up too. I didn't know that they were planning to present us to the community. There were 9 of us at church this morning and we all had to go up to the front to introduce ourselves in portuguese in front of everyone.

This is me with my mãe and imrã after church:

PST Week 1

Just finished our 1st week of training! This week felt a lot longer than it really is. We all felt like we've been here much longer.. probably because our day is so full with information and learning and we get exhaused at the end of the day.

This is what my daily routine look like this past week:

- 6:40am get out of bed (earlier on days i have to sweep and mop my bedroom)

- 7am breakfast

- 7:30-12pm training 

- 12-1:30pm lunch

- 1:30-4:30pm training

- 4:30-5:30pm hang out with other volunteers for a bit or go to the nearby hotel to freeload wifi (it gets dark by 5:30ish so I get to get home before it gets pitch black.. part of the road to my house has no lights)

- 5:30-7pm help mãe cook dinner

- 7-8pm dinner and shower

- 8-9pm ish spend time with family (watch tv/portuguese lessons with my mãe/do homework)

- knock out by 10:30 at the latest

Highlights of this week:

-My mãe taught me how to cook some dish and I also learned how to light charcoal. Cooking without a gas stove is hard already, try cooking outdoor using charcoals and woods with just an old cell phone light! So i gave my mãe the headlamp that i bought over as a gift this week since it was perfect timing. She loved it! :) 

-A local guy imitated karate moves as I walked past by.. I've been warned during staging that they will most likely assume that all asian are Chinese and that all asian knows martial arts.. in my case, they're right about one thing! haha)

-I told my mãe and irmã that portuguese is not easy but they heard "portuguese is not happy" instead :( they gave me such a confused look.. haha I'm having so much problem with pronunicating! portuguese is harder than spanish :( This is my language group (excuse the picture quality, I took a pic of my camera since I can't upload them yet)

-I took my 2nd dosage of rabies vaccine.. one more shot left then im done with shots for awhile! :)

-I handwashed my clothes for the first time.. it is hard work!! If I can, I refuse to wear jeans here.. they are so heavy and much harder to wring. I am going to build muscles from just hand washing my clothes for the next 27 months..

-I appreciate all the little things in America so much more now. Everything that is basic and simple to do in America is so much more work to do here (taking a shower, making food, washing clothes, even washing my hands)

-The visiting PCV threw us a party on Fri night and it was really fun! I think this is the first time I went to a party at 4:30pm and left at 6:30pm (our curfew is 7:30pm) it was pitch black when I walked home, thank goodness for flashlight app on my phone! 

-Discovering that there's a hotel (about 25min walk from my house) that offers free wifi. It's been the new hotspot for our Moz 20 group in my opinion haha but recently I switched from Mcel to Vodacom (phone services) and converted airtime to internet so now I have wifi on my phone! It feels awesome being able to connect with friends and family again. 

-I'm getting used to saying good morning/good afternoon/hi/how are you to EVERYONE i walk past by. I'm liking this behavior change.. it's so different from America where you don't really talk to strangers passing by. Everyone here seems so nice so far.

-We tried to hike to the waterfall but realized it's really far and would get dark by the time we walk back so we turned around. The view was amazing though!

-I love my Moz 20 group! Everyone is amazing and has so much talents to offer to the group.

-Finally took a picture of some of my host family. Will take more on my camera later. 

my host mom, sister, and niece

-The dog and rooster nearby keeps having loud arguments between 4:30-5:30am the past few days.. I need to find those ear plugs I packed :(

Calendar of Training Events

Moz 20 Health PST COTE

Outline of training activities:

Portuguese: 113.5

TECH: 86

Cross-Culture: 25.5

CORE: 111.5

Medical: 25.5 

Safety and Security: 23

PSN: 6 

Admin: 8 

TOTAL # OF HOURS: 399

Weeks 1-5: focus on language, cross-culture and tech basic info

Week 6: PCV shadowing visits

Weeks 7-9: technical practicum and local languages

Week 10: wrap up sessions; prep for site; prep for swearing in on August 6th

Supervisors Conferences in 2 regional capitals August 7th-10th and Site Delivery starts on August 9th-13th

Moving in with my host family

Sunday 6/2/13

We checked out of our hotel today and had a home stay orientation at PC headquarter before we head to our training site in Namaacha. After an hour ride, we arrived at the hub (our training center) and our mães (mothers) were already there waiting for us. They sang a song for us and then held up a sign with our name. When I saw my name, I went to my mãe and she was so happy and welcoming. She held my hand as we walked back to the house for lunch. During lunch, I realized how eager I am to learn Portuguese because it was frustrating not knowing how to talk and apparently I`m not that good at charade hahah I have a mãe, 2 irmãos (big brother n 14yr old sister) and sobrinha (niece who is 4 yr old). I also met my other 2 sisters, my brother's girlfriend, and my nephew. From my broken portuguese I learned that my mãe has 7 children but only 2 lives with her.. which was the info I received before meeting my host family. When my mãe was telling me how many children was living with her, she said 3 and then listed them: Euclísia, Evandro, and Angela.. I'm pretty sure the next 10 weeks with my host family is going to be amazing already!! :)

more about my family:

my mãe is in her 50s and shes a seller. my irmão is a physic teacher and my irmã is a 10th grade student.. thats about all I know so far. they are all so nice patient and welcoming so far and treats me like a family member already

After lunch my irmã helped me put up my mosquito net and I assembled my water filter. Then I had a language interview at the hub. I don't think it went that well.. haha I was able to answer some questions but the rest, I just gave the interviewee a confused/blank stare. There were some questions that I understood but I didn't know how to respond in Portuguese :( Can't wait for language training to start! 

I went back to my house to unpack and organize my new room. My room is really small.. about 7x7 feet so it's a challenge figuring out where to put my things. It's like playing tetris whenever I have to take something in and out. Also, Peace Corps gave us a ton of books for training! 

I had spaghetti with fish for dinner and papaya after dinner. Yup..fish and papaya. Baby steps! So far so good.. By the time I finish service, I'll be less of a picky eater for sure hahah

I took my first bucket bath today! It wasn't too bad. My irmã boiled water for me so I didn't have to take a cold water bath. I feel spoiled already! haha I learned a really good tip on bucket bath today from a current PCV. I dipped my whole head into the bucket to wet my hair first instead of pouring water over myself. This way saves so much more water! I was able to bathe myself and hand wash my undie in half a bucket of water. Pretty proud of myself :)

more about my house:

i have electricity, a toilet (it doesnt flush, i just have to pour water into it but yay i dont have to use latrine yet), a tub where i take my bucket bath in, and  no running water or gas. I get a pee pee bucket outside my room in case I need to go at night since the main house is locked at night and thats where the bathroom is. My room is part of an outhouse so I had to walk across the backyard to get to it. There are big steps, random stones, and chickens running all over so I've been looking at the ground the whole night (yet I still managed to trip over a couple of times..) After my bath tonight, I was going back to my room to put things away when I noticed the sky for the first time here. It was beautifullll!! Sooo many bright stars.. I just stood outside staring at the sky for a few seconds and then it hit me, I'm in Africa! I live here now.. crazy feeling (the good kind)!

Orientation Weekend

Friday 5/31/13

Moz 20ers!

26ish hours after leaving Philadelphia, I finally made it to the hotel in Maputo! We were greeted at the airport by the country director, health program coordinator(?), and current PCVs. It was a short ride from the airport to the hotel but I got to see glimpses of Maputo. The hotel is reallyyy nice! but we were told by our country director to enjoy it but "don't get used to it because it is not typical at all" .. aka this luxury compared to the bucket bath and latrines we're gonna be using in a few days :(

Girassol Indy hotel.. my last chance to enjoy electricity, taking showers and having a toilet

After our buffet style lunch, we walked over to the PC headquarter for orientation. They took a mug shot picture of us right away when we got to the office to put on the picture map (a map of where the volunteers are located in Mozambique) toward end of training when we find out where our 2 years site is. We were all tired from the long flight so the pictures were not pretty haha... I guess it will be something to laugh at at the end of our 2 years service. We had an initial safety and security orientation and then they distributed us a SIM card, walk around allowance, and our PST (Pre-Service Training) manual (our bible for the next 10 weeks). I took 2 shots today, rabies (the first dosage.. gotta take 2 dosage later) and meningococcal. It hurts :(

After dinner I had to reorganize my two suitcases to pack the things I will need during training since Peace Corps will collect our 2nd bag in the morning and we won't see it until we get to our site which is after training. I knocked out in bed by 8:30pm. I haven't slept this early in a longgg time!

Saturday 6/1/13

Breakfast buffet

Bye bye '2yr site' suitecase.. see you in 10 weeks!

We had an introduction to PST, presentation from the Medical Staffs, and learned how to put together the water filter and how to filter our water. We received our medical kit and malaria prophylaxis medicine today. I'm starting Mefliam tonight and I have to take it once a week every week for the next 27 months. They said the side effect is vivid dreams.. I usually don't dream much but lets see how this goes!

The 'cutter' group

We cut our sim card to fit our iphone 4 and it was a success! I don't have a plan yet though. I've been freeloading wifi at the PC headquarter. We're not allowed to leave our hotel so I'm using the free 1 hr wifi that the lounge offers right now. We're going to Namaacha tomorrow to meet our host family and then intensive training begins on Monday. Training is 399 hours in 10 weeks.. Mon-Fri from 7:30am - 5pm ish and Sat 8am-12pm ish. From what I heard, we won't have easy access to wifi during training so it will be awhile before I can get online again. Until then, byee!! Wish me luck :)