Settling Into My New Home

My house:
I can't wait to tell my kids in the future that my very first house was in Mozambique! :) It's been almost 3 weeks since I moved in. I finally feel settled in enough to blog about my house now haha so without further ado, here's my home for the next 2 years:

Living room. The door goes to the kitchen

Kitchen

Bedroom

Other side of my bedroom

Closet room. I'm still living out of my suitcases for now until I can get some shelves built

Bathroom

Guest room

Hallway. Door to the left is the guest room. This is also where I wash my dishes

Backdoor and door to my storage room

Backyard

My favorite part of my backyard

Cooking:

I have electricity [yay!!!] so I bought an electric stove. I'm also very fortunate to have a fridge that my org provided for me! Cooking is my new stressor and hobby [not by choice] now. I don't really know how to cook so the next 2 years will be a huge learning experience. So far, I've been making a lot of soups or eating rice with eggs or dry shredded pork that I brought over. My rice cooking skill is a getting better and not so watery or mushy anymore. I really miss my rice cooker ): The mercado in my town is really really small. There's only tomatoes, onions, potatoes, couve, and lettuce. I have to go to the next town to buy cabbage and other food. 

It felt like Christmas when I opened my 2yr suitcase!! I've been restraining myself from indulging it all at once.

The first meal I made since being on my own! My neighbor said it was good.. yes! success :)

Water:
I don't have running water so I have to walk about 5 minutes to get water to bring back to my house. I am so lucky to have such wonderful neighbors who refill water for me :) I told them I wanted to help them so they let me practice getting water once. It caused a big scene because a bunch of my neighbors came out to watch me trying to carry the bucket on my head hahah I'm planning to buy a big gallon container so I can just use my bike to carry it back to my house without having to bother my neighbors.

My bucket was only half filled with water. My neighbor's kid who is a lot smaller than me was carrying a bigger bucket filled to the top with water without spilling.. I need more practice to get to her level! haha I woke up with sore arms and neck.. The girls here are so strong!

The unwanted pets in my house:

I feel like I have a zoo in my house when I first moved in. I was quite afraid of my own house, especially my bathroom. I think I've finally gotten these pests and critters under control (for the most part)

Cockroaches: They are HUGE here and some of them fly! I was so afraid to use my bathroom because there was an army of them crawling around the corner and on the wall of my bathroom everyday. I bought baygon and sprayed my whole bathroom so that did the trick. I actually had to get my neighbor to help me spray it because it was raining cockroaches when I tried to spray a corner. All of them starts running away and crawling up walls and then falling down. I still see 1-2 here and there but I can deal with that.

Bed bugs: They are my worst nightmare!!  I have bites all over my body and they swells up really big too. At first I thought mosquitoes were attacking me but I realized it was bed bugs when I wake up itchy with new bites in the middle of the night. My dono da casa helped me spray my bedframe with baygon and I had to leave my mattress in the sun for a few hours. I did that twice already and it's working so far. I havent gotten any new bites. My dono da casa is going to help me do this 3 more times to make sure they're completely gone. 

Rats: During my 1st week, I saw something running past by out of the corner of my eye but I thought I was just hallucinating and paranoid from Larium (malaria prophylaxis). I started noticing little black pellets all over my house the next few days.. which I later realized it's rats' poops. After many attempts of preventing them from going into my house and getting rid of them, I think I finally did it! As of today, 4 have died in my house. I'm definitely going to get a cat asap.

The rats been entering my house through my shower (more like bucket bath) hole. There's large gaps under all the doors so I tried to block it with the box. It didn't work since it apparently can jump over. The first few nights I tried blocking with the box, I keep hearing rats running into the box and trying to get through >.< I thought I was clever when I covered the top opening with books but the rats managed to squeeze through, chewed up my books and get back into my house ):

I went into the city to buy this glue and it worked! I caught 2 rats with this trap but it made a huge sticky mess in my house.

My neighbors were already asleep when the rat got stuck so I trapped it in the bucket to wait til the morning to get rid of it. I'm too scared to do it myself haha

Besides leaving poops all over my house, it started chewing things up when it couldn't find any food in my house ): Good thing I have a capulana that matches well with my bag!

I woke up to 2 dead rats in my bathroom from the rat poison that my neighbor got for me. My dono da casa also found a hole outside my house that leads to my shower hole so he will cover it up with cement for me. Hopefully this will be the last time I see rats in my house!

Other animals in my house: lizards, ants, mosquitoes, smaller flying animals, frog

PST Week 10: Moving out, Swearing In, Supervisor Conference, and Site delivery

Moving out 8/6: 

I was a crying mess :( It was very hard saying goodbyes to my host family. They have been amazing for the past 9 weeks! My host mom was trying to make me feel better by saying that things in the north are cheaper hahah I'm definitely going to go back to Namaacha to visit every chance I get. 

Swearing In 8/6:

My fancy invitation to my own swear in ceremony :)

Singing the Mozambique and US national anthems

Swearing in oath

Moz 20 with PC Country Director Carl Swartz, Ambassador Griffiths, and Mocambique Government Representative Sr. Mauricio dos Santos

Finally a PCV!! Milestone mark! :)

Supervisor Conference 8/8-9:

I met my counterparts for the first time and had 2 days conference in Portuguese with them in Nampula. They're very nice and seems excited to have us. I was really nervous about this conference but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. During the conference, we talked about what Peace Corps is, their roles as supervisors, our roles as volunteer, expectations, policies, etc. 

Our supervisors at Wiwanana

Site delivery 8/10:

It was a 4ish hours ride from Nampula to Chiure and then another 45min-1hr ride from Chiure to Ancuabe. We stopped in Chiure for awhile so that I can visit the Wiwanana office there and meet the director. I also got to stop by the mercado to buy some vegetables since it's a bit cheaper in Chiure and drove by Elizabeth's new house.

Ancuabe is 7km from the main cross road and on the way there, it really felt like it's in the middle of no where. It's a small town and everyone seems nice so far. I can't wait to get to see more and meet more people in my new community.  (I'd be lying if I said I'm not nervous/scared as well about integrating.. so wish me luck!) 

I finally saw my house! Unfortunately, they're not done building it so I can't move in until at least Monday. I'm currently staying in a hotel here until it's ready.. except the hotel I'm staying in this time is rather really a motel -3 stars because there's no running water and there's bugs and lizards in my room :( I also have to take cold bucket bath since I have nothing to boil water in. I definitely living the PCV life now.. 

Other highlights/things I've learned:

-I taught my host sister how to play velocidade (speed) and she loves it! :)

-I love staying in hotels!! I stayed in a hotel in Maputo before flying to Nampula and then stayed 3 nights in Nampula for the conference. It's so nice to take long hot shower instead of bucket baths! :D 

-I learned a technique from a friend here on how to trim my hair! I'm going to do this for the next 2 years haha

-Wiwanana (the org I'm working with) means 'together' in Macua. 

-It's about to feel like Christmas soon once I open my 2yr suitcase!! Can't wait to eat ramen and sour patch kids. I don't remember what else I packed in there but it's going to be so exciting!!

-Said goodbyes to my fellow Moz 20 this week also. I won't see them until 3 months later during Reconnect Conference :(

-I got a lot of shopping done for my new house so I'm excited to unpack and settle in.

-I don't have a bank in my town so Peace Corps will give me a bit extra each month so that I can travel to Chiure to do banking (and visit Elizabeth, scored!)

PST Week 9: Waterfall, Ngoma time, Tests, 4th Practicum visit, and Homestay Celebration

This week was our last full week of training before we swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers!! Time has gone by really fast. It was hard to pay attention in sessions this week because we are tired  of classes and all we can think about is getting to site haha

Waterfall 7/28:

We went to the cascata for Brianna's birthday. It was beautiful and relaxing. We had our mini picnic at the bottom of the waterfall to just talk and relax.

Ngoma time 7/31:

We finally had our 2nd Ngoma time since it kept being canceled. 2 girls wrote a song about our malaria pill, 'Blame it on the Larium', and it was really good. 3 other persons sang songs. Our language professors did a skit impersonating us during language lessons. It was hilarious because everything was so true. Then at the end, Edmund and I decided last minute to do our self defense skit so we quickly reviewed it since we haven't practiced it for weeks and wasn't planning to do it.

Tests 8/1:

We had our final LPI and Round Robin tests this week. For LPI, I wasn't too nervous before starting but once the recorder was on and he asked me the first question, I started to have a bad feeling about it because my first response was "Desculpa, pode repetir?" [Sorry, can you repeat?] I had to ask that several times throughout the conversation. I was also asked how my martial arts is different from other martial arts in which I responded with "Desculpa, eu não quero falar sobre artes marciais porque eu não sei muito vocabulário por artes marciais" [Sorry, I don't want to talk about martial arts because I don't know a lot of vocabulary for martial arts] I left the oral test with a bad feeling but I ended up doing better than I thought! Yay!! I passed :) I'm at intermediate high level for Portuguese now. So happy!

For our Round Robin test, we have to blindy pick 1 scenario and 2-3 questions to do for each sections. I think I got lucky because all the number I picked ended up being pretty easy.

4th Practicum visit 8/2: 

We talked to Irmã Maria José about the organization and learned so much about their history and programs. Afterward, we worked together to write a report and prepare a speech about the organization.

Homestay Celebration 8/3:

We had a Festa das Familia party to thank our home stay families and our practicum organizations. Julia and I gave our speech about our practicum.. in Portuguese! It was hard even though we had the paper in front of us. Only a few days left with my host family.. I am going to cry on Tuesday when I leave my host family. I know it already :( 

The maes started cooking at 5:30am to prepare for lunch

There were a lot of dancing afterward :)

I'm going to miss her so much!

Other highlights/things I've learned:

-We made flower hair clip out of our capulana scraps for swearing in ceremony :)

- I got more information about my house!! I am so excited. and so happy to have electricity! I didn't expect to have such a big house all to myself either. I found out that there's 2 water pumps near my house: 3 min and 5min walk. I'll have to see how long I can keep up getting my own water before I hire someone to get water for me.. haha