Wandering Buckeye

The morning after site placement most of us PCTs were off on our way to Bilene, a beach town about six hours away. The awesome PCVs in the area planned everything for us and rented two houses for all of us. This was a much needed break! PST is very busy with classes six days a week and when not in class then I’m usually at home doing homework and studying. I really thought I was getting away from feeling like I am in school when I signed up for PC, after spending the past 20+ years in school I knew I could do a few more months.

Upon arriving at the houses it was a quick drop off our bags and explore the area. I headed into town with a couple other people to see what kind of stores and food was available for us. There was a small gas station that had all kinds of snack food and PIZZA!! With it being around lunch time there was no doubt in my mind that I was getting a pizza, with pineapple! It was amazing and just one of those things that while not easy to find in Mozambique,is something you can get anywhere in a America, just one of many reasons why America is such a great country. After lunch we headed back to the house, changed and took off for the beach.

The beach was about a 5-10 minute walk from the house, starting with following the sandy road down to a path that leads down to the beach past a few beach houses. The beach houses were very nice, one of them was even having a swimming pool installed, something I did not expect to see in Africa. From the top of the path I can see the lagoon, this beach actually leads to a lagoon and not the Indian Ocean itself. Continuing on the stone path, I pass through a tunnel of rich, green trees, exiting to the white, sandy beach and amazingly clear water. The beach was lined with several small, wooden boats painted with yellows, reds, pinks, blues, and white. Sitting next to the boats were large fishing nets, with it being the weekend and off season the fisherman weren’t very busy. The water felt quite cool at first, mainly since it was a cloudy day, but after a few minutes it was quite refreshing. After enjoying some time on the beach we all headed back to the houses to prepare for dinner and festa(party), complete with a DJ.

The next morning I woke up at 5 am, entirely unplanned, went out to the patio to enjoy the sunrise and the clam, quiet peace. As others started to wake a group of us went down to the mercado to get some bread and stopped to get a delicious cup of real coffee at the gas station. When I got back to the house I decided to try out the shower, yes an actual shower. Rumor was that the hot water didn’t work but I figured since it was still early I might have luck and I was right. It was great that after a couple months of bucket baths that I got the chance to have a hot shower. By this time a lot of the group was awake and we all headed back down for an enjoyable beach day.

With the sun shining the water felt much better. Across the lagoon was the land barrier that separated it from the Indian Ocean which didn’t seem too far away. We knew we could walk about 100 yards from the beach before we needed to start swimming and the assumption was that it would be about the same on the barrier side, err go we wouldn’t need to swim that much. A group of about 15 of us started on the swim across the lagoon. After about swimming for 10 minutes a few people decided to turn back since it was just too far for them, I continued on even though I was falling behind the group. After about another 10 minutes of swimming and not really making any progress towards the barrier I knew there was no way I would be able to make it and I turned back. I made it back to where I could stand again, completely exhausted and of course getting crap from others from not making it. It was a sad moment when I realized how out of shape I really had become. I passed out on the beach and took a much needed nap.

After waking up a few of us decided to go to the gas station to grab pizza for lunch. My staple was a pineapple pizza with piri-piri and I ate a whole pizza myself. I went back to the house, grabbed another hot shower and took a nice nap until the rest of the group made their way back. We spent the evening playing games and decided to go to the beach that night. It was a clear night, full moon, sky full of stars, cool ocean air, and green fluorescent phytoplankton! Even though the moon was very bright, in the shadow of the boats you could see the green phytoplankton fluoresce when agitating the water. As a biologist these are the kinds of things I love to see. I spent a good 45 minutes trying to see a shooting star and think I might have seen one out of the corner of my eye, which was disappointing since so many others saw a bunch of them. Before heading to bed that night there was a killing spree that took place in the room I was staying in. The victims were the numerous, blood-sucking mosquitoes that had invaded our room. There were a few of us that were getting pretty serious about trying to hunt and kill them, which provided endless entertainment for our fellow roomies.

The next morning was the final day in Bilene. I made my way down to beach to enjoy the beach for one last day, and since I’m headed to Tete I know it will be some time until I make it back to a beach. On my way down the stone path something felt strange on my foot. I looked down and a snake was slithering across it. The snake was about 10 inches long, no thicker than a marker, orange body with a black head. I moved too fast into the bush for me to get a picture of it, while disappointing, I was glad that it didn’t bite me. I just waded in the lagoon for a little bit of time then slowly walked down the beach taking pictures along the way. There was a large piece of drift wood that was sitting in the sand and it just seemed like something you normally see on a postcard. I stumbled across a small ladybug like insect. It was shiny orange, with silver ovals on each wing and a silver head. It looked like it had been made out of metal with how metallic it looked. There was an old, decrepit dock that was nothing more than a resting area for seagulls. I made my way down near the gas station so I decided I would get pizza one last time. There was a group of other PCTs and PCVs there already. After a delicious lunch I decided to take the long way back and walk along the beach again, this time another PCT joined me for our one last chance to enjoy the ocean air and beautiful beach. As we were walking I noticed hermit crab tracts and after following them for about 5 minutes we finally came across the little guy. He was slowly making his way down the beach as well. We came across an interesting fish that had washed ashore. It was about six inches long and fat like a puffer fish, but smooth. It had white and bright, blue eyes. Its body was grey, white-yellowish belly, yellow tipped fins and yellow lips. Back near the boats there were several jellyfish and made me happy that I was spending the day swimming with them.

After the six hour trip back home we all departed to our host families, relaxed and rested, well most of us. When I got home and dropped off my bags Mano Paulo came to greet me. He gave me a hug, said he had missed me and asked me how my trip was. As much as I enjoyed my weekend at the beach it was good to be back home with minha família.

One of the best holidays every year is Thanksgiving, the family gets together, football all day, and great food. Well Thanksgiving in Mozambique didn’t disappoint. All the PCTs had a nice big festa at Casa Grande. We had four turkeys, tons of mashed potatoes, cakes, cookies, different kinds of rice dishes and more. I have to say I didn’t actually think I would have turkey for Thanksgiving in Mozambique. I cooked green beans with onions and garlic and tossed them in a vinegar and sugar mixture. I haven’t eaten so much since I left America, I looked like I was pregnant all night long. Even though my family wasn’t there it was still a good time with my PC family.

A couple days after Thanksgiving was the host family festa for all of us. We all got to spend the morning getting our visas renewed at the Swaziland boarder, love government issues. Afterwards, all us PCTs went to the school and started to practice a couple songs to sing to our home-stay families during the festa. The families then began to show up and then the Namaacha government officials. There were speeches by the government officials, PC, PCT and the families. My sister, Iren, actually represented the families and gave the speech. The families had spent the morning preparing all the food for the festa and it was really good, this included many chickens and even a cow! There was lots of dancing, singing, and of course pictures.

After the festa wrapped up all us PCTs decided to spend the evening at a local establishment, since it was our last weekend in Namaacha and err go our last weekend all together. This day just so happen to coincide with the greatest rivalry in all of college sports, the OSU-Mich football game. Even with all the fun that I was having during the festa there was something bothering me in the back of my mind, The Game. It was the first time and many years that I was not able to watch The Game. I have to say that the most homesick I have felt since being in Mozambique was today and the main reason for it is that I was missing The Game. On top of not being able to watch it, the internet was out for cell phones. As The Game drew closer and closer, I was feeling more and more homesick. Luckily, I have one of the best friends I could ask for and he was going to keep me in the loop via text. Just shortly after kickoff the interwebs decided to start working again and a bit of calm began to settle over me. As I religiously kept refreshing my browser to not miss a single score, I was able to relax a bit and enjoy the company of my fellow PCTs, as they could attest to my neurosis. As the Buckeyes took the lead and kept it that way I was able to play games and just enjoy the great conversations. Overall it was a great day with lots of fun and of course another victory for the Buckeyes!

As the last few days of PST ticked away everything seemed so busy. There was lots of administrative things to do, packing up most of our things in order to make it easier to get things to site and of course the excitement and nervousness of going to site. It was extremely bittersweet knowing that I was leaving minha família. I had given Mano Paulo a gift a few days before leaving, an OSU paper football game. The football was actually made from leather and had a big Block O on it and the field goal post had OSU on it. After some difficulties of trying to describe how to play the game, we just decided to give it a try and learn as we went. The first five minutes were spent trying to work out the kinks and getting the hang of the game, after that though it was game on. He was actually pretty good, taking an early lead but I ended up coming back at the end to barely win. He seemed to really like the game, even the next morning during breakfast he told me we had to play again. We actually ended up tying that night, but there was still one more night left and he wanted to play again, I’m sure to win. So on my final night in Namaacha with minha família, we had our last match. He destroyed me in it, scoring over 100 points. I told him he must have been playing during the day time to get better, but he said he hadn’t. During the match we had a conversation about how goodbyes are very sad and we never look forward to them. He told before going sleep that he would walk me out to the bus the next morning.

When I woke up in the morning I finished packing the last few things I had and was trying to prepare myself for the mix of emotions. Today was a day I had been looking forward to since starting PST, Swear-In, but at the same time I was having to say goodbye to minha família. I had some chocolates and teas from America that my parents sent me, both were things that minha família mentioned they really liked. So I boxed up the gifts and wrote a thank you letter in Portuguese to them. Of course it’s difficult to truly thank someone for opening their home to me and taking care of me for months while I cannot speak much of their language. After I had everything ready to go and was prepared to leave I took the gift out and set it on the table, since they were outside at the moment. They came back in and I gave them the gift. Mano Paulo read the letter first and just about started to cry, which wasn’t the reaction I was expecting, and Ana did the same. Of course seeing them get so emotional only made me start to choke up. Both of them gave me a hug then open the box. They were extremely excited to have chocolates and tea from America, so this made me very happy. Ana said that it was all for her and Paulo might get a couple chocolates if he was nice to her.

We made our way out of the house, slowly heading down the dirt road to the bus. Mano Paulo took my bag of course and was joking that he was on his way to America. We ran into a couple other families on the road, all heading to the bus in an awkward silence, sad, knowing we were leaving and excited for everything else to come. When we got to the bus I loaded my bag inside and went back out to say my final goodbyes. After a hug with Ana she was off to do some work at school. Mano Paulo stayed around to talk a little bit, and told me that no matter what if I ever needed anything I could call him. A final hug goodbye and we all loaded up on the bus to head to Maputo for Swear-In.

Arriving in Maputo we all went straight to the five-star hotel PC had arranged for all us PCTs(soon to be PCVs) to stay at. The hotel was fully aware that there were 70 of us PCTs coming to stay for the night and we were arriving a few hours before we had to go to the Ambassador’s house for the Swear-In ceremony, yet they did not have a single room ready when we arrived. We sat around the lobby and out by the pool for a couple hours until the hotel was able to give us a few hours so we could try to get ready in about a half hour. This really didn’t provide much time to really clean up like we all would have liked but in PC fashion we made it work. Then we all hopped back into the buses to go to the Ambassador’s house.

The Ambassador’s house was amazing! The front door was as wide as a double door but swings open on a central hinge, allowing people to enter and exit at the same time. Stepping in just inside there is a large opening to the balcony from the upstairs and the beautiful hardwood floors ahead. As the hallway leads to the great room, and outdoor balcony beyond, there are openings on each side just before arriving to the great room. These openings looked down upon a small garden to one side and a Koi fish pond on the other, and there is a spiral staircase that leads down to the lower level where both of these are. Above the spiral staircase is a magnificent, circular skylight. The great room has a piano that a few PCT/Vs took the opportunity to enjoy with their musical talent, something I lack. The balcony overlooking the backyard with a swimming pool and the Mozambican Channel in the distance. As the ceremony was getting closer to beginning it began to rain, and why not it is the rainy season after all. Luckily, the rain ended just as the ceremony was beginning. There were speeches by Ambassador Leslie Rowe, PC Staff, PC Country Director Ruben Hernandez, an Ed PCT, a Health PCT, and a Mozambican official. Then finally came the moment we had all been working towards for the last 10 weeks. Ambassador Rowe lead all the PCTs in the Oath of Office, the same that all members of the United States Federal Government take, and thus making us all official PCVs!!! Then we enjoyed wonderful food, drinks, socializing and lots of pictures.

After the ceremony at the Ambassador’s house it was back to the hotel. We all finally got our rooms and relaxed for a little bit. The night was full of everyone going from one room full of PCVs to the next. We were all trying to enjoy each others company and saying our goodbyes. This was the last night many of us would ever see each other again until completion-of-service(COS) in two years from now. It was a great day with so many good memories and I went to catch a little shut eye before I had to leave the hotel at 5am to catch my flight to Chimoio.

Despite popular belief I am in fact still alive. I would like to debunk the following myths of my whereabouts:

1. I was not eaten by a lion
2. I was not attacked by a group of ravenous monkeys
3. I was not bitten by a Black Mamba, although I do hope to get the chance to see one…from a distance
4. I was not turned into a hyena…this, while seeming random, will become more clear in a future blog post
5. I did not walk into the bush never to return…I now only have very few returns from the bush
6. I was not taken as a sacrifice by the Nyau, which I don’t think they do anything of the sort…the Nyau is the local tribe, a secret society with fascinating culture, although I’m sure they find me as fascinating as I find them

As I had posted in one of my first blogs I was very much looking forward to the opportunity to disconnect from a society that is, in my opinion, overly consumed with technology. Don’t get me wrong, there are amazing benefits to technology and it can be great. At the same time I feel the awe-inspiring beauty and serenity of nature is often forgotten. To quote Lord Byron:

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;

There is rapture on the lonely shore;

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not man the less, but Nature more;

From these our interviews, in which I steal;

From all I may be, or have been before;

To mingle with the Universe, and feel

What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.”

I have also come to realized that my blog may be incorrectly named. Due to the difficulty of travel from my site and visa issues, there is a void of wandering. But I have spent more time with wondering; even though this activity consumed much of my time even in the States, it consumes me even more so here; I think a more applicable name for my blog would be Wondering and Wandering Buckeye. I do hope to engage in far more wandering in the future.

I am now attempting to update, somewhat, with what is going on. I will put up blog posts that finish up training, as it ended long ago. I will attempt to upload some pictures and try to update with more regular postings. This is all with trying to use my limited internet abilities as I live quasi-bush. While I have the modern conveniences of electricity and cell phone service, that’s where they stop. But more about that in later posts.

So I apologize as this may seem like quite a bit all at once. I will try to do better at spacing them out in the future to make them easier to read.

And of course Happy Independence Day America! I am missing the fireworks and cookouts!

As I sat in the back of the PC truck, my bags, boxes and wonderful water filter sitting a on floor next to me, curiosity was getting to me. Where exactly was my new home going to be? What is the house going to be like? What is my new host family going to be like? Is it going to be really awkward since they know that there were issues with my last host family? All questions that would be answered soon enough. We drove down the bumpy, dirt road down into the bairro where I’ve never been before. I was trying to remember all the landmarks I could since I would need to find my way back by myself after school. Then the best landmark possible was right near my house, a bring pink house and I mean flamingo pink!

The house sits off the road a little bit, so we drove down the dirt path and pulled up to the house. As we pulled into the yard I heard a loud SNAP! Not sure what the heck just happened, but pretty sure that it’s not the best way to make an entrance. I got out the back of the PC truck and looked around, sure enough the driver took out a metal clothes line. I grabbed my bags and with the help of the PC driver and my Mano(older brother) grabbing the rest of my things I was able to get everything into my room right away. Since I only had a short time between classes I only had time to meet Mano Paulo, drop off my things and head right back to class. After class I went back home for lunch and it was just Mano Paulo and me. We had some time to talk a little bit and he showed me around. Lucky for me he could speak English, this made things easier for trying to be understood and for understanding what he was trying to tell me.

The property had five buildings on it. When coming from the road along the dirt path, there is a small building made of mud and stone, with wooden posts to help support the structure and a tin roof. The wooden door is old and beat up with a large hole in it. It’s about ten feet long by five feet wide and about five and half feet high, it’s used as a storage space and an extra bedroom when people come to visit. There is a large pile of stones outside next to the spare room and two clothes lines hanging from the roof, one going to the kitchen and the other to a tree in the middle of the yard, this is the one that was taken out by the PC truck. A mud and stone walkway leads from the spare room to the kitchen, which is built the same way as the spare room. The kitchen is a little bit bigger, about 15 feet long, 8 feet wide and about 6 feet high. There are two gutters hanging from the roof in front of the kitchen, which are used to collect rain water in a big water barrel. The kitchen has a door that is part wood and part tin roofing, with two small windows on both sides of the door. When you walk into the kitchen the right part of the building is a storage area, walled off with a door. To the left just inside of the door is the two burner, coal stove that sits uneven, so they use a stick to level it out as best as possible, and it gets to be very messy and smoky when starting the coal. Along the left wall towards the back is a metal, four tier shelving unit, used to hold buckets, dirty dishes, cooking supplies and a ralar-er. To the right of the shelves are two big barrels used to store water. Along the back wall is a wooden table used to prepare all the food, and on it sits a two burner, electric stove. Just in front and on the right side of the table is another big barrel used for storing water. Behind the kitchen is a large cube rock, about two and half feet on each side, used to wash laundry on that sits on the edge of the hill in the back yard. Off to the left of the rock is the casa de banho, another building made from stone and mud. It’s about six feet by eight feet with a high eight foot ceiling. Walking in the wooden door, directly to the left in the corner is a large black cube, about four feet on each side, that is attached to floor and walls, and holds water. Along the left wall past the black cube is a large water barrel, both are used for getting water to flush the pour toilet that sits along the right side parallel to the barrel. Just past the toilet and barrel is a cement divider, about four inches high that leads into the showering area. There is a plastic, pink shower curtain with floral prints that hangs over the divider. On the left side of the shower area is a solid, cement shelf, two feet wide, two feet long and three feet high. The shelf is used to hold the black, plastic bacias(basins) used for bucket baths, and enough room for your soap and shampoo.

Off to the right of the washing rock is a few more clothes lines tied to trees and wooden posts. Following the hill down the back yard past the clothes lines and washing rock sits some trees and a field. There is a large shade tree at the base of the hill, a couple rows of banana plants running along the right side, and a row of banana plants along the left. The larger field is open and used as a machamba(garden for food).

Back up the hill to the front yard where the tree sits in the middle, there is a small rock border that squares off the two main houses. First is the smaller house that sits on the right, it’s made of brick with a tin roof. There is a window that faces out into a small dirt garden where a tree sits against the house. I never set foot in this house so I’m not sure what is inside of it. The house was built specifically for Mãe and she lives there alone. The bigger of the two houses sits to the left of Mãe’s house and the front part of it is an attachment that was built out of rocks and mud. The front of the attachment has been cemented over to give it a clean look, with two windows, one on each side of the door and a light over the door. The tin roof on the attachment is held on with large rocks sitting on top of the roof, so during heavy winds the roof will shift a little bit and it makes a lot of noise. Walking through the front door there is a wall to the left dividing a bedroom from the dining/living room and a hallway directly in front leading to two more bedrooms, one on each side. The dining room has a long wooden table in the middle, with a wooden TV stand against the middle of the wall on the right side. There is always a plastic bowl with fruit sitting out on the table. Below the TV on the stand is a shelf that holds food items like, sugar, salt, coffee, tea, and vinegar. There are three wooden chairs that go with the kitchen table, but one of the chairs is very unstable and not able to be sat in. There are also four green, plastic chairs. Plastic chairs are probably the most common type of chair in Mozambique. In the corner to the right of the TV was a plastic table that holds the dish ware and there were pots below the table. Around the kitchen were a picture of two little kids kissing and dressed like they are getting married, a picture of Michael Jackson, a religious poem, a clock with a picture of Jesus, a picture of a baby resting on it’s mother’s shoulder. There were also little labels around the kitchen in Portuguese to help PCTs get familiar with the terms. The most interesting part of the kitchen would have to be the four bags of water hanging from the wooden beams that ran over head. At first I thought that the bags were a religious thing, filled with holy water or something similar. I was later informed, by my brother, that they are used to help prevent bugs. This made sense as I saw people had bags of water tied to trees in front of their houses.
Continuing with the bedrooms, the first being the one room opposite the dining room. This is a small room where there is clothing and bags being stored, along with a bed sitting up against the wall. And heading down the hallway leads to the other two bedrooms. At the end of the hallway is the refrigerator, which is a nice luxury here. The bedroom along the left side of the hallway is my Mano Paulo and his wife’s. I never went into the room and the door was usually shut, but I did see it a couple times when I talked to Mano Paulo while he was working in there. From the little bit I could see there is a bed, dresser, a clothes line full of clothes on hangers and of course a Janet Jackson poster.

Lastly, the bedroom on the right is mine. This is a very nice large room. There are two large windows, each with two windows that opened like doors and the central part of the window did not open. Having two large windows is nice to try and get a breeze on the very hot summer days. Even sill I am sweating all the time. I have a large bed in the center on the right wall. To the right of the bed is a small nightstand and to the left is a couple small shelves for me to put my clothes on. Along the back wall on the left side is a nice desk and chair, something that is not common here. I put the majority of my things on the right side near the nightstand and have a place to hang my clothes above there. The artwork in the room is very interesting, and quite notorious as I talk to PCVs from previous years. The pictures include one of a bunch of roses, another of a little boy and little girl dressed up like they are getting married and a love poem on it. There is a picture of 2Pac next to a phone of a couple with their arms around each other on a beach and another love poem. There was a picture of what appears to be Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and a poem about God. Lastly, and probably the most well known picture of them all, is a picture of a man standing behind a woman with his arms around her, both are facing the camera, and both are topless. Something to keep in mind is that in Mozambique their idea of breast are not the same as ours, so I don’t think this picture comes across as being sexual.

I was outside brushing my teeth, getting ready for bed my first night with my new family and I couldn’t believe how bright it was. The moon was full, not a cloud in the sky. As I looked down upon the field at the bottom of the hill everything was illuminated, the trees cast shadows that danced on the ground as the cool, African breeze weaved through the night. This was one of those moments that as I stood there, I wanted to spend the night sleeping outside, enjoying a sight I know I will never forget.

The morning began with the fun of laundry day. This usually consists of hours of washing clothes by hand, scrubbing, rinsing, wringing and finally hanging. By the end of it my knuckles are raw, as PCTs we have strawberried knuckles as our badge of honor. After hanging up everything it was time for me to change and get ready for the hike to the fronteira (boarder). There were about 35 of us PCTs that embarked on this excitement. We met on the edge of town near the customs boarder, if this were the boarder we were going for then there would be no excitement at all. I made a stop at CDD before heading out to grab a couple bottles of water since it was a hot day and it was going to be a long hike. We all left the customs boarder area down to where the main road turned to go towards the village behind the town where we live. The side of the road was lined with barb wired fence, so clearly we were going the right way. As we walked down the road towards the mountain there were trees with red, blooming flowers, ruins of old houses, a couple large new houses, lush green trees all over and my favorite a sign on the side of the road next to a path that said “No taking baths, No washing clothes.”

The trail to the fronteira took a turn off the road down a dirt path, which looked as though trucks must have driven through there on occasion. The path was lined with dried grasses as tall as us and machambas spotted throughout. Slowly but surely the trail began to become more steep. Look over to one side I could see caniço (reed) huts across the boarder, and it just seemed like what I would expect to see. There’s always the perception of the bush of Africa with caniço huts in the savannahs. Soon the path made by trucks ended and it was just a walking path the rest of the way up the mountain. The trail was littered with patches of barren rock as we climbed higher and higher. Occasionally I would turn back to look upon the town we left and admire the openness. The last bit of the hike up the mountain was pretty steep and just rock, but we finally reached the top.

A much needed rest break was in order and we all gladly relaxed. Our families had packed lunch for us to take so we enjoyed a picnic at the top. From the peak I could look down upon the town of Namaacha, Swaziland, where the custom boarder leads, and South Africa. Of course I had to get a picture from on top the marker of where the three boarders meet, with my OSU flag. Near where we had hiked there was a communication station with a group of tall trees surrounding it to try and hide it. On the way up I had started feeling a bit of an upset stomach but thought it was nothing more than being incredibly out of shape. Before heading down I quickly realize it was not just do to being out of shape but the time I had been dreading was upon me. Needless to say I successfully left a Stage 5 in South Africa and a Stage 6 in Mozambique, these are references in which only fellow PCTs will understand and I will not elaborate.

On the way back to town we decided to take a detour off the road and take the back way home. The path lead to an area covered in very dense, green trees. The shade was something we all were looking for. As we continued on the trail was littered with ruins of old buildings, some were homes, some were stores, even a large old school with a cement soccer area and an old church. There were goats wandering around the ruins and just bathing themselves in the sun. There were a number of beautiful trees blooming with yellow and white flowers. Finally, arriving back home, I was exhausted, dirty (there is a picture showing the dirt line on my legs from where I had my socks), and of course still feeling ill. Upon getting home, Ana, my cunhada (sister-in-law), said I looked like a tourist. After a bath and dinner I was off to sleep.

As Americans we love Halloween, we get to dress up, act strange (in some cases just stranger than normal), and of course free candy! This is a holiday that is not celebrated in Mozambique, but that was not going to stop us PCTs. I tried to describe the holiday to my family but they were very confused by the whole concept. Part of the problem is the name of Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve/All Saints’ Eve, as this translates into Day of the Saints, so my family was thinking it was a type of religious holiday, which is far from the truth these days. I was telling them that we dress up and receive candy as children, but as adults we tend to dress up and have a party. They then thought that we were to dress up as Saints, which is about the biggest contradiction of what most people usually dress as. They were completely perplexed by what we actually were doing and finally just chopped it up to us being strange Americans with strange traditions. Never the less they wanted us to have a good time and looked forward to seeing people dressed up.

We had decided on having the party at Casa Grande, since there is an extremely nice, large, open hut we could use. Then came down to what to wear, a number of people were planning group costumes. As I was discussing ideas with my PCT neighbor, she was going as Miss KFC, this is in fact a beauty contest that exists in Africa. We thought it would be funny for me to go as Mister KFC. We designed crowns, sashes and decided we would wear African clothing, for me this was a capulana tunic, which I borrowed from another PCT, and for her it was a capulana dress. My family really liked seeing me in a capulana tunic. I departed my house in the evening, meeting up with other PCTs along the way, making our way to Casa Grande. People had brought speakers and iPods to make sure the evening was in full American Halloween spirit.

The costumes were great. People were dress as Dr. Seuss characters, pirates, fairies, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, crazy soccer fans, ukelele players in coconut bras(both were guys), a group dressed as a cow and even Mcel and Vodacom street vendors (Mcel and Vodacom are the cell phone carriers here in Mozambique and you have to buy credit from them to make calls). One of the ukelele guy’s coconut bra broke so I took the coconuts. I started going around clacking the coconuts together and acting like I was riding a horse. Unfortunately, many people didn’t get the reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, this was a sad moment for me. But those that did get it thoroughly enjoyed me just randomly roaming around groups of people doing so. The evening came to a close at Casa Grande and moved to the nearest “social establishment,” but it was a great evening with lots of fun, laughs, and generally a very American time in a very not American country.

So pretty much the biggest part of PST, aside from Swearing In, is site placement. This is the time where all PCTs find out where they will be going to live for the next two years. The sites are decided by PC staff and it doesn’t appear to have any known system of how they place PCTs. It’s been thought by a lot that PC staff actually gets a map of Mozambique, write PCTs names on darts, then blindly throw the darts at the map and whichever city is closest to the dart is the city that PCT is going to. Needless to say some people are very happy with where they end up and others are very sad. Some PC countries have fun and exciting ways of finding out where you are going to placed, while Moz just gives you a white envelope with your info inside and tells all the PCTs to open them at the same time. This year the idea was brought up to do something more exciting. We came up with the idea to have a giant map of Mozambique on the floor, blindfold all the PCTs then have the PC staff place us in our provinces and gives us our envelopes. This way when we all take off our blindfolds at the same time, we see who all our neighbors are going to be. As one PC staff member put it, if someone isn’t in your region you probably won’t see them again and hardly ever talk to them. All the Education PCTs wanted to do the blindfolding but the Health PCTs were freaking out and couldn’t handle the blindfolding so PC staff scrapped it and just gave us white envelopes. After we opened out envelopes we walked to our places on the map to see who all was where.
I got placed in Tete Province. I’m going to be opening a new site by myself, so it should be a lot of fun and I’m excited. There are currently only four PCVs in Tete and they are expanding it to nine PCVs now! Seven Moz15 PCTs are going there and two PCVs are COSing, so they are being replaced. Tete is well known in Mozambique as the hottest place in the country. It’s usually about 115 degrees during the summer time in Tete City! Luckily I’m away from the city and in the mountains a little bit, so it only gets to be about 100 degrees. During my interviews with PC staff for placement I told them I don’t like the heat and would rather be high in the mountains where it gets really cold, but I got Tete. There was a joke at the very beginning of PST that there are only two letters in Tete, E and T. ET is short for Early Termination, which is what PC calls when people choose to leave before the end of their service. I think I sealed my fate long before this. I thought it would be funny to make Tete synonymous with Hell since it’s so hot. I would always say things like “It’s hot as Tete” or “You have a snowballs chance in Tete.” I was determined to get it stick amongst the Moz 15ers and it appears people now like using it more since I’ve been placed there. On the good side of things I don’t have to worry about trying to buy an oven, I can just cook things on the rocks outside my place. Now I just hope I don’t spontaneously combust!

Every Wednesday and Saturday in Namaacha is “shoprite” day. Now there are stores called ShopRite in bigger towns that are similar to a Mozambican Kroger. They are large, air conditioned, and have all the great foods you could want, like Doritos, Fritos, and everything to make burritos. Unfortunately, this is not the same as Namaacha shoprite. Namaacha shoprite is more like a larger market with lots of clothing and more food variety than what is found in the normal market here. Being Saturday, a group of us decided to go explore shoprite. While there wasn’t anything too exciting there it was nice to get out and passear(walk around). On the way back we stop by the gas station, which I have never actually seen anyone get gas at, and bought some snack food. We relaxed, watched a futebol match, and enjoyed not having to worry about doing a million and half things. I headed back home a little before dinner time, getting home around 17:45. To my surprise there was a group of people at the house and music blaring. As I walked in the door, it was quite obvious that everyone had been drinking quite a bit, and drunken Portuguese is hard to understand when I don’t really understand sober Portuguese well. My brother, Tony, from Maputo was in town with one of his friends, Playboy Blaze, yes that is the actually name I was told, and one other friend. Then there was a neighbor lady with her infant child, Mama Celeste, Junior, and one of Junior’s friends. I took a seat in the living room and had dinner since it was ready, just rice and beans. Of course I didn’t really understand what was going on since there was a mix of drunken Portuguese and drunken Changana, with the occasional broken English thrown in. The neighbor lady was in town because she had just completed her training at the police academy and was going to become a police officer very soon, so I figured that’s what all the partying was about. After a few hours Mama Celeste finally passed out in a chair and the others just kept on partying. The neighbor lady at this point was dancing and her baby was screaming his head off, unhappy with it being awake at 10 pm. She decided that it was time to give her baby a little TLC, so she tied him in front of her using a capulana. People here tie their babies to them in a sling using a capulana, in the front if they are trying to comfort the child or in the back if they are just going places with them. After several minutes comforting the baby calmed down. With the mother having done her job she moves her baby to her back and goes back to dancing; yes, she was dancing with a baby tied to her back. Shortly after this Mama Celeste woke up, looked around and grabbed a bottle of wine. She proceeded to throw back about a quarter of the bottle and then went outside. Everyone had moved outside in front of the house so they could dance and listen to music that was blaring from Playboy Blaze’s car. It was around 11 pm and I was exhausted and I was just observing everything, I didn’t have a single drink even with the persistence of my host family and friends. I told Mama Celeste that I was tired and going to bed, of course this didn’t give her the idea that maybe she should have everyone turn it down a little and let me try to get some sleep. I sat in bed trying to sleep and finally around 12-12:30 am, Playboy Blaze and the rest of them took off.

Just like any good Buckeye would, I woke up at 4 am to check the score of one of the biggest games OSU football was going to have all season, against Wisconsin. We need not discuss the outcome but there was a sad Buckeye in Moçambique.

The next morning I got up around 8 am and as you could imagine no one else was up and the place was still messy. There were three boxes and one bottle of wine sitting empty on the table in the corner of the room. I moved the sofa chair out from in front of the door and went outside to get some fresh air. After a little while Mama Celeste and Junior woke up and joined me outside. I reminded Mama Celeste I needed to do my laundry so we all made a trip to go fetch water. After finishing my laundry I was starving, but there wasn’t any food in the house. Without being allowed to tomar banho (take a bath), we headed off to the mercado. Mama Celeste was clearly trying to make up for the night before and was buying everything to make couve, along with buying lots of fresh fruits, usually a rarity. Since she had to buy coco, she had the vendor crack it open right there in the mercado and let me drink the water inside, which tasted great and was really refreshing. On the way back we stopped by CDD to get some sausage for lunch, which was really good. After lunch, Mama Celeste started working on the couve for dinner. I spent the afternoon studying since there was a Portuguese test the next day. I enjoyed the delicious couve dinner then Mama Celeste said we were going for a passear, which is very unusual for her to say something like that but seemed like a great thing. We went out to the main road and walked about 200 meters to the nearest bar, CDD. Mama Celeste ordered a bottle of wine while Junior and I just had some refrescos, and Tony and Playboy Blaze showed up to drink with Mama Celeste. After sitting around for about an hour and half I started to work on making my exit, telling Mama Celeste that I needed to go home and study for my test the next day. Mama Celeste told me that I didn’t need to go home, I needed to stay there and drink with them. Junior was just quietly sitting there with a look like this was a common occurrence, which I really felt bad that he is stuck in that kind of situation. Finally I just told Mama Celeste I was going home and headed out, unfortunately I couldn’t talk her into letting Junior come with me. After getting home I just took care of all my laundry from earlier in the day. Then I received a phone call from my parents and it was great talking to them! Junior came home later, without Mama Celeste and I headed to bed.

Monday rolled around with my fun Portuguese test which left me brain-fried for the rest of the day. When I went home for lunch, Mama Celeste just gave me leftovers from the night before, which I didn’t mind but she didn’t even bother to heat it up. She was falling asleep at the table, clearly hungover, and I asked her if she was tired. She responded by saying that wine isn’t good and that she was only going to be drinking refrescos from now on. Then in the evening was the first chefe(leader/boss) meeting for PCTs. We meet at Casa Grande, which was a huge house on a really nice property, and was really far from my house. The meeting is just for the Training Manager, TM, to update us with all the scheduling changes, any issues PC needs us PCTs to know, and it gives us PCTs a chance to let PC know if there are issues we are having. After the meeting I talked with the TM about what happened over the weekend. Mainly I was doing this since the stories I had heard from the previous PCVs that lived with Mama Celeste were along the lines of her having problems of adequately taking care of them and her drinking being an issue. Ultimately, I wanted to let PC know that the problems were still persisting and there are probably better host families that could be used in the future instead of Mama Celeste. The TM gave me the option to move, but I declined and thought that even if it were going to be a difficult living situation with Mama Celeste, maybe I could have a positive influence on Junior. When I got home Mama Celeste was sitting on the couch with a beer in hand, so while she wrote off wine, I guess since beer comes in bottles closer to the size of refrescos, it was okay.

Tuesday morning I woke up and got ready. Mama Celeste was glad that I got up and did everything on my own, except for the food part. I had to wake her up about 15 min before I had to walk out the door to remind her that I needed something for lunch to take with me, not to mention I needed something to eat for breakfast. At the end of the day, the TM pulled me aside, told me that she had brought up my issues with the other Admin people and it was decided that I had to be moved to a new host family. The TM said that I needed to go home, act like I didn’t know anything was going to happen and pack up all my stuff later in the night so it would be ready the next morning. PC was busy moving two other PCTs at the same time so I was in the queue. I went home and tried to act as normal as possible but the second I walked in the door it seemed weird, but then again I could just be acting paranoid. Then Mama Celeste just started yelling a million miles an hour in either Portuguese or Changana, couldn’t really tell. Luckily, Tony was there so he had Mama Celeste calm down and then between his broken English and my dictionary I figured out why Mama Celeste was upset. They said that PC came to the house and talked to them about having issues, and I’m not sure what was said. Glad I have to act like nothing is going on so to not let them know I’ve talked to PC and make things awkward at home. Mama Celeste told me to just talk to her about any issues that I have, don’t talk to PC about them, and she said she would stop drinking. She even had beginner Portuguese books she used for her informal teaching she wanted to sit down with me and work on my Portuguese. I let the TM know that Mama Celeste seemed to want to make an effort to change. I told her that I would prefer to stay with Mama Celeste and Junior, especially if that meant her sobering up. Even if it were a temporary sobering up it would probably be a good thing for Junior to experience the love of his mother after she had been sober for more than just a couple days. I was really hoping that I could make a positive influence on my host family and help everyone in the family. The TM said it was not her decision to be made and she would discuss it with the other Admin people and let me know in the morning but just prepare as planned.

Morning came and so did the phone call from the TM. She said the call came from the chefe that it was time to get me out of Mama Celeste’s house and into a new home. I made sure I finished packing up the last few things before going to language class, which just so happened to be at my neighbor’s house where the other PCT is living. PC said they would talk to Mama Celeste, then I would just go over there load my stuff into the PC truck and move. Not only was all this excitement going on right next to language class, but language classes were just shuffled around and I was with a new teacher. PC came by and talked to Mama Celeste around the end of morning language class, so when class was over I just went back home grabbed my stuff and off I went.

A major part of PST is to learn about the culture here. I think we can all agree that food is an integral and unique part of every culture. (Especially in my family, oh how I miss the food) So we had a night where together in our language groups with our Mães, we learned how to cook Moçambicano. It started with the longest and most painstaking part of one of the best foods I’ve ever had, matapa. I actually prefer folha da abóbora(pumpkin leaves), couve, then matapa but I won’t argue with any. All are the greens of different plants and are prepared in a similar fashion.
Since there were four PCTs with four Mães, we were able to set up stations to make things move along faster. At one station we were cutting up the greens, which is done but rolling a bunch of leaves together very tightly in a circle and cutting from tip to the base of the stem in thin strips, about an eighth of an inch. Along with cutting up the greens, there is usually peeling and dicing tomatoes. Now in Mozambique, people don’t really use cutting boards and the knives are very dull so they just cut everything in their hands.
Another station was preparing the coco(coconut), which starts by removing the hair on the outside of the coco as much as possible. Then we had to crack open the coco, usually this is done by hitting it around the middle against a rock that’s just sitting nearby, and then drinking the coco water inside soon as it’s open. The fun part is ralar-ing(grating) the yummy white pulp of the coco. For this there is a special contraption used, the ralar-er is what I’ll refer to it as, and it is a small, rectangular, wooden stool with a sharp, oval, metal tip full of tiny teeth on one end. We were showed the proper technique for ralar-ing the coco by one of the Mães, then we got a shot at it. There is actually a specific way to sit on the ralar-er, which is different for men and women, and being in a group of all women I was not informed of this before it was my turn. Women are supposed to sit with both of their legs to one side of the ralar-er, so not to straddle it, it is culturally inappropriate for a woman to straddle the ralar-er. Men on the other hand are supposed to straddle the ralar-er, so a leg on each side, which actually makes it much easier to ralar. As I sat down, after only watching women, I sat with both legs to one side, which caused the Mães to laugh hysterically. I’m always glad when I can offer everyone a good laugh, which I manage to do often here. I was informed after they caught their breaths that I was to sit like a strong man and straddle the ralar-er. Taking a coco half and cupping it with my hands I began the time and energy consuming part of ralar-ing the coco. After only a couple minutes of ralar-ing and not able to even get half of the coco half I had finished. Once the coco is nothing more than white shavings, it is thrown into boiling water to make a coco milk. The coco milk is then strained to remove all the shavings and leaving nothing but rich coco milk.
The other station was preparing the amendoim(peanut) with the pilar and peneira. Pilar-ing is just using a giant mortar and pestle to crush the roasted amendoim to a powder a little grainier than flour. Since not all the amendoim gets pilar-ed evenly, we have to scoop out the crushed amendoim and put it into the peneira. A peneira is a large, wicker circle about an inch deep. The crushed amendoim is spread thinly on the bottom of the peneira and then the tricky part. By holding the peneira on the sides and shaking/flicking it at the correct angle with the correct amount of force, the larger pieces of amendoim collect on the bottom side and can be put back into the pilar to be crushed more. As you can imagine it takes some skill to use a peneira correctly and the Mães were getting a good laugh at us PCTs trying, needless to say I was unsuccessful.
Once the greens are cut up, the coco milk made, and the amendoim pilar-ed, it’s all mixed together in a pot and cooked for hours. So usually when people this dish they start around lunch time so it is ready in time for dinner, but it is worth all the work and time waiting. It is usually served over rice or xima, I would highly recommend rice. This is undoubtedly a dish I’ll be bringing back to American with me.