Chimundo

"Whatever tomorrow brings, I´ll be there, with open arms and open eyes" - Incubus

So much has happened in the past week! Last Friday, 70 Peace Corps trainees became official Peace Corps volunteers. The swear-in ceremony was held in Maputo, at the super sweet house of the ambassador. We all wore our capulana outfits and everyone looked, as they say here, chique [sheeky], despite several setbacks…
First of all, when we first arrived at the hotel at noon, they would not allow us to check in yet so we lounged around in the lobby until 2. We then had approximately 30 minutes to get ready for the swear-in ceremony. My roommate jumped in the shower first, so by the time she was done I had 15 minutes left. After the shower, I was at 10 minutes. At 5 minutes until departure, I asked my friend to zip up the back of my dress and the zipper promptly broke. My response: “You’ve got to be f-ing kidding me.” While my friend Amanda frantically tried to fix the zipper, and my roommate Jen went to beg an extra few minutes from the Training Director, I was scuttling around the room in my underwear putting on the rest of my makeup and accessories. Eventually, my dress was literally pinned onto me with half a dozen needles and our Training director Claudia, smoking a cigarette and cursing at traffic, raced us to ambassador’s house because we had, of course, missed the bus. Ironically, as my friend was getting out of the car, her capulana skirt ripped and Dress Emergency #2 commenced- we had failed to bring the remainder of the needles. Claudia efficiently resolved the issue and we were able to make our grand entrance.
Afterwards, the volunteers returned to the 5-star hotel Cardoso and stayed up all night hanging out, our last night together as a big group- the first group (north) departed for their supervisors conference at 5am. In stages, Moz 15 was separated. My group, the 16 health volunteers of north/central Mozambique, headed to Bilene. We got very lucky with our hotel accommodations here as well: my single, air-conditioned room had a fridge and running water, and was right on the beach. We had buffet-style meals three times a day, plus two snack/tea times. Crab /shrimp curry! Salad! Chicken! Beef! Fruit salad! Flan!
After a relaxing weekend on the beach (mental health break times two, minus the heavy drinking and 50+ volunteers), we had our supervisors conference with our organization counterpart(s). My counterpart was a woman named Irma (Sister) Daulisa, a nice plump woman who likes to laugh a lot and is currently helping me set up my house. Not much to say about the conference, we went over policies and had discussions of what to expect from each other, etc.
Wednesday morning, our volunteer group was split again by region. We said our final goodbyes and left on a private chapa- 6 volunteers, their counterparts, a PC staff member, and a lot of luggage. One by one, the volunteers were dropped off at their sites. Meghan first, Caitlin next, Anne, Naa.. At each site we got off the bus to check out our peers’ new home and I took a picture of each volunteer standing in front with their counterparts, ready to start their new life. At Anne’s site, she was greeted by a crowd of people (her organization? Community members?) who sang songs as she approached, and presented her with a lei of flowers. The chefe then ceremoniously cut a ribbon of flowers strung across her door so that she could enter. It was intense.
Finally, it was my turn. There was still another volunteer, Jess whose site is 5km away in Chibuto, who had yet to be dropped off. We arrived in Chimundo, stopped in front of a large gray house, and unloaded my luggage. I stepped inside the filthy, completely empty THREE-bedroom house and... almost began to cry of disappointment. All the other volunteers had quaint little houses, had at least some furniture- a bed maybe, or perhaps a table and chairs- and had been greeted by at least a few excited community members. I had a grumpy landlord who hadn’t even put locks on the doors or the front grate, fist-sized spiders on the walls, and torn window screens to let all the mosquitoes in. Irma Daulisa and PC staff Rogerio began to argue with the landlord about the locks, which should have been in place already. The landlord responded that he didn’t know when I was supposed to be moving in, and he hadn’t had time to do it. So we sadly loaded my luggage back on the chapa. My house wasn’t ready for me.
We dropped Jess off and went to buy locks for my house. I was asked to front money for the locks and get reimbursed later, which almost made me break down again. Peace Corps, for reasons beyond me, does NOT give volunteers more settling-in money even if they are opening up a new site. So, I get the same amount of money as a volunteer who moves into a previous volunteers’ house which will naturally already have many things such as furniture. A nice mattress itself, with a box spring, is approximately 6/7 of the settling in allowance I get. Frustrating much? I’ve resigned myself to buying things in spurts, and hoping that eventually, it will actually feel like a home.
Anyway, I balked at the idea of fronting even more money (tables/chairs/bed frame are items that I will be reimbursed for, but are hefty chunks of my allowance that I don’t feel comfortable spending… especially since I'll be missing the money in my account for at least a couple weeks). Rogerio fronted the money and the landlord promised to change the locks. Meanwhile, I went to stay with Erika and Alycia, my two Moz14 Education sitemates. Thankfully, they live just one street over and their house, on the polar end of things, is absolutely cluttered with anything and everything. Their house has had PC volunteers since 2002; there are even beach murals on the walls! They have bookcases full of books, a kitchen full of dishes and pots, two dogs, two cats, blah blah blah. Oh, and a lot of cockroaches. (Side note: This story is kind of disgusting but last night, as I was sleeping on their couch, I dreamt that I had a cockroach crawling on my leg so I instinctively squished it between my knees. This morning, discovered it wasn’t a dream)
Unfortunately, this is travel season for them so they actually left for South Africa two days after my arrival. I am, however, house sitting and feeding their pets (Interesting: in terms of feeding animals, you can either buy scraps from the butcher or, as Erika and Alycia do, mix dried fish with xima. Xima, as a reminder, looks like mashed potatoes but is essentially like corn meal grits). They have two dogs and two cats, and a mangy neighborhood dog who sneaks in the house to steal food and beg to be adopted.
During the day, I am out and about in the community and in the city buying stuff for my house. The Chibuto market is a 1.5 hour walk but it’s very easy to catch a ride on the main road. And, unlike other markets, this one is rather large and comprehensive. A fridge and a mattress I will need to buy in XaiXai, but the rest I think is available here.
The morning after arrival, after some food (I forgot to mention that I didn’t get to eat breakfast or lunch before I got to site) and a good nights’ rest, I was feeling much better. I took a bath and went out to conquer the community. I introduced myself to Erika/Alycia’s neighbors (still useful, because I live so close) and was invited to tomar cha (drink tea / have breakfast). I imagine that the rest of my two years will look something like this, sitting under mango trees and conversing with the neighbors. I mentioned that I like mangoes, and I was offered several throughout the day. Later on, I was greeted by multiple people that I had met, which made me very happy to have initiated the integration process. The only problem is, I cant seem to remember their names although they always remember mine…
I already have an idea of what home improvement projects I will be taking on in the next few weeks. FIRST and foremost, build a backyard fence. This so I can get a puppy (Erika knows someone who is selling puppies) and so the annoying neighbor kids wont peek in my windows like they’ve done to Erika and Alycia in the past. The charming little kids here lack supervision, and spend their days wreaking havoc (I'm exaggerating, but only a little bit). They like to retrieve and sort through the trash of foreigners (us) and then leave the trash scattered everywhere- defeats the purpose of throwing the trash in the trash pit. They steal unripe mangoes from the tree next to the house, take one bite, and then discard the mango.
Erika and Alycia have a recently-constructed fence that gives them some backyard space and now they can leave the back door open to get some air in the house. Of course, the kids do like to push the limits by climbing the trees to peek over the fence, or as I witnessed while washing dishes, every once in a while a bold little booger will try to creep in the backyard just to stare inside. Really annoying. If the front door is open, same thing. They’ll stand right at the doorway and peer in, sometimes try to come in. The only way to get rid of them is to close the door and suffocate inside. These kids do not all speak Portuguese, either. The majority of the families around here speak Changana, the local language, and until these kids have gone to school, they will not know Portuguese.