I think.
Hopefully if you don't get my e-mails, you can click on this link and it will allow you to sign up for Snapfish and see them...I think.
http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=35181200656456171/l=347889552/g=35776459/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
Good luck!
ZS
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Mozambicans LOVE Michael Bolton and Bryan Adams...
I only mention this to first set the tone of my current life. I mean, what person, DOESN'T want to be woken everyday at 5am to "When a Man Loves a Woman" and the song from Robin Hood???
Sorry for this being so long, but here we go...
Ola Amigos! Thank you so much for the Christmas cards, packages and well-wishes. From stockings to Gamecock goodies, my other volunteers are ever so slightly jealous. I'm OK with this, of course...just saying. After a month o acclimating to my new community, going through Christmas and new years and doing a little traveling up the coast, I finally have time to sit down and update everyone. I also have new pictures on Snapfish and will try to post the address for those who need it.
To start, Chonguene is a beautiful community. I am living in the house of my director's son while his son's family lives in a smaller house about 30 feet from me. At first I thought this would be awkward, with a stranger living in their new home. However they were so excited to have a volunteer that I was immediately welcomed as part of the family. The house is charming and has a veranda that faces West, so I enjoy the amazing sunsets each evening as I read my book or eat dinner. I have spent the last couple of weeks crafting various things to fill the rooms and make it a little more "homey". The walls are mostly bare, but I am on the search for things to hang and colorful items to brighten the rooms and windows (curtains are being made as we speak). I am cooking like crazy to keep my mind occupied (I even made a Dutch oven). I also inherited an adorable 1 year old cat named Samora. Most of you know I am NOT a cat person, but as soon as I met her we fell for each other. Well, either that or she is just responding to finally being fed regularly. Regardless, a puppy will follow shortly. The letters and packages are great especially since the are coming to the Xai Xai address and I can retrieve them separate from Peace Corps.
My organization, AREPACHO, is amazing. Created in 2001, they have worked to build themselves up to best serve the community. There are roughly 80 Activistas (individuals who help bring services to specific areas in Chonguene) and some staff. We distribute food aid (we also have a machamba/farm to help supplement the food), develop HIV educational programs, and work to create economic development through income generating projects. Chonguene is a poor community but rich in natural resources (as they say, Chonguene is rich, it's the people who are poor). My yard alone has 7 types of fruit trees. However, jobs are extremely scarce, with most people relying on subsistence farming as their primary, if not sole, source of income. When everyone in the organization came together on the first Friday, I was introduced to the staff and the Activistas started singing to me. It was so beautiful I just about came to tears. Afterwards I began asking questions to gauge what what areas I might be able to offer assistance. They were quick to respond. It looks like I will be teaching them English (a surprising tool since almost all the countries surrounding Moz speak English), teaching them how to use the computers (they have 3!...Microsoft programs are also in English), setting them up for the Internet to research grants, expanding their current programs while developing new ones, starting up a income generating project teaching women to sow, building (and I mean BUILDING) an interactive child centre, and possibly starting a dairy program ( I'm talking with Heifer Intl on this one). Not too bad, right? I figure in 2 years I should just about know how to squat properly to use the bathroom....the child centre should be a piece of cake. I can't joke too much though. One of my friends in Zambezia had her boss drive in from the city and suggest, on her 2nd day, that she start a day hospital. This is the kind of work that is expected, and I am so eager to see the kinds of projects that result from our class of volunteers at the end of our service.
The holidays were a little awkward as it was the first time away from family and friends. Thankfully my director invited me to join his extended family for Christmas to eat, drink and dance. He said that we would be having pork and I immediately thought, "Yum, Honey Baked ham!" And then of course I saw the enormous, hairy, black pig they had strung up in the backyard. I was OK with the idea of killing this animal since I had murdered more than my fair share of delicious chickens in Mafuine. However, I wasn't exactly sure how we were going to go about killing Ole Wilbur. At that moment someone brought out a mallet and went all "Lord of the Flies," bashing in Piggy's head. After hours of scraping, cutting and quartering, we had some of the best pork I have put in my mouth to this day. New years was significantly less bloody as I got together with volunteers in Xai Xai to celebrate with duck in banana leaves at the house/restaurant of an Ex-pat from Britain.
Because the rate of drunk driving skyrockets during the days around Christmas and New Years, my friend Katie and I waited till January 3rd to take a little vacation away. Traveling up the Coast on the EN1, we took a butt-numbing 9 hour Chapa ride to Vilankulo where we stayed at our friend Lily's house by the ocean, which thankfully had indoor plumbing and a shower. There we took advantage of the touristy market shops and bought things like...Gouda! They, taking advantage of Lily's fridge/freezer, we made...frappicinos! I swear, for a minute I almost forgot that I fazer xixi in a hole in the ground. The next day we hired some Mozambicans to take us on their sailboat to the archipelagos off the coast to do some amazing snorkeling. This only strengthened my desire to go scuba diving here. After leaving Lily, we went 5 hours south to Inhambane and Maxixe, two towns separated by a beautiful bay. Inhumane is an adorable town that has maintained it's charm while developing to meet the needs of the growing tourist population. Now I am back in Chonguene ready to begin and hopefully not disappoint an organization that is responsible for so many and expects so much. Two years is a long time but the general consensus from volunteers is that it goes fast.
The first thing that went on my wall in my house was a map of the United States that my friend Jeff, a former Ukraine PCV, sent me. When I get a little down, I look over the map and recognize various locations that have special significance. I see Rockland, Maine where my mother used to take us in the summers for the Lobster Festival and to see her family's cabin on the lake. I see Alpine Texas where Dad took us to see Grammy and to look for arrowheads and then to Marfa (also on the map) to see the mysterious Marfa Lights. I see highway 10 that bisects the country where Jimmy and I went cross-country after graduation to live for two fun-filled years in Los Angeles with Josh, Ash, Lyne and Cami (best decision I have ever made). It is also in LA that I met some truly amazing friends who gave me some great memories. For only being 24 I am unbelievably lucky to have such positive experiences and recollections. My hope is that in 2 years, I can put up a map of Mozambique in my apartment in the States and relive a newer set of stories, equally as poignant and just as influential on my life.
Looks like it's time to get to work.
Obrigado!
ZS
Sorry for this being so long, but here we go...
Ola Amigos! Thank you so much for the Christmas cards, packages and well-wishes. From stockings to Gamecock goodies, my other volunteers are ever so slightly jealous. I'm OK with this, of course...just saying. After a month o acclimating to my new community, going through Christmas and new years and doing a little traveling up the coast, I finally have time to sit down and update everyone. I also have new pictures on Snapfish and will try to post the address for those who need it.
To start, Chonguene is a beautiful community. I am living in the house of my director's son while his son's family lives in a smaller house about 30 feet from me. At first I thought this would be awkward, with a stranger living in their new home. However they were so excited to have a volunteer that I was immediately welcomed as part of the family. The house is charming and has a veranda that faces West, so I enjoy the amazing sunsets each evening as I read my book or eat dinner. I have spent the last couple of weeks crafting various things to fill the rooms and make it a little more "homey". The walls are mostly bare, but I am on the search for things to hang and colorful items to brighten the rooms and windows (curtains are being made as we speak). I am cooking like crazy to keep my mind occupied (I even made a Dutch oven). I also inherited an adorable 1 year old cat named Samora. Most of you know I am NOT a cat person, but as soon as I met her we fell for each other. Well, either that or she is just responding to finally being fed regularly. Regardless, a puppy will follow shortly. The letters and packages are great especially since the are coming to the Xai Xai address and I can retrieve them separate from Peace Corps.
My organization, AREPACHO, is amazing. Created in 2001, they have worked to build themselves up to best serve the community. There are roughly 80 Activistas (individuals who help bring services to specific areas in Chonguene) and some staff. We distribute food aid (we also have a machamba/farm to help supplement the food), develop HIV educational programs, and work to create economic development through income generating projects. Chonguene is a poor community but rich in natural resources (as they say, Chonguene is rich, it's the people who are poor). My yard alone has 7 types of fruit trees. However, jobs are extremely scarce, with most people relying on subsistence farming as their primary, if not sole, source of income. When everyone in the organization came together on the first Friday, I was introduced to the staff and the Activistas started singing to me. It was so beautiful I just about came to tears. Afterwards I began asking questions to gauge what what areas I might be able to offer assistance. They were quick to respond. It looks like I will be teaching them English (a surprising tool since almost all the countries surrounding Moz speak English), teaching them how to use the computers (they have 3!...Microsoft programs are also in English), setting them up for the Internet to research grants, expanding their current programs while developing new ones, starting up a income generating project teaching women to sow, building (and I mean BUILDING) an interactive child centre, and possibly starting a dairy program ( I'm talking with Heifer Intl on this one). Not too bad, right? I figure in 2 years I should just about know how to squat properly to use the bathroom....the child centre should be a piece of cake. I can't joke too much though. One of my friends in Zambezia had her boss drive in from the city and suggest, on her 2nd day, that she start a day hospital. This is the kind of work that is expected, and I am so eager to see the kinds of projects that result from our class of volunteers at the end of our service.
The holidays were a little awkward as it was the first time away from family and friends. Thankfully my director invited me to join his extended family for Christmas to eat, drink and dance. He said that we would be having pork and I immediately thought, "Yum, Honey Baked ham!" And then of course I saw the enormous, hairy, black pig they had strung up in the backyard. I was OK with the idea of killing this animal since I had murdered more than my fair share of delicious chickens in Mafuine. However, I wasn't exactly sure how we were going to go about killing Ole Wilbur. At that moment someone brought out a mallet and went all "Lord of the Flies," bashing in Piggy's head. After hours of scraping, cutting and quartering, we had some of the best pork I have put in my mouth to this day. New years was significantly less bloody as I got together with volunteers in Xai Xai to celebrate with duck in banana leaves at the house/restaurant of an Ex-pat from Britain.
Because the rate of drunk driving skyrockets during the days around Christmas and New Years, my friend Katie and I waited till January 3rd to take a little vacation away. Traveling up the Coast on the EN1, we took a butt-numbing 9 hour Chapa ride to Vilankulo where we stayed at our friend Lily's house by the ocean, which thankfully had indoor plumbing and a shower. There we took advantage of the touristy market shops and bought things like...Gouda! They, taking advantage of Lily's fridge/freezer, we made...frappicinos! I swear, for a minute I almost forgot that I fazer xixi in a hole in the ground. The next day we hired some Mozambicans to take us on their sailboat to the archipelagos off the coast to do some amazing snorkeling. This only strengthened my desire to go scuba diving here. After leaving Lily, we went 5 hours south to Inhambane and Maxixe, two towns separated by a beautiful bay. Inhumane is an adorable town that has maintained it's charm while developing to meet the needs of the growing tourist population. Now I am back in Chonguene ready to begin and hopefully not disappoint an organization that is responsible for so many and expects so much. Two years is a long time but the general consensus from volunteers is that it goes fast.
The first thing that went on my wall in my house was a map of the United States that my friend Jeff, a former Ukraine PCV, sent me. When I get a little down, I look over the map and recognize various locations that have special significance. I see Rockland, Maine where my mother used to take us in the summers for the Lobster Festival and to see her family's cabin on the lake. I see Alpine Texas where Dad took us to see Grammy and to look for arrowheads and then to Marfa (also on the map) to see the mysterious Marfa Lights. I see highway 10 that bisects the country where Jimmy and I went cross-country after graduation to live for two fun-filled years in Los Angeles with Josh, Ash, Lyne and Cami (best decision I have ever made). It is also in LA that I met some truly amazing friends who gave me some great memories. For only being 24 I am unbelievably lucky to have such positive experiences and recollections. My hope is that in 2 years, I can put up a map of Mozambique in my apartment in the States and relive a newer set of stories, equally as poignant and just as influential on my life.
Looks like it's time to get to work.
Obrigado!
ZS
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