Those Who Wander are Not Always Lost

"Passear" doesn't really have a good one-to-one English translation. If you were to search in a translator you would get the verbs "to stroll", "to walk" and "to saunter", to name a few; none of these fully embody the full sense of the word. To be honest, if you were to ask a Mozambican what "passear" meant, they would likely move their hand in an large, open sweeping motion and respond with, "Epa, é passear só!" (Ay, it's just passearing!) As this is not a very functional definition for any of you not in Mozambique reading this, let's try to peg this down.

Passear (v.) - to wander around one's neighborhood or town with or without a predetermined destination and with the continual objective of encountering known, and possibly unknown, individuals in order to share some form of social interaction with them

This general description aside, there really are no rules to passear-ing, simply a few guidlines. Here are some of the non-rules you must know and hints that might help before your first passearing:

• One doesn't need to give an individual forewarning before showing up at their residence, a simple "com licença" (with permission) upon reaching the gate, yard or front door will do.
• One doesn't need to explain to anyone why one is there, it's enough to know it's a routine passear.
• One needn't divulge any route plans or destination to anyone who might greet one along the way. "Estou a passear" tells them everything they need to know.
• However, once one assumes a passear-ing status, one opens oneself to any social interaction that might come one's way and is now obliged to entertain, at least briefly, any conversation or story that might come one's way. There is no such thing as selective passear-ing.
• There is no amount of time that a passear-er must spend at any given location, the mere state of passear-ing liberates them from the flow of time as we know it.
• If one has passear-ed to an individuals house, it is important to know that one's house is now 'on the grid' and is fair game as a destination the next time this individual passear-s.
• Elderly are especially tickled by a passear their way. It is always a fantastic idea for one to make the houses of any elderly community members they may know a destination of one's passear-ing every now and again
• One must not passear com pressa. Passearing is by its very nature a relaxed and free-flowing activity. To attempt to try to limit or contain such a thing at worst results in an unfathomable disaster and at best leads to a very awkward, unnatural passear. 
• If one means to passear somewhere during mealtime, it is very likely one will encounter a "servido!" ("served", with regards to offering food) thrown your way upon arrival. For this reason, it is often kind to passear with a small consumable gift to add to any meal or present to the family if one's arrival coincides with a meal. 

I hope that this will be of some help upon your next visit to Mozambique as you stroll right into the passear-ing culture. Passear-ing can seem complex, ambiguous and hard to understand at first...and it is! However, far from being the result of something that is difficult, this is because passear-ing is so fluid and natural; it's hard to tack down with rules and descriptions. In the end, the most important thing to remember is to walk slow, go with the flow and say greet everyone you may or may not know!

It's ALWAYS a good idea to passear by mãe's house!

A Vida Está a Andar

Well, when you wait a month to write a blog post, you realize that quite a lot is happening in this supposedly slow-paced life that you are leading in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. That being said, I think the best way to go about this post is to shotgun a bunch on information and photos about what all has gone on this past month and wait until later for a more focused, specifically-themed post.

And here we go...

I finally have my own house, but am still living off of the benevolence of my mother, who insists on feeding me. I obviously have no complaints when it comes to this issue, as her food is heavenly and I am without electricity as I wait for a box to be installed.

A group of 30 armed militants recently took over a couple towns in the north of Cabo Delgado, killing police and stealing arms. At first it was suspected that they might be members of Al Shabaab, but upon further investigation it is unclear and seems that, regardless of anything, they were Mozambican. The situation has been cleared up, but Peace Corps will likely be moving the two volunteers that were in the site.

I went to Nampula to visit the Acting Global Director of the Peace Corps, Sheila Crowley. As an added treat, the Africa director and Mozambique director were also present. It was a very brief meeting, but was great to take advantage of the opportunity to meet someone so high on the ladder, as field visits are not very common. It was also awesome to meet up with other volunteers in Nampula and spend some time in the 'big city',

I am now working with a group called Geração Biz, which is a group of peer educators at the local school. I am helping reinforce their knowledge of various themes regarding sexual health and HIV/AIDS by meeting with them once a week to do some activities, chat and answers any questions I might be able to give insight on. It's a really cool program and I'm excited to see them in action!

At SAAJ (the youth center of the hospital) we are in the beginning phase of planning a garden for the youth here to grow produce, have the opportunity to supplement their diet with it and possibly also have a chance to sell it for a little extra income.

I have had my first English for Emakhua language lesson exchange. The pedagogical director at the school expressed an interest in learning English, and I need to learn local language, so we have begun swapping lessons. Brings me back to the good 'ol days of teacherhood in Prague!

I found a snake on my door this week. It escaped into a tree that directly overhangs my walkway, which is semi-terrifying, as it looks EXACTLY like a branch except for its green head. After some research I believe it could be mildly venomous. Hopefully we don't find out.

The provincial English Theater competition took place in Pemba, or actually a lodge outside of Pemba. It was great to see youth from schools all over the province come to compete in short 10-minute theater performances themed around health and self-empowerment. The main theme was equality and that different isn't bad, a theme which is especially important in the realm of HIV and the stigma that often accompanies it. Almost the entire Cabo Delgado volunteer group was there and it was great to reunite with Liz, Elissa, Camila and Isabella!

My jogging routine is still going strong and I was recently inspired by my sister, Mackenzie, to push my distance up to a normal length of between 8-10km, which I believe is on track for the marathon that I am planning on running July 1st at Victoria Falls. The only kicker is that my site is fairly flat and I have been running in the evenings when it is cool. I don't think either of these conditions will be the case during the actual marathon.

Yesterday I had my first official Site Visit by the Peace Corps. I believe everything went well and the representative was impressed with the town of Metoro and my presence within it up until this point.

Victor, a vendor in the market, invited me to attend their soccer practice at 4a.m. the next morning. I decided to check it out (ends up that it starts closer to 5) and now it seems I have somehow committed to the entire season? I get heckled every day that I miss practice and Victor keeps reminding me that we have a game coming up this Saturday that I had no idea I was a part of.

There is no water in my housing complex, so I cart water from the hospital back to the house, where I have two 100L buckets: one for the kitchen and one for the bathroom. This used to be a more difficult task, as it was done by hand carrying two 25L containers, but now that I have a wheelbarrow I can fill the bucket in either of the rooms with a single trip.

Well, that is already quite a bit of information and I'm sure if you've made it to this point in the post you're ready for some photos!

Ben and me just being Ben and me

The water transport (yellow) and storage system. Each galão (yellow) holds roughly 20-25 liters and the bucket 100

Sunset from a hill in Ancuabe sede, the town closest to me

View from the same hill before sunset

Dannia, Joel and me enjoying the view after a short walk out of Ancuabe sede

Whenever we do buscas, which consist of going into the small towns and bush to find patients who have abandoned treatment, we always return with all sorts of gifts... Almost always edible

Mandioca, or cassava, is huge here and I like it a lot. However, in this dry form it ends up tasting a lot like chalk. Sometimes it is necessary for a mid-busca snack though

The centipede can get fairly gigantic here. However, I've been told they are harmless and it's the venomous millipedes that you want to watch out for

During the English Theater competition we camped out.

Everyone gathered for the competition

Sunrise over the ocean in Pemba

Infiltrator of my room one night

The foundation Ariel Glaser shot a short documentary on being HIV positive in the community

Sitting down and meeting all the big wigs of Peace Corps in Nampula during their visit before continuing to Maputo

In Nampula Michelle found an awesome couch surfing host named Mwaura! He is from Kenya and it was fantastic to get to know him and share some great conversations

Uncle Paul would be proud of me... Bought some DIY necessities and have already begun some small home improvements

One of the most exciting things to finally be using are my knives... So sharp and so efficient! Never to be taken for granted again.

Camila and Ben breakfasting at the lodge in Pemba where we had a meeting with the Ariel Glaser foundation.

Isa and me after finishing a morning run on the beach

We had a nice Cabo family dinner during our time there for the Ariel Glaser meeting

A district gathering of all of the members of the Geração Biz team, taking place at the school in Ancuabe sede

The snake that greeted me a couple mornings ago