From Cá to Lá

Needless to say, a lot has happened since my last post! I have entered Phase 2 of training and find myself sitting here in my foster family's kitchen in the province of Ancuabe, Cabo Delgado preparing for breakfast. Meals are always something to look forward to as far as I'm concerned, but the meals here have been especially notable for their feast-like qualities so they become the joyful glue that holds my days together. We were warned that a lot of volunteers during Phase 2 experience a dearth of food or dearth of flavor... I'll have to keep my face somber and secrets deep as a they sing their dirges upon reunion. It's Saturday so things are a little more tranquilo, even more tranquilo than normal!

However, this is a very easily misunderstood statement in my new site. The name of the town I will be based in is Metoro, and it ends up being a town that Dad sprung up as a result of it's location at the intersection of the two main roads/highways in the province, the national highway that runs north-south and the interprovincial highway that runs east-west. The reason I mention this is that it means the community, though smaller than some others around it in terms of the amount of shops and infrastructure, ends up being a huge center of operations and struggles with many unique problems. Like the majority of our 7 Cabo Delgado volunteers, the NGO I'm partnered with is the Ariel Glaser foundation. One of the many things they do is partner with local health centers in communities to make sure everything is running smoothly and that data is being collected and submitted in a correct manner. As it's the end of the month, the team is super busy and I've been running all over with them. Yesterday we went to Ancuabe (the district capital) for the day and today the group is off to both Meza and Minhewene to finalize reports. Days begin early and have been going late.

I've gotten amazingly lucky again in terms of my host family here. I have a mãe who also happens to be my supervisor and she is awesome! Such a character and with great ideas and motivation as well. I'm very much looking forward to getting to know her better and working with her and the team more. Vamos à ver. Mas, por agora... Estamos juntos!

The crew working in Cabo Delgado with the Ariel Glaser Foundation. From left: Ben, Dannia, Liz, Isabella, myself and Camila. We went to site in the company car.

The local secondary school, run by Catholic religious. Not sure which order yet.

A view from above of Ancuabe, the district capital of our district

I don't have a site mate, but Dannia is only a 30-minute drive away if we can wrangle in a company car. Otherwise it takes closer to 2 hours with public transportation

We had a little pre-departure snack before our departure from the motel in Nampula (where we had our supervisor conference). Unfortunately, though maybe not surprisingly from this photo, the milk was sub par

The famous cathedral in Nampula

My name tag with the fateful name

Me and my supervisor at the conference. She also happens to be my mãe here in Metoro during Phase 2.

A snapshot from the lap of luxury. We stayed in a nice hotel for the conference before being shipped out.

One Down, Twenty-Six to Go

Well here we are just past the one month mark in Namaacha, Mozambique. It's only been roughly 3 weeks since my last post, which is fairly fantastic when examined through the lens of Mozambican time! ... Which is worth a quick look. I think we all have various stereotypes in place when it comes to 'Africa' (including an unfortunate tendency to collect all the tidbits of information we receive about any of the 54 countries on the continent, create​ a generalized 'Africa', and then project this new summarized identity onto each of the 54 countries individually) and some end up being true and some end up being false. If your idea of Mozambican time includes a relaxed relationship with deadlines, a slow walking pace and a reality in which the time-words we speak and the events that come to pass are more or less arbitrarily related, then you're spot on. However, if you haven't received th information that the underlying cause of this is the Mozambican value in socializing and deep, authentic relationships, then you're also missing something. One thing that becomes quickly clear when living here is that our behaviors and our reasons for committing them are vitally intertwined, but we often only see the former without understanding the latter. This has become apparent in both American assumptions of Mozambique and Mozambican assumptions of the U.S.

On a less philosophical note, this first month has been fantastic and I couldn't ask for a better family to be living with or a better group of trainees to be journeying with. We recently took our first LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) and I tested into intermediate-high level, which means I should be good to go as far as the language requirement for service is concerned (intermediate-mid), as long as I don't hit my head and lose half of it along the way somewhere. Also big news, today we turned in our site placement forms today and had our interviews regarding potential locations for service... We should know where we'll be placed within the next two weeks! That will likely be the subject of the next post, unless I somehow exceed all expectations and am able to dish out another post next week, we'll see!

Finally, though, here are some photos of my family and this first month!

My awesome family from left to right: me, Nora (Tia), Aissa (Tia), Francisco (Pai), Ehrson (Irmão), Macita (Mãe), and Kelvin (Irmão)

Ehrson and Kelvin doing some backyard acrobatics

One of the front yards of a house where our language lessons to place

The kids making a bolo (cake) for Ehrson's birthday

Volunteers learning how to de-shell peanuts to mash and make peanut butter

The 'German bakery' of Namaacha, which ends up actually being run by a Slovenian​ who is very friendly and makes a mean pão doce (sweet bread) 

The volunteers enjoying a nice Friday brew at the local bar after a long week of training

Sitting around waiting to get permission from the border guards to continue our hike to Tres Fronteires (Three Borders). We ended up not getting it because they said that there is now a new rule in place that requires us to have a special permission slip from the government

A park in Namaacha

The volunteers organized a hike to the local waterfall, Cascadas

As Cascadas

An outdoor language lesson on a beautiful Namaacha day

We had a cooking exchange day in which our language group and our busy mothers exchanged lunch dishes

Doing some lunch prep work

The gorgeous 'backyard' of the Hub

Bem-vindo a Moçambique!

Well, it's definitely been a long couple weeks. Not at all in a bad way, more in a wow-everything-is-new-and-I-have-literally-nothing-to-compare-it-to way. It seems like a lifetime ago that I was hanging out on a rooftop in Haiti with Patrick drinking a beer. Philadelphia and Peace Corps staging also feels like a world away. It all started with a long trip, here's a quick summary of how it went:

Durango to Dallas for a layover.
Dallas to Philadelphia for Peace Corps staging.
Two days in Philadelphia of general Peace Corps information and preparation.
2 1/2 hour 2.00 a.m. bus ride from Philadelphia to JFK airport.
11.00 a.m., 15-hour flight from JFK to Johannesburg South Africa for a 4-hour layover.
Hour-long flight to Maputo, Mozambique (the capital, situated in the south).
Two days in Maputo for more country-specific information and training. Very introductory stuff.
Finally, a two-hour bus ride to Namaacha, where we are more or less situated for our 3 months of training.

Our time here in Pre-Service Training consists of language, health, technical, history, Peace Corps structure, culture and security lessons, occuring at various times and in various ratios each day and week. The general breakdown is class from 7.30-12.00, lunch until 13.30, sessions again until around 17.00, then time with our host families in the evenings. A cool tidbit of information is that in early June we will be finding out our personal site placements, where we will be serving the entirety of our 2-year stint. We will also have a 3-week period during this training period where we will stay in our future site and get a feel for the area.

I realize everyone is interested in details and probably have a ton of questions. However, this is where I'm going to end this post (never forgetting the photos of course!) and I'll go over more specific topics such as language, host family, culture in future, more focused posts.

Sunrise while flying over the coast
of Western Africa

Lounging in the Johannesburg airport

Everyone's stoked to finally get to Namaacha after such a long trip...This selfie was taken before the second group's bus broke down though.

A section of the grounds of the Hub, which is the Peace Corps training center

Mozambique's climate is tropical

Thanks to my amazing sister, my wall is covered in photos of my beautiful family

Snapshot of my room. Mosquito nets are ultra important in a country with malaria and many other tropical diseases

The view from my family's front porch

On the road to the Hub

Namaacha sunset

Another section of the Hub. The building in the photo is the covered shelter where we have our training sessions

Haiti - Into the Heart of it All

It's been a bustling week and a half! It began with Patrick Murphy and I boarding a 6AM flight and the Albuquerque International Sunport (with final destination of Port-au-Prince, Haiti) and ends with me writing this post during a packing break for Mozambique (I leave Monday at 6.30AM).

But, first things first: Haiti.

 I want to begin by saying that the media has done a HORRIBLE job of accurately portraying the country, and its skewed image has only been exacerbated by visitors who fail to do their own research and branch out. Many sources would make you think you were entering a war zone. It's not the case. I did plenty of walking around alone and spoke with many local people and a few things become apparent: 

1. The people are amazing. They are upbeat, kind and have a great sense of humor. They are interested in interaction and are extremely interesting to interact with. 
2. Common sense and street smarts go a long way. Further than a private driver to cart you around does, especially if you're interested in actually experiencing the country 
3. Poverty does not translate into violence and danger. Haiti's murder rate is many times lower than the neighboring tourist destinations of Jamaica and Dominican Republic
4. It is not some deathtrap for Americans (even though it maybe should be after our history with the country) and the majority of people who spoke with me on the streets simply wanted to practice their English or chat with a white guy, and did not even mention money

Now I don't want these to make it seem like the country is not poor or that there are no problems, but they pale to those portrayed by the media, ideas propagated by mindless consumers in the developed world. 

NOW ONTO THE TRIP 😃 After a 10-hour layover in Atlanta that turned into a 24-hour layover and no sleep (our flight was progressively delayed hour-by-hour before being finally cancelled at 4.30AM) Patrick and I arrived in Port-au-Prince at around 16.00 local time. The cultural crash course begin immediately in the airport as almost a dozen airport workers rushed about trying to find the owners of the baggage parcels they had already quarantined in the corner of the room and then ask the owners for a tip. Patrick's bag was not there, so a man pointed out where the help desk was, then asked for a tip. We finished the paperwork then walked outside to look for our ride. Some men helped us find him, then asked for a tip. Tipping would be a common theme and point of semi-contention throughout the rest of my stay, as we were constantly trying to judge which services merited a tip, how much to give, what was expected and who needed it most. 

Our driver, Dade (pronounced DAH-d) took us to the Healing Hands for Haiti Guesthouse, where I stayed for my week and a few days and where Patrick will stay his entire 7 weeks. Like any of the other more well off places, HHH was in a compound with a wall all around its perimeter; there was a guard at its gate. The house was amazing inside and the food, breakfast and dinner daily, would prove to be unforgettable. Breakfast was usually fresh fruit with eggs and toast. Dinner varied daily but always included a meat in some form and a salad. Both meals came with fresh fruit juice. 

My room at HHH Guesthouse. Patrick was in a separate
room, so yes, I had my choice of beds each night 

The living room/chill area of the guesthouse, the door by the TV went out to
a balcony which Pat and I spent a bit of time on. There was also access to the
roof, which we would also utilize during the evenings 

The kitchen/eating area 

An example dinner at the guesthouse 

The clinic was just as impressive as the guesthouse, and honestly much more. It was part of the same new building and was connected to the guesthouse via a skywalk. The clinic was 3 stories and included 3D printers to print its own prosthetics, pediatric care, cafeteria, tech room, recycling and repurposing center, offices, PT session rooms, checkup rooms and surgery capabilities. Most of the staff was trained in either Cuba or the Dominican Republic, as Haiti does not yet have a certification program. In the country of 8 million, the number of PTs given is 54. 

The clinic from the top floor

Patrick heading to his first day of volunteering at HHH (this
is the passage from the guesthouse to the clinic)

And you know that first day went well! 

Outside gate to HHH

Once Patrick started working, the Monday after we arrived, I spent the time going on a walk each day. He usually worked from about 7.00 to 15.30, so I would manage to get in a 3-hour or so walk and then have a little time to rest and eat before he finished. I didn't take too many photos while walking around, as it is hard to get a photo that doesn't include people and I did not feel comfortable spreading images of their personal poverty. However, Patrick and I also went on a couple excursions during my time there. One was up to an observation point on the summit of one of Port-au-Prince's mountains and the other was to a city called Jacmel in the south of the country. Here are some photos! 

One of the iconic photos of what the majority of housing looks like in Port-au-Prince, and likely a lot of the rest of the
country as well. 

On one of my walks I found one of the only traffic
lights in Port-au-Prince. You can see how well it's
working

I saw a lot of beautiful graffiti on my walks. These are painted on the outside
wall of the National Cemetery 

A lot of the foreign aide promised in the wake of the
2010 earthquake hasn't shown up. Parts of the city are still
in the same condition they were left in after the disaster

This is what Dade described as the national judicial
 building

This was the little van we did most of our exploring in. When driving, it
is impossible and I imagine fatal to try to do so on your own. A Haitian
driver is absolutely necessary

Our first sortie was to the tall mountain overlooking Port-au-Prince, from which one has a fantastic view of the city and
the bay

On the road down to Jacmel we were able to fully
appreciate exactly how mountainous the country is...and
what that means for a stomach, especially with a Haitian
driving the vehicle 

At the hotel we stayed at we were able to get our fresh seafood fix for lunch upon arrival

The town of Jacmel is known for its artisans, and we toured
many 

Dade's family comes from the countryside near Jacmel, so
we visited them on our way out of town. This
consisted of parking on the side of the highway and
walking...

...up the side...

...of a mountain

Upon reaching the house one of the children climbed one
of the palm trees nearby and threw down half a dozen
coconuts for us to drink the water and then consume the
meat as a tasty little treat

While there, Patrick looks at the wrist of Dade's father,
which had been bothering him for some time. This
exchange consisted of translating what Patrick said into
French, for Dade, then Dade translating from French
into Creole 

After long days or trips, it's important to pop open a local
lager and relax on the rooftop as the sun goes down