Africa’s opportunists are……

Africa's opportunists are……

 

You fill in the blank here.  I am so fed up with people seeing white skin and thinking money, money, money.  I can take it when it's just beggars on the street, but when it's people like oh say my next door neighbor who has had other Peace Corps Volunteers live in his yard, then it drives me bonkers.  I do have to tell you though, and I'm not making this up, the man is stupid.  I don't know what he's thinking but he is just a STUPID human being.  He comes to me one night at 9:30 at night saying that my rent has gone up to 600 meticais a month.  My rent has been 250 meticais for as long as there has been a volunteer living in the house.  This guy said it is because of all the new things done to the house that the rent will go up.  To make a long story short, all of the repairs on the house have been done by Peace Corps or by ADECI, the organization I work for. 

 

This morning I woke up to him just being his sleazy self saying he couldn't come into the city to talk with ADECI because he doesn't know where the office is.  I'm sorry but that's bullshit.  He once proudly said to me that he is born and bred Maxixe, pretty much on the exact same land where the house now stands.  He's just trying to take advantage of me as a foreigner and as someone who "apparently doesn't know the system."  I've been visiting people at this house for months now.  I just feel so angry towards him because he knows I know he's trying to rip me off, but he's still trying.  If he would just let me alone for the 250 mets a month until I leave here, then he'd have a house full of stuff when I leave, if he continues to harass me, he'll be left with the four walls….grrrr….

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~Ian~
+258 825 232 821
www.weltwanderlust.blogspot.com

Even after two years

Yesterday was quite a weird day for me. Something I like so much about Africa is that everyday is really a new day. There is always the opportunity that you will wake up tomorrow and things will be better. It happened to me again today.

Yesterday, I had the second of 3 parts for the gender training sessions. This week was for the professors/teachers that will be helping out in the projects at the primary schools we have invited to participate this year. It is a wonderful program that really puts the power of after school programs into the hands of these schools - something I personally think is needed here. It gives the students an opportunity to do something else after school besides going to fetch water and the older ones get involved with teachers. Yes even in primary school. So we were on the back veranda of this old Portuguese sporting club. It looks right out into the bay over towards the capital city of the province. Right now there is a tropical cyclone in the channel between here and Madagascar, it's not supposed to come to land, but it is definitely affecting the weather around here. For the past couple of days, we have had TORRENTIAL rains that come through every half an hour or so. Sometimes it gets so much, you can't hear yourself over the pounding on the roof. Tin roofs in the tropics, i wonder who thought of that idea. Anyway, I saw some crazy big white caps raise up on the bay and just felt incredibly thankful for the development that I have seen on my side of the bay. I don't have to go over to the other side of the bay unless I want to go to certain restaurants. But, everyone in the training thought it was crazy that the boats were still going, I saw that they weren't loading them to heavy but that didn't matter, I saw a boat crest over a wave and the trough was just too deep. It didn't go down (thank God, most Mozambicans can't swim) but it definitely limped to shore. All of this for 12,50 meticais. Even in this former People's Republic, the people are still driven by money gods?!?!?!

The other thing I wanted to write about today is how grateful I am that I have a background that encouraged me to challenge, to question, to think outside the box and most importantly to be accepting of people who are not like you - even if you don't agree with them as I don't with republicans. Anyway, I know I don't speak Portuguese properly, but then again neither do Mozambicans. I speak it pretty damn well too and grammatically better than a lot of my fellow teachers at my old school. The thing that gets me is I had to lead these teachers (many of whom know me) in a cultural sensitivity class. I was talking and people weren't paying attention and then when they realized that I was speaking Portuguese and could be understood, they could TRY to understand but didn't. They just sat with these dumb looks on their faces. My favorite was when someone wanted to ask for another piece of poster paper to bring back to his group. I knew what he was asking for out of context and because I'm used to the way people try to speak English around here. But what he was either 4 free shits for group or group shits for free. I don't know! I couldn't contain myself and just handed him the "sheets." Later on in the day, I had to hand out the students guides for the ESH program. I had to hand out 6 each and then get them to sign off for them. Let me just say it was bedlam. I yelled at the teachers that we didn't have enough packs for everyone so I had to break them up into packs of 6 and couldn't give them a carrying case to bring them home. (You see the packs of ten were put into a nice little bundle to carry) Oh the bitching and complaining and the people jumping the lines so they could just do whatever they want. I let them take the packaging to wrap up their books, but then when they weren't looking I went and tore the packaging off so they couldn't use it. They all laughed. I hate it when I'm thought of as a complete idiot because the others around me can't think outside of the box. I wonder what I'll be like when I have children! Any thoughts?

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Now playing: Freshly Ground - Pot Belly
via FoxyTunes bay side sporting club.

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Now playing: Freshly Ground - Ma'cheri
via FoxyTunes

Gender Awareness when Women are not allowed to Speak

So as many of you know, I've moved jobs to a Mozambican run NGO where my duties have been completely changed around.  Basically I no longer teach kids who really don't give a crap about being in school.  I am now the local computer genius in my office, that spends his days making basic repairs on computers you can practically see through they are so riddled with worms.  They wonder why it takes so long for the computer to start up.

 

Anyway, last week was the first week that I actually got out of the office.  As my luck would have it, the 3 days I spent outside of my nice air conditioned office had to have temperatures of above 40 degrees Celsius and humidity of what felt like 150 percent.  My office runs this nationwide program Escola sem HIV/SIDA.  It's School Aids awareness program to get it into the heads of primary students the necessity of protecting yourself against AIDS.  Last week we had the principals of these elementary schools for a three day "gender mainstreaming" workshop.  I'm sure you don't even know what that means.  I sure didn't before I got to Peace Corps.  But I live in a society where girls aren't deemed worthy enough of higher education.  When a family has to choose between whether a girl or a guy has to go on to higher education, it will be the man without a second thought. Yet there were at least 6 female head teachers sitting in front of me at this conference.  The thing that annoyed me though was that they were doing just that.  They were sitting, nothing more.  My colleague asked at one point what everything thinks it means to be a man and a women.  The list that came up was hilarious.

Men are courageous, gallant, strong, handsome, hard workers, basically a perfect Adonis.

Now when the list came to be made for women, not one of them spoke!  The men made up this list of what it means to be a woman (since they are such experts!) subservient, obedient, mother, wife, basically everything  had to do with someone else and not with the woman herself.  I couldn't take it anymore and interrupted by getting up there and saying that none of the men knew anything about being a woman and never could because of pure "physical property" that is between their legs.  This was after a conversation about how men could never carry water and women could never work on the road was had.  I've carried water on my head 20 liters is heavy and it hurts!  Most times I pass by the road crews, I see them napping in the shade of a tree.  I went on by explaining that I come from a culture where the man carries everything for the woman, here it is the opposite.  I have Mag to thank about that.  Anyway, the participants laughed, thought I was weird and it went in one ear and out the other.

Is listening that hard?

--
~Ian~
+258 825 232 821
www.weltwanderlust.blogspot.com

Communication is a Wonderful Thing

 

This year is such a different experience than my past two years of service.  Now that I am in the big city and have two site mates who are within a ten minute walk from my house, I feel that communication is so necessary that if anything goes wrong, it's not exactly like we can hide from each other.  There are 5 PCVs in this city, 2 live about 4 k further down the road.  Another thing about communication that I've seen in the past week is with my landlord.  He saw an opportunity to make an extra 350 MTn off of me and took the opportunity to tell me that my house had gone from 250 MTn to 600 Mtn in one night basically.  I talked to people at work and they handed me a couple of receipts that showed work they had done on the house and told me he had to pay them back now (which he won't) if he raises the rent (which he didn't.)  He has to come and discuss it with my boss because it is my organization that pays the whole $10 a month rent and not me.  He's not going to come to the office and I'm comfortable now talking to everyone as an equal at the office, as long as I don't have a bad Portuguese day!

 

The other thing that is changing my life so much this year is Internet access.  My job got broadband and they need someone to run the network and just make sure that viruses don't come in.  You should see how many I found when I did the first sweep with Norton, thanks Noel.  But this is letting me keep on top of keeping in touch this year, it lets me upload items and send this pithy blogs to you all which I know certain people are reading thanks to a friend of mine who gave me this link that makes me think she works for MI-6.  Hopefully I'm not blowing here cover and causing some sort of leak on the other side of the Atlantic!  J   When I was back in the States for my month home leave, I was astounded by so much of the technology I saw.  I got involved in Facebook and I think that's one of the best things I could have done.  It's so much cleaner than Myspace in my opinion and it doesn't take up the precious bandwidth that Myspace does when people put songs and god knows what else onto their pages.  But the best thing about Facebook for me is I found a friend who I wronged some years back for very stupid reasons.  I found this person and "friended" them on Facebook and to my complete and utter joy this person accepted!  I still haven't written a complete note to this person but I will soon.  There is a flip side to this inter-connected life we lead though.  I haven't heard from another friend in about a year – I have NO idea what for.  However with the help of some international "agents" who gave me the link I can see that this person is still reading the blog.  Twilight Zone material huh? 

 

 

--
~Ian~
+258 825 232 821
www.weltwanderlust.blogspot.com

PRICE CONTROL GONE BAD

So the city of Maputo is blockaded today.  As we all now the war in Iraq is going so wonderfully and just pouring oil on to the global market so we all have access to whatever we want.  Oh wait, that's what the president thought would happen, but that is not what is happening.  We've basically managed to close Iraq off of the market and shoot ourselves in the diplomatic foot – but I don't want to get into that.  What I want to talk about is what is happening in Maputo today just in case anyone hears about it.  Kenya news made it home even before I did so I just want to be careful.  First thing, Maputo is 500 K away from me. That's 310 miles and the floods up north are 1000 K from me.  That's 620 miles.  So I'm safe by long shots on both sides.  I actually wish it would rain a bit here.  Just a little bit to keep the dust down and everything.  Anyway, the bus fare in the big cities in this country is absurdly cheap.  Most cities only have it pegged at 5 meticais.  That 20 American cents.  Gas has recently gone up to 35 meticais per liter.  There are 3.75 liters per gallon, so  if gas can cost $5 a gallon here in what was once the most destitute country in the world, it can go up in the States no?  All of these prices are causing consternation amongst the "chapa" owners and operators around the country.  In Maputo, the privately owned buses are raising the price of a ticket 100 percent from 5 meticais to 10.  That's a steep jump for people who earn very little a month, but that's just the thing, people in Maputo don't make nothing a month.  There are substantial amounts of NGOs and foreign companies that are now scrambling to get into Maputo and they pay western salaries.  So I don't understand why this is happening. The drivers want the raise in fare, the government says no, (good communist price control here) the drivers say lower the gas prices then.  The government says we don't have control over that.  The drivers say SCREW YOU then and blockade the city, tires a burning and the city is stopped.  I'm kind of envious of this all for one and one for all attitude.  Let's see though if anything can be accomplished.  In the meantime, I have bought myself a bicycle to get to and from work.

--
~Ian~
+258 825 232 821
www.weltwanderlust.blogspot.com

Letter from the Prophet Marcus to the Mozambicans….

I don't know if I'm considered sacrilegious because of this title but maybe when I am finished with this blog ya'll will understand.   I've come back from the land of forever connected and now am back at the bottom of the world – or at least Africa that is.  I'm sitting in my cell block of an office after a hard morning of writing reports.  Now, let me tell you how this alter ego of Prophet Marcus showed up.  I'm living in a totally different town and even though it was the big city where I had to come for the past two years and get my mail, do my banking and send the homing pigeons out to Peace Corps on an occasional basis so they don't think I've disappeared into the bush, I was nervous because I didn't know the neighbors too much.  Man oh man do they know me.  Mozambique is a nation obsessed with two, well maybe three things.  The first is Football, or Soccer, the second is 2M (Noel you know what that is) and the third is Brazilian Soap Operas.  There is this new one that just started before I had left to the land of technology and it is called the Prophet and I look like the main character Marcus.  So I have rechristened myself to Marcus, but let me tell you I still don't answer to it at first impulse.  I think I have a certain Samantha McDonough to thank for the dye job.  J  The strangest thing is that I get some sort of preferential treatment because of this resemblance.  I'm not sure if everyone actually thinks I'm a famous Brazilian Soap Star, but they sure act like it.  I keep saying if I were Brazilian, would I have such a horribly foreign accent when I speak Portuguese?  I don't think so!  The other day though, I was by the mCel store waiting for a friend who was inside.  He was taking a long time, I was getting hungry so I went into the store and there was dead silence.  I got brought to the front right away, grabbed what needed to be done out of my friend's hand, got the number back that he wanted and left.  All of this took place in the span of 2 minutes.  The ladies at the desk were giggly and cute because Marcus the Prophet was in front of them.  I had been waiting for my friend for 15 minutes, and he is Mozambican!

 

Besides the new found fame, I've enjoyed being back.  I live in this cute little house.  It's a tiny bit smaller than my other house and the yard is smaller too, but when you move from the suburbs to the city, what can you expect?  I feel like I live in the white rabbit hole though.  Everything is so close and compact.  I don't have to go through my own yard, out the gate and then across a courtyard to get to my latrine.  It's 2 minutes to the side of my house and I've even got a light set up on that side.  I've got a two room little palm tree hut on one side of the house that has a light in it two and I'm going to get a plug put on that side of the house so I can watch movies on the weekend.  I've started my first office job too.  It's a little slow but that's normal in NGOs in this country since it is the start of the new school year.  What's nice is there is a direct internet connection from my office to you all.  So maybe I can put some more pictures up and a regular basis.  Don't forget the prophet is now on Google Pictures too!

 

MP

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~Ian~
+258 825 232 821
www.weltwanderlust.blogspot.com

Back in the land of....

So I've been busy in America for awhile, but I just wanted to tell ya'll that I'm back into the tell all mode of my life. I've got a new computer, the ability to put all of my photos on to a machine where it doesn't take too long to turn the picture right side up and now I'll share that all with you! But I just wanted to say, I am on Facebook now too. So, I've got Facebook, myspace... photos up to 2007 on kodakgallery and i'll be putting up web albums on Picasa soon. Flickr just doesn't work over here. I'll be typing up some more interesting blogs soon.

ian

Last post from Mozambique in 2007

Ola!

I'm sitting in the office after walking the 2 km from the hotel. Man it's HOT!!! I'm going off to the airport here in Maputo at 13h30 and REALLY excited. Everything is packed, hopefully there will be some good movies on the airplane and I will be going to see my family and also friends and NEW YORK CITY!!!

Some of you may have seen the people track thingy on this blog. A friend of mine in England gave it to me and it's always fun to see how small this world is getting.

I'll be in NYC tomorrow!

Ian

Only in Africa

So I am back from Swaziland. Got into Maputo today. I just wanted to write a quick note because it is 10 pm and I AM TIRED. However, yesterday I went dancing at the royal kraal of Swaziland. In American terms, I basically danced in the royal cow pasture. But what was cool was it was a real ceremony, meaning it would have happened if tourists were there or not. I was one of 6 tourists, all of us were there together from the backpackers I stayed at. The best part though is that the Queen Mother and King of Swaziland were there, the last absolute monarchs of Africa and as the only white people in the group of hundreds, we got brought to the front and danced in front of Their Majesties... with cow dung on our feet because we had to walk through well, the royal cow shit.

Hi from the Swaz!

Here I sit in Swaziland. I tried to get away to a country where I wouldn't be known. I don't think that is possible anymore. I feel like a minor celebrity in southern Africa. I woke up this morning in Mozambique and walked to Swaziland. The money changers and the border guards all recognized me as a PCV. I got the bus to the biggest city, Manzini and went to go to KFC, just because I could. I walk in and hear a you must be Ian, I knew you were coming here. A KFC in MANZINI come on people, can you get any more random then that? Anyway, I ate some food, went to the bank and tried to find the Spar supermarket. Considering I have a backpack it didn't work out. I went to Shoprite. Then I was walking to the bus station and passed by the internet cafe. I saw some more people that know me. Hopefully when I get to the game park, the zebras won't be recognizing me!

More soon

As I sit here listening to Diamonds

As I sit here listening to Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes by Paul Simon, I think of what has happened in the past 2 years of my life – has it really been two years?   I love Africa dearly.  This has been the experience of a lifetime and I know all of you are thinking, with YFU, Friend's World, etc, doesn't this boy have his share of 'experiences of a lifetime.'   I don't think I have though.  Just today, I was freaking out because I realized I only have 2 weeks left in Homoine.   This is the town I've called home in Mozambique for two years.  Through think or thin Homoine has always been there for me.  Now it's time to say goodbye.   It's going to be hard, but it's time to move on to the next point in my life – even if it is only 21 kilometers away.  I'm just finished with my life at this stage.   Then I sit here and think how blessed I am that I can just say "I'm finished" and move on.  Please God, let me find some sort of career that enables me to continue along this line.   The joy of being in Africa is that if I have a bad day, I will always have tomorrow to look forward to.  Or in some cases, I can look forward to a time maybe about an hour later.   Life here tends to be an emotional whirlwind.  Mozambicans are always ready to party and take any excuse for it.   So I'm going to bow out gracefully and not through a party for my going away.  After all, I'm not going away.

 

I had an interesting conversation with the Brazilian in town today.  He recently got into a fight with some English ex-pats two towns over because of a project we had all done together.   I don't know if you remember, but I invited a group to my town to do a musical performance (concerning AIDS, as everything in my life seems to be concerning now) and we all went out for this crazy dinner afterwards.   Well, you put 2 Brazilians, a Portuguese, 2 Mozambicans, 2 Belgians, an Austrian, a Frenchman and an American at a table together and out comes a very interesting conversation – which was recorded, unbeknownst to everyone but the person who pressed play on the recording machine.   My friend, the Brazilian, got very mad because he is working on his own material and he wouldn't want this recording published unless he was certain of all that he said.   But getting back to the conversation I had with him today, he was calling them all under achievers in their own countries so they come here to an under developed country and suddenly they are gods.   That got me thinking, am I a second rate underachiever that doesn't have the ability to make it in my own country – or can't?

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~Ian~
+258 825 232 821
www.weltwanderlust.blogspot.com

As I sit here listening to Paul Simon

I wonder if there is anyone reading this out there still?

Feliz Dia Das Bruxas!

So today is Halloween. I remember when I was a kid, I think I’d start planning my Halloween costume right as day One of October came along. Forgive me all for writing such a banal ( I don’t know if that is the right word) blog after my last one, but I need to just look on the bright side of things. The bright side of things came in a classic African Market Tee Shirt purchase. The color of the bright side of things is powder blue with a cobalt lining. You see, all of our cast offs from America and Europe make it to the reed and palm branch central markets of African Towns – Homoine is now exception. I regularly see trucks coming in with BALES of clothes saying donated from the people of Canada, or Japan or the USA. It’s very interesting being on the other side of things, and being able to read English as well. SO the shirt was this Che Guevara shirt that you can find everywhere in the world from the streets of Camden Town to well the streets of Homoine Town. I just liked the color and it looked new (ish) so I thought since all of my clothes are taking a beating in Nature’s Laundromat, I’d buy it. I walked in with a friend of mine and looked at it. Picked it up and he said hey wait Ian, something’s wrong with the shirt. It said Gay Chevara and well, it looked like a Latino Tinky Winky was on the front. I nearly died laughing in the store. My friend, Admiro, is an English Teacher so he could read the shirt. I couldn’t buy it in front of him because well, it’s just too complicated to explain to him. Even though I did have a conversation with him about AIDS and how it first showed up in Gay men in the States. Well, one thing led to another and I found out he has no problem with homosexuality as long as they don’t hit on him. At least he admits it exists! Anyway, back to the shirt, I’m buying it in the morning and going to wear it for Halloween. I don’t care what all of you think, it makes me laugh and after these past two weeks, that’s exactly what I need to do!

PS. I met this stoner of a retiree at the beach last weekend and he paid for everything for me because he really respects and admires Peace Corps Volunteers. Then he proceeds to tell me, back in the 1980’s when everyone thought Peace Corps was going to be nixed by Regan, there were a couple sayings about us. PCVs from Latin America come back political and enraged. PCVs from Asia come back Buddha and PCVs from Africa come back laughing. Any comments?? Let me just say that statement made me laugh soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard – so I guess it’s correct.

When is cultural sensitivity bad for you?

Since I was 16 years old I’ve been doing things with my life that centers on being sensitive and understanding to other people. First it was YFU, the Friend’s World Program and now the Peace Corps here in Mozambique. Something happened to me today the 17^th of October, a day after my 25^th birthday that really hit me hard. Recently I had a falling out with the first person I met here in Mozambique. He and I just didn’t get along very well anymore so we have been respectively keeping our distances. I heard though that he had been sick. A friend of his from the states had sent me some photos for him that I dropped off maybe about a month ago. My friend here at site had just had a bad case of Malaria and was in bed. So I stopped by and gave him the pictures. He didn’t look to good, but no one really does when you get malaria. It’s all too common here in my town, but if you treat it, take care of yourself and rest, you will get over it. Anyway, last time I was in Maputo, I had got a phone call from a mutual friend that said he had been to visit Matos and he was coughing up blood. Uh oh I thought…it’s either TB or HIV. I had wanted to come and just take him straight to the hospital and get those two tests done. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to. Here in Africa, if you have white skin, most often you get to jump the line of sick and dying to get your tests done. When I had malaria and had to do some controls, I never had to wait longer than 15 minutes for the test to be done and results given back to me. A Mozambican can wait all day for that. When I finally got around visiting him I quickly realized we wouldn’t be going anywhere. Matos could barely keep his eyes open to see that I had come to visit. I just thought it all looked like HIV. I’m by no means an AIDS expert but I’ve seen so much of it in the past two years that you’d have to be blind ( or culturally blind) not to see it. This man had been a porker and now ways less than me, is covered in lesions, his lips are swollen, dried and cracked, his entire body hurts (malaria residue) and he can’t even sit up. His cousin did say to me though that my coming was good because he had sat up for 5 minutes and taken a bit of yoghurt. I’M really having trouble writing this to you guys, the fact I’m listening to RENT as I write this probably isn’t good, but I need to get it out. Matos’ family had brought him to the hospital, they won’t tell anyone what the hospital said, and obviously weren’t happy with what the hospital had to say because Matos is back at home now. He’s a shrunken talking skeleton of his former self and they are trying to get the witch doctor to cure him because they believe he’s been bewitched or cursed by someone. The person was himself because he couldn’t stop himself from sleeping around. The man is obviously in pain and yet his family will not let him take the drugs that could at least give him some relief of the pain even if he will not live. WHY IS THIS FUCKING STIGMA THERE THAT HIV/AIDS ONLY HAPPENS TO OTHERS!!!! IT DOESN’T JUST HAPPEN TO SOMEONE FAR AWAY!! People, we’ve got to talk about this disease, realize it’s not going anywhere fast and then beat the shit out of it. Please…..

Unfortunately I heard this morning that my friend did indeed die. He was 27 and left behind a wife who most likely is positive now...

Dear God, are you listening? It’s me Ian.

Sometimes I wonder if he is listening but other times I am certain of it. Right now I am praying hard that I get my money from the embassy. It’s just absurd how long it is taking. I got approved for this grant July 31^st. I remember because I thought, oh god I only have a month to put this thing together, because the original date was the first of September. Well that’s past. Now I’ve just got to get this stuff before it is time to go down. I also found out tonight that my school is having problems with its boarding house and they’ve been told to vacate the grounds, which includes my house, by the end of the month. I hope I hope I hope that doesn’t include me! I would just say screw it and ask for an earlier ticket home. We’ll see what happens. I just hope it doesn’t get too complicated. What the heck am I saying, this is Africa, and everything is complicated!

My larium dreams have been getting very weird recently. I’ve started killing people in them. Up until now I’ve only killed people once in the course of two years. Twice I got into accidents but the killing sequence was so comical I was a little confused about where that came from and not worrying about anything in the actual dream. The last two freaked me out though. It’s nice of Uncle Sam to be putting me on a psychedelic drug for two years free of charge. I like it so much I even signed up for a third year. Time to get back to my last two dreams, one of which was in Connecticut the other on the beach here in Mozambique. I was in the house of a friend of my father’s who I’ve known for my entire life. She was upstairs and I think I was waiting for a ride or something. I was sitting down to an episode of LOST that suddenly became real. The Others came into the house looking for my dad’s friend because she apparently had the key to get off the island (but we were obviously in Norwalk, as I said drugs) The people really wanted to hurt my friend so I calmly asked them to go back outside and ask for permission to come into the house first – which they did like good little larium villains. I managed to procure a snake and a machete which then both helped me kill these people. There was no blood involved but the struggle was a bit disturbing because I could physically feel them fighting back against me. After some time I woke up in a sweat with a huge headache and hurting where one of the guys had managed to punch me in the stomach. Carol had come back downstairs to see what was going on and told me that my training had proven well taught and I would make the entire council proud. I have no clue where any of this came from and a little upset by the weirdness that came with it. My second dream had to do with some of my stuff getting stolen on the beach. I had lost a capulana from Swaziland and my nalgene bottle that was sent by my dad from home. Anyway, I had caught the people in my dream, apparently I don’t think Mozambican thieves are that smart – as a matter of fact they aren’t. There is a cliff at the beach where I go with a monument left over from the socialist era here. It’s the site where the Portuguese Police would throw slaves and convicts off the cliff into a ravine with lots of rocks and sharp edges where the waves would come in and basically beat the bodies to death. The monument that’s there is a triangle with a triumphant fist breaking through chains (of slavery I think.) Well, I decided to throw the thieves off the cliff. Sharks then came and ate their bodies. I remember thinking how long the bones would last before they would wash away or would I be caught. Then I woke up.

Oh the heat of it all

So I just wiped my brow and realized summer is back! It took its sweet time coming here too. It was 35 degrees today. That is 95 degrees F. That was the temperature in the shade. Everyone is feeling it today though because yesterday it was 18 degrees Celsius. So it jumped almost 20 degrees in the course of 24 hours. Last night was the first night I had to use my fan and today is the first day that I haven’t heated my water to take a bucket bath. You notice these kinds of things coming back. We are right in the middle of our spate of 4 holidays in the course of three weeks. So school has been pointless. First we had Victory Day, September 7^th, the day Mozambique became victorious of the Portuguese imperialists, then 25^th of September, or the day the war of independence started. The 29^th of September is not an official holiday but everyone takes it off because it is Mozambican armed forces day and then this Thursday we have Dia da Paz. It’s the day that the warring factions signed the peace accords in Rome to end the 16 year civil war. Next week is the week of final exams and then the week after that is grading week. Yes it takes a week to do the grades! After that though, there is no school. No I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself for all that time off. I think I’m going to go to the beach and hell maybe I’ll travel because I am so ready to be done with teaching. 15 year old students are obnoxious the world over. I can only give the utmost respect to teachers who actually like teaching that grade.

On a side note, and a more positive one, this week is pretty big in my life too. Over the course of 2 days there are some pretty big events happening. October 3^rd, my little nephew who doesn’t know me is turning two. He’ll get to know me in time I hope. That same day is 17 years of German unification and I got an invitation to the embassy party in Maputo with a German friend of mine. She’s registered there at the embassy and got an invite that said plus one. So I am the plus one because she thought I would enjoy it the most. Danke Helen. I’m busy listening to a lot of German music and reading a book in German so I don’t completely embarrass myself when I get there and say I can speak German. There is nothing worse when you start speaking a language and then the native speaker says “let’s speak in English, it’ll be easier.” Doh! October 5^th is the 17 year Anniversary of my mom’s death. I can’t believe how fast time goes by. It’s just scary looking at the numbers and realizing that she’s been dead ten years longer than I ever knew her. Yet somehow I don’t ever think of that fact. I’ll be in Maputo on the actually anniversary so hopefully won’t be too lonely.

My theatre competition is coming up fast. I hope things go well. That’s part of the reason why I am going down to Maputo again. 2 times is one month is a bit much! The money from the embassy for the project are a little late in coming though. I hope by the time I actually post this message my bank account will be bursting with Meticais. Along the lines of theatre, I met my future Mozambican partner is crime for next year. She’s a dance teacher that lives in Maxixe and has an arts group started. She wants to get things bigger though and include acting lessons. So, we are going to work together and hopefully set up some sort of Maxixe Theatre Performing Arts Company. I just think it is funny how I’ve skipped over my own career in acting and gone straight into teaching it. Aren’t you only supposed to get to this stage when you get tired of going to the cattle calls or have been stuck auditioning for ten years and not actually working?

Please wait 90 days for delivery of package.

When I was a kid sending away for stuff in magazines or whatever, that 90 day processing period seemed like an eternity. Now, it’s all I have left in my original contract with the Peace Corps. It’s going to be an interesting 90 days though. As I write this, I’m sending off paperwork to the Embassy for the grand total of 85,000 Meticais. If it were the old money, it would have been 85 million. I wonder if I will ever see sums that high in a currency that doesn’t look and feel like monopoly money. That remains to be seen. Today is also a pretty big day in Homoine. I helped get together a music workshop under the name of Positivo Moçambique. It just kind of fell in my lap – but that’s how all the good things happen isn’t it? A trio of musicians from Inhambane City, a Brit, an Austrian and a Mozambican, are coming to do a performance and a workshop about HIV/AIDS. (As Marc said the other night, that’s all I seem to be doing, but in Africa, it’s a big problem!) The workshop will happen over 2 days. On the first day we all get together for a concert. The concert will be about what the students choose. But the doctor in town has asked me to incorporate condom use. That’s her biggest frustration here because no one seems to be using condoms. It goes against the Abstinence and Be Faithful mantra of the Bush administration though. The concert will only go for about an hour. The main part of the workshop is tomorrow at my school. About 30 of the students will get together with the musicians and come up with lyrics and music under the AIDS theme. The whole goal of Positivo Moçambique is to create an AIDS awareness message on the “grassroots” level because apparently it’s been proven that when the community comes up with the message, they’ll actually pay attention to it instead of just smiling and nodding like they were being preached at. Also, Mozambicans are very musical people, they are always singing. Even after two years here, I’m still amazed how much rhythm they all have. I guess when you don’t have access to the instruments, you make do with what you have – your body. The end product should be a lot of fun. We are going to record the song which will eventually be put into a compilation disc that will include all of the songs that the various communities have written where PM has gone. We are the 3rd song, so it’s got a way to go before the disc is full. Some Austrians will also be on hand to film this for the magical donors from abroad. I’ll let you know how it goes afterwards.

School is coming to a close very quickly, which I could not be more excited about. There are only 5 weeks left in the term. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE TEACHING. I just realized that 60 plus kids in a class is too much. Just yesterday, I was reviewing the vocab of the day and came across a student whom I didn’t know the name of and hardly remember being in my class. These are students that I have been with for two years now. I would also like desks, a door, and electricity in my classroom when I continue teaching. Not too much to ask for huh? I also found out recently that I am a better teacher in smaller groups, at a higher level than high school or at the level of an Elementary School Stateside. It’s such a good feeling to finally know what you want and what you are good at. Now just if one of these things could turn itself into a career for me.

Next week is what’s called our COS conference. We’re having it in this place called Bilene. It’s a small town on a lagoon and I just can’t believe that “time is over” already. But, as many of you know, I’ve extended for a third year of service. I just don’t feel that I have given all I can or gotten all I can. I’m not sure which. I’m going to be moving to the big city on the coast and working in a youth organization. But I’ll be in the States for a month before all of this starts. So please wait 90 days (from today) for the delivery.

Ian

Drip drip drip drip

Hey all!

My title of this post is an interesting part of the saga of these ramblings that all of you have so patiently read over the past couple years. At least I hope that you have patiently read. Let me first say that I heard tonight from my dad that Mag’s back surgery went well. She went in today and so far so good. I was out with two of my friends and saw a call coming through from America on my cell phone. My heart naturally did a flying leap into my throat. I didn’t know who was calling but I knew it was someone to call me about Mag. I answered the phone saying, “Please God, tell me you have good news and not bad news.” Well, not to bore you, IT WAS GOOD NEWS. My mood changed so much after that phone call. Thank you Dad and thank you Mag for being just as amazing as you always have been. I don’t know if Mag reads this though. Noel or Jess you should tell her to sign into this and read this post. J
Week one of my final trimester as a Mozambican teacher has finally started – and it was a real cutting start to the term, literally. My school director, in his infinite wisdom, decided the most pressing problem that his school has was the length of his female students hair and the decorations they put in it. All this week he was prowling around the school ground with some of the most menacing scissors I’ve ever seen. He was honestly going around to the classes pulling girls out of their studies cutting anything longer than 10 centimeters and any hair that had any sort of ornaments in it. Remember that I work at a school that has no running water, electricity when the gods wish, and half of the classrooms are made of river reeds. Wouldn’t you think there are more pressing matters for him to take care of before the length of female hair? But naturally a girl student with long hair is a distraction to her fellow students learning. Yeah right! Like that’s the only thing distracted the students, let’s ignore the random goats and chickens that walk into my class on an almost daily basis. In my ongoing relationship of mutual understanding with the old monkey, I noticed two of the girls in my class had “unsatisfactory” hair lengths and one had beads braided into her hair. I excused them for the rest of the day with a homework assignment to get their hair redone and write a composition about it to read to class the next day. Hey I’ll do anything for my old monkey.
On the personal side of life, the mulungo population of Homoine is blossoming. Right now there are 8 foreigners living in my town – considering I was one of two when I got here, that’s a big jump. There are two Brazilians and a Dutchwoman that I’ve gotten close to in the past few weeks. The Brazilians have sine brought in some Austrian friends of theirs who have a music workshop touring the country right now. They came to Homoine to meet with me because they heard about my interest in performing and now we are doing a 2 day music workshop against AIDS. Hopefully we’ll get television coverage in Germany, Mozambique, England and Austria. Hey if the UN ever needs another place to work Homoine is just the place! Day one of the workshop will be a show that these musicians do for the town and day two will be an artistic workshop where the students will write the lyrics and the music to a song which will be recorded and hopefully distributed in Africa and Europe! Now I have been signed on as a “helper bee” because I apparently speak “damn good Portuguese.” The best part of this meeting for me was the fact that I was talking with the coordinators of POSITIVO MOCAMBIQUE about my theatre project and they said since I will be staying one more year ( I hope) they would be more than happy to incorporate my project into theirs since music and theatre go together so well. Let’s see what happens. This is what the title means to me. I have been “struggling” here trying to get projects going and all of a sudden in my last four months of service everything is falling into place. Does anyone believe in fate? All these amazing opportunities have been falling in my lap and I’ll be damned if I don’t take them. With a bit of luck the boa sorte will start with my placement in the city next year!
I’m off to a timbila festival in the south of my province tomorrow. The timbila is a local wooden xylophone, kinda like the marimba of Latin America. Apparently it is THE festival in southern Mozambique. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures and put them up soon. Hey everyone put pressure on my brother to put my pictures that I sent him up on the internet!

More soon

This is why I love Africa!

So people, sorry for being in absentia for so long but I've got a problem. I don't think life is very unusual so I don't think it would be to interesting to you all. But it most likely will be. Anyway I want to tell you what happened to me today.
This morning I was in Xaixai at my friend's house going for a chapa down to the capital Maputo. I got one that left right away, I filled the last seat which was the front seat next to the driver. It's a very comfy seat to have especially for someone as tall as me. No one ended up sitting next to me the entire 3 hour journey down to the capital. When we got to the entrance of the city, we turned onto the airport road instead of going to the bus terminal. Little confusing but occasionally that happens because of the chapa not having the correct papers to be i n the capital or the car being newly stolen from South Africa. Hey it happens!!!! I was chatting with the driver having put all my ride gear safely away so I could pay attention and he asked me where I worked. I told him the address of the Peace Corps Office and he drove me to the DOOR!!!! Not only did he drive me to the door. He gave me back the 120 meticais fare because he said I was nice.

So i get to the office and two packages from the states are waiting for me. Things I had given up for lost but they got here. Thank you Dad and thank you Rhettsky. But the most interesting thing was a notice in my box telling me about the new Bagel shop in Maputo. Yup you read that right A BAGEL SHOP!!!! Luckily its only a 10 minute walk from the office so I ran up there. I got a lox, cream cheese bagel and some amazing coffee. Then when I asked for the bill, which should have been 125 mets (my bus fare) I got one for 85 mets. Volunteer discount because the owners were PCVs in Cape Verde and Cameroon! Then I get back to the office and have a talk with the boss who gave me the paper work for the extension! They all agree with it and now I just have to go through all the lovely official motions. :) Now I'm off to Boane for the first time since training. Going to see my mozambican host family for the first time since training as well.

More soon

Ian

What a beautiful day in Africa!

Yesterday and today have been some weird yet absolutely wonderful days. Yesterday, I went to a friends house to watch a James Bond. DVDs are super cheap on the streets of Maputo and I'm addicted to James Bond. I've currently gotten him addicted to James Bond as well, but that is okay because life is all about experiencing new things. We then cooked some cow in my version of what an American steak would be. All in all it was a good night. My town's American population is going to double soon beacause a previous volunteer is coming to visit. I'll report on that after the fact.

Today on the way down to the city, I got into a taxi and got a call from my friend. He hung up and I thought he was trying to call me. Most volunteers have many Mozambican friends who do that because of the prevailing thought that we are made of money. Anyway, he was sitting 3 rows behind me and calling me mulungo. So I retorted with the usual mulande and got the whole car laughing. On the ride down, because I was sitting by the door, I had to get in and out of the taxi many times. EVERY SINGLE TIME I got out I pulled part of the car with me. I didn't break anything, these cars just come apart like that because they are put together of various pieces from various cars at various times. THIS IS AFRICA! But at least the car was laughing. I got down and had a wonderful ride across the water to come to the city and will now go to the beach to relax. I need it after dismantling this poor guys car.

More soon