A Tribute to Szasha

I have a lot of blog entries backlogged that I really need to finish and post -- about Teacher's Day, about my site visitor last week, about the end of the school year -- so many things to write about, but today's post is not about any of those things. Today I'm writing about Szasha, because she left for America today.

I first met Szasha in training. She lived in the same neighborhood as me, Bairro 25, and I walked past Szasha's house every day to get home. There was a girl there who always had carvão (coal) on her hands, and she just loved to grab people's boobs. I call her Carvãohands Boobgrabber, and Szasha and I like to joke about her.

Szasha was also in my language group for Portuguese class. She and her friend Alexandra, who both transferred to Mozambique after a year in Peace Corps Cape Verde, used to talk about Cape Verde all the time. In fact, when Szasha wasn't talking about Cape Verde, she was talking about California, her home state, and Berkeley, her alma mater. (My thoughts on this: What kind of a mascot is bruins? That's not even a word in English!) Szasha loved to distract our language instructor, Parruque, from formal instruction by throwing questions like "Where do elephants live?" and "Can you tell me all the kinds of snakes that can kill me so I can avoid them?" at him. It wasn't hard to see that Szasha was Parruque's favorite student in our group.

When we finally got our site placements, Szasha and I ended up in Tete together, all by ourselves in an exclusive little Tete Club. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better person to be stuck all alone with in an isolated corner of Mozambique. The first few months, it was Szasha who I explored Tete City with, learning the places that sell the best bread or have the creepiest salespeople. It was Szasha who I could call just to complain about how hot it was. It was Szasha who I traveled with to Zobwe, to Malawi, to Chimoio... and, speaking of travel, it was Szasha who taught me how to hitchhike in Africa (something I never thought I'd do!)

For almost a year, Szasha and I have been doing almost everything together. We went shopping in the city together. We planned our REDES conference together. We traveled to Lake Malawi together.

Who else can I sit around the house with, watching Miss Congeniality over and over? (She likes it for the beauty pageants, I like it for Texas.) Who else would sit in a bucket with me on a hot day? Who else would practice flip-cup in my house in preparation for Beer Olympics?

I feel like a good test for friendship is being stuck in a tiny, cockroach-filled room with someone for two weeks. If you're still friends after that, you're golden. Szasha passed that test with flying colors during our "fake-evacuation" in Tete City during the first bout of political unrest.

I never thought I'd be such good friends with a California sorority-girl from super-hippie-ville who used to be in beauty pageants and show dairy cows. In fact, I'm not sure Szasha and I would have been friends if we had met at some random party in the America. And yet, as fate has it, we met here -- and Szasha has become one of my very closest PCV friends.

I left Szasha at the airport this afternoon. She's done with her two years, and is going on an Epic Journey with her Cape Verde bestie before going home in time for Christmas. With her departure, I'm now the only volunteer left in Tete until the newbies get here in a month.

I'm going to miss Szasha so much, but I know she can't wait to go home, and I'm so proud of her for finishing her service. She is a fantastic volunteer, one of the best I know, and I'm going to miss her a ton.

Here's to you, Szash!