Photos of My New Abode

This is my house! As seen from the front. Not too shabby!

I live in a professor complex adjacent to the school, so it's three housing units in one of these long buildings. I live in the middle, with families live on either side of me, and I share my housing unit with a Mozambican teacher.

Behold the Latrines. Each one corresponds to a house. Mine is the second from the right. There's an identical row of these that serve as bath houses, the only difference being that the bathhouses don't have a hole in the ground for, well, you know. They have a drain instead.

This is the inside of my house. I haven't decorated yet -- that's still coming.

This is my "kitchen". Mini-fridge and hot plate? It's just like college!

My bedroom. Notice the alarmingly large stack of books and somewhat useless Peace Corps manuals. I need a bookshelf if I ever want to open that trunk that all that crap is sitting on.

Decor in my room. On the left: To remind me of my PCV friends. I knew pilfering the Thanksgiving decorations would come in handy. On the right: To remind me of home. Next I want to draw a giant map of Mozambique and put pins where all my friends are.

Saving the best for last, this is the view from my front porch. Pretty sweet, huh? The mountains are gorgeous at sunset.

And there you have it! This is where I'm going to be living for 2 years. Woah.

Mavudzi: The First Days

Well, it's Day 3 here in Tete and SO much has happened! Since I last posted, I've been getting lots of things done off of my Peace Corps Successful Integration Checklist.

Yesterday, my director stopped by my house at 7:30 a.m. and was flabberghasted that I hadn't showered and eaten yet. 7:30 is practically afternoon by Mozambican standards. After getting ready, I went with him to the school and met a bunch of teachers -- they all seem like they are going to be really fun to work with. The plan was going to be for me just to meet people, but since Redi (the other English teacher) was called away for a family emergency, I was asked to help grade English exams. Kind of daunting when your first act as a teacher at school is to decide who passes 10th grade English and who doesn't! But they taught me the grading scale and it was pretty straightforward so I think I did O.K. Meet teachers: Check.

Amusingly enough, I managed to lock myself out of my house, and the only other person that has a key to our house is Redi, who was, of course, out of town. I had my key with me but it wouldn't unlock the door for some reason. I told the neighborhood crianças that I'd have a prize for whoever managed to figure out how to open the door -- and spent the next hour watching amusedly as about a dozen children tried their luck (to no avail). It was like the Sword in the Stone, except no one succeeded. Interact with crianças: Check. Eventually, though, I got tired of sitting on my front porch and I went to my director for help -- and he took me to go see the carpenter! Meet carpenter: Check. Next step: Commission him to make me a bookshelf.


While waiting for the carpenter to get dressed and get his tools together, my director treated me to my favorite brand of Mozambican beer (Manica) at the only place to get refreshments in town and we had a nice conversation. He is really friendly and open-minded. He was quite fond of the volunteer I am replacing but I think we are going to get along well. In the time that we conversed, the carpenter managed to break into my house and all was well again.

Today, Szasha and I decided to go into the city as we were both sorely lacking in essential supplies (like buckets and food). I really like Tete City -- it's a good size, pretty clean and there isn't trash all over the place like some other cities (cough cough CHIMOIO!). We had a really productive morning in which we explored Tete and found:
- A supermarket with everything we will ever need, including chocolate.
- A really nice vendedora (market vendor) named Cristina in the local mercado. She was the only one not to inflate the prices on us ridiculously just because we're "muzungus" (whites). We had a nice conversation with her about who we are and what we are doing here and she was so pleased to meet us that she gave us an extra tomato and two onions. Score!
- An airconditioned coffeeshop and bakery where we can buy hamburgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, and milkshakes. That seals the deal: I like Tete. The café is owned by a nice Lebanese man who provided us with many useful directions.
-The bank and the cell phone store, where we ran into a British ex-pat named Tim who is here with a construction/engineering company. We forgot to get his phone number so it is our mission at some point next time in Tete to find Tim again. The Search for Tim commences. He was very nice, we could use some new friends in the city, and it doesn't hurt that he mentioned that his apartment has air conditioning...

The only thing I didn't manage to find is a good xixi bucket. What is a xixi bucket, you ask? 'Tis a bucket for those times in the middle of the night when nature calls and you don't want to make the trek to the latrine. A good xixi bucket will fit nicely in a corner, not be super unsightly, and have a lid to contain odor. You keep it in your bedroom, fill it with a little water and a little bleach, and walla! Aiming is more easier for men, I think. I actually dont mind walking to the latrine, but mine seems to grow a cockroach infestation as soon as the sun goes down, so a good xixi bucket is definitely on my Lookout List. Right now, I'm using a "Xixi Emtpy-Margarine-Plastic-Container" which is... somewhat problematic, shall we say?

After our day out in Tete, Szasha and I were totally wiped out. So much excitement! So we made our way home, and a Very Amusing Event occurred on the chapa ride home! As we were waiting for the chapa to fill up, some kid stole this guy's plastic bag with sodas that he had just bought. He was really mad about it, but no one could find the kid and so the man had no choice but to let it go. But lo and behold! Just as we pulled out of the chapa stop, one of the other passengers shouted "There he is! That's the kid! Look, the one who took your plastic bag!" so our cobrador stopped the chapa and he and the passenger ran after the kid. They ripped the doughballs that the kid was selling from his hands and said "You give back that man's sodas or we are taking these doughballs as payment." The kid was really stubborn and didn't want to return the sodas, but everyone else in the chapa (about 18 people) started shouting "GIVE THAT MAN HIS STUFF BACK!" So eventually the kid ran and got the plastic bag with sodas and returned it. The guy whose sodas they were gave the kid a disciplinary slap upside the head and returned all but one of the kids bags of doughballs. He kept one bag and  said, "I'm taking these as payment for your misbehavior. Next time, don't steal." And he gave the doughballs away to other passengers in the chapa. The kid was super pissed, but everyone in the chapa (Szasha and I included) thought it was hilarious and some of them shouted "Thanks for the snack!" out the window as we pulled away. Justice served!

It was a thoroughly exhausting day, but also immensely enjoyable.

That's about all I have as far as updates are concerned, but before I finish I wanted to show off the best thing so far about Mavudzi!

This is Poppy. I inherited her from the volunteer before me.

Everyone in town loves Poppy. She follows me everywhere, she chases chickens and goats and ducks out of my house when they wander in (so they don't poop all over the floor), and she growls when strangers walk too close to the front door at night. Multipurpose AND super cute. What a combo! The only problem? She is a super picky eater. She won't eat dog food, and she'll only eat certain types of people food. Today, she stared me down until I gave her some of my spicy feijão, but then when she took one lick she decided she didn't like it and left the rest sitting there. My delicious spicy beans! The nerve! She makes up for it by following me all around town, though. I'm already known as "the muzungu with the dog." I'm OK with that. It's a start. Hopefully  once the school year starts, they'll know me as Professora Helena instead. Hopefully.

Muli bwanji! (Hello! From Tete!)

I am writing to you from my new home in Tete. It's a little bit surreal. I don't really know where to even start so I think a chronological sequence might be best for comprehension's sake. I'm a little all over the place at the moment.

Saturday morning, we woke up ridiculously early for our 5 a.m. departure -- which was hard since we stayed up super late the night before, it being out last night together and all. Peace Corps rented a chapa to take me and Sasha to our sites and we were the first to leave.

Here we are with all our bags. Lisa woke up super early to say goodbye to us, which was sweet of her.

And the we were off! It's about a six hour drive from Chimoio to Tete city, and I slept much of that way. We are lucky because Tete is the energy capital of Mozambique and there's a lot of business in this part of the country -- so the vast majority of our journey was on the nicest road in Mozambique.

My first reaction to Tete was the following: "I'm sorry, but did I forget to leave Texas?" It's hot, it's relatively dry, and it looks EXACTLY like Texas Hill Country. I kid you not. There were portions of road where the only distinguishing factor between Texas and Tete was the fact that Texas has no Boab trees. I have included the following photo as evidence.

Texas or Tete? Hard to tell, innit?

Now on to the important stuff. I arrived in Mavudzi-Ponte and my stuff was unloaded. The chapa driver promptly left to drop off Szasha and, well... I was at site. Alone. Weird feeling.

I live in a professors complex next door to the school, so my commute to work is about 30 yards. There are several long concrete buildings, each divided into a few "houses", and each house has two bedrooms and a living area. I am living with a really nice Mozambican teacher named Redi who seems really awesome. She teaches English too, so we'll be working together a lot.

My bedroom is small but has potential for quaintness. The first thing I did was kill about 30 spiders big-as-yo-face. The whole house is empty right now, so I will have to get to work on decorating. The school director said that we're getting a table soon, so that will be nice. I need somewhere to work.

I dont have running water but the well is really close to the complex and so far, all the kids are so excited that I'm here that theyve been taking turns to go fetch water for me. They have also offered to wash my dishes, clean the floor, etc. Sweet. Funny factoid: One of the girls that came over today was wearing this T-Shirt and (I kid you not) it says: "Wenn Mama und Papa "NEIN" sagen, frage ich Oma und Opa!" which is German for "When mom and dad say no, I ask Grandma and Grandpa!"

Yesterday was a thoroughly exhausting day. One of my biggest fears was being placed at a site alone (without another volunteer) and as much as I'm looking forward to integrating and teaching, I've also been dreading it. It didn't help that yesterday was sweltering and humid, so last night I was lying awake in a pool of my own sweat, unable to sleep and left with nothing but my increasingly irrationally negative thoughts ("Why the heck am I here!?"). I eventually gave up on lying in bed, doused myself with cold water from my minifridge (best purchase so far!) and dozed off sitting up directly in front of my fan while watching the Legend of Korra.

This morning, things are already looking brighter. I ate corn flakes for breakfast, which was possibly the most exciting thing to happen to me this week, and chugged cold water from my new fridge. It was a great morning routine.

Peace Corps tells us that we need to make an effort to go out and meet people, and they make a HUGE point of "Don't hide out in your house." which is exactly what I am so very tempted to do. We took the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator during training and I scored very strongly as a introvert, so going around and meeting people is hard for me as well as incredibly stressful and tiring. I made a deal with myself that I would only hide out in my house until 8 a.m., at which point I took the esteira (bamboo mat) and put it out on my front porch and started to write in my journal. It's a step. And lo and behold! Some crianças (kids) almost immediately came over and sat with me. Then they started accumulating and soon there were a crowd of people! I've already forgotten all of their names, but its a start. I could tell they were talking about me in local dialect, but I didn't really mind all that much. I was just happy I met some people. That's one goal accomplished.

After about an hour and a half, I had nothing left to write and the crianças got distracted so I came back inside am contiuing to hide out. Just a little. Then I'll make lunch, and maybe venture outside again.

I am going to try and take some pictures at some point this week so you guys can see where I live. In the mean time, I really appreciate e-mails and phone calls. Hint, hint. I realize calling is expensive, but even e-mails are awesome. You have no idea how exciting it is to see an e-mail from a friendly face in your inbox are when you are sitting there, wondering just what you got yourself into for two years.