No longer a rookie!

I got a puppy a few months ago, his name is Chance. He’s the third dog I’m attempting to raise. The other two puppies disappeared. I only have a few months left here, so he’s my last Chance to raise a dog. Yesterday I was making dinner for Naa and me at my house as she was getting her hair braided. Chance is still small and I bought a collar for him that is way too big. The collar is a belt, and I had to poke an extra hole so it’d fit, and so the slack of the belt hangs and drags across the ground as he walks around. It’s a pretty funny sight. Chance is a “hot mess” as Naa would say because he is always barking and chasing something; his tail, a pig, a kid, whatever. In the midst of our conversation I heard Chance outside the kitchen window barking bloody murder. I look out and he’s in the entrance of our yard watching the kids walk home from school. He was in “downward dog” position with his butt in the air and his head to the ground, barking at this one little boy who was about five feet away from him, tantalizing him in the local language. The kid would run up to Chance, then run back, and yell something. Chance did not like that, it was drawing the attention of other children and they’d stop and join in. Then Chance would run from side to side and just keep barking. I guess he barked long enough because then I heard the other grown dog from our yard start barking and howling at the kids. Then he came charging in the direction of the kids, they immediately started screaming and running away, and on his way out he trampled Chance. Literally. Chance was trying to run in front of him but the dog literally ran over him, knocked him over and Chance flipped forward. He got up, shook himself off, and came back inside. The scene was really funny to watch. “Oh the ways we find to entertain ourselves in Peace Corps.” I said to Naa.

I have been in Peace Corps Mozambique for about a year and ten months now. One of the first blogs I wrote was about “site visit” in October 2009 I was sent to the Tete province to visit two PCVs to see what it’s really like being a volunteer here. I’m proud to say that I’ve been here long enough to be on the other end of that spectrum. The new group of health volunteers arrived last month and they are currently in training in Namaacha, living with host families, learning Portuguese and culture and health tech stuff. This past week Peace Corps sent two trainees to come stay with me for a few days to show them the area, show them my work, and talk to them about life as a PCV.

Last Saturday was preparation day. Naa and I ventured into the city and bought a ton of food. Not really, but to me it was. We bought enough to feed three people for a week or two. We stocked up on vegetables, pasta, cheese, baking supplies, and ground beef-such a treat considering I hardly ever eat meat here. (Side note: people ask me what I eat here. Those few days our menu at my house consisted of eggplant parmesan and spaghetti, taco salad, quesadillas, pizza, and eggs & pancakes...without syrup.) It was good that we ran those errands then because it’s rainy season and it was not easy carrying everything while trudging through all the mud and traffic and cold weather, not something fun for people new to here to have to do.

They arrived Sunday. We volunteers took our trainees to the Indian Restaurant in Xai Xai. It was nice until I started getting sick from something I ate and spent the rest of the evening in bed with a stomach ache from hell and vomiting. No worries, things like that happen here often and they go as quick as they come.

Monday I took my two trainees to the small hospital where I work. I had scheduled a meeting with the women (activistas) I work with to fall on that day, and surprisingly the majority showed up. Late as usual, but they showed up. After giving them a tour, the trainees asked me what I did there and I explained how I’ve been going on home visits with the activistas visiting patients living with HIV/AIDS to monitor their treatment adherence. As we were waiting for more activistas to arrive, I thought it’d be a good idea for them to get an idea of what it’s been like for me working with these women in the community. So, I sent them on their way. I paired each trainee up with two activistas, and I told them to go on a home visit in the near area. My only a criterion for them was to invite the person they visit to come to the hospital to take an HIV test and to learn one phrase in the local language, Chengana. They didn’t look too thrilled for this activity; they were concerned about their role and language. “Just stick to the goal of the visit, and get used to the feeling about being worried about your role and language, because that’s Peace Corps.” Upon arrival, one of the trainees was sprinting back to the hospital with the women I sent her along with. She was saying something in Chengana that I had no idea what; she said she learned how to say “RUN!” They told me how their visits went. I gave them suggestions and shared my experiences. The meeting with the group started. It was my opportunity to talk to the activistas about them starting an income generation project, building a garden in the hospital, and about home visits. They decided that for their income generation project, they want to run an estaleiro, selling firewood and coal- the most used materials that people use to cook here. Those are on my list of things-to-do before I COS (close-of-service) aka before I LEAVE.

After lunch we went to Dona Angela’s house. Dona Angela is an activista at the hospital. She is my co-worker, my friend, someone I really look up to. She has taught me a lot about life and I will miss her dearly after I leave. I’ll have to write a whole other blog entry in tribute to her. Anyway, we went to her house because Angela and I started a REDES group. REDES, once translated to English, stands for Teenage girls In Development, Education, and Health. Angela and I have a group of local teenage girls we meet with on a weekly basis to do activities such as crafts and theater and use them as opportunities to talk about health and self-esteem. The trainees met some of the girls from the group; most of them were at school. They asked one of the girls that came what she liked about REDES and she said, “I like that we learn new things, it’s fun, and I’m around my friends.”

Tuesday I took the trainees to the orphanage and to two CBOs (community-based-organizations). We toured the orphanage and played games with the kids, and I discussed my book project with one of the administrators. After that I took them to one CBO near the hospital where we have monthly nutrition support groups with HIV+ women and their children. The other CBO I took them to is located in the city of Xai Xai, so we traveled there and unfortunately they were closed. But I still told them about what they do and about what I’ve done with them for the past year: a permaculture project, establishing a relationship with another organization in Maputo that might need their support, etc. After those two days of hard work, we hit the beach.

During their stay the trainees were able to give me some recent films that I’ve missed out on over the past 2 years, and they also filled me in on technology, fashion and politics. I now know the difference between an Android, an iPhone, and a tablet. My response to them about “Blockbuster” going out of business was, “I don’t understand.”

Apparently American women like to sew feathers into their hair now? They told me child obesity continues to rise and its predicted that by 2015 50% (I think that was the percentage, don’t quote me) of American children will be diagnosed with Type II diabetes. What I took away from that conversation was that our population continues to grow older, fatter, technologically advanced, and unique. With all of your inventions, issues, and controversies, I love you, America.

Besides me showing them my site and work, the trainees asked me about my coping skills, what’s been the hardest, when was the hardest, and if I wish I had been given specific advice when I was a trainee. I told them I journal, talk to other PCVs, email friends, take the dog for a walk, and of course listening to music has all helped me cope. I told them everything has been hard for me here: being away from home, my role as a volunteer, staying motivated and productive, loneliness, receiving unwanted attention, being broke all the time. I told them that for me, the hardest throughout this journey has been homesickness; because that is constant. I miss the people I love to a degree that I can’t even describe. I told them that all of those things are hard, and that by far the most difficult point in my service was my first two months at site. I said then it’s really hard because you’re really alone, you don’t know anybody and you don’t speak the language well yet, and I was sick a lot during that time due to stress. I told them that I wish that as a trainee that I had been told to enjoy training. Many of the PCVs that visited us during training told us that “things are so much better after training; life is so much easier once you get to your site.” I told them that’s not true and that it’s all hard in its own way, but it’s totally worth it. I’m thankful for this experience. It has made me better and I’ve grown a lot as an individual.

After those questions, we shared experiences here. One of the trainees reminded me of myself in the beginning when I heard her say to the other, “Ummmm, there are cockroaches in the latrine, covering the inside!” The trainees left on Wednesday to return to Namaacha. They have their final interviews this week with our PC supervisor. They will find out next week where their sites will be, so I will soon know who will be replacing me- picking up my work and living with me during my last 3 months here. It was a good site visit, especially since I was the host and not the rookie!