Being in Peace Corps is not all fun and games. It's tough. It's tough being far from home and not talking to friends & family on a regular basis and it's constantly tough defining your role as a Volunteer. I appreciate all the support I've gotten from back home since I've been here. It keeps me sane. Real quick, I just wanted to take a minute to give some shout outs and say a few thank yous to:
Mom & Dad- My greatest supporters. Though it's been difficult, thank you for supporting me unconditionally with cards and care packages and being available to call me when I need to talk. I love you and miss you
My Sister, Alison- thank you for the cards and updates on my beautiful new nephew :) and for being there to talk to me.
My granny, aunts, and uncles and other relatives- Thank you ALL for the endless cards and occasional packages of love
Ms. Jill- Thank you SO much for donating your old BB to me! I haven't gotten it yet but I will let you know as soon as I do. I REALLY appreciate it and the timing is perfect considering my other phone recently quit working. I miss you and love you and I'm looking forward to us all catching up at the end of the year.
Karissa- my best friend on the planet. I love you girl and I miss you SO much. I know your busy back home but thank you for being able to text me and email me on a regular basis. Thank you for going shopping for me for when my parents need to send me something. (My mom would be lost in the mall lookin for what I need!) You are such an amazing friend. Give your family hugs for me and tell them I'll be there for dinner in November.
Sara- Thank you so much for the care packages, you have NO idea how much they mean to me and how much I enjoy them. They always make my day/week/month. Such a sweet heart!
ALL my close girl friends, including: Kristyn, Karissa, Brandy, Sara, Taylor & Lindsey...Thank you girls for being there to listen and give good advice and feedback, from across the world. I miss you all!
Pete- Thanks for the lil package of goodies, it made my day! I miss you and I must say, my Peace Corps experience just isn't the same without you. I miss you buddy, see ya on tha other side someday :)
Thank you to all of my other friends who make themselves available to skype with me occasionally. It means so much!
All of my mom's students and our family friends- thank you for the occasional letters and care packages.
If I forgot ANYBODY at the moment, I apologize, I have not forgotten I'm just pressured right now to be quick because I'm paying by the minute and I'm on a budget...Thank you to all again, for your support and love.
XOXO
May 16, 2011
Tests & Trials
The month of April was a rough month. I spent all my monthly allowance too soon, and so the rest of the month I only had a hundred meticais to get me through. A hundred meticais is equal to about three US dollars. Sadly, I’m really not exaggerating. The same thing happened with Naa. We struggled together. During that month, we really learned how to stretch a dollar and how to stay positive while doing it.
I really dislike not having the money to buy the things I want or to go places I’d like to see. I live in a beautiful region in the world, and I don’t even have the money to travel to places here that I’d like to see. Peace Corps recently gave us our W-2 for 2010, which, I believe showed that I earned less than $3,000 for all of last year. But then again, that’s not why I joined Peace Corps and I don’t really think of myself as poor. I have options, through Peace Corps and back home. I was never truly worried about what I was going to eat. I trust my neighbors wouldn’t let me go hungry, nor would my parents if it came to that. I’ve seen suffering in the eyes of patients in the hospital, children without family, people dying from AIDS. And so I know I have not truly suffered.
With that being said, being broke is not really fun. But somehow, being so broke and waiting for our next paycheck every day gave Naa and me the opportunity to be a bit dramatic and we had fun while doing it.
I talk to Naa every morning. We call each other and talk about our plans for the day and encourage each other. I called her one morning to see how she was hanging in there, because the day before she was unable to come to Xai Xai. When I called her she said she was making oatmeal for breakfast and was going to come to Xai Xai today to go to the bank. I heard her cat meowing loudly in the back ground. She was talking about something and I had to interrupt her to ask,
“OMG Naa, what is Sadie fussin over?”
“Girl, this cat is TOO much right now. She’s fussin because I gave her a little bit of oatmeal for breakfast and now she’s lookin at me like ‘You expect me to eat this? Woman where are those eggs you used to give me or that canned cat food at?’ “
Naa cracks me up. I wish I could record the things she says and put it in this blog.
In response to her cat, laughing at the same time, Naa said to her, “LOOK Sadie, we goin through HARD TIMES right now. PROLLY cause I was buyin you eggs and canned cat food in the FIRST place. I don’t know WHERE you think those things come from, cat, but those things cost money and are NOT cheap. And now part of the reason we strugglin is cause of your high cost meals so don’t you look at me like that and just EAT what is given to you!”
After laughing about that for a minute, she asked me how my puppy is doing. I said he’s ok, ridden with fleas but ok and energetic and thankfully he eats whatever I give him. He’s not picky so he’s gonna make it.
We met in the city later that afternoon. I wanted to mail a letter but couldn’t. I wanted to go to use the internet but couldn’t. I wanted to buy more credit to talk on my phone but couldn’t. So rough. We met at a gas station across the street from KFC. It still wasn’t open at that point, which is probably a good thing. Just one less temptation. We decided to go to the bank first. The bank here requires that your account always has at least 500 meticais. We went to the ATM and both of our statements were not too far from that. We decided to go inside and ask if we could withdraw a portion of the little money we had. Our game plan was to sweet talk the bank lady and butter her up so she might cut us some slack. Our game plan was to compliment her and engage in small talk. Mozambicans love small talk.
As usual, the lobby was full and lines don’t exist here so there were about fifty people crowding the counter. Naa and I pushed our way through until we were right in front of the lady we needed to talk to. We both said good afternoon. I asked her how she was doing. Naa complimented her hair. I asked her how is your work going, how is your health and family and do you like this weather outside? Naa complimented something she was wearing. After this 3 minute exchange of sucking up and using our best charm, the lady asked how could she help us today.
Naa and I looked at each other and smiled. She went on to ask her if she could withdraw money from her account. “Of course,” the lady said, and handed her a blue withdrawal slip. Naa started to fill it out. Knowing that we wouldn’t be able to withdraw the small amount we wanted, I decided to take one step forward before Naa finishes filling out that slip only for the lady to tell us it’s not possible to do so.
In Portuguese, my only chance to convince her, I said, “Ma’am, my friend and I understand that to hold an account here, you must maintain a minimum of X amount of meticais in your account. We understand that, but right now we are really without money until next month. We are requesting that we may be able to withdraw all or part of that X amount, because it’s really all we have right now and it would help us a lot.” I impressed myself after I said it. SURELY she would say yes.
She said no. She said she can’t do that. She apologized. Then Naa went on and told her how she has X amount of meticais in her account and that she would like to withdraw an X amount above the minimum X amount that has to stay in the account. The lady looked at her and said, “You really want to withdraw this X amount of meticais?” Naa said yes, and continued to fill out the blue slip. Then she looked at me with her eyebrows raised and with a joking tone in her voice, in English she said, “Did I stutter? YOU KNOW HOW MANY PIECES OF BREAD that X amount of meticais will get me?! That’s a week o’ food, girl! Actually, screw this let’s just go. We’ll figure somethin’ out.”
We thanked the lady and left. We decided to go to my house because I remembered my empregada (maid) cooked for me. The meal she made cost about 10 meticais. While we were eating we made a budget for next month and decided we must manage the little money that we earn each month better because we can’t keep struggling like this. It’s already hard enough here and even more so when you’re broke! Naa tried to make a phone call but couldn’t because she didn’t have any credit. “Man Mal, the Lord is TESTIN us right now. Girl these are hard times…I hope we get paid soon cause I been havin to go visit my neighbors more often to eat dinner with them and the lady I been buyin bread and bagias from is gettin to know me pretty well…” Bagias are fried bean patties. Mozambicans are very caring people, they always feed their visitors. One of my Mozambican friends told me it’s because they just don’t know where their visitor is coming from and whether or not they’ve eaten or what, so they must offer them food.
After we ate we decided to walk to the city from my house for Naa to catch a ride home. As we were walking we ran into one of my friends, Viegas, who was also a good friend of a former PCV. We stopped to talk to him and he told Naa he had a Portuguese Bible for her. Then he ran into his house and Naa told me she didn’t know what he was talking about, she couldn’t remember how she met him or why he wanted to give her a Bible. He soon skipped his way back to us and handed Naa a green Bible wrapped in plastic.
“Sweet, this’ll help my Portuguese…thanks!” and off we went. We walked quite a way not saying anything for a minute so I asked her if she was alright.
Grabbing her purse, she said, “Yeah I’m good it’s just that I’m tired and this Bible is kind of heavy!”
“Dang girl, it sounds like the Lord is really weighin on you right now!” I said jokingly
Her jaw dropped and we both started laughing, “True that, God is TESTIN US right now during these hard times!”
We made it through the month with as little as we had. We made a budget and have been sticking to it pretty well. Though I didn’t write specific examples, we tried to help each other out as much as we could with what we did have. Other people also helped us along the way by giving us rides and food. And so I learned: When I am going through something difficult, I just need to be patient and reach out.
Now, whenever something or somebody annoys us, or when we’re out of money, or when we’re frustrated or sad or angry, Naa and I are able to laugh and say to each other,
“GOD MUST BE TESTING ME RIGHT NOW!”
I really dislike not having the money to buy the things I want or to go places I’d like to see. I live in a beautiful region in the world, and I don’t even have the money to travel to places here that I’d like to see. Peace Corps recently gave us our W-2 for 2010, which, I believe showed that I earned less than $3,000 for all of last year. But then again, that’s not why I joined Peace Corps and I don’t really think of myself as poor. I have options, through Peace Corps and back home. I was never truly worried about what I was going to eat. I trust my neighbors wouldn’t let me go hungry, nor would my parents if it came to that. I’ve seen suffering in the eyes of patients in the hospital, children without family, people dying from AIDS. And so I know I have not truly suffered.
With that being said, being broke is not really fun. But somehow, being so broke and waiting for our next paycheck every day gave Naa and me the opportunity to be a bit dramatic and we had fun while doing it.
I talk to Naa every morning. We call each other and talk about our plans for the day and encourage each other. I called her one morning to see how she was hanging in there, because the day before she was unable to come to Xai Xai. When I called her she said she was making oatmeal for breakfast and was going to come to Xai Xai today to go to the bank. I heard her cat meowing loudly in the back ground. She was talking about something and I had to interrupt her to ask,
“OMG Naa, what is Sadie fussin over?”
“Girl, this cat is TOO much right now. She’s fussin because I gave her a little bit of oatmeal for breakfast and now she’s lookin at me like ‘You expect me to eat this? Woman where are those eggs you used to give me or that canned cat food at?’ “
Naa cracks me up. I wish I could record the things she says and put it in this blog.
In response to her cat, laughing at the same time, Naa said to her, “LOOK Sadie, we goin through HARD TIMES right now. PROLLY cause I was buyin you eggs and canned cat food in the FIRST place. I don’t know WHERE you think those things come from, cat, but those things cost money and are NOT cheap. And now part of the reason we strugglin is cause of your high cost meals so don’t you look at me like that and just EAT what is given to you!”
After laughing about that for a minute, she asked me how my puppy is doing. I said he’s ok, ridden with fleas but ok and energetic and thankfully he eats whatever I give him. He’s not picky so he’s gonna make it.
We met in the city later that afternoon. I wanted to mail a letter but couldn’t. I wanted to go to use the internet but couldn’t. I wanted to buy more credit to talk on my phone but couldn’t. So rough. We met at a gas station across the street from KFC. It still wasn’t open at that point, which is probably a good thing. Just one less temptation. We decided to go to the bank first. The bank here requires that your account always has at least 500 meticais. We went to the ATM and both of our statements were not too far from that. We decided to go inside and ask if we could withdraw a portion of the little money we had. Our game plan was to sweet talk the bank lady and butter her up so she might cut us some slack. Our game plan was to compliment her and engage in small talk. Mozambicans love small talk.
As usual, the lobby was full and lines don’t exist here so there were about fifty people crowding the counter. Naa and I pushed our way through until we were right in front of the lady we needed to talk to. We both said good afternoon. I asked her how she was doing. Naa complimented her hair. I asked her how is your work going, how is your health and family and do you like this weather outside? Naa complimented something she was wearing. After this 3 minute exchange of sucking up and using our best charm, the lady asked how could she help us today.
Naa and I looked at each other and smiled. She went on to ask her if she could withdraw money from her account. “Of course,” the lady said, and handed her a blue withdrawal slip. Naa started to fill it out. Knowing that we wouldn’t be able to withdraw the small amount we wanted, I decided to take one step forward before Naa finishes filling out that slip only for the lady to tell us it’s not possible to do so.
In Portuguese, my only chance to convince her, I said, “Ma’am, my friend and I understand that to hold an account here, you must maintain a minimum of X amount of meticais in your account. We understand that, but right now we are really without money until next month. We are requesting that we may be able to withdraw all or part of that X amount, because it’s really all we have right now and it would help us a lot.” I impressed myself after I said it. SURELY she would say yes.
She said no. She said she can’t do that. She apologized. Then Naa went on and told her how she has X amount of meticais in her account and that she would like to withdraw an X amount above the minimum X amount that has to stay in the account. The lady looked at her and said, “You really want to withdraw this X amount of meticais?” Naa said yes, and continued to fill out the blue slip. Then she looked at me with her eyebrows raised and with a joking tone in her voice, in English she said, “Did I stutter? YOU KNOW HOW MANY PIECES OF BREAD that X amount of meticais will get me?! That’s a week o’ food, girl! Actually, screw this let’s just go. We’ll figure somethin’ out.”
We thanked the lady and left. We decided to go to my house because I remembered my empregada (maid) cooked for me. The meal she made cost about 10 meticais. While we were eating we made a budget for next month and decided we must manage the little money that we earn each month better because we can’t keep struggling like this. It’s already hard enough here and even more so when you’re broke! Naa tried to make a phone call but couldn’t because she didn’t have any credit. “Man Mal, the Lord is TESTIN us right now. Girl these are hard times…I hope we get paid soon cause I been havin to go visit my neighbors more often to eat dinner with them and the lady I been buyin bread and bagias from is gettin to know me pretty well…” Bagias are fried bean patties. Mozambicans are very caring people, they always feed their visitors. One of my Mozambican friends told me it’s because they just don’t know where their visitor is coming from and whether or not they’ve eaten or what, so they must offer them food.
After we ate we decided to walk to the city from my house for Naa to catch a ride home. As we were walking we ran into one of my friends, Viegas, who was also a good friend of a former PCV. We stopped to talk to him and he told Naa he had a Portuguese Bible for her. Then he ran into his house and Naa told me she didn’t know what he was talking about, she couldn’t remember how she met him or why he wanted to give her a Bible. He soon skipped his way back to us and handed Naa a green Bible wrapped in plastic.
“Sweet, this’ll help my Portuguese…thanks!” and off we went. We walked quite a way not saying anything for a minute so I asked her if she was alright.
Grabbing her purse, she said, “Yeah I’m good it’s just that I’m tired and this Bible is kind of heavy!”
“Dang girl, it sounds like the Lord is really weighin on you right now!” I said jokingly
Her jaw dropped and we both started laughing, “True that, God is TESTIN US right now during these hard times!”
We made it through the month with as little as we had. We made a budget and have been sticking to it pretty well. Though I didn’t write specific examples, we tried to help each other out as much as we could with what we did have. Other people also helped us along the way by giving us rides and food. And so I learned: When I am going through something difficult, I just need to be patient and reach out.
Now, whenever something or somebody annoys us, or when we’re out of money, or when we’re frustrated or sad or angry, Naa and I are able to laugh and say to each other,
“GOD MUST BE TESTING ME RIGHT NOW!”
Kentucky Fried Chicken
Last week, Kentucky Fried Chicken made its way and opened up in Xai Xai. It’s just as nice if not nicer than the KFCs in the States. Naa and I went for the first time last week. Naa is a fellow PCV and a dear friend of mine. The drive thru signs are in English, so we assumed this KFC is owned by South Africans. We wanted to find out.
As soon as we walked in, we felt like we were back in America. We needed a quick reality check so we had to look back outside to see the sand and kids on the street and women in kapulanas to remind us yes, we ARE in an American fast food chain restaurant in Xai Xai. In Mozambique. In Africa. Before I joined Peace Corps, I never thought that would be possible. When we walked in, we immediately spotted the ice cream machine and the fryers in the back. Unfortunately they don’t have fountain drinks or biscuits, just fridges full of canned sodas and shelves full of rolls stored in plastic bags. The workers were in uniform at the cash registers. We go to the cash register guy on the left, he was the first to see us and give us a big kool-aid smile and say “Welcome to KFC”. We look up and the menu is limited and in Portuguese. No problem, it was still a big deal for us to take a break from rice and beans!
Before we ordered, Naa wanted to ask the guy who owned the place.
So she asked, “Who owns this place?”
“Sorry?”
“I mean, who owns this KFC? Is it owned by South Africans?”
“This is Mozambique.” he answered.
He didn’t understand her. I asked him, “Where is the owner of this KFC from?” He gave us a puzzled look.
Naa tried one more time. “Is the owner of this KFC South African?”
“Oh. I understand your question. No.” he said.
The look on his face changed, got a little serious looking. He looked as though he had a secret. His voice changed and leaned towards us.
He spoke softly and said, “The owner is not South African…”
Naa and I looked at each other and started laughing because of the miscommunication and because such a simple question led to such confusion and we weren’t expecting the owner to be so mysterious. We laughed even harder when we realized he was still serious. For a second I thought he was going to tell us something really cool and shocking. The way he was acting, I was thinking maybe he is about to tell us Oprah Winfrey is the owner and SURPRISE she’s in the back of the store right now and is going to make your dreams come true for all of your hard work and sacrifice. Or not. Wishful thinking.
He started again and said, “There is only one owner of all KFCs…”
Naa, laughing, asked, “Oh my gosh, WHO? Do you know him?!”
With notable disappointment, he said “No…I do not know him personally…”
He picked up a packet of ketchup and smiled as he held it in his hands looking at it like he still had something to say. Naa and I were laughing pretty hard now. I cry when I laugh so tears were streaming down my face and I’m sure my mascara was running but I didn’t care. We were on a high at this point. We were in KFC in Africa and we’re about to get surprised by Oprah Winfrey, the way this guy’s acting! Anything’s possible, right? Look where we are!
After a minute we regained our composure. Naa let out a big sigh and an “OOOOHHHHHH” while shaking her head and with her hand on her hip she slapped her other hand down on the counter and looked at the guy.
“So…who is it?”
He was quiet. Still looking down at the packet of ketchup in his hands. He picked it up and held it in front of us.
He smiled and said, “This guy right here.” And pointed to the little black and white picture of Colonel Sanders.
As soon as we walked in, we felt like we were back in America. We needed a quick reality check so we had to look back outside to see the sand and kids on the street and women in kapulanas to remind us yes, we ARE in an American fast food chain restaurant in Xai Xai. In Mozambique. In Africa. Before I joined Peace Corps, I never thought that would be possible. When we walked in, we immediately spotted the ice cream machine and the fryers in the back. Unfortunately they don’t have fountain drinks or biscuits, just fridges full of canned sodas and shelves full of rolls stored in plastic bags. The workers were in uniform at the cash registers. We go to the cash register guy on the left, he was the first to see us and give us a big kool-aid smile and say “Welcome to KFC”. We look up and the menu is limited and in Portuguese. No problem, it was still a big deal for us to take a break from rice and beans!
Before we ordered, Naa wanted to ask the guy who owned the place.
So she asked, “Who owns this place?”
“Sorry?”
“I mean, who owns this KFC? Is it owned by South Africans?”
“This is Mozambique.” he answered.
He didn’t understand her. I asked him, “Where is the owner of this KFC from?” He gave us a puzzled look.
Naa tried one more time. “Is the owner of this KFC South African?”
“Oh. I understand your question. No.” he said.
The look on his face changed, got a little serious looking. He looked as though he had a secret. His voice changed and leaned towards us.
He spoke softly and said, “The owner is not South African…”
Naa and I looked at each other and started laughing because of the miscommunication and because such a simple question led to such confusion and we weren’t expecting the owner to be so mysterious. We laughed even harder when we realized he was still serious. For a second I thought he was going to tell us something really cool and shocking. The way he was acting, I was thinking maybe he is about to tell us Oprah Winfrey is the owner and SURPRISE she’s in the back of the store right now and is going to make your dreams come true for all of your hard work and sacrifice. Or not. Wishful thinking.
He started again and said, “There is only one owner of all KFCs…”
Naa, laughing, asked, “Oh my gosh, WHO? Do you know him?!”
With notable disappointment, he said “No…I do not know him personally…”
He picked up a packet of ketchup and smiled as he held it in his hands looking at it like he still had something to say. Naa and I were laughing pretty hard now. I cry when I laugh so tears were streaming down my face and I’m sure my mascara was running but I didn’t care. We were on a high at this point. We were in KFC in Africa and we’re about to get surprised by Oprah Winfrey, the way this guy’s acting! Anything’s possible, right? Look where we are!
After a minute we regained our composure. Naa let out a big sigh and an “OOOOHHHHHH” while shaking her head and with her hand on her hip she slapped her other hand down on the counter and looked at the guy.
“So…who is it?”
He was quiet. Still looking down at the packet of ketchup in his hands. He picked it up and held it in front of us.
He smiled and said, “This guy right here.” And pointed to the little black and white picture of Colonel Sanders.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
