First Impressions

I’ve been at site for 5 days now and so far I love it!

Macomia is located about 40 km from the Mozambican coast in gorgeous green mountains of Cabo Delgado! Everyone said it was hot and dry, so I wasn’t expecting it to be green, but it is.  Looking out my bedroom window past the mud huts, I see a beautiful, lush mountainside stretching as far as the eye can see.  And yet the vegetation here has me very confused, because while the mountains are full of trees and bushes of a deep green color, the majority of the houses are surrounded by sand and palm trees.  It’s “tempo de fome” while we wait for the rains, so unfortunately the green does NOT translate into availability of produce, but the nuns at the mission have been giving us a steady supply of maracuja (passion fruit), mangoes, and bananas.  Can’t complain about that!

So anyway, starting from the beginning…we left Nampula at 7:30 on Saturday morning and began the drive up to Macomia, which was supposed to be about 5-6 hours.  We drove with our school’s representative, a Colombian irma (sister, or nun) working at the mission, as well as two other volunteers and their supervisor.  Additionally, our car was piled HIGH with all of our stuff (when we stopped by a mission for our supervisor to pick some things up, the irma who greeted us said we looked like we were driving the tower of Babel!)  We dropped the first volunteer off at her place with her new roommate and all her luggage and then headed to the second volunteer’s site.  Upon arriving at his site, we found that the keys left behind by his roommate didn’t actually open the door, so we left him there with his director and all his stuff to await someone to come change the lock.  We were already behind schedule, but this began a LONG trek up through the rest of Nampula and into Cabo Delgado on dirt roads or paved roads with holes and with 1(!) gas station on the way, which fortunately we were able to stop at to use the restroom and grab a few snacks.  Our Education Program Director was our driver for the day – and what a champ he was!  He drove the whole time with just the one stop and didn’t use the bathroom once or eat anything - and didn’t even complain!

We were very sleepy when the landscape started changing and turning into the green paradise that we’re in now.  Now, don’t imagine the Amazon rain forest or anything, but compared to the dirt/sand/desert that is much of Mozambique, the vegetation here is definitely to be considered paradise.  We even saw a baboon on the way, which is the first sign of “wild”life I’ve seen in Africa!  Upon arriving, we ate a nice dinner that the other irmas had prepared (right now there are 3 – two Colombian, one Spanish – but another Colombian is on vacation and will return soon, and a new nun will also be joining them from Spain in January).

 Our site mate was not kidding about the hike one has to take from the cruzamento at the center of our town, Macomia, up the hill to the mission, which is where the school and our house are located. It’s a pretty steady uphill of about 5-6 kilometers, and despite the greenery here, it is still very hot.

We’re lucky because we live in teacher housing, which means it’s by far nicer than the mud huts around us, but at the same time we have a community of teachers here that’s living in the same conditions (so we’re living at the comfort level of a Mozambican in our profession).  We have a large, concrete house (3 bedrooms) with a decent kitchen and a big center area that serves as a dining room and living room. Our house didn't have anything in terms of amenities when we moved in (we bought the stove, all our buckets for water, dishes, tudo!), but it did have beds with mattresses, a dining room table and chairs, and a coffee table and chairs.  All in all, incredibly comfortable.  I'll post pictures when possible, but at the moment my internet connection doesn't seem to be great here.

So far our neighbors have been so wonderful and helpful.  A female professor took me to the local market and lent us silverware, brooms, salt, etc. until we were able to buy some.  She also comes by a few times a day to check on us.  Our male colleagues have been very helpful as well, helping to unload our luggage when we got here and then last night we had like 7 people in our kitchen trying to change our lock because a key had gotten stuck in it.  It’s a little unfortunate because school just finished which means that most of them are going home for the holidays.  But some will still be around, as will the irmas, and it’ll also give us some time to get settled in.

We’ve worked out a water system with the water boy, who also happens to be my new Macua teacher!  He and his friends have started coming by when they’re done with work to practice their English, and I’m using it as an opportunity to learn some of one of the two principal local languages, Macua. The other most widely spoken language is Maconde, and I plan to learn some basic conversation pieces in that, too. We sat on the patio for about 2 hours today, translating and practicing basic phrases. Here are a few things I learned:

Moshelilya. – Good morning.
Salaama – Hello (notice the Arab influence!)
Muhamo? – How are you?
Kihamo, kai kiroutu? –  I’m well, and you?
Assante – Thank you ( actually Swahili, which is spoken by many here and has influenced Macua and Maconde a lot)
Kinote hati makua. – I am learning Macua.
Kini hanya Marina. – My name is Marina.

This zone is definitely a big change from the comfortable bairos of Namaacha, where we had our training.  People here live off of the very basics. Most live in mud houses, cook on carvão, and cart water for several kilometers every day.  Malnutrition is visible everywhere.  Yesterday, we went with one of the irmas to the hospital where she was delivering milk to a mother who was so malnourished she wasn't lactating.  Her 3-month-old baby weighed only 2 kilograms (less than 5 lbs!) and I was surprised to see that it was still alive. 

Two days ago, we had our first rainfall. Some kids from across the street came over with some buckets to collect the water that was coming off my roof.  When I went out to greet them, the eldest hid around the side of the house, presumably because she thought I would get mad.  Instead, I brought out a bar of soap and helped her bathe the younger ones that had walked over with her.  It was a pretty precious moment.  We had such a hard rain yesterday that I too decided to take advantage and washed my hair in the shower-like pressure of the water coming off the roof.

Today, Eryn (my new roommate) and I got up at 4:30am to have breakfast before make the long walk down to the central market.  It was overwhelming and exhausting, but overall a good experience - we got everything we needed (and a few things we didn't), plus I got to practice my Macua! Fortunately we were also able to grab a boleia (free ride) up the hill with someone on the way back (even more fortunate because some crazy guy was dancing and following us).

Well…this entry is already too long, but the moral of the story is that I couldn’t ask for things to be going any better!  This is all SO much easier the second time around.  It seems like nothing is phasing me.  Of course, it helps that I don’t have to teach for another month so I’m free to do whatever I want :)

Missing you all and thinking of you lots during this Christmas season.  Sing an extra carol for me!