LAST BLOG

Watching ants eat a lizard is a wonderful pastime.

Before.
3 days later.

Somehow 2 years have come and gone in what feels like the blink of an eye. I am currently in Maputo doing all the paperwork/exams necessary to leave Peace Corps. Naturally, I have spent most of my time reflecting on everything that has happened during my service. Here is a list of things that stick out in my mind, both good and bad, as memorable moments:

• My first long distance trip, hitching in the back of a truck with the wind in my face, being in awe of how gorgeous Mozambique is.
• Being diagnosed with arthritis and put on bedrest for a month
• Bungee jumping
• Tutoring Mohammad, and slowly becoming a part of his family which led to spending my last week in Monapo at their mansion in Chocas (best beach EVER, eating the world’s best seafood)
• Living with Esther
• Doing nothing all day except collect rainwater and going to bed feeling accomplished
• Visits from home!!!! Mom, Marti, and Mich, love you guys.
• Receiving packages/letters from home
• Sitting in 4 hour long meetings at school that accomplish nothing
• Having a stack of 500+ exams to grade
• Catching kids cheating
• Teaching math basics during physics and feeling like I changed lives
• Pica Pau (restaurant) with the “real Monapo girls”
• Volleyball!!!!
• Hitching up and down the country (2x the length of California)
• Going to S. Africa and Malawi…the food, the views, the lake, the ocean, cliff jumping, drinking, the company, you name it.
• Sporting Monapo games (big soccer team in Monapo) and supporting my students that were on the team
• Going to the market every day to buy whatever I wanted to make for the day
• Amazing students. RIP Nelson Sabonete.


Clearly this is only the tip of the iceberg. Mozambique has been so good to me and will definitely be missed. One thing that eases the sadness of leaving Moz is knowing that I'm going home to family and friends. I'm so ready to see all of your beautiful faces. In 2 days I will be boarding the plane...brace yourself LA.

New Things...

There was a giant millipede hiding in my running shoe, I forgot to bang it before putting it on, and stepped on it. I freaked out, took off my shoe and realized that the millipede stained my toe. It was like this for a couple of weeks. Seriously weird.


View from Cape McClear, Malawi. Great trip. Did you know you can get peanut M&Ms and Snicker bars there? Just about had a heart attack.


In general, I think people would say that hanging out with any group of Peace Corps Volunteers is BORING. I’m pretty sure it stems from that fact that all we do is talk about 2 things: 1. Crazy health problems that we have had happen to us and 2. The food from back home that we miss. Number one is just crazy and never really gets old (also, you’d be surprised/disgusted with some of the stories). Number two is probably the most popular topic. My guess is that it is because most PCVs eat really poorly their two years of service. I’m not too sure what it is like in other countries, but here in Moz, the standard foods are rice and beans or spaghetti. Somehow, I managed to hit the jackpot when I was assigned to have Esther Gweon as my roommate. She is known for a few things here, but she is most famous for being a PHENOMENAL cook. This means that while others are suffering, I’ve been living the high life and trying to rub it in as often as I can. Little did I know I was just storing up a bunch of bad karma. A couple of weeks ago, I took a trip without Esther and realized what it is really like to be a PCV in Mozambique.

I was headed to Mocimboa, a site so far north that I decided to layover in Chiure (about 4 hours from my house) with my friend Sam. Chiure is something else: no electricity, food is scarce, the school is falling down…pretty much as mato/bush as it gets. Well, come dinnertime, Sam and I had to figure out something to eat. He had messaged me a few days before my visit super excited because ‘rat season’ had just kicked off and some of his friends had caught 18 rats from their first burn. I sent back the standard ‘haha,’ which I’m pretty sure he took to mean that I was equally excited. Back to finding something to eat. We were hanging out in his yard when a neighbor came over to pick some plants from his yard to cook with. Sam took advantage of this and politely asked her to make enough for us too…perfect. We went for a walk while dinner was being cooked and came across his friends with the rats. I wasn’t paying too much attention, but either the friends or Sam insisted on us eating rat for dinner as well. I’m not one to say no without trying it, so that was it, rat for dinner. We went back to do dinner number 1 with the neighbors (I made it a point to get as full as possible), then headed back for our rat. The boys brought us out a metal bowl filled with 5 charred rats and another metal bowl FULL of xima (Esther describes xima as congealed grits…seriously gross). I had never seen anything less appetizing in my life. A little bit on the rats first. You eat them with the furry skin still on. At first, I thought that would be the worst part, but it wasn’t. The worst part was that you have to eat the bone too!!! Luckily, Sam set me up with the meatiest part of the rat, the hind leg. Not bad. At least that’s what I thought until I was done chewing and swallowing and found some rat bone hiding out between my cheek and gums =/. 20+ months in Mozambique and I’m still trying new things…pretty cool.

A quick update on everything else here in Monapo: life is GOOD. I had a chance to visit my college friend/roommate Jamie in Malawi...so much fun. Still playing volleyball every weekend with a great group of kids. Esther and I started an English Club with our standout students and it has been a huge hit. I’m really enjoying teaching just bio and physics this year (only complaint is that my biggest class has jumped to 130 students). We are in the home stretch, and my COS (close of service) date has been announced as December 16th. And last/most importantly, Michelle Diane Britten is coming to visit in just over a month!!!!!!!!!!!! Def can’t complain.

Important shoutouts: Happy early first birthday to Kellen Rece Verners and congratulations Nico and good luck in Boston!!!! Miss you Nic and can’t wait to meet you Kellen!

Water

Here in Mozambique, I’m known as ‘the crazy water lady.’ I don’t think it is worth the time/effort going into why, but in the end this is what’s important: I LOVE COLLECTING RAINWATER. In all honesty, what’s not to love about it? The water is a million times cleaner/tastier, it’s easy, it’s something to do, and it takes minimal effort!!! Anyway, when I returned from vacation all anyone would talk about was the ‘falta de agua’ (aka NO water) that exists in Monapo. Not good news. I assumed that maybe they were all overreacting and went about life. The problem with trying to live life without water is that it’s impossible. If you walked around our town during the day, you’d see tons of people meandering with empty buckets trying to find a place they could get water. There was one place in town that you could get water, but the waiting line during peak hours topped 12 hours! There were tons of people and hundreds of buckets all queued waiting for water from 1 spigot. The price of water soared. A 15 liter bucket normally costs 1 Metical to fill and at the height of our problem it cost 15 Meticais. People were taking showers less often (really not good) and resorted to drinking very questionable water. This led to a cholera outbreak. Once, when I was at school, I saw a lady walking around with a bucket filling it from puddles on the ground (really hoping is was not to drink, and I have no idea how there was a puddle on the ground =/). Monapo has not had any water come out of the ground since before Christmas, and there are rumors that this will continue through sometime in March. To make matters worse, we were also going through some sort of drought! Well, I’d like to say it is because of the million rain dances I did, but we finally started getting some great storms. Now, all of our buckets are OVERFLOWING with clean water almost to the point where Esther and I complain about the burden of too much water…almost.

One Long Break = One Long Blog

'Jump' starting the new year...so punny =)


Best bungy crew EVER.


Our wonderfully dangerous hike...cameras could not be reached during the life threatening moments...sorry.



The biggest thing that has happened since my last post is that school ended which meant one thing, VACATION!!! And boy, was I ready.

I consider myself very fortunate for everything I was able to do during the ≈2 months of ferias from school. A quick recap: back to Namaacha to help with training, Maputo (the capital of Moz), Ponta do Ouro (the southernmost tip of Moz), Ilha de Mocambique (an island very close to my site, the first capital of Moz before independence from Portugal), Cape Town, Kruger National Park!!!, more Maputo, Johannesburg (spent all Christmas day in the bus terminal, actually had a blast), Coffee Bay (wild coast, South Africa), Plettenberg Bay (Garden Route, SA), Jeffreys Bay (Garden Route, SA), Tofo (beach in southern Moz), Massinga (southern Moz and Mike’s site), Gorongosa (central Moz, where 2 sensational PCVs live), and back home to Monapo!!! Needless to say, I logged some kilometers. Now for a few of my favorite parts…

GETTING TO SEE MOM AND MARTI!!!! Unbelievable and so so so much fun. We had too many good times, but if I have to choose one specific event, it is definitely the fish market in Maputo. Our trip started in South Africa with Cape Town and then Kruger, and let me tell you, they loved “Africa.” From our lodge in Kruger, we were driven across the border to the lovely country of Mozambique. They quickly realized that what we had been vacationing in a beautiful bubble. Maputo is a typical African capital full of people, poverty, problems, and prawns. So, we took a visit to the fish market for lunch one afternoon. Upon entering the outdoor market, you find stand after stand full of prawns, fish, squid, lobster, etc. People are tugging on you from each direction guiding you to their seafood, which they demand, is the best seafood. Waiters from the restaurants behind the counters are also tugging, wanting you to get your fish cooked at their restaurant. The hustle and bustle of this market makes it notorious for pickpockets and petty crimes. Best place to take your family? Probably not, but hey, I wanted them to see what life here is really like. We bought a kilo of prawns and a kilo of grouper (4.4 pounds total) and headed to the back. There are a ton of tables set out encircled by about 7 different restaurants that cook your newly purchased fish. We picked one and sat down to relax. That’s when I got my first good look at my mom and Marti. They looked beat: sweat dripping, faces flush (whether it was from the insane heat or all the commotion, I’ll never know). We opted on the best remedy to relax, Mozambican beer sampling. After eating the delicious food and drinking Laurentina preta, Laurentina clara, and 2M (winner: Laurentina preta), we left that fish market in the highest spirits feeling accomplished. What an experience.

The Coffee Shack in Coffee Bay, South Africa. Talk about a backpackers that has customer service down. Quick example of how: we arrived on a Sunday to a complimentary drink and a memo that on Sundays they have a free, delicious, dinner for all guests. Not too bad. They also had these day trips planned that were relatively cheap that most guests took advantage of (beach day, hiking, cliff jumping, walk to hole in the wall, day with the locals, etc.). While relaxing the first night we kept hearing these stories about a tour guide that took people hiking insisting it was easy, when in reality it was far from it. One girl ranted about how her life was repeatedly in danger. I didn’t pay too much attention because I didn’t have any intentions of hiking while I was there, and, who knows, she was probably a bit crazy and overreacting. Well, on day three of our stay, the activity was a hike ending with a cliff jump. Esther, Diana and I were really interested because of the jump. The guide said it was an easy hike to the cliffs so we were in. Having forgotten her close-toed shoes, Esther was hesitant. The guide insisted that it was so easy she could go barefoot, so we signed up. Having no idea it was THAT guide, we laced up our shoes/took off our flip-flops and were off. My goodness, was it tough. We hiked along countless slate cliffs that dropped off to gigantic rocks and a tempestuous Indian Ocean. I can recall 3 times that I legitimately worried for my life. Being told “don’t step on the grass at the edge, it WILL fall away” isn’t exactly what you want to hear while walking on a foot wide ledge. In the end, we jumped off a 10-meter high cliff into the Indian, saw some of the most incredible views, got a great workout, and had a blast. Looking back, that hike was one of the most memorable parts of my whole trip. Worth risking my life? Yes, but I probably only think that because I survived =).

BUNGY JUMPING the world’s highest bungy bridge!!!! Insane. Half way between Plettenberg Bay and Jeffreys Bay lies the Bloukrans bridge, a whopping 215 meters high. You sign up, get strapped up, and make the walk out to the middle. The most energetic crew is out there to greet you, rocking out to some pump up music, ready to make your experience all it can be. We were 5 to jump and we all had one goal in mind- to have the best form when we jumped. Looking back, we all agree that was the best idea any of us had. Right after I jumped, with sensational form, was when I realized what I had done…thrown myself off of a bridge. Luckily, it was too late to freak out, all there was to do was enjoy it. With nothing to grab onto, I fell (they say it’s a 7 second freefall), bounced, fell again, bounced, and so on. What a rush! Definitely another unforgettable part of the trip, and a heck of a way to kick off 2011!

Getting back to Monapo was really something else after that long of a vacation. I got home and was back at school within the hour. This year, I will be teaching 9th grade physics, 11th grade biology, and 12th grade biology. I’m really excited about my schedule and have some grand plans for this second year. I feel like getting away was just what I needed to clear my head and get motivated for my second year.

I hope everyone had the best Christmas and New Year!!! I miss you all more than ever, and will see you this year!!!! Can you believe it? I can’t!

<3 Von