6 Months!!!

Weekend at Ilha de Mozambique

9th graders...this is about 60% of the class. It was too big to get them all.

So I am almost done with my first trimester!!! Time really flies when school is in session. A couple of weeks ago, the volunteers from Moz 14 had our first reconnect. The in service training’s focus was evaluating our service thus far, forms, and problem solving. It was a helpful conference, but the highlights were not informational. To me, the best parts were seeing everyone, air conditioning, running water, hot showers, and delicious food for 5 days!!!!
Returning to school the next week was hard. Gathering the motivation to make 10 lesson plans a week, attend class in the pouring rain, etc. proved to be really difficult. But, I did it, and am officially back in the swing of things. =)
Okay, I’m about to make a big generalization, but according to my observations, it is not that far off. Mozambicans have an irrational fear of rain and snakes. Anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE rain. My love has only grown exponentially since I’ve been here. Rain is absolutely lovely: it cools the hottest days, it lands in buckets and can be used for every need, it acts as a mini shower, etc. At the slightest sprinkle, Mozambicans feel it necessary to ‘fugir.’ I think people who don’t speak Portuguese can accurately guess what this word means. It doesn’t matter if they are in class, selling things at the market, or just walking down the street, after the first drop lands, they’re off in the sprint. I’ve been perceived to be a crazy person because I will walk home at a normal pace. Actually, I’ll walk home a bit faster so I can get my buckets out to collect water.
With the rain comes a rapidly growing yard. It never fails to have anyone who is visiting our house tell us to cut everything down so we don’t get snakes. No, I am not talking anacondas or boa constrictors, I am talking about little baby garden snakes (1-1.5ft long). Once any green is visible in the yard, even 2 inch long patchy weeds, we are in danger. It’s absolutely crazy. To me, the bigger threat is the crocodile that lives across the street that occasionally breaks loose. A close second are the million malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
I’ve discovered that I am one strict teacher. Some of the stories that stem from this are definitely blog worthy. Instead of bog you guys down with them all at one time, I’ll wrap up each blog with a fun story. Cell phones are a problem. They are constantly ringing, kids have them out all the time, and kids charge them in the class because their houses don’t have electricity. During one lesson, I heard a phone ring. I asked whose it was, and of course, no one owned up to it. I figured it would ring again, and was ready to pinpoint the source when it did. It rang again, and I found it. All Mozambican cell phones use the pay-as-you-go policy. I asked the students what the code is to send a designated amount of credit to another phone (my plan was to send my phone 5 Meticais worth of credit from his phone). Again, no one owned up to the code. I was upset. So, I did the next logical thing. I called my phone from his phone, answered the call, and left both phones connected for the rest of the class. Don’t worry; he only had 10 Meticais of credit on his phone (about 30 cents). Needless to say, phones haven’t been as bad in that class since then. Sweet success.
<3 Von

Mocambique Nossa Terra Gloriosa...

My school. 9 classrooms. 3000 students.

We are now PROS at collecting water.

Bat on sharpies.

Different bat in our dish washing bucket =/

Since the last time I’ve had a chance to write, the biggest change over here in Mozambique is that school has started. I knew I was coming to teach biology, what I didn’t know was that it was only going to be a sliver of my work load. I am spending most of my time teaching physics and English.
I agreed to teach English because I figured, ‘hey, I speak that language and I was teaching kids to read English before I came, how hard can it be?’ It has proven to be waaay harder than I could have imagined. Teaching kids English as a second language is tough. It requires a certain level of patience that I just don’t have. Honestly, without my experience before coming to the Peace Corps, I don’t think I would have been very effective. Luckily, I learned some tricks at the Cullinan Education Center that have turned out to be life savers.
Physics is by far the biggest challenge. The main reason is because I have zero physics supplies. The only thing the school supplies is chalk. I bought a textbook in Nampula City so I could at least know physics words in Portuguese. This may sound helpful, but Mozambican textbooks are loaded with wrong information, misspelled words, and are extremely disorganized. My lifeline has been Portuguese Wikipedia, which really just makes me laugh. Another challenge is trying teach topics that require calculations to kids that don’t have a solid foundation in basic math. To be fair, this is a generalization, but because of it I have spent too much class time reteaching decimals. (It has kind of been a blessing in disguise because it has helped me clear up one very important thing in my mind. They use periods were we put commas and vice versa, and it took a little bit of time before it started to look correct).
Teaching biology is lovely. I am teaching 11th grade, which is the grade where kids can either choose to do arts or science. The students in my class are serious and love science. They participate, ask great questions, and are a breath of fresh air on a long day. As a secondary project, I am going to do the science fair. I can’t wait to get them all involved and see what they are really capable of!!!
We just finished week 5 of school, and our first round of tests. My English scores were all over the place. I am absolutely thrilled, though, because the average suggests that I may actually be doing a good job! =) Biology went even better! They are understanding the information and me!!! I guess that is the best part. I am able to convey what I want to about biology in Portuguese!! Woo hoo! I have no idea how my physics students did yet, because their ungraded tests are sitting in a pile on my chair. I’m scared for two reasons: 1. I have no idea if they understood a word I said and 2. I have 4 classes of 100+ students to grade (it’s a BIG pile).
On a completely different note, Esther and I seem to have a big problem with anything that ends in –at. At least two times each week, we get bats in our house at night. They come in through this chimney-ish opening in our back room. We open the doors and wait outside for them to leave. It’s not so bad, minus we get bit to death by mosquitos while we are out there. Bats also looove to hang out in our latrine hole. Going to the bathroom at night when they are flying around has become too difficult. We have resorted to going outside after dark. Our other problem is with a gigantic rat. It loves our veggies, spices, bread, etc. We are looking into getting a cat to help us with this problem.
My roommate Esther is wonderful. It is seriously like the Peace Corps did extensive research before they put us together. She cooks, I clean. We both LOVE games: board, dice, cards, etc. We are both obsessed with the same TV shows. The list goes on and on. She has started teaching me Korean, and it is amazing!!! I have mastered the vowels and consonants and have set a goal for myself: if I can master reading and conversational Korean by the time I am done here, I want to move to Korea for a year!!!
I miss you all like crazy!! Keep writing, it is always great to hear from all of you! I keep getting called “popular” because you guys are great at writing, but I just don’t think anyone understands how big my family is and how wonderful my friends are!! =)
Beijitos, Vonnie

My life according to the BRATT diet.

Since arriving to site, Esther and I were lucky enough to have Amanda stay with us for a couple of weeks because her house wasn't ready. We got to work on our house, made a few renovations, and watched A LOT of tv. We cleaned our place from top to bottom, constructed a kitchen counter, and made some necessary purchases (my favorite being our lovely refrigerator).

It was a bittersweet Christmas. It was my first time celebrating away from family and friends and proved tobe a lot harder than I thought it would be. Somehow, I managed to have a roommate who truly believes that the "best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear." She has the most extensive Christmas music/movies collection on her computer that I have EVER seen. We spent most of December listening to Cmas music, watching Cmas movies, and making Cmas decorations. We hosted the Nampula province Christmas get-together and had ten volunteers staying at our site. We did secret santa, made stockings, played flip cup, made jell-o shots, and had some delicous meals (some even had meat!!!).

For New Years, we headed to the beach for a few days. It took an exhausting 11 hours to travel each way, but was definitely worth it. We were able to see more friends, a ton of Mozambique, eat AMAZING food, and ring in the new decade. We were so proud to stay up until midnight since we are all used to falling asleep before nine each night. Eating soft serves at the beach is undeniably one of my favorite times in Moz so far.

We only have one more week before school starts, so we have been pretty lazy the last few days. This has been especially easy since I have been pretty sick for about a week now. I can't seem to shake this cough/congestion/allergy medley. I'm just hoping for it to pass before I start working. Once school starts, my days of reading, watching tv and movies, and playing games are going to shift into Portuguese only lesson planning. Call me crazy, but I can't wait.

I've realized that it's really hard to write these blogs trying to recap everything that has happened since the last blog. I think from now on, I'll just focus on one or two events in particular to write about. Something I'd like to write about in this blog is my love of collecting rainwater. I think I discovered this love after realizing how hard it is to cart water. Now, anytime I see rain clouds in the distance, I do a rain dance, put out every bucket and pan we have, and wait. My smile gets bigger and bigger with every drop that lands in them. All I can think about is how many trips of carting water it is eliminating. It is seriously one of the greatest feelings in the world!!!

So, of course, mail is still appreciated. Anytime you guys are feeling bored and don't know what to do, write a letter! You can either email me at voncontreras@gmail.com or write me at

Yvonne Contreras, PCV

Rua dos Continuadores #24A

C.P. 526

Cidade de Nampula, Nampula

Mozambique

This address is slightly different than the one in the last blog. Things will still get to me with the other address, but this one is a bit more correct. For packages, please remember to put Jesus saves, praise the Lord, etc. on them. Also, not claiming exactly what is in the package or their true value is a great idea to cut down on theft. If you're going to mail a postcard, please put it in a envelope. Moz is notorious for keeping postcards and putting them up in the post office.

This is getting lengthy, so I'd like to end with a huge congrats to cousin Steph and Brandon!!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a little baby girl, but keep me updated!! Another congrats to cousins Teresa and Brisa on the weddings! I'm so bummed to be missing out on all the excitement =(. RIP my little Yoti-bear.

<3 Von

Officially a PCV!!!

Im in S. Africa, Swaz, and Moz!!!
We are science teachers!!

So we have made it to site!!! I’m an official volunteer and live in Monapo in the province of Nampula. I have been here for a total of about 4 hours and already love it. It’s in northern Mozambique and is completely different than the south. The only downfall is that it’s up to a 5 day chapa ride each way from some of my closest friends.

Since it has been so long, there’s a ton to catch up on.

Site visit was a blast. It was a much needed vacation from training. I took a 4 hour chapa ride from Namaacha to Chongoene. Chapas are the most readily available method of travel here in Mozambique. I would say they are roughly the same size and shape of a VW van. The only difference is that an average ride includes about 20-25 people. Chongoene is a little, dry town in the middle of nowhere. Some perks it offers are: being a short chapa ride from Xai-Xai (a big city where you can buy pretty much everything you’d need), being about 2 hours from the capital, being right off the main road that goes through Mozambique, and being relatively close to other volunteers. We went to the beach in Xai-Xai and there are no words to describe how absolutely beautiful it was. I’ve even heard it doesn’t compare to some of the prettiest beaches Mozambique has to offer, so I can’t wait to see more! I also had a chance to hitchhike and fell in love. It is faster, cheaper, more comfortable, and easier than other methods of transportation.

The education volunteers finished two weeks of model school. It was exhausting. It turns out that preparing biology lesson plans in Portuguese is hard work. I gave six lessons to 8th grade Mozambican students. Some were better than others, but I definitely felt more comfortable in the classroom by the end.

Thanksgiving came and went. The highlight of it was finding out our site placement which was followed by an AMAZING dinner. Corpo da Paz provided the turkey and we did a potluck for the rest of the meal.

As far as site placement goes, I consider myself one of the luckiest volunteers out of Moz 14. I will be living with Esther, one of my friends from training, and about ten minutes from another friend named Amanda. They are from LA and Pasadena. Go figure. It is beautiful in Monapo, and we are only about an hour chapa ride to one of the prettiest beaches Moz has to offer!!! I’m pretty sure I hit the jackpot with site placements.

It’s absolutely unreal to me that I’ve already had such amazing experiences here in Moz and it has only been a little over two months. What makes it even more incredible is to look at some of the stats for Moz: the average family income is about $350/year and it is one of the ten poorest countries in the world. The US invests about 400 million dollars in Moz each year. By next year, the goal is to get to an absolute poverty rate of 45%.

You can now mail me at a new address. Also, don’t worry about what you have sent to the other address. The previous address will always be valid, it may just take a little longer to reach me. From now on, this address will work best:

Yvonne Contreras, PCV
Corpo da Paz/U.S. Peace Corps
Avenida Rua Dos Continuadores #24a
C.P. 526
Nampula
Mozambique
Happy late Thanksgiving and early Christmas/New Years to everyone!!! I miss you guys like crazy.

Killing chickens and getting old.

He is pretty much the love of my life here...

I feel like I am doing something new with each day that passes. Here’s a couple highlights of the past couple of weeks:

1. I’ve officially killed my first chicken. It actually wasn’t so bad. The part I’m not that much of a fan of is depenar-ing, or plucking the chicken. It’s a bit too smelly/messy.
2. I’ve become REALLY good friends with my xixi (pee) bucket. Most of the time it is known as my balde, or bucket used for taking showers. The best part of this bucket, though, is its second job as a xixi bucket in my room overnight. A side effect of the malaria meds is an overactive bladder, so it has come in pretty handy.
3. I turned 23, and celebrated ALL weekend. On Halloween, Corpo da Paz held a Halloween party. We all dressed up and invited some members of our families to show them how absolutely ridiculous Americans can be. I was amazed at how resourceful all the trainees were with their costumes. We had a costume contest, limbo, snacks, trick-or-treating, and roasting marshmallows. The next day, my host family threw me the most amazing birthday dinner/dance party. My two brothers came into town from other provinces, along with some extended family members from all over Moz/South Africa. We had a feast, cake, and TONS of dancing. I also tried cow head for the first/last time. My family went above and beyond my expectations, and it was a birthday that will be hard to beat in the future. They also remembered that watermelon was my favorite fruit and had one brought in from South Africa as a gift.
Site visits are coming up this Saturday and we are all so excited to get out of Namaacha for a few days. We are going to stay with current volunteers at their sites. It should be a blast. I’m most excited about seeing different parts of Moçambique. I’m headed to Chongoene in Gaza. I’ll be going with a chemistry teacher and we are pretty much going to be on the beach. There are a few of us that are going to be in the same area, so we are all planning on meeting up a couple of the nights to hang out. This has been what we have all been waiting for pretty much since day one, so I can’t wait!!!
Thanks for all of the birthday wishes, and I’m sorry if I haven’t had a chance to respond to them. It means a lot to know all of you remembered/were thinking about me. I miss you guys and think of you often. Remember, if you’re ever bored, feel free to shoot me a letter.
Yvonne Contreras, PCV
Corpo da Paz/U.S. Peace Corps
C.P. 4398
Maputo
Mozambique
Most missed American item: a roll of Kirkland brand tp (actually any 2-ply would work).

Bucket baths and latrines.

The mountain that's shared by Swaziland, S. Africa, and Moz.

Walking to morning class.
Our welcoming to Namaacha!!

The group!

A lot has happened since my last blog. First, I moved to Namaacha to begin pre-service training (PST). Namaacha is beautiful and high in elevation compared to Maputo. It is pretty cold and I have had to wear a jacket or sweater almost every day. There’s a certain scent to Mozambique that almost reminds me of home, the smell of campfires. The only thing that makes it different is that it’s trash being burned on a daily basis.
My host family has been absolutely amazing. I definitely don’t have the most luxurious house out of the volunteers, but it is great. I have a host mom, two sisters, 2 nephews, a neice, and a cousin. Everything is different here, which makes for interesting days and lessons. I have had to relearn how to wash my clothes, wash my hands, take showers, cook (not that I knew how to before), and pretty much everything you could think of doing.
Training is going well. The majority of the first five weeks are focused on language. Portuguese is a lot of fun to learn, but I’m a little bit bitter about losing Spanish. They are similar and it’s hard to get myself to separate the two languages. I live for our ‘hub days’ when all of the volunteers are reunited for group lessons. These are usually focused on safety or HIV awareness.
Here’s a couple of the biggest adjustments:
1. Showers: Because there is no running water, I have to take bucket baths. They are surprisingly easy to do and leave me feeling clean. The only downside is having to take them two times a day. It is a long process and I usually have to get up a couple of hours before our 7:30 lessons.
2. Food: It’s actually pretty tasty (with the exception of cow liver). The only things I haven’t liked so far had nothing to do with taste, it was more of a texture thing. Almost everything is fried or carbs, so I’m pretty thankful for all the walking that we have to do.
3. Adjusting to my host family’s schedule is challenging, but necessary. I get up at 5:30 every morning to do chores (sweep the dirt, clean room, sweep house, wash dishes, etc.), I have to eat 3 meals and 2 ‘lunchies’ everyday, take 2 baths, and so on. It is going to be nice when we get to our own sites and can set our own schedules. We find out on Thanksgiving where we are going to be placed!
It turns out that Halloween is another volunteer’s birthday as well. We are thinking about doing some sort of themed party, which should be a hit (maybe masquerade with all of our sleeping masks from the plane). My family is planning on making me a bolo and they want to have a little vino as well.
I got a phone and would looove to talk/text! The country code is 258 and my number is 82 27 71 536 (I think that’s how they separate the numbers =/).
Most missed American item at the moment: washer and dryer.

Quick Update

Okay, just a couple of things before we go a while without any communication.

1. Do not mail through DHL, use the first address only.
2. Do not send any packages after week 5 (Early Nov) until I get you guy a new address.
3. Put "save Jesus" or any other religious things on packages. Apparently it significantly reduces the chances of theft.
4. When you are claiming what is inside of a package, lie. Not completely, but change it up a bit. For example, if you are mailing cds/dvds, write educational material on it. Please don't let the value listed exceed $50(the real value can). We have to pay to receive these packages and it can get expensive.

I'm off to Namaacha to live with my host family. There will not be internet there, so chances are you will not hear from me until late December. I will try to mail a few things, but I don't have many people's addresses so I will mail it to somewhere close.

On a different note, we have started training for many things and it has been interesting. I can't move either of my arms well because of all the vaccinations we have received. I also started taking malaria meds and am eager to see what kind of vivid dreams or other crazy side effects occur.

Until later...