Kids and my kitten!

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Megan in Mozambique

Exploring Mozambique

One of the best perks of being a volunteer in Mozambique is getting to explore this beautiful country. I’ve visited some absolutely gorgeous beaches (I’ve previously posted pictures from Bilene, the beach near me) and thanks to a recent Peace Corps conference, I’ve seen some of Maputo as well.

• Zavala, Inhambane: 3 volunteers and I went to a barbecue held by a group of Japanese volunteers and some Mozambicans on a remote beach. It took about 20 minutes through sand paths in the back of a pickup truck with a couple charcoal stoves and several live chickens to get there, but we nearly had the beach to ourselves as we ate grilled chicken and mussels.

• Vilankulos, Inhambane: This town is a big tourist destination, but a few volunteers and I visited a fantastic secluded beach lined with some of the tallest palm trees I’ve ever seen. One afternoon we went horseback riding on the beach and passed by an archeological site from the time of Arab traders. We stopped for a Mozambican lunch in a small town, and our guide told us about her experience as a white Zimbabwean who fled to Mozambique, and then on the return, we rode on a hill overlooking the beach.

• Maputo: I still haven’t gotten to see much of the capital city, but so far I’ve been very pleasantly surprised. A group of us visited the fish market for lunch; you choose your seafood in the market and bring it to one of the vendors, who then cook it to order. It’s definitely a tourist spot, with lots of souvenirs and counterfeit sunglasses being hawked, but it’s a great experience. The constantly replenished buckets of beer certainly help. I split grilled rock fish and prawns, and everything was fantastic. If you visit me, I will most certainly bring you here, as well as the craft market. The latter consists of dozens of vendors in a small park selling everything from artwork to capulana (printed African fabric) hand bags to jewelry made from coconuts.

So come visit!

Updates on My Life

Integration

Recently, I’ve had a lot of integration successes, and I’m known all over town as “Megus,” which to my dismay seems to have stuck as the Mozambican version of my name. I’m being invited more and more for meals by coworkers and neighbors; at one, I tried ox, which is good but has nothing on goat. Coworkers will frequently visit for tea before or after work. And now that the word is out that I like to passear, I’m being invited to do more things, from just going to the market or visiting someone’s house to attending the inauguration of a neighbor’s barraca (a stall selling cold drinks and essentials: eggs, detergent, oil, etc.), which included blessings, ribbon-cutting, and a served meal. In the near future, I will be visiting a coworker’s machamba (farm) and having a neighbor over to make banana pancakes together. The local language, changana, is definitely an obstacle to further integration, but I’m learning, albeit extremely slowly.

Kids

One of my absolute favorite parts about my life in Macia is my relationship with the kids in my dependencia (basically means we share a yard). Every day, at least 3 kids, plus any visiting relatives or neighbors, come over to color on my porch. Despite their refusal to smile in a picture, they love it. Throughout the day as well, they will pop over to say hi or play a game. I’m now known by some of the neighbors as the white girl with amiguinhos (little friends). Recently, a few 13-year-old girls have started visiting and inviting me to passear (walk around, hang out, etc). When they took me to visit their homes this past weekend, more kids kept joining until the group grew to nearly 20. I hope to form a “REDES” (translated, teen girls in development, education, and health; it’s a Peace Corps volunteer-led program) group soon as a secondary project (meaning, it’s not part of my work with my two organizations) soon.

Simba

Neighbors have referred to Simba as my daughter, which pretty much means that I have, in fact, become the crazy cat lady. The mother/grandmother of the kids came over one day to tell me Simba likes to eat xima (made from boiling water and corn flour; looks like mashed potatoes) and would come to their house to beg for it, so I’m an incompetent crazy cat lady at that. But the kids love her too, and when I was away at a conference they let Simba sleep in their bedroom.

She’s no longer a kitten, however, and I live in fear of her getting knocked up. As I learned by furiously googling cat pregnancy signs when she was looking bloated one day, the telltale sign is pink nipples. They were surprisingly hard to find, and I spent a half hour feeling like a predator, attempting to grope my cat as she tried to swipe me. I half expected Chris Hansen to show up at my door. No Lion King 2 yet, but I really need to find a vet. Her ladybits are a ticking time bomb. On the other hand, a benefit of her growing up is her fierce hunting skills. Lizards and bugs stand no chance against her, and last week she killed her very first rat. A proud mom, I ran to take a picture of baby’s first rodent, which she ate all of except for the hind legs and tail.

Work

Some highlights from the past several weeks include a couple activities I led with the youth groups of AJAAB. One Saturday afternoon, 14 kids plus 3 coworkers visited for guacamole and cake (6 of them), similar to the Dia de Mulher gathering I hosted for the women of my other organization. After the food, the kids colored, and each took a turn telling the group about their drawing. Check out the pictures! A different afternoon, even more kids and coworkers meet at a primary school for a couple hours of games. I started with a name game as an icebreaker, and then taught them a few American games. Freeze Dance (thanks for the idea, Casey!) to Michael Jackson was a huge it. My coworkers threw in a few Mozambican games, like a version of Telephone where you must repeat the phrase correctly; it you don’t or have to ask for a repeat, you’re out (naturally, with my Portuguese skills I didn’t stand much of a chance). Overall, it was a great bonding activity for the kids of the different youth groups as well as for my coworkers and me.

However, I’m still not working much. I have discussed my role more with my respective counterparts, though, and I have been brainstorming ideas for the coming months. With each group, I’m going to help with organizational development: creating a mission and vision, systems for documentation, and mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation. Other plans:

Associação Cristã: At the end of May, an activista and I will be attending a Peace Corps-led workshop that will include a troca de experiência (exchange of experience) and training on medicinal plants. The organization has about 20 activistas who perform home visits throughout the various bairros, but they receive no training. Therefore, I hope to develop training sessions to improve visits as my first project.

AJAAB: This organization has a lot of projects in development, and they have expressed a need for me to help devise systems of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) to accompany them. Fortunately, I received some training in M&E as part of our recent conference. To start, a couple coworkers and I will create M&E for home visits.

I’m excited to get working on these plans, as well as starting the REDES group. Reading Peace Corps resources to prepare, hanging out with kids, and integrating are taking up more of my time as well.