Back to the Future

So in the time between my musings on the world and now, I've finished my Peace Corps stint and traveled to our amazing capital.  I say amazing because that's exactly what it is: banks on (almost) every corner, dental floss and sometimes ziploc bags in the grocery stores (yes, there are grocery stores), and business hours that are more or less followed.

In light of all of these wonderful things, I will be staying a bit longer here, working for an NGO as their project coordinator (in light of various security things I will send out specifics via email if you're interested).  I haven't completely decided the fate of this blog -  part of it depends on what I have to say (as life becomes less of a novelty and more familiar to those at home because I'm in a city) and part of it depends on you (aka demand).  To be determined, I guess.

For now: I'm renting a room in a house with a beautiful yard etc that's in a nice neighborhood and celebrating/waiting to go back to work in the new year.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!

Os Senhores Manuel e o mundo

Partly because I am tired of proctoring written tests, partly because I am tired of grading, partly because I didn’t want to cater to more students who didn’t come to class when we had the test and “NEED” a make-up exam, and partly because of my most recent lunch date, the make-up “exam” we had for my 11^th grade computer and technology class was a graded debate.  The question being debated was “How can we better the world?”

After they finished being amazed and confused about such an open-ended question -
“But teacher, better the world in what terms?” “There really is no right answer?” Their answers to this question varied – caring for the environment so agriculture has a future, better educated farmers, building more vocational schools and giving more access to students to these vocational schools, bettering the training of doctors, building more hospitals, and creating more scholarships (that could be fairly won) for students to study at all levels.

These are all very good answers – it is obvious to me that despite the challenges that each one of my students face in getting enough food, studying (and passing if not able to pay the “tax”), caring of family members, etc., that they have really thought about what they would change if they could, and what they hope will change for Mozambique in the future.

I focused the conversation after that discussion on my lunch date with Manuel.  Selfishly, I was looking for hope and answers.  But I also wanted them to think about how they can help people like Manuel now.

The students said it is important to give money if you have it to give.  They said it is important to treat them as people (Podemos conviver com eles).  They said it is important educate others who might be afraid of strange behaviors or possible illness. 

A side to this I had not thought of (I haven’t gone native quite yet, obviously) is that sometimes people like Manuel are victims of “feitiçaria” or witchcraft.  All students present quickly agreed that this is a possibility, but I was happy to hear that they didn’t think that they couldn’t help someone afflicted by such magic.  They said the same things hold true, even if someone has been cursed.  Give them money. Give them food.  Give them friendship. 

O Senhor Manuel

Our quarterly report for Peace Corps asks us to share a success story.  Maybe it's because I'm about to become a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, or maybe it's because Manuel made an impression on me.  In any case, I couldn't justify writing about another student of mine who has gained confidence because of Peace Corps programming (though they exist in full), nor could I write about how PEPFAR's money is being put to good use (even though most of the expenditures make sense).

This is Hannah's "Success Story" for the reporting period April 2014 - September 30, 2014.

The most meaningful story I have at the moment is not a success story.   It is a reflection into a very complicated situation and the perspective gained only through the process of leaving a place.

I was in Gurue, a small city near my house.  As I was walking to my favorite take-away restaurant, I noticed a very thin man who looked ill.  I said hello, but continued into the restaurant.  After I ordered, the man also entered the restaurant.  He stood in the middle of the room, and looked very confused.  I asked him if he was hungry, and he said yes.  The restaurant owner then gave him a meat pastry, and I bought an egg sandwich.  When I turned around, the man was huddled in the corner eating the pastry the owner had given him.  I asked him why he wasn't sitting at the table - his reply: "I don't have money to sit."  I told him that he doesn't need money - only food. I invited him to sit at the empty table or at my table, where I was sitting alone.  He chose to sit with me, and I shared my lunch with him.  From there, we started to talk.  His name is Manuel, and he used to live far in the country.  He came to Gurue awhile ago, but doesn't have anywhere to sleep.  He often sleeps in the forests around Gurue, and works when he can.  Parts of this story came out slightly convoluted, and so it was impossible to determine if he was suffering from mental illness, malnutrition, hunger, other illness, or most likely, a combination of everything.  I told him parts of my story too, but I mostly just listened.  We parted ways with "Até a próxima" or "Until the next."

I do not consider this a success story because humankind and the very systems we have created to help people like Manuel have failed him.  He was reduced to standing, waiting for someone to notice him, to give him food.  Something had happened to him so that he no longer even asked for food.  So often, our reports ask to share success stories.  While our work has many successes, and that is why we stay here and enjoy what we do, there are so many failures that we see, and these failures will not be fixed by the status quo.  The hegemony of international development has done much good, but has also failed more times than we, as a community, can count.  Peace Corps Volunteers are in a unique place to bear witness to these great successes and great failures.  It is part of our job to report these failures, understanding as we have  come to that our reports of successes and failures in our community will not be put in the next USAID agency-wide memo, nor will these reports necessarily help to better the bigger system that centuries of humans have created.  It is not helpful to report one more child who has gained confidence because of a Peace Corps Volunteer.  For this child, the volunteer has changed his/her life.  But for reporting purposes, we already know that children become empowered through our program.  What we don't know, in scientific terms anyway, are the circumstances of the people that every program fails to reach and how we can better design a program for the "unreached."  We will not be doing our part as humans, nor as development (semi) professionals if we continue to focus only on our numerous successes.  It is important to remember that Manuel, a person who probably had very bad luck, and may never had even had a chance at a different life, is not the only person in the group of people for whom these programs make no difference.  These systems are big enough, our collective brains powerful enough, that we should not accept their suffering.  Although we may not be able to eliminate it, we have to try.

Travels of a Tshirt in the Free Economy

Aside from the title of this post, "Travels of a Tshirt in the Free Economy" is the book Carleton College made/asked the class of 2012 to read before freshmen orientation.  Like any good pre-college student, I read it - its central thesis being: it takes a global economy to make a tshirt these days.  From cotton in Texas, to a factory in China, to Goodwill in New York City, to a ship crossing the Atlantic, to a second-hand clothing market in Africa.  Well, I can say definitively, I have found the tshirts.

I have said a few times that Africa is where clothes come to die.  While this may not be completely true, it is completely true in my experience.  Exposed wood, broken metal, and vigorous hand washing all make for tears.  This means that since arriving almost 2 years ago (!) I have had to buy new clothes.  And this is more or less the clothing industry:  

A clothing auction (note the USAID relief tarp being used for something other than its original intended purpose)

A tailor

the cheapest clothes (5-15 meticais, 31 meticais to the dollar) come in piles

Clothes and Shoes

This is Gurue's version of the Salvation Army.  They get new shipments every month, and I get most of my clothes here.

I am missing a picture of the stores that sell new clothes.   These are often directly from China or Brazil and are definitely out of a Peace Corps Volunteer's budget.  Pants - $20, shirts $18-$25...the list goes on.

The (almost) Daily Bucket Bath

 First, this post is dedicated to Fred and Elena Kyle in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  They both enthusiastically responded to my recent surge in posting and in the case of Fred, implied doubt that this trend would continue.  Grandma and Grandpa, this one's for you.

Oh, and I should also probably dedicate this post to those who originally taught me how to take a bath.  Mom and Dad, this one is also for you.

Really, learning to bathe oneself in an entirely new way at any age after 15 is quite an accomplishment.  And now, a year and a few months into practicing the new art of initially changing my bathing technique at age 22, I am ready to report.

Step 1: Heat up water (if it’s cold outside).  If you are already dripping in sweat, skip this step.  You may also skip this step if you are one of the people who subscribe to the “banho frio faz bem” theory.

Step 2: Carefully mix hot water (if applicable) and cold water in the big plastic bucket to make the perfect body washing temperature.  This “perfect temperature” is completely subjective and what is your perfect body washing temperature is not necessarily someone else’s.  Be careful not to spill the boiling water on you before mixing.  This is said from personal experience.

Step 3: Place the plastic bucket in the designated “shower area.” Follow said bucket so you are also standing in the designated area.

Step 4: Take a smaller container (Plastic butter containers, for example) and start scooping water from the bigger bucket and pouring it on yourself.

*This is where it gets very personal and individual.  Although a few of the host families in the very beginning tried to bathe the volunteer, I have decided that because I am writing this guide for those who have already mastered one bathing technique, I will leave the rest up to the reader.  I will say: although soap is used in Mozambique if the family has it (most of the time), I highly recommend that you have soap on hand.

Photo Update!

These are the kids who welcome me home from every trip (whether its to the big city, the small city, work, the market)  They are all dressed for a birthday party, and came to my house to tell me I needed to take a bath and come to the party too.

Neighbor with the birthday boy

The first cohort of Livro Aberto/Peace Corps/USAID library volunteers!

Mandioca/Cassava and Dino!

Mozambican party food (chicken was also present)

My favorite map at my favorite pizza restaurant in the provincial capital.

For Christmas, I found the beach.

They were demonstrating how they know how to carry things on their heads.

Mozambique Talks

What does Mozambique tell Hannah?

Your breath smells bad if you eat hot food.

Michael Jackson is alive.

Michael Jackson is probably living in Brazil.

Michael Jackson is Mexican.

Dust ruins everything.

I will marry you.

You will marry me.

You need to marry in Mozambique.  I will find you a man.

You left your husband and child(ren) at home?

You are Italian, yes?

You are Spanish, yes?

You are Portuguese, yes?

You are Brazilian, yes?

You are from Maputo?

Take me back to wherever you are from.

I’m not sure Osama Bin Laden is dead.

Something really bad will happen if you don’t take a bath before dinner.

I am planning to have 2 or 3 wives.  This is a good number.

Do you have onions and oil? I want to make an onion salad.

There’s a potion you can put around your house that makes would-be thieves freeze like Medusa’s victims for you to find them and exact punishment later.

The United States has at least one person in every country to control what happens in that country.

If you’re pregnant, you can’t eat eggs.

North America is cold.

Spanish is badly spoken Portuguese.

Sitting provokes thoughts.

Quiet people are troublemakers.

You should move nationality – Mozambique would let you be Mozambican, yes?

You need to learn to like Mozambican music.

White women with cars steal children to sell their organs in Malawi.

Happy (Almost) April!

Theee Yankees Win!

This project came about because I was seeing many yankees outfits around the mountains, and I thought that in addition to documenting this stellar Mozambican baseball preference, I should share it with the yankees I know stateside.  Unfortunately, my camera was only with me on these 5 occasions, but I have also come across 3 yankees shirts, 1 yankees jersey, 7 other yankees baseball hats (1 neon yellow), 5 yankees winter hats, and 1 yankees jacket.

Viva os yankees!


*Also trying to explain to everyone why I wanted these pictures was, actually, a profound intercultural experience.