Bem-vindos a Moçambique: Quick Update #1

After a crazy few days, all 56 new Peace Corps Mozambique Volunteers have arrived safe and sound. So far, so good. It has been a very interesting experience to meet such a big group of people who have in many ways been living in parallel for the last few months. We all went through the same long application process, followed by a similar rollercoaster of emotions and same process of saying goodbye to our friends and family. We come from different places and probably have different reasons for being here, but already know we have a fair amount in common, just for wanting this experience. We also know that we will need each other for support over the next two years. Altogether, this has made it easy to feel like a big family almost immediately.

Our trip from Philadelphia to NYC to Johannesburg and - finally - Maputo, was long but relatively smooth. One group of volunteers hit a snag with their visas that left them waiting in the airport an extra 45 minutes, but in the end we all made it intact without major complications. We were shuttled to a very nice hotel in a rather posh part of town, fed a fantastic meal, shot full of vaccines and then left to enjoy the pool.

So far, we really only saw Mozambique from the plane and the shuttle from the airport. The hotel is like a small resort, that could be almost anywhere. There was American music playing at the restaurant, all of the staff speaks English. One striking feature from the plane was the complete lack of paved roads outside the city. Only miles (I guess I should start saying kilometers?) from the center of the capital, there were only dirt roads visible. In the picture below, you can make out the beginning of the city in the top left, while the whole right-hand side is still completely rural. It doesn't quite do justice to the contrast, but it shows a little of what I saw.

Tomorrow, we have a full day of more orientation and shots here in the hotel, then we will leave on Saturday for Namaacha, where we will spend the next 10 weeks living with host families for Pre-Service Training. I found out that I will be staying with a 65 year old woman named Maria and her 22 year old nephew named Hélder. I will have much more to say after I live with them for some time, although I will probably be without internet for a while after leaving the hotel.

Take care, everyone!

Now More than Ever

Next Tuesday, I will be flying to Philly for our one day staging event, then on to Mozambique! I have to say I am getting pretty excited. This weekend, I am going rafting for the first time with a group of girls who I will really miss while I am gone. It is a great distraction, but makes the time left seem even shorter.

Obviously, a move like this comes with a certain amount of stress and anxiety - there is a whole lot that is unknown at this point. But I can't think of another time in my life when something has felt so right. A number of people have asked if the recent unrest in the Middle East is making me nervous about traveling to Africa, but I can't say that it is. Primarily because there isn't any indication that the unrest will spread to southern Africa. But also because the Peace Corps has been sending volunteers around the world for 51 years now, and my experience so far has given me the impression that they know what they are doing. (Besides the fact that they are holding our staging event at a Holiday Inn in Philadelphia and then busing us to NYC for our flight.)

I also know a volunteer who was placed in a country that experienced political unrest during his service and he and the other PCV's were pulled and reassigned at the very first sign of possible danger. Basically, I have confidence that the Peace Corps has a vested interest in keeping me and the other volunteers safe and will do its part to accomplish that. 

If anything, the recent protests in the Middle East make me happier to be a part of the Peace Corps. It is now more important than ever to have Americans traveling throughout the world and engaging with other countries in a positive way. So much of what people think of America comes from negative sources: military engagement, political or economic meddling to serve our own interests, TV shows and movies that leave us looking pretty shallow. Or even worse, crackpots like "Sam Bacile" and Terry Jones.

While USAID specifically has furthering US interests abroad written into its mission statement, the Peace Corps' mission is stated on its website as follows:

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship. The Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Naive or over-simplified? Maybe. I'm sure that politics enters in - at the very least when the organization decides whether or not to work in a given country. But this mission statement still makes me feel good, and it's the one that I'll be holding to on a personal level while I am serving.

Communication in Mozambique

I applied for the Peace Corps for many reasons. I am beyond grateful for the luck I have had being born into my family. That came with a lot of privileges, ones that I've been having a harder time taking for granted the older I get. For the past couple of years, I have been living back in my hometown, a place full of beautiful houses, nice cars, and well-manicured lawns. People here face their own personal challenges, I'm sure, but the material wealth is very present. I have a habit of listening to news podcasts while I run through these prosperous neighborhoods and the contrast between what I'm seeing and what I am hearing is striking. I don't think that serving in the Peace Corps will change the world, but it is an organization that is trying to address the resource disparity by sending those of us who can afford it to a place that needs some extra helping hands. I don't currently have obligations keeping me here and have a great support system that helps me feel like this is the right time to join. Doing this makes me feel a little less helpless in the face of the inequity out there.

Another reason is the adventure. I never spent a semester abroad in college or lived outside the US for more than a month. I am really excited to learn about a new culture, and probably through that, more about my own culture. I know I will learn a lot about myself, as well. However, I don't feel like I need to be in the most remote village, without water or electricity, to have the life-changing experience I'm looking for. I'm almost 30. While I am gone, some of my friends will be getting married or having babies. I want to hear about it and see pictures! So I was thrilled to find out that most education volunteers in Mozambique do, in fact, have electricity. And I was even more excited to find out that cell coverage has expanded rapidly over the last few years and most volunteers can get internet access through unlocked smartphones.

Hopefully, I will be able to continue to blog when I am there, as well as talk on the phone and email. I am sure that speeds will be much slower and coverage will be spotty, but it is nice to know that I will be somewhat reachable.  I can also receive mail and would love to get letters, postcards and pictures from anyone who has a few minutes to send something! I think that even with an internet connection, a letter will make me feel a lot less lonely.

Below is an excerpt from the information provided by the Peace Corps Mozambique staff for friends and family of volunteers regarding communication. The address listed can be used while I am in training (until December) and I will update with a PO address if I choose to get one once I have my permanent placement. There are also some good tips from a current volunteer about mailing things to Mozambique on her blog here.

1. Irregular Communication. (Please see #3 for the mailing address to Peace Corps' office in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique). Mail in Mozambique is fairly reliable. Volunteers find they generally receive mail and packages from the United States two to four weeks after it has been sent. The same is true in sending mail from Mozambique. Of course, there are exceptional cases in which a letter or a package might arrive within a shorter period or be substantially delayed. Some mail may simply not arrive. We suggest that in your first letters you ask the Volunteer to give an estimate of how long it takes for him/her to receive your letters, and then try to establish a predictable pattern of how often you will write to each other. Also, try numbering your letters so that the Volunteer knows if he/she has missed one.

2. Telephone Calls. Telephone lines in Mozambique are not very reliable. During Pre-service Training (the first 10 weeks), opportunities for the Trainees to call the United States will be limited. Volunteers may or may not have residential phones; however, most Volunteers choose to buy cell phones, use public phones, or find that a neighbor or the organization they work with has a phone they are able to use to make and receive calls on. They will be able to inform you of telephone numbers where you might reach them once they arrive at their permanent sites.

3. Sending packages. Parents and Volunteers like to send and receive care packages through the mail. Even though many Volunteers choose to get local post office boxes, you may also use the following address to send letters and/or packages:

Name of Volunteer, PCV
Corpo da Paz/U. S. Peace Corps
C.P. 4398
Maputo,
MOZAMBIQUE

It is recommended that packages be sent in padded envelopes if possible, as boxes tend to be taxed more frequently. For lightweight but important items (e.g. airline tickets), DHL (an express mail service) does operate in Maputo. If you choose to send items through DHL, you must address the package to a physical address & include the phone number: the Name of Volunteer, PCV, c/o U. S. Peace Corps Mozambique, Avenida Zimbabwe 345, Maputo, Mozambique (the phone number for the Peace Corps office in Mozambique is 258-21-499-082. No liability can be assumed by Peace Corps. For more information about DHL, please call their toll free number, 1-800-CALL-DHL, or visit their web site at www.dhl.com. Other courier services may operate in Maputo - DHL is only one possibility.

It's Getting Real! Preparing for Peace Corps Training

I left my job less than two months before my scheduled departure date for Mozambique. I took the first few days to gather my wits and get a handle on what I would need to do to prepare for the big Peace Corps move before leaving for four weeks of traveling. I spent the first three in Rio, with the wonderful people who are becoming my extended family, before flying to San Diego for a wedding and some quality time with the West Coast friends I miss so much. Both trips were very grounding and helped remind me that distance doesn't damage the relationships that really matter. A very useful reminder as I prepare to pack my life into two suitcases and move to a country that's as far away as any I have ever visited.

But looking forward: What is coming? I thought it would be helpful to provide a rundown of the Peace Corps orientation/training/placement process.

On September 25, I will fly to Philadelphia for a "staging event" stateside. The event is only about seven hours long and will consist of introductions, setting expectations, and shots. *shudder* I was already given my Yellow Fever immunization, but will need rabies, various Hepatitis-es and others, along with the beginnings of an anti-malarial regimen. After a few hours of sleep, we will all get up at 2:00 am for a bus ride to NYC. Our 14 hour flight leaves from JFK and flies straight to Johannesburg. I believe there are 55 new volunteers that are part of "Moz 19," the nineteenth group to serve in Mozambique. We will be split between two flights from South Africa to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique.

Our first ten weeks will be spent in Pre-Service Training (PST) in Namaacha, a village about an hour and a half west of Maputo. Before we go to Namaacha, however, we will spend three days inside a hotel in Maputo, where will learn more about PST and our new home country. We have been instructed not to leave the hotel premises for the three days, which sounds a little like torture. So much anticipation for this move and then three days in one building! Patience, patience...

All of the volunteers in this group are going to be teaching, some math or science, others English. Mozambique is Portuguese-speaking, so we will have ten weeks of PST to become fluent enough to manage a class of 60 - 100 students. To help us learn the language and culture more quickly, we will be placed with host families in Namaacha. A team of Peace Corps staff will determine if I am fit for service at the end of training. This includes language proficiency as well as cultural and technical competence. All trainees who qualify will be sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers on December 7.

I don't know where I will go after December 7. The final placement is made by the in-country staff, with my input as to certain preferences. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm allowed to ask for a beach town, but I can specify things like whether I would like to be in a community with another volunteer (probably), in a remote or more developed area (developed), whether or not electricity is important (yes).

Once I get to my site, I will have about a month to settle in before classes start. Peace Corps will provide my housing, which will most likely be a small house that I will live in by myself, but I could end up with a roommate. A currently serving volunteer wrote a great blog post about PC housing in Mozambique.

She also wrote a great post on food in Mozambique, which was one of the first things I wondered about when I learned I would be placed there. There is also a great episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations that covers Mozambique's history, culture, and food, including the giant crayfish. The basic staples of the Mozambican diet include corn, manioc, potatoes, tomatoes, rice, eggs, peppers (both hot and sweet) and garlic. From what I have heard, volunteers are frequently able to grow herbs and vegetables at their site and some have fruit trees. Along the coast, fish and seafood are available and affordable, but not much is transported inland.

I will post again soon with some information about communication in Mozambique.