It’s easy to forget, at times, that I am in Africa. The interactions during training only seemed abnormal for a week or two, and then the unexpected became the expected. Cultural norms and differences became fun stories told among both the Americans when we were together and by the Mozambican families when they were chatting. Fofoca became the favorite activity of home stay families and trainees. Fofoca is gossip, and it flies like nothing else in small towns like Namaacha. One example of how fast Fofoca can spread is illustrated in the fact that one morning I told my Moz. Mom that Peace Corps would be by today to pick up my boxes (caixas), at least that’s what I thought I was saying. Evidently I told her Peace Corps would be by to pick up my coffins (caixáos). Before lunch that day, she had spread this funny story to at least one family in a different neighborhood, by that evening, the other host mom shared it with her daughter (my colleague), who shared it with my girlfriend (Stu), who shared in a laugh about this story with me when we were hanging out that same night. I came to love Fofoca by the end of training. The home stay families had reunions (meetings), often, after which I would always ask my mom what the latest Fofoca was about my fellow trainees. She always had juicy stories for me.
It’s interesting to me, during the times that I forget where I am, when I actually take a moment to look around and remember that I’m not in the USA anymore. That I’m actually living in a place that before Peace Corps invited me here, I had never heard of, and that I’m now speaking a language I never thought I would need to know (Portuguese). As I walk to the market to buy bread, rice, beans, fruit, or whatever I’m craving for dinner or lunch that day, the “boa tardes” become normal. Seeing children running around playing only to be distracted by the foreigner, which in the mind of a child is only entertaining for a quick 10 seconds stare, is even becoming a new norm for me. I just smile, stick out my tongue or make a funny face, and they giggle and run back to whatever game or activity they were doing to pass the time. I continue my walk and it’s when I look up at the mountain range to my North, or the mud houses with straw roofs to my left and right that I realize that life has surely lead me somewhere special.
My Grandma and Grandpa bought me a Kindle book reader for a graduation gift. I loaded it with about 100 books from Amazon before leaving for staging in Philly at the end of September. Majority of the books are classics, Shakespeare, Poe, Twain, so on and so forth. I just finished reading “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” by Oscar Wilde. It’s a great book, wonderful read, and a semi-predictable, but interesting twist of an ending. From this book, I take away two quotes; “We practical men like to see things, not to read about them…” and “It is the uncertainty that charms one. A mist makes things wonderful.” These two quotes describe a part of the reason that I am here. The idea of experiencing something instead of reading about it, and the fact that there is such mystery in everything I encounter on a day to day basis here, that the odds of life becoming dull is very unlikely. Don’t confuse my optimism with me being naive. I know that there will be more than enough boredom to go around throughout the next two years, but boredom is a state of mind that can be altered through conscious thought. Well, at least I hope so; and I’ll have many opportunities to test this to be true or not.
There have been a few moments that are notable and worth mentioning, which afterwards I laughed to myself about how I doubt I would have experienced such a thing in the States, but I’ll share the most recent only. While sitting and talking about the upcoming weeks plans with Quito, my PSI counterpart in Ribaue, I noticed my neighbors had just come out for dinner. My neighbors are a bunch of chameleons that live in my roof, and top of my walls (my floor and walls are concrete, and the roof is made out of local materials…a thatched together wood). Dinner (for them, not me) was going to be a wonderful assortment of bugs that were flickering around the light in my living room. Our conversation drifted to silence as we both sat and watched one of the chameleons slowly creep down the wall and wait for a chance to strike at one of the bugs. Surely enough, the time came quickly, and he didn’t miss a beat. He swallowed the bug like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. Quito and I watched this go on for about 20 minutes. The chameleon ate bug after bug, until Quito stood. The motion startled my neighbor and he ran back to safety in the roof. The next night, as I ate dinner in my house, I noticed a giant roach running across the floor. Unluckily for this roach, my neighbor was already out watching me eat. As soon as his dinner arrived, he again, did not hesitate in joining me for a nice healthy meal. I like these neighbors. I think I’ll keep them around since they clean up pretty well and give me a great deal of entertainment throughout the evenings.
I’ve held up really well emotionally, physically, and mentally since my goodbyes in September. I haven’t had super bad days, or missed family a terrible amount (yet), and I wonder if I’ll make it through the next 2 years and be able to say this at the end of service. Granted, the Peace Corps of today is not what it used to be, thanks to technology and the fact that our programs are much more developed now (courtesy of trial and error over the years). Let me elaborate on both. Technology: when we landed in South Africa, I was able to call my family from a skype program I had downloaded on my blackberry (iSkoot). It allows a person to call from their skype account, through their phones internet. So, it was about 2c a minute to call. Throughout training, I’ve had instant access to email and internet on my phone the entire time. Honestly, for majority of the time, I only sent the occasional photo or email to family checking in, and used the internet to stay up to date on current events (msnbc, cnn, bbc, etc.). I have around 150-200 movies that I copied off other volunteers hard drives, and can watch them whenever I want. I have both new movies and classics. I watched X-Men Origins (a movie that was in theatres when I left the states) on my laptop just last night. We have cell phones, ability to link these phones to our laptops and connect to the internet at a pretty nice speed; I can text USA cell phones for free through yahoo messenger, make phone calls through skype, etc. Program development: We’ve had several speakers and trainers talk about their service in the Peace Corps, and it sounds like what I expected to run into during our service. Dropped in the middle of no-where, no communication, and no idea of what they would be doing. That is far from the case for our training group. Keep in mind, I’m speaking about the Health sector (as Education will be more standard and structured, because they are serving in the school systems). With my experience, so far, I know exactly what organizations I’m working with, and what their mission is throughout the community. Who they’re funded by, who the directors are, who my supervisor is, and much more information is available. Granted, there are times, even just in the last group of volunteers, that the person was dropped off and their group was basically nonexistent (by this I mean only one person makes the “group”). It does happen, but less and less frequently.
The most difficult part of service is being away from family and friends. Holiday seasons especially make this harder than the average day. Just today I looked through my photo album (bad idea) and started to think about the babies in the family (5 nephews and 1 niece), and the crisp, fresh, bone chilling air that accompanies winter every year in Oklahoma. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the smell, the feel, what I’d be doing if I was back there right now. The feel and what I’d be doing were easy to picture. Driving my 1990 regular cab, black Chevy Pickup (350 V8 of course), on my way to buy gifts from Quail Springs, Crossroads, Penn Square, and every other shop on the Belle Isle. I’d definitely spend at least one night walking through the botanical gardens, enjoying the Christmas lights there, and then depending on the roads, would drive out to Yukon or Northern Oklahoma City in search of one of the many houses that have set up a light show with music. I’d probably meet up with Rusty or Tony (assuming they aren’t shopping with me) and have a cup of seasonal coffee from Starbucks. This would be one day only. There are so many people to visit during the holidays that every day (after work) could be spent very similar to this one. Small, intimate conversations warming up over a cup of coffee…hot chili and corn bread, decorating the Christmas tree with the young kids and trying my best to preserve their innocent belief in Santa Clause. The smell is something my imagination isn’t strong enough to duplicate. Every country I go to, and every state for that matter, I always close my eyes and take a moment to appreciate the different sensations (air on my skin, scent in the air, noises, etc). When I came back from a month in Lebanon, the first thing I remember was how happy I was to smell the Oklahoma air. My point is that it doesn’t feel too much like Christmas right now. I did listen to holiday music all day and have “This Christmas” “Elf” and “Love Actually” to remind my tough man heart that I miss family more than my mind is ready to admit. I’ve had some of the current PCV’s tell me “make sure you’re with people on Christmas. When you get that call from home, you’ll need people around you.” I doubt it will be that hard on me, but if it is, I can rest easily knowing that Stu will be there with me. There’s always a silver lining. :o)
Merry Christmas in advance everyone. Happy New Year as well. “Feliz Natal e ano novu propsero”
G
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