Hey everyone

Sorry it has been forever that I have last posted and this post will be short. I am back here in the states, but just for a month. I will hopefully see good people and eat good food. I will be returning to Mozambique for a third year with the Peace Corps. Needless to say I have enjoyed my time over there. The people in Mozambique are good and treat me well and I like the work I am doing, so I decided to stay on for a third year. Hope to see everyone soon, and have a good Christmas break.

New videos from my students

This was a video that was created with one of my students. He wrote a song about the Military struggle and the need for a strong military. We found some old vintage film from the Mozambique war against the Portuguese. The video is entirely of that footage. Enjoy! But there is also some tough scenes to watch.

The song was created by the same person.

The second video

After the first video.  My students got really excited about the music video and decided to collaborate with some other students from other classes and created a second video.  This video is a mixture of English, Portuguese and the locale language in the Maputo province, changana. 

This video was much smoother.  After the first video, we learned an important lesson on how to better film a short music video.  We decided to first record the music in the computer, as a reference, so when I went to match up the voice with the music, it was much smoother and easier.  So this video took us a couple weeks and was filmed in several different locations.  The first video was about Education in Mozambique and how the system is improving.  This one is about the IFP of Namaacha, the school where I work.

 

"IFP Namaacha"

The Music Video

One day my students called me up on the phone and told me that I needed to come quick with my video camera.  I came into the classroom with the camera and saw three of my students performing a song, that they wrote.  I thought, wow, that's pretty good.  We decided to take the first video shot in the classroom and make a better video, that was actually planned out.

We shot the video in three or four different locations in Namaacha and at the beach of Xai-Xai.  Once the video was shot we recorded the instruments and the song into the computer, to have a nicer sound to the video.  Once that was done, I edited the video out for the students and this was our final project.  It took us a little over a month to complete.  Hope you enjoy.

 

"Education"

 

Many Things to write about.

Well first off, I would like to apologize for the long absence of me writing on this blog.  There has been several reasons.  First, I have been very busy with teaching and second, it seams that there isn't as much for to write about.  It doesn't feel like there is that much new and exciting things that feel worth me blogging about.  I guess that is a good thing, it means that I look at Mozambique as more of a home, rather than a vacation.  But, there have been some things that have happened in the last few months, that I would like to share with you.

The Visit

Back in June, I had a friend from the states come to visit me at my post in Mozambique.  I think that I mentioned that she was coming.   Well, she came and I think had a good time.  It was nice to have a familiar face around and it was fun to get her reaction of this country.  The ways things are done, the pace at which they are done and the interactions with people.  After living here for a year, you start to forget your reaction to Africa, when you first get off the plane and you spend your first week or month in a new and unfamiliar surrounding.  Seeing someone experience it for the first time, was fun for me and new and exciting for her. 

I had forgotten what it was like the first time I boarded a Chapa, the public transportation, and sitting on the uncomfortable seats, driving down a bumpy and un-maintained road, crammed in with 18 other people.  I had forgotten what it was like to kill the first chicken, and then watch it being prepared.  All this seamed less exciting to me and just another day, but seeing her experience it for the first time, brought back a little more excitement into the experience.

We did spend a lot of time in Namaacha, so that she could see my day to day life and experience a little more of Africa, than your typical tourist gets to experience.

We went to the Inhambane province, which happens to be the biggest tourist spot in Mozambique.  She was volunteering for two weeks, so I accompanied her there.  We spent most of our time on the beaches of Tofo, which was beautiful.  We went swimming, horseback riding and rode some quad bikes.  We took along my little host brother to give him that experience, which was fun to see his reaction to a different Mozambique, that he had never experienced before.

We also spent some time in Swaziland, which was mostly going to the game reserve and seeing all the wildlife.  You can't see much wildlife in Mozambique.  The government is trying to bring back the animals, but during the Civil War all the animals left the country and haven't really come back yet.  So, see as how I am right on the border of Swaziland, we spent one night in Swaziland and went on a walking Safari and a driving Safari and saw a lot of animals.  Although we did not get to see the Lion, which I was hoping to see.

The Wedding

For probably about five months my host family had been talking about this wedding of their cousin in Maputo.  It was supposed to be this huge get together and this big event.  The wedding was supposed to start  at 9:00 at the church in Maputo.  So, me being the person who needs to be on time.  I came with my two host siblings and showed up with the two of them at 8:50ish. I found the church completely empty.  (Now just so you understand, in Mozambique nothing is on time.) I decided to call my host mom and dad to see where everyone was.  they had came down the night before to help prepare.  I figured that we must have been at the wrong church.  They told me to just wait there and people would start to show up soon.  By 10:00 we were still the only ones there.  By 10:30 we decided to walk around a little.  By 11:00 my host mom called wondering where we were, as if we were late.  By 11:30 we arrived back at the church, to find everyone standing around waiting for the bride and groom to arrive.

A side note: Everyone in Mozambique gets married on Saturday.  Every church is booked solid.  So if you have a church for 9:00, you should make a point to be on time, because there is probably another wedding coming up after yours.

By 12:00 the preacher comes out and asks if the bride and groom are here.  We of course say no.  The preacher then says, well you have to go find another church, because the next wedding is ready to enter.  So by 12:30 they have secured another church.  Everyone that knows where the church is gets into a car and drives there, which leaves all the people from Namaacha who have no idea where this church is to walk to the church which is supposedly very close.

The next thing I know, I am being led down the slums of Maputo, dressed in my nicest clothes, oh and I am the only white person I can see.  My host family has no idea where we are going.  So after we get lost, we start asking everyone we can see, where the nearest church is.  Finally we find this run down brick church in the center of Maputo's largest slum.  It was a good thing it wasn't raining, because there was holes in the roof and in the side of the building and the floor was dirt, which would not have been a good combination with a white wedding dress.  Everyone else seamed to be okay with this, but we went from a nice large church to this one that was barely standing up.  The next big wind storm could have knocked it down.

I guess the moral of the story is, that if you say you will be their at a certain time, be there.

Later that night we had a reception far outside of Maputo.  It actually took us several hours to get to the reception.  But most of that time was waiting for Chapa's to come and pick us up.  Once at the reception, it was really nice and well done.  But it doesn't make for an interesting blog story, so I will stop here.

A visitor

Well a friend of mine is here visiting me in Mozambique.  It is nice to see a familiar face from America.  Although her perceptions of Africa as being this warm climate, have been tested the last few days with the cold weather that we have had.

But, none the less, I think she is having fun, and I am as well.  We went to Swaziland for a few days.  We went to Hlane National park, where we saw lots of wild life, like, Elephants, rhinos, waterbucks, giraffes and lots of birds. We went on a lion hunt, only to shoot with the cameras, but we didn't have any luck.  They were hiding from us.

The place we stayed at, was very nice and relaxing, which was something I think we both needed. 

We are right now, getting ready to go up to the ocean for a few days.  She will be volunteering in Vilakoolosh for two weeks, so I will accompany her their and then say good buy.  We will spend about a week relaxing on the beach, snorkeling and maybe riding horses on the beach.  Hopefully the weather will be nice, it should be.

Other than that we plan on hanging around Namaacha, visiting with everyone and spending some time at the local markets.  All in all it should be fun, just catching up on things.

A good opportunity

I am starting a fundraiser to raise enough money to ship over several thousand books, which a non-profit company is willing to donate.  It is my hope to bring in English literature into Namaacha, Mozambique.  If anyone is interested in donating to this cause, please look at the below information.

Every child deserves a book to read, but unfortunately people in Africa, don't have the resources to pick up a book and indulge in the literature world.

The International Book Project is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization with a 43 year history of providing books to schools and libraries in the developing world. We have sent over 5.5 million books since our founding in 1966. All donations for David’s project are tax-deductible. You will receive a tax receipt from IBP.

You may donate online at http://www.intlbookproject.org/donate.php. Please put “David Hartness, Mozambique” in the notes box. You may also donate by sending a check to:

International Book Project

Attn: Rachel Lewis, Executive Director

1440 Delaware Avenue

Lexington, KY 40505

Please also include a note or write “David Hartness, Mozambique” in the check’s memo.

Once the books have arrived in Mozambique, I will distribute them to the local elementary, secondary and the Teacher Training institute.  These books will effect the lives of several thousand kids, by improving their language ability and by improving their reading skills.  I hope that everyone can contribute a little money, to bring this into reality.

 

Thanks!

David Hartness

Peace Corps, Mozambique.

Food I've eaten

 

So I was thinking about all the things that I have eaten in 8 months of living in Mozambique.  You might want to read this near a toilet, you may barf.

1. Cow head
2. Pig head
3. Chicken head
4. Turkey head
5. Goat head
6. All the heads, served of course with the brain.
7. Goat guts stirred with a light simmer of goat blood
8. Chicken guts
9. Turkey guts
10. Duck guts
11. Chicken feet
12. Cow hooves
13. Cow tongue
14. Cow heart
15. All of course served with rice and a light slab of Mayonnaise.
16. I asked them when they were going to serve me the snake, they thought that was pretty weird?????????????????????????????

You know the the really sick thing, the only thing that I didn't like, and I would probably never eat again, is the goats guts and blood.  Everything else was actually really good.

There was a witch doctor

 

Okay, so you know how you always see on the TV or hear in crazy songs about the African witch doctors, and how you think that stuff doesn't really happen.  There is no way that people believe this stuff, well let me say, that it does happen and and witch doctor ceremonies are real.

I have this friend in Namaacha, who teaches English in one of the primary schools.  He told me that his aunt is going to hold a witch doctor ceremony.  Apparently she was being trained to become a witch doctor.  Why was she being trained to be a witch doctor as a profession?  Well one day her house mysteriously burnt to the ground.  She was able to survive the fire, only to rebuild the home, and watch that home burn to the ground.  She thought this was weird and that something was behind this, not someone, something.  So she did what she thought was best, she went to a traditional witch doctor????  The witch doctor told her that the gods had placed in her destiny to become a witch doctor.  She had denied the gods this, so the gods were trying to kill her.  The witch doctor said, she must become a witch doctor or eventually the gods would succeed and she would die.  So, she packed all her things, moved in with a witch doctor and went through a one year witch doctor training.   This was how the story was told to me.

After the training, she was to hold 4 ceremonies for the gods.  I was invited to the fourth and final ceremony .  Now, when I say that I was invited to a witch doctor ceremony, I don't mean some fake ceremony put on for a bunch of white tourists.  I mean my roommate and I were the only two white people there.  This was as real as it gets.

 

So the first 20 minutes of the ceremony, was the witch doctors in this small round hut.  No one apparently knows what goes on in there.  But someone did say that they are summoning the gods.  After that, the witch doctors come out, with full gear.  They had a tone of necklaces, mostly with wood carvings on them.  They had feather head dresses.  They started dancing, and they kept dancing.  Someone explained to me, that it wasn't them dancing that it was the gods dancing.  That they could dance that like for hours and never get tired, because the gods were controlling their bodies.

 

They started chanting in Zulu.  Someone explained to me, that none of the witch doctors spoke Zulu, but the gods spoke Zulu, so that was the gods speaking to the people.

 

They danced to the heavy drum beat for about thirty minutes, before they went back into the hut.  Apparently this time, they were seeing what the gods demanded of them, and what presents should be presented to the gods.

 

They came back out, danced and spoke more Zulu, or I should be correct in saying the gods danced and spoke Zulu.  They started to dance around the crowd of people, before taking a seat.  As the three witch doctors sat their, their bodies started to shake uncontrollable.  The beat of the drums got louder and louder.  They started to yell in Zulu, their voices only drained by the beat of the drum.

 

After about 10 minutes of shaking and chanting, a goat was brought forward.  It was tackled to the ground, and the three witch doctors and two other men surrounded the goat, so no one in the audience could see.  They surrounded the goat for about five minutes, and when they rose to the feet, the slitted goat lay their lifeless, and the witch doctor stood with a glass of blood, which she drank.

 

They danced their way back into the hut, and the then reappeared after 10 minutes, back to their normal talk and swagger, and not able to remember what had just taken place.

 

Believe in that stuff or not, that is what happened.

Videos in Mozambique

 

This is my host brother, Lulu and his Cousin, Leonardo dancing.

 

 

This was taken at my students graduation.

February in Mozambique

Well things are going good here in Mozambique.  Not much new to report on, but we did do a few things that I would like to share:

The waterfall: 

There is a nice waterfall in Namaacha.  But during the dry season there is no waterfall.  But the last few weeks we have gotten a lot of rain, so it was the first opportunity for me to see the falls.  It was absolutely beautiful.

 

 

The falls were not that big, but the view and scenery was really beautiful.  As you can see from the picture. 

I went with my older host brother pictured below.

 

The Weather:

I think that my body has finally adjusted to the weather here.  One day I was freezing.  I had a long sleeve fleece shirt on, long pants and was covered in a blanket and my mouth was still chattering away.  I just couldn't stay warm.  I thought that it must be cold enough to snow.  It felt like 30 degrees.  We decide to check the temperature.   It was 74 degrees out.

I thought man, we have really adjusted when 74 degrees feels like it's below freezing.  I turned to my roommate and said, 'Man what are we going to do when we get back to the states and step off the plain in December.'  I then told him, 'the news crew is going to be there, returned Peace Corps Volunteer has just frozen to death, he wasn't use to the cold weather and his body has gone into shock.'

My Garden:

So, I am still struggling with this garden thing.  So far I have three Carrots in the front garden and corn in the back.  But I planted a lot more than that.  Well just look at the pictures:

 

 

Baking:

Who would have thought that I would fly half way around the world and learn how to bake breads and cinnamon roles and all sorts of stuff.  So I had many a failed attempt at getting my bread to rise.  I spent a lot of money on flour and a lot of money on yeast, but eventually I got the darn stuff to rise and I made like 20 loafs of bread to freeze.

I guess I will have bread for a long time.

Odds and ends in Mozambique

Teaching:

Life here is well.  There hasn't been a lot going on, but I have started teaching at the university.  It has been interesting teaching in Mozambique.  Things are much more relaxed and showing up to class on time is more of a suggestion, not a rule.  Teachers, teaching is another one of those suggestions.  I am hoping that when we get our new students in March, I will have more of a say in the way things are run here.  The current students will actually take their final exams and then they will graduate and start teaching students English in Mozambique.

I also had a riveting two day four hour experience of testing students to enter into the Teaching institution here.  I wanted to shoot myself!  I had to stand in the back, and watch people take a test for two hours one day and then two hours the next day.  After that we did an English placement interview with the students.  Some people spoke very good English, others not so well.  Some were just down right painful to listen to.

 

The Beach:

So I took my 8 year old host brother and 16 year old host brother to the beach on the second of January.  They live just an hour away from the beach, and yet they had never seen it before.  We went to Ponte D'oura.  It is a huge tourist location near South Africa.  We pitched a tent and camped really close to the beach.  They had also never done real camping before. 

We played on the beach for three or four days cooked American food and had a good time.

I wish that it wasn't such a tourist trap, because things cost a lot more money there, but it was still nice and it was fun spending time with the two of them.

 

 

 

 

The garden:

Okay, so I had this great idea of making a Garden.  The only problem is that I don't know how to make one, or what any of the plants look like as they are growing.  So we plant corn, Green peppers, carrots, onions and lettuce.  We wait and we we wait.  The corn starts to grow, no problem.  The other stuff, we had no idea as to what to look for, so a lot of things were growing, but we didn't know if they were weeds or if they were vegetables.  So we let them grow for a long time.  I finally asked my host mom to come and look at my garden.  She just laughed and told me that nothing was growing, that all I had successfully grown was weeds.  Woopi!  Big accomplishment!

So this week we tore up the garden, minus the corn and are trying again. If anyone has any suggestions, please comment!

New Years: Okay, this was an interesting night. It started out by me killing two goats. We tied their feet, hung them by the tree and then I cut their heads off. Now, for you vegetarians, there is nothing wrong with this, I had to eat, so it had to be done. As I cut the head, Lulu, my eight year old host brother, held a pan and caught the blood. I didn’t think much about this, I thought they didn’t want blood to go everywhere and then they would bury it later so that critters don’t get into it. Had I known what was about to happen, I would accidently Kicked Lulu to the ground or at least knock the pan from his hands. As it turned out we cut up the intestines of the goat and boiled it with the goat’s blood and then ate it. Now, in normal circumstances I would have refused, but apparently it is a big honor to be given the privilege of killing the goat and then eating the insides with the blood. So I respectfully ate it, one bite at a time. Needless to say, I had very little of the meat and a lot of goats blood and intestines. I was even fed that meal for breakfast and lunch. Now here’s the funny part! The men in this culture never cook, except for the blood and guts meal. They also have their own cooking pot that they call, ‘the men’s pot.’ This pot is so beat up, it looks like it had been through two wars. Now, there is probably a reason why the women do the cooking. I mean think about it, if you’re going to mix goat guts with blood and you think that taste good, I would just assume you stay out of the kitchen. So this New Years me and five other guys sat around a campfire and cooked goat guts and blood. Sound like fun! When midnight rolled around, everyone came out to the streets and started shooting off fireworks. I’m all for the fireworks, but when kids start shooting them at each other, we have a huge problem. After the fireworks, we partied all night, and I mean all night. I did not get any sleep.

Christmas in Mozambique: It was hard to wake up in the morning and realize that today was Christmas. I started out the day, fetching water for my breakfast and my bath. It was a cool 80 degrees, with a breeze that made it feel like 75. My roommate and I ate breakfast and then baked cookies to bring over to our host families houses, where we would spend most of Christmas with. It was interesting returning to the home where I lived for the first few months in Mozambique. I didn’t move that far away, so I had been back several times to visit. But, this time I was greeted differently, almost like I had been gone for a year and was just now returning. It was kind of interesting, but nice at the same time. The children in the household and the children in the neighborhood were as happy as any child that I had seen on any other Christmas that I had experienced. I had this realization, that the children were happy to be in the presence of their family and neighbors and were happy to have a huge meal in front of them. Not because they are starving, like some people want to think of African children as being, but because it was a special meal, kind of like thanksgiving for us in the US. They didn’t wake up with a Christmas tree, which had sparkling lights glistening under the angel. They didn’t wake up knowing that the jolly old man had delivered all their presents that they asked for. They didn’t wake up knowing that their whole day would be defined by what was in those boxes. They didn’t have the expectation that parents or Santa would give them toys to play with. They didn’t have the buildup of a month, watching new presents being put under the tree and then counting them over and over, making sure your siblings didn’t have more. They woke up that morning with the expectation that their door would be opened for all the neighbors to mingle back and forth as they pleased and that they would have a large meal, where they could eat as much as they wanted. They knew that they would get up, dress in their nicest clothes and spend the whole afternoon eating, talking and partying into the night. Children knew that today, they could stay up till one, dancing on the front porch of their neighbors house. They knew that when they were tired of dancing there, they could walk across the street and dance some more at the other neighbors home. I thought about buying presents for my host family, and I decided not to. I think that was a good decision. My culture is to open up presents, their culture is to spend the day with friends and family and eat. So instead, I made cookies, what a great Christmas present. I ate dinner at my host families’ home, and then went to the next door neighbors and ate there. I ate 7 dinners and danced with the neighborhoods of Nammacha, until 1 in the morning. Every door was wide open and every house had music blasting from the windows. Again, I thought about my culture. How often did I talk to my neighbors? Did I ever talk to them on Christmas? I don’t think so! To open your door and give thanks to your village or your city, to say let’s go dance, let’s go eat, that’s a pretty awesome thing to do. In short, it was pretty cool to experience a different Christmas and I look forward to next years.

The first week in my new place: Let me just start out by saying, “I have no idea how I am going to survive for two years, not knowing how to cook.” I moved into a new place here in Namaacha. On Monday we walked into the place at 11:00 and there was nothing. No furniture, no food, nothing. By 12:00 Adam, my roommate and I walked back to our host families place for lunch. They found out that we didn’t have anything and they lent us pots and pans and silverware so that we could at least cook something that night.

That night we decided to cook some pasta. We didn’t have any sauce, nothing, except tomatoes and onion, which my host mother gave me and some spaghetti we bought at the market and some oil. We decided to put oil, onions and tomatoes in our pasta. We didn’t know how much oil to use, so we put a little in the pasta and it didn’t look like enough, so we put a little more and then a dash more. Long story short, our first meal in Mozambique was a hell of a lot of oil and a little pasta. Not very good! Our second meal: We went to Maputo to buy some things, so we ate lunch at a restaurant and then cooked dinner at our place. We had bought a frozen chicken, so we cooked that, which was actually really good, but let’s be honest with ourselves, all we had to do is throw it in the oven and make sure it didn’t burn. We were going to have a salad and we bought lettuce for the salad, but forgot to buy bleach. There are a lot of diseases you can get from lettuce if you don’t bleach it here. So we just had chicken, nothing else.

The third meal: This actually went really well. We had fried rice, with tomatoes, onions and green peppers. We were going to have that lettuce, but once again forgot to buy the bleach and we didn’t have a refrigerator yet, so we had to throw the lettuce away. The fourth meal: We had no food on Thursday, so we had French fries and cucumbers. Need I say more!

Fifth meal: Spaghetti and alfredo sauce, pretty easy, hard to screw that up. Sixth meal: Here’s where it gets a little interesting. So a couple things went wrong here! First, we didn’t start cooking the chicken until eight. Then, when we read the instructions we read it in Celsius, but thought it was for Farenheight. So we started cooking the chicken at a 180 degrees.

We thought that seamed really low, but didn’t question the directions. So after about an hour and a half of cook the chicken, which was not cooking at all, we went back to the instructions and found out that is was actually 350 degrees.

So we started cook it at the right temperature and then went to open the corn on the cob that we bought at the market. We opened it up, only to be surprised with a nice big maggot crawling out of the corn. Don’t worry, we threw it away, along with the other six cobs we bought. I guess I won’t buy corn on the cob at the local market. Other meals: We have also had many PB and J sandwiches, Hot dogs with bread and lots and lots of eggs.

So in short, I need to figure out this cooking thing, or I will starve to death. Other than the cooking, we have also been buying many things and slowly starting to make this place feel like home. We have had to buy just about everything, but the Peace Corps provided us with enough money to buy everything that we needed. It has also been very nice living here in Namaacha. My host family has been very helpful with the move and my little 8 year old host brother has visited me every day. Which I don’t really mind.

Sewing: So, I always made fun of my mom and my aunt and just about anyone that loved to sew। So here I am in my new home sitting in a chair, watching home improvement on my laptop and sewing curtains for the window।

I thought to myself, man I am turning into a little old grandma, all that was missing was the rocking chair. I don’t know which is worse, I am actually getting good at sewing or the fact that I was actually having fun.

More to come later, about my new place! David Hartness

Merry Christmas And a happy New Year! Well first off I hope that this little Christmas letter finds you well and I hope that you and your families are having a wonderful holiday season. As for me, I am doing okay, getting along just fine here in Africa. I am starting to adjust to the culture and daily life and routine here in Mozambique. A lot has happened in the last three months, which seemed like it would never end, but now that three months is over; I look back at it and think that it went by too fast. I am finishing my Peace Corps training and am now entering into phase two as an official Peace Corps volunteer, where I will live and work in a teaching training institute here in Namaacha, Mozambique. I will be training future From left to right: Mahondie, Caroline, Lulu, Domine and Dolce.teachers, best teaching practices. I am not sure I am qualified to do this, but it will be a learning experience and will hopefully make me a better teacher in the US. `The culture in Africa is one that amazes me and I often sit back in wonderment at the way the people get by and live their daily lives. It is so different from what I am used to, not better or worse, but different. I have live with a wonderful host family for the last few months, which has given me the opportunity to dive into their daily routine and into every aspect of their culture. Everything seems to be different, from the way they cook to the way that they clean. Every meal is cooked over charcoal or wood and way too much oil and rice is used. I have cooked many local dishes from Matapa, which is a green leafy vegetable with a coconut sauce, tomatoes and onion to Chove, which is much like Matapa, only a different vegetable, but basically the same ingredients. Both are served over rice. I have killed many chickens, a duck and a turkey, and up next, a goat, on Christmas day. I wash my cloths by hand and I take a bath out of a bucket. I currently live in a cement house, with a tin roof. The kitchen is separate from the house and the bathroom is also separate from the house, which makes for a cold bath every morning. It is hard to put into words, and I think that if I tried, it would just confuse you. You really have to see it to believe it. Probably with what I have said thus far, you are thinking, wow, he must be miserable and hating life, but you know what, I love it. Lulu and Caroline are pictured here, who are my host siblings and me.I have had the chance to travel a little; I have been to Maputo, which is the capital of Mozambique. It is a very dirty city, but it has everything that you could possibly want. I have also been to the beaches of Xai-Xai, which were absolultie beautiful. We swam and played soccer and Frisbee for two days. It was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of training. I haven’t done much traveling, but once I leave my home stay and am a volunteer, I will have several months before I start teaching, so I hope to get some traveling in. Namaacha is located right on the boarder of Swaziland, which has a lot of animal reserves. We will also be very close to South Africa, which I will go to often. Christmas here in Mozambique, will be very different. For one I will not be able to share it with my family and friends. Second, children in Mozambique and all over Africa will wake up with not a present under the tree or a gift in their hands. Not because they don’t have the money, but because it is not a part of their culture. They have something far greater; they wake up and celebrate the day for what we are supposed to celebrate it for. They spend the day with their family, they go to church and they have a Christmas dinner with the entire neighborhood. Not to say that the presents aren’t nice, I know that I have loved them in the past. I think that it is important for us to have fun with our tradition of opening up presents and giving gifts to our loved ones, but don’t forget to remember why we are giving the presents in the first place. It’s funny how three months abroad can teach you so much about another culture and think and reevaluate your own culture and beliefs, without abandoning them. I have really been thinking a lot about the people here and really thinking about how lucky I am to be born in the US. Not because it’s better or our culture is that much greater, but because we have had the opportunities for a good education and college is within reach for every child in America. We have been able to grow up and not worry about spending a few bucks on an item that in retrospect we don’t need, but may make our lives easier. I have seen people take a wire they find on the streets and cut it down and use that for a nail, instead of going to the hardware store and spending a few cents for an actual nail. I have seen people make their own tools for the garden. Sure it’s harder, but it’s cheaper and at the end of the day they can still put food on the table. Well I will continue to write and continue to try and do the best work that I can in Africa. There is a lot of work to be done, just within the school and the community. I do not expect to change the world with my small actions. But think about it in this way. If I give a child a book to read or a good education, I have not changed the world, but I have changed that child’s world for life. Have a merry Christmas and send my love to everyone in the states. David Hartness

Week 8

The kids:

You know, I think that kids are the same where ever you go in the world. They have the same imaginations and the same free spirit and willingness to play. I think that people assume from the commercials they see on TV, you know the commercials where the kids have fly’s around their eyes and look hungry, that children in Africa must be miserable and hungry. Not to say that kids aren’t hungry and don’t have their own problems and they certainly don’t have as many opportunities as children in America. However, in my travels to Kenya, Zambia and now Mozambique, I have not found that to be the case. I found children to have the same imagination and the same willingness to play; they just have a different way of playing. A child in America, may walk down the street and see a empty can of pop on the side walk and look at it and think, ‘oh, there’s an empty can of pop.’ A child in Africa will look at that same can and say, ‘wow if I find three more cans and some wire, I can make a car and play for days.’ Just today, my host brother and some of the neighborhood kids grabbed some leafs, their cars made out of pop cans and wire and created a city on the front porch। They had a gas station, a convenient store and of course, the leaves, were the money. That’s a game that I would have played as a kid in America.

The adults vs। the kids:

I think I have said this before, but if it wasn’t for the kids, I think I would lose my। It seems that I have twenty kids constantly around, wanting to play। They never get frustrated at me, when I mess up Portuguese and they don’t care how I wash my clothes or cook my food। The adults sometimes will get frustrated at me, when I don’t understand something or don’t cook the food the same way that they want it cooked. For example, when I am cooking eggs, my host mom or sister will always be looking over me, to make sure that I use just enough oil. I keep trying to tell them that using five pounds of oil per egg is not healthy for you. I was so excited the one day, when they weren’t in the kitchen and I made my breakfast by myself. Yes, I was a rebble, like James Dean. I used only a little oil and no salt on my eggs. I almost used no oil, but then I thought that maybe the egg would stick and then I would be busted.

Or, the other डे they asked me to wash the floor. I said, sure, no problem. My sister kept trying to get me to poor water on the floor and then rub it around. I kept putting the rag in the water, squeezing it out and then washing the floor that way. She wanted me to squeeze the rag out on the floor. This is such a small thing, but it kind of frustrated me, because all she was doing was taking a dirty rag, dumping dirty water on the floor, which by the way was also dirty. All she was doing was creating mud. At least my mud was contained and didn’t look that bad. I guess the point that I wanted to make was, that kids don’t care how I do it. All they care is that once I’m done, I go play with them. Namaacha:

So I haven’t really talked much about Nammacha. It’s a really cool town with a lot of history around it. It was an Old Portuguese colonized town, so most of the houses are brick and some of the houses are really nice. You can defiantly tell which the homes that the Portuguese lived in were and of homes the African’s lived in before the Portuguese left।

The Portuguese homes are really nice; they all have pools, which of course are empty now। They are also really big. I kind of wonder what they looked like in the 60’s and 70’s. They are now worn down and don’t look they have been taken care of for decades. Most of the homes need a paint job and some cleaning. There are some homes that are still really nice.

Everyone in Nammacha is really nice। It’s completely safe to walk around at night, by yourself. It is well lit and most everyone is really friendly and helpful. They have also gotten used to 57 Americans trying to speak Portuguese. So most people are patient and are just happy that you are trying.

Lá

So lá is loosely translated as over there in Portuguese. I mention this because people will be explaining where someone lives and trying to give you directions to their house. They will simply say lá and point in the direction to travel. My host family will give me money and go tell me to buy bread over in lá and then point.

So my question is this, where is this lá that people keep telling me about. I have yet to find it and usually find myself wandering around asking for lá. Am I going to my next door neighbor, the town over, the other side of Namaacha or maybe the moon। I don’t know, I guess when I find this lá, I will let you know, it sounds pretty cool, or, at least everyone talks about. (Excuse the interruption, a chicken just walked into lá, or in this case, my bedroom. Oh and there comes the baby chickens, now there are seven chickens in my room, I should probably go take care of that.)

Only in Africa, can a chicken walk into your room, and everyone seems to be okay with this। My host brother is sitting on my bed playing with my cell phone and he didn’t even blink an eye at the chickens.

Things I don’t understand!

You know there are many things in the last two months that I have come to grips with। I have come to understand that, that there are many things in this culture that I will never understand. One of which is the idea that it is acceptable for a man to have multiple wives. My host father has two.

This is something that at first, I was disgusted at and thought how can you degrade women in this way. But as I have lived with this and understood it, I have come to grips with the fact that it is something I will not ever do and something I don’t agree with, but is something that I will not be able to change। Nor should I be given that power or right to change. Who am I to come into a culture and say that you must do things this way, because this is the way that I think and this is what I believe. I have no right to do that, and in their minds, I am wrong. Who’s to say that they are wrong, for believing something?

This is one of those cases that I can learn to accept and live with. I think that if we can learn to accept people for their differences and learn to live with them and amongst them despite those differences, then we will be living in a much better world. And maybe, me not trying to change something, because I don’t believe in it, is what the peace corps is all about। Living with each other despite our cultural and religious differences, but learning to live, accept and treat each other with respect for our many similarities.

The other thing that I have come to grips with is the trash that clutters the streets। At first I couldn’t bring myself to throwing trash on the ground. Even though everyone does it, I was constantly looking for a trash can to dispose of my garbage. I still don’t like it, but I have learnt to be okay with the idea of burning my trash on the streets of Nammacha. Where else would it go, but on those cluttered filled side walks, where children play.

Again, I don’t know if I will ever like it, but it is something that I will learn to deal with। I was thinking how great it would be to organize a trash pick up day and teach them that it is bad to burn trash into the air. But there are only two ways to solve this problem. I could ask the community to not burn the trash, and then eventually we would all live in a landfill. Or, the community would invest in a recycling center and designate a spot for the landfill. In theory the the second idea would be the best. But think about it in the concept. The people here feed everyday on rice, which is very cheap. They don’t have extra money every month. So, who do you think would pay for this, the people of Nammacha. Many people can’t afford to give their kids three meals a day, like they are going to want to recycle and clean up the city.

So these are things that I will learn to live with! Thanks for reading and have a happy thanksgiving! Oh, and by थे way I found out that I will बे living इन Nammacha फॉर थे next two years David

Well things are good here in Mozambique. I am on a site visit her in Xai-Xai (Pronounced, Shy-Shy) It is right on the beautiful atlantic ocean, with an amazing view and amazing weather. We spent all of yesterday hanging out at the beach and relaxing with other Peace Corps volunteers. I will be here for a few more days and then back to Naamacha, for the rest of my training. The training is intense and at times frustrating, but I think in the long run it will be well worth it. The Portugese language is hard, and I am worried that when I get to site I will not need it as much as some of the other volunteers. I am a teacher trainer, which means I will be at a university type institution, where everyone speaks english and will expect me to speak english to them. Some of the other volunteers will actually be teaching students in Portugese, so there language will be much better. I will be teaching adults effective ways of teaching students english in the primary and secondary schools. So I guess that means that I have to be really proactive with my community to speak as much portugese to them as possible, so that I don´t loose what I have already learned. It has been fun to see an institution in which I might be teaching at and living at for the next few years. There are several that I could be at. I could be at one just about an hour outside Maputu, one in the Tete province, up north or Namacha. The family in Naamacha is great! Everyday, I go to school for most of the day and then come home and study portugese or play with the kids or sometimes help with the cooking or cleaning around the house. It´s a simple day, but it seams to be packed with lots of activities. Other than that, life is good!

वीक 5

Well, things are good here in Mozambique. I am continuing to learn lots of Portuguese. I am also learning lots of really good recipes. This would actually be a good place to live for vegetarians. Some of my favorite dishes are those without meat. Speaking of meat! There is this turkey that scares me every morning. I am afraid that one day it is just going to unleash and attack me. I told my family that I didn’t like it and it scared me, just joking of course. I asked them if I could cut the head off and we could eat it. I was just joking, but they thought it was a good idea. So literally three hours ago, I cut the head off, de-feathered and the Turkey is cooking right now for dinner. It will be a good dinner! The money! You know I have been paying a lot of attention lately to the way that people in this area live. The amount that it costs to live! The monthly income that most people make in a month or a year. I did the math, and most people will make from 250 to 300 dollars a year in Nammacha. That’s roughly the price that we spend on one Ipod, A new phone, or in my case the amount that I spent on coffee for one year. I am not trying to sagest that the physical items that we treasure are bad, or that I haven’t consumed my fare share of gadgets, that in retrospect I probably didn’t need. We all have! But I think that it’s important to know that when we go to Best Buy, we think about what we buy, do we really need it. There are people that I live with right now, that will work harder than I have ever worked in my life, and they will not make that much money in an entire year, and I can spend that much money in a few minutes. The computer that I write this on cost me $1500.00. It would take my host family 6 years of hard labor to have enough money to buy a computer like this and that’s only if they didn’t eat. You get the idea; they would never be able to afford it. And yet, they probably don’t need it. They have food on the table, a roof over their heads and water from the lake, that’s all they need. I’m not asking people to go sell their items, or never buy expensive things again. When I get back to the states, I will probably make a trip to best buy within the first couple of months, if nothing else, just to see what’s new. What I am asking everyone to do is thank god, that you have what you have. Anyone of us could have been born here, and then you would be living in poverty, with nothing but the ratty cloths on your back, and food on the table. Thank those that mean the most to you, without them, you would probably not be where you are today. And if you get a chance give some money to your favorite charity and try and spread the wealth around the world. The Chappa! So the Chappa is the main mode of transportation. It is a 14 passenger van, which travels about 70 miles an hour, in both lanes and if you get in the way of one, sucks to be you, because it isn’t stopping for you. When I went to Kenya, I rode them all the time, so it isn’t a new experience, but a fun experience every time. We took one to Maputu, which is the capital city of Mozambique. It was packed full of people, that had no room to breathe or move. We were stuck in this vehicle for close to an hour and half. One instance which I feared for my life was when the driver decided to pass someone going the same direction. The only problem was that there was another vehicle coming from the opposite direction. We played chicken for a while and right before we collided the driver swerved back into his lane. It looked like we were inches away from an accident. I was of course clinching my teeth and holding my chair as hard as I could. Every Mozambique around me was as calm as can be, like it was normal. Well that is all for now! Take care David

Week 1 My first night, I was able to communicate to my family in Africa, about my family in America. It actually went really well. Of course I think they think my brother and sister have four legs and arms, which means they think my mom is weird for giving birth to them. Sorry James and Shilah. The food is awesome here, although there are a few odd things here and there, which is to be expected. Let’s start with their mayonnaise issue. They absolutely love it and they put it on everything. I'm eating rice and I must put mayonnaise on it, or the cole slaw covered with mayonnaise, a little weird. Now lets talk about the soup, or as I call it the surprise soup. You know that scene in Indiana Jones and the temple of doom, when they are sitting at the table and Indy is served the soup and when he puts the spoon in the soup, out pops the eyes. Well, I am sitting at home about to eat the soup. I stick my spoon in the bowl and out pops the chicken leg. I actually ate the soup, minus the chicken leg, of course. Other than those two things, the food has been great. I had Mataba, which was amazing. Now let’s discuss the bathroom issues. So my bathroom is outside, which is customary in Africa. It is surrounded by a brick wall. I go in there expecting a hole in the ground, but instead there is an actual toilet, that does not flush. They have dug a hole for the piping and then you dump water down the toilet to manually flush it, pretty interesting, but it works. Well everything is fine here! I have to run and study Portuguese; it seems to be my life these days. Week 2 Well things are still going well. My Portuguese is seeing improvements every day. I am actually able to understand my family, most of the time. There are the occasional times when we have a hard time communicating. I am still unable to respond too many of the questions, or when I do respond it is very grammatically incorrect, but it is getting better. There have been a few eye openers this week. For starters, I cut the head off a chicken, It was actually my second de-heading, so this time I saw improvements in my techniques and swiftness. I guess that's not something to be bragging about, but it's not every day you get to de-head an animal. There have also been some nice cultural exchanges. For instance, we were making rice in our language group with our host moms. The rice was almost done, and they put a wet plastic bag over the rice, which is still on the open flames. Our mouths drop, because the bag would have to melt in that kind of heat. If a burnt plastic bag is that bad for the environment, can you imagine what it would do to us. We explained in our broken Portuguese how unhealthy it was, and we were able to convince them to take the bag off the rice. I have also been playing with kids a lot, You know it's amazing, that when you are that stressed over the language and adjusting to new culture, going and playing with kids, makes everything disappear and your stress level go down. Week 3 Hey everyone. Well things are going well here in Mozambique. I love my family and they are so patient with me, when I don't understand what they are saying. There is still the language gap, but my ability to communicate is getting better everyday and my ability to understand what they are saying is really improving. I had my first mock language interview. I have to be at a mid-intermediate level in Portuguese, in order to swear in at an official Peace Corps Volunteer. Right now, I am a trainee. My mock language proficiency interview went well. The lady told me that I speak good Portuguese. I just need to work on my verb conjugation and my vocabulary. That was a huge relief off my back, knowing that I am ahead of the game and shouldn't have anything to worry about. The food is amazing, although I am getting a little sick of all the rice. I have rice for lunch and for dinner, everyday. I did the math, that 14 meals a week, 60 meals a month and 138 meals with rice by the time I am done with my Training. I guess that is something that I should get used to, seeing as how it is such a staple food here in Mozambique and I probably won't be able to avoid it during the next few years. I think my favorite foods so far are Matapa and covey, (Not sure on the spelling of covey). They are both a great coconut sauce. Speaking of coconut, my ma taught me how to cut a coconut. She told me to hold the coconut with one hand, so I did so. Then she handed me a huge machete, and told me to hit the coconut as hard as I could in a certain spot. Mind you, she didn't have me put the coconut down. So I held the coconut with one hand and swung the machete with the other hand and cut the coconut in two. And guess what, I still have both hands. I live right next door to two other volunteers and every night we have 30-40 kids hanging around, so we mostly play with them and study Portuguese as well as help our families cook. I have used a pillar to smash garlic and Matapa leaves. I have cut the head off two chickens, skinned them and cooked them. In fact I even ate the intestines of one of the chicken and actually liked it. We cook everyday over a charcoal stove that is in the kitchen which is separate from the house. So this funny, kind of disgusting thing happened the other day. My language group and I were sitting around, cooking with all our moms. We were, of course, were having rice. The rice was almost done, it was fluffy and just about ready to serve. The rice was still on the open flames and one of the moms grabbed a plastic bag, wet it down with water and placed the bag over the rice and left it over the fire. Not one was the bag dirty, but if burning a plastic bag is that bad for the environment, think about what it will be like to eat burn plastic. We politely explained to them the dangers of that and they took the bag off. They said it was to keep the rice moist. We told some peace corp staff, and there response was, 'wow, I never knew that was that bad for you, I'll have to stop doing that.' I guess that everyone in Mozambique does it. I thought my rice tasted a little funny, I now know why. Well I have to go eat dinner. Tonight I am having, fish, which is awesome, fruit and of course, RICE! UGGGGG.