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