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.