Here comes the sun …

A few of us have talked about going to the “Tres Fronteras” (Three Boarders) for the sunrise for a few weeks now.  And we finally got a group of people to wake up super early and hike in the dark (sorry Mom, it turned out fine so you don’t have to worry… even though I know you will, that’s why I’m telling you after the fact) this last Sunday.  So we ended up having a group of about 12 going waking up and meeting at 3:30 am to head out.  We ended up hustling because the sun was supposed to rise at about 4:45 and we didn’t want to miss it.  So here is a group of about 12 malungos (white people) running down the road with backpacks at 3:30 am to get to the trail as fast as we can to start the hike, it's about 2.5 miles to the trail from where we met.!  Then we walk the long and difficult hike part way in the dark and by the time we were half way up we could turn off our flashlights and see just fine.  We hike and some of the group made it all the way to the top in time for the sunrise, but a few of us stopped about 5 minutes down to see the sunrise.  It was absolutely beautiful and amazing to see and well worth getting up so early and hiking in the dark.  We brought along a bunch of pão (bread), Black Cat (the peanut butter here), M&M’s, a French press and some coffee, and a bottle of wine and had a little feast to the sun rise and some music.  And then continued to hang out on top of the mountain for about 5 hours.  So instead of writing more, I think I will just post some pictures because they will do it much more justice then if I tried to describe it!  This is probably my favorite memory from PST…. At least so far!

Here comes the sun

Justin making some coffee for us

Always interesting things found at the top of the mountain... this time some wishes...

The wishes

Every child's nightmare!

(Written 15/11/2013)

 Ok so many of you know if you have read my blog before… my latrine and I have had some adventures.  There are always cockroaches crawling around, lizards making clicking noises and creeping around, A RAT/MOUSE THING, the “wonderful” smell, my daily butt and thigh workout while I squat to use the actual bathroom, and all the frogs that end up in their today.   Well today I had another scare… in reality it wasn’t as bad as the rat/mouse thing but it sure freaked me out at first. 

So here I am, enjoying my morning bucket bath, when I look down and (between my feet is a small hole that drains the water) usually when I glance down I see the white pipe that lets the water run into the pit latrine…. Well this morning what do I see… black… it looks like the plastic bags that the markets give out but the longer I look at it I realize it is a dark head with two black glossy eyes looking up at me.  Well I freak out jump out of the little shower area, but I am dripping wet and naked so I can’t just leave, plus I’m not completely done with my shower, so what’s a girl to do. Well I rinse off the little soap that remains and brush my teeth, then get dressed all while keeping a very close eye on that creature.  Of course in my head I’m thinking worst case and it’s a snake… more specifically a black momba (eeek).  So I'm probably going to be bitten and die in my latrine, not the most ideal location to die.  and my family is going to realized that I haven't come back from tomaring o banho and come looking for me and find me dead, naked, and being consumed by a black mamba.  (In my defense we recently had a session on dangerous snakes in Mozambique, ,so of course that's all I'm thinking about now)  Once I’m dressed and have everything in my hand, I dump all the remaining water onto the hole, hoping to at least wash the monster down while I have time to run out…. but no this guy is tough.  The said creature begins to move and squirm his way out.  Turns out it was just a big old toad but still brought back terrifying memories of being a child in the bathtub convinced that something was going to crawl up the drain.  I can’t tell you how excited I am not to have a pit latrine once I get to site.  Oh the adventures of a latrine...

The Next 2 years.... Site Placements!

 Ok, so today was a big day full of nerves, excitement, anxiety and of course… it wouldn’t be peace corp without this… a lot of waiting!  Today was an IFP day (the one day a week all the PCTs are together at the IFP in Namaacha and we have what they call Core).  We got information on Model School next week, had a wonderful session on STDs (saw several wonderful pictures) and presentations by several groups about different STDs.  I have to say I think my group was the best… we up a song about Gonarreah (still not sure how to spell it haha) to the tune of Mama Mia (imagine… “Gonarreah, Here we go again Mae Mae How Can I protect myself”).  Then we had lunch, had an info session with the CD (country Director), Carl, then a session on transportation safety and then finally around 15:30 we found out our placements.  Throughout most of the sessions we all tried to listen because it was important information but let’s be honest… we were all pretty anxious, imagining what our placements were going to be. 

So we went outside where the staff had drawn a giant chalk outline of Mozambique (the size of a basketball court), had us all stand in a line, passed out envelopes that we were instructed to read the letter on the outside but not open them yet (because more waiting is needed) and then finally after they thought everyone was done they counted to three and we were able to read where we were going and went to that place on the map. This was followed by Chocolate cake, soda, and some other good food and lots of chatter about everyone’s sites. So now that I’ve made you wait a proper amount of time as well J here it is…  I will be heading north to Cuamba in Niassa providence to be a teacher trainer at the IFP in that city.  This is in the northern region and I am super excited about this.  It will give me a chance to see and live in a completely different area of the country plus I am close to the border of Malawi and just north of the Niassa is Tanzania.  So I will have the potential to do a lot of traveling.

The Heart is my new site Cuamba and the little pink star down by Maputo is where I've been living in Namaacha

It was very interesting and a little surreal to see everyone spread out on the map.  I have grown very close to a lot of people over the past few weeks and it will be very different not being in the same town as them all.  I have some great people around me and will be roommates with Sam a girl from my group.  We have actually been in the same language group since week 2 or so.  We are very excited to get to site and set up our house and get to know our site and the north.  According to Sam Niassa is where all the endangered animals are and there are some reserves and I’ve heard there are some elephants up there so I’m very excited about that!  Cuamba is also surrounded by mountains, so I can hike a lot, and my info and the APCD of the north said that the best way to get around the area is to get a bike!  I’m very excited about this… it will give me a legitimate reason to stay in shape. 

            I am also by a train that can take me to Nampula, (a large city in Nampula province) and along the way, apparently there is a lot of produce sold… although it sounds like Cuamba itself is pretty big.  From what I can tell, I will have a pretty good selection of food!  According to my sheet it is the economical capital of Niassa providence (but the actual capital of the providence is Lichanga).

 I will be living a pretty chique life.  I will have both running water and electricity (for most of the time), will have a pretty good selection of foods, I am close to some of my other good friends, and will be meeting a whole lot of new PCVs because Sam and I are the only two going to Niassa from our group!  I am very excited about the future and actually to actually know where I’m going to be!

Also I'll have a new address at the Northern Moz PC Office.  So here it is:
Caitlin Josten, PCV
Corpo da Paz/US Peace Corps
Rua Dar-Es-Salaam, Nr 14
Bairro Central, Caixa Postal 526
Nampula, Mozambique

Site Visits

Last Sunday we left Namaacha to go out and see Mozambique and visit different volunteers at their sites.  It was a chance to see what different sites were like and to have a break from Namaacha and training.  I went to Homoine in Inhambane province with 3 other PCTs. 

            So Sunday we met left bright and early (well I guess it was still dark out so ignore the bright part) at 4:30 am to drive to Maputo where we got on a chapa.  My group and another group were headed a little further to Tofo in Inhambane, there we were headed to the BEACH for a night!  So we found a chapa to Tofo (with help from some of the language professors.) ok I’ll be honest they basically did everything for us… in training they really baby us and make sure we get to where we need to be (at least in the beginning on the trip).  So we got on the chapa at about 7am and got to Tofo around 2 I think.  Now this wasn’t your typical Mozambican chapa, it was basically a malongo bus (malongo is the local language word for white person).  There were the 7 of us PCTs, a Moz 11er, a South African guy, an English woman, 2 women from Holland, and about 4 other malongos and probably only 7 Mozambicans.  But then again we were going to Tofo a very touristy beach.  When we finally got to the beach we checked into the hostel, changed, and headed to the beach (which was right outside), and then walked along the beach to a restaurant.  I had a salad and a sandwich, both with cheese.  Then we just hung out on the beach and at the restaurant and talked with the volunteers we were visiting. 

            Monday I woke up early walked along the beach, had breakfast on the beach and had some good coffee!  Then I got to cross another ocean off the list because I swam in the Indian Ocean all morning!  It was amazing.  The water was the perfect temperature and the beach was great.  We hung out there until about 11 then headed out.  We got 30 minute or so chapa to Inhambane city, then a boat chapa across the bay to (probably another 30 minutes) Maxixe (pronounced Ma-shi-sh).  This is where 3 of the PCTs were going to visit a volunteer so we ate lunch here met up with the Volunteer and then my group got some groceries and headed out to get one last (45 minute) chapa to Homoine. We were staying at the IFP (the teacher training school) which is about a 30 minute walk outside of the village. 

            While we were in Homoine, we got to sit in on one of the volunteers classes, help the other volunteer teach an English class to her colleagues, talk with the director of the school, I played volleyball with some of the students and professors, tour the hospital in town, see the library one of the volunteers opened, walk around town, eat lots of great food (including Mac & Cheese, and Calzones… YUM!), play lots of cards (I’ve now learned how to play rummy), and explore Homoine.  Then on Thursday morning at 430am our chapa picked us up outside of the IFP and we headed back to Maputo and then back to Namaacha.  This time we were on our own and I think it was the PC’s way of testing us to see if we had learned anything and could get ourselves back by ourselves haha.  We did… after about 12 hours of travel, one frango and arroz meal, several people trying to ripe us off in Maputo, some very helpful and kind Mozambicans showing us where the chapas were and helping us get the people who were trying to ripe us off away (yes people we know it shouldn't cost us 100 mets a person to get downtown Maputo, when it only costs 70 to get to Namaacha… back off! Especially when we just get off an 8 hr chapa ride without eating a lot on it.  Let’s just say when I got back home I tomar’d banho (took a bath), then took a long nap (which was interrupted for dinner and a brief chat with the family about my trip) and then back to bed.  Travel is exhausting but it was great to see some more of this beautiful country!