You flush your toilet... I have water for a day.

I realized after talking to some family and friends, that the last update I gave was about not having water or power.   Well in early October, we got electricity back the IFP and our home.  No more late night trips to the guard house to fight for an outlet to charge things, no more cooking on carvão (charcoal), no more silent days without music because all of my electronics are dead and I have nowhere to charge them until night.  We still don’t have running water in our house so that has been an (quick) adjustment.  We are very lucky that the IFP has a large water pump right on the campus and it is very easy to get too.  We are also lucky that many times when we ourselves go to fill up our buckets of water (often we have our empregado do it) our students will be around and will always offer to help.  Occasionally in the past, I would refuse but let’s be real… I really don’t like carrying water, so if I don’t have to, that’s great.  Plus it’s how they show us respect, by offering their help… it’s what students here do for their teachers, so who am I to say noJ.

                I was talking to my dad the other day and he asked how much water I used per day, and while it varies each day depending on how many dishes we have, if Sam or I do laundry, if our empregado comes, if I bathe and if I wash my hair that day, and any number of other things.  When I told him what I thought, his response was, “that’s what we use to flush the toilet here.”  This got me thinking and I started measuring on average what all of my activities use for water.  So here we go… here is what I use for water daily.

Drinking: I try to drink at the very least 3L of water a day because it is very hot here and I sweat a lot and walk a lot as well.  Some days I drink more, some days less but this is my goal each day.

Shower:  If I don’t wash my hair, I probably use about 1.5L of water or so, if I wash my hair maybe 2.5L at most.  I’ve gotten very good at using very little water.  We also collect the dirty water from our bucket baths and laundry to flush our toilet with… that’s right our toilet is a dump flush now.

Washing hands/brushing teeth/ things like this:  I probably only use about 3 Cups of water a day for this all. 

Laundry:  This is where we use a lot of water.  We try to use as little as possible and if I’m being completely honest, I don’t do laundry nearly as much as I should considering how dusty and sweaty I get walking into town.   To do laundry I probably use about 20-30L or so.  And again we save this water to flush the toilet. 

Flushing the Toilet:  As I said, we use the water from our showers and laundry that is already dirty.  We never use clean new water for this. 

Washing Dishes: Depending on what we cook we probably use about 2L on average to wash our dishes.

Cleaning: Once a week our empregado washes the floor and he probably uses about 9L of water for this.  And we probably use about a Liter the rest of the week for cleaning

Cooking: again depends on what we cook but probably only a few liters for this at most during the day.

As these are mostly estimates, I decided to measure in one average day what I used.  So I filled up this bucket to the 25L mark

25L to start

The bucket full of water at the beginning of the day

and we only used water from this bucket for the entire day.  This day included both Sam and I taking bucket baths (and both of us washed our hair), as well as cooking, doing dishes and boiling water for our filter.  So the result; we used about 12L of water in one day, for those of you who don’t want to do the conversion, that’s about 3 gallons of water. 

Update: Ironically yesterday, I was sitting in our main room when I heard a unfamiliar rumbling and clang-ing from our pipes... the water is back.

End of the day about 13L left.

Here is a chart that I found at http://www.wsscwater.com/home/jsp/content/water-usagechart.faces with some average household items and the average water use of them, so you can get an idea of the difference in my life now.  

Indoor Water Consumption

Activity	Gallons Used (Conventional)	Gallons Used (Water Saving*)
Toilet Flushing	5 - 7 gallons per flush	1½ - 3½ gallons per flush
Shower (water running)	7 - 10 gallons per minute	2 - 4 gallons per minute
Bath (full tub)	36 - 50 gallons (conventional)	30 - 40 gallons (conventional) 40 - 80 gallons (whirlpool)
Laundry Machine (full load)	60 gallons top loader	42 gallons top loader
Dishwasher	15 gallons normal load	7½ - 10 gallons normal load
Dish Washing by hand	30 gallons tap running	10 - 20 gallons tap running
Shaving	20 gallons tap running	2 - 5 gallons tap running
Brushing Teeth	10 gallons tap running	2 - 3 gallons tap running
Washing Hands	2 gallons tap running	1 - 2 gallons tap running
Bath Shower	30-50 gallons 7-10 minutes	Average shower = 12 -15 minutes A 15 minute shower = 150 gallons Many people shower more than 15 minutes During hot weather, we tend to shower more often

Posh Corps is no more.

I know, I know everyone… it’s been a while.   At least for the last 2 weeks, I have a good excuse.  So as most of you know, if you have been following my blog or talked to me, I have lived a pretty chique life for the last few months, it’s what we in the Peace Corps like to call the Posh Corps.  I have had running water, a shower that works (although it is cold), energy and I live on an IFP where we have a guard so things are fairly safe here.   However, I am here to tell you, that my Posh Corps life is over for now.  

               About two weeks ago, Sam and I were sitting at the table doing work and eating lunch, when we heard a loud BOOOOM!  I’ve never heard an actual bomb but I kind of imagine that’s what they sound like in the distance.  In tandem with the sound, the power went out and shortly after the running water stopped.  We weren’t quite sure what had happened but we’d become semi-used to the power outages once in a while so we just hoped it’d be fixed in the next day.  Unfortunately, it was not. 

                We went about 5 days, then they fixed it for about 12 hours, and then it went out again.  Upon further investigation, turns out, we need a new transformer, and to get that first we need the money and permission from some higher ups.  Also, it sounds like the IFP has to order this part from another country, so we are looking at no water or energy for a while here.

                Granted many of the other PCVs here in Mozambique live this way every day, so some of them are probably rolling their eyes and saying, "Catia, welcome to my world. However, in my defense, they have had the opportunity to set up systems for this and are prepared to have to cart water and store water and cook without energy, we were not.  We did have a small backup storage of water that lasted a while and we have carvão (charcoal) and a charcoal stove now, but it took us about a week to accept that this problem was going to be long term and so we put off buying carvão.  Before we gave in and bought more carvão we suffering a lot and had about 6 veggie sandwiches a day.  For those of you who know me well, you know tomatoes have never been a favorite of mine, I’ll eat them cooked with things and sometimes on sandwiches, but last week my daily consumption of food included, a sandwich with butter, tomatoes, sometimes onion, parmesan cheese, and a variety of spices.  I got to the point where I would also just eat slices of tomato plain.  Strange I know!  I find myself now craving those sandwiches and wanting to just eat tomatoes.  Peace corps changes you man!

         Just wanted to give you an update on my silence lately on all forms of internet communication.  I'm going to be living the Matu life for a while... wish me luck!

You just (pick 1) got married, had a baby, got a new job, bought a house, ate a pizza. And I'm .... being called Akunha 24/7.

So recently I've been reflecting a lot on my time here and some of the not so good parts of it.  In this post I am going to talk about something that I don't always talk about especially when people in the US ask how things are going.  Usually I respond that things are good and tell them about whatever I can that has been good in my life at that time.  For me this has been the hardest part of my experience here in Mozambique, it is homesickness.  Two of my closest friends since preschool/kindergarten went through some pretty big life changes recently, which I had to miss, one got married and one had her first child, and many others in my life have had some major life events. 

I knew signing up for the Peace Corps that I would end up missing many important things in the lives of people back home.  I knew I’d miss big life events such as, new jobs, new boyfriends/girlfriends, engagements, marriages, babies, etc.  I knew this going into it and some of these things, I knew specifically were going to happen and I’d be missing them while I was in Mozambique.  I thought long and hard about what I’d missing before I accepted this volunteer position.  It wasn’t easy, but I decided I needed to try this experience otherwise I would regret it, and wonder what life would have been like if I had taken this chance.  There was never going to be a perfect time to do this, a time where no one back home was going to be moving on with his or her lives, where there would be nothing important happening in my friends and family’s lives.  However, this was the time when I needed to do this, because otherwise, I would get a job and it would be harder for me to leave, and maybe I’d meet someone that would make it harder to leave. 

Making that decision and accepting what I would be missing was probably the hardest part of this process for me, but I accepted it, and knew that this experience was what I wanted from my life.  Just like all my friends who were getting married or having babies, that is what they wanted from life and that is what makes them happy.  What I didn’t realize was how hard it would to be to actually miss these events.  I knew my oldest friend would be getting married, and I love a good wedding and wedding reception with my friends and that was very hard for me to miss.  Luckily I was helping with a conference and we had  a lot of problems and things to deal with, so I had a lot on my mind trying to fix those and didn’t really have much of a chance to think about it. 

I’m not the type of person that likes to admit when I cry or let people see me cry, but this is where I’m about to get real.  When I found out my friend was pregnant a while ago, I shed a few tears and then again when she had the baby.  I don’t know if I was just having a tough day when I found that out or was particularly homesick that day, but here I am… telling you that I cried a little when my friends back in the states had some pretty exciting happy news.  I would not change this experience for anything.  I love my life here.  I love the people I have met, my students, my work (most of the time), Mozambique (most of the time), but I didn’t realize how much I would miss people from home.  I knew I’d miss them, but I’d never experienced homesickness, and I definitely have now. 

Technology now, is both a blessing and a curse.  It allows me to talk with friends and family (although not as often as I’m sure some of them would like *cough, cough* Mom and dad … sorry).  It will allow me to meet my friend’s new baby and see him grow, even before I get to meet him in person.  It allows me to keep you updated on life here and share parts of this wonderful country with the world.  But it also is a constant reminder of things I am not a part of.  I see all my friends and everyday things that they are doing together, that I might have been part of if I was still in the United States.   I hear about the holidays spent with family, which I usually am part of.  I see the great things that my friends and family are continuing to do, while some days I feel like I’m just sitting in Africa.

This is part of the Peace Corps experience that not everyone talks about, but if you’ve done this, you probably know what I’m talking about.  This is the part that you may have been told about before going to your country of service, or may have thought you were prepared, but when wedding days pass without you, you may not have been completely prepared.  This is part of the reason that us volunteers have such strong bonds with each other, we each have our own experiences, but we can understand the general feelings that we all go through.  We struggle to understand the new culture and languages that we are immersed in.  We struggle to not feel homesick, or to not feel like we are missing out.  But we get to speak English at a normal speed together (not the slowed down version we put on for most of our students and people who want to learn English from us).  We get to meet new people, we may have never had the chance to know otherwise.  We get to make friends from all over the world.  We get to have amazing, scary, wonderful, and new experiences all the time.  So although I miss everyone from the states, and I have missed a lot of my closest friends major life events, and some days I wonder what I am doing with my life, I wouldn’t trade this in for anything.   

Stories by My Students: A Little Bit About My Life...

INTRODUCTION ABOUT MYSELF

My name is Osvaldo Ângelo, I am 19. I started studying in 2001 when I was 6, and I finished grade 12 in 2012 when I was 17. I come from Mecanhelas district, at Nicaca area.

     I like talking with people from outside like; Malawi, Britain, America and Tanzania, to exchange ideas.

     I like playing with children and eating rice mixed with chicken.

     One day when I was 4, I almost died because I went in the well to take water by myself. I fell into the well and I did not know how to swim. Luckily, my mother was coming at the same time and she threw a rope to me and pulled me out.

   When I was 6, on February 14^th , 2001 my mother and father were removing the kernels from maize. I was playing with them. One piece of maize got in my nose and it was difficult to breathe. My father transported me to the hospital and the doctor helped me. First, he tried to pull the kernel out with a tool, but it did not work. Next, he held the top of my nose and he told me to blow air out of my nose, and it worked. Blood came out too, so the doctor put something in my nose to help heal the wound. Then we went home and after a week, I recovered. I didn’t play with the maize ever again.

  One day when I was 8, I was walking in the mountains and I was looking for sticks. I needed sticks for the roof of the house I was building. I stepped on a big snake, called a python. I was afraid but the python didn’t do anything to me. I was still afraid so I ran home to tell my parents.

Dance Competitions and Reproductive Health

     Tania made the trip back to Cuamba with us after our trip.  Just like after any trip, I was not ready to go back to work.  So I decided to take advantage of having Tania there and we would do some activities with her.  Another PCV was coming to Cuamba to give some classes on Sexual Reproductive Health as well but I was not sure if she would make it to my classes or not.  I figured if she made it in time, Ariel could give the reproductive health lessons, because that is very important for these students, otherwise Tania and I would do some activities with my 11th graders.

My students and Tania... they loved her

The next day came and Ariel had gotten to Cuamba late the night before, so she wasn’t going to make it for my first class.  So it was all Tania.  I decided we would let them ask her questions and just practice speaking English.  Right before we got to class we decided it would be fun to pretend that Tania does not speak any Portuguese, so they would have to work and only speak English.  This was fun.  We got there and they questions began.  Started with the standard, how old are you, are you married, where do you live, what do you do, what do you like to do in your free time, etc.  Then what kind of music do you like, her and I gave a little beat and did a little dance… my students got to see a new side of me.  I am usually pretty serious in my classes because one of my classes does not listen to me if I joke around; this first class is not the same.  I think I’ve gained a little more respect over the last few months with them.  Part way through the questions we decided we wanted them to “teach” Tania a little Portuguese.  So we started having them translate some of the things that they were asking and some of her answers.  This was great, until one point when I wasn’t listening and someone translated what she said wrong.  I didn’t hear it, but Tania handled it well… she was like, is that really what I said and looked at me.  I had them repeat it and I realized it was wrong.  She said her response again and this time someone got it right… I should really pay attention more haha.
Toward the end, after Tania and I talked about how much she liked to dance and how much she liked music, one of my students raised his hand and asked…. “Can we have a dance contest?”  Tania said she would, so I said it was fine.  We put on some Michael Jackson and had 5 of my students and Tania as contestants.  I knew, in general, Mozambicans are very good dancers… but these students were amazing.  They were pulling some serious Michael Jackson moves.  Luckily, I got a short video of some of them, you cannot see great because most of the students ended up standing up.  When Tania disappears, she is doing the worm.  At the end, we voted it was a close one, but Tania ended up winning.  I’m not sure if I agree, Tania was great but these kids have some skills.

The dance-off.. 

The dance contestants 

For the next class, Tania talked to them for about 15 minutes and then Ariel came.  She taught about the reproductive systems of both a male and a female, talked about pregnancy and answered several questions.  These kids did not know a whole lot.  I wish she would have had more time, but the next teacher was ready to teach his class.  The next day she did the same thing for my other class.  Again, they had so many questions for her that she only got through a fraction of her material.  That was ok, because it is important to answer their questions and address the wrong information that they have been given, but they need more classes like this.    I hope that she will be able to come back sometime, maybe for a week and give lessons for the entire week.  We talked with the director and she was able to give these classes to some 9th and 10th grade classes in the afternoon for teachers who were either sick or who did not show up.  Each time, she said she got through only a fraction of her material, due to students questions.  All of my students said that they wanted her to return some day and teach them more.

Everything the light touches is our kingdom.

Disclaimer... this post was written at the end of April... and for some reason I never posted it.  so when it starts last saturday that doesn't actually mean yesterday or last week.  It means about 2 months ago... anyway here it is)

Last Saturday, Rich (our site mate/neighbor), Sam and I finally went for a hike up what we call Church Mountain.  I guess it is mountainish, but I’d say it’s a very big hill.  At the top, you guessed it, is an old small church built a while ago.  It was absolutely beautiful up there and we were able to see so much of our beautiful site. 

We left the IFP around 7:30am and started the trek to the base of the mountain.  It isn’t too far from the IFP and probably only took about 15-20ish minutes to get to the trail.  Finding the actual trail was difficult, it was very grown over and neither Sam nor I knew where we were going, but don’t worry Rich found it and we started the hike.  It was a fairly easy hike to the top, minus one part that had all the tall grass and other plants flattened and was very steep.  It didn’t help that it was still early and the grass was wet, so that part was a little slippery and we had to be careful not to slip and slide all the way back down.  No worries though everyone (ie Mom) we made it safely up and were a little concerned about the way back, until we realized there was a much easier path that we had missed on the way up.  I don’t want to think about how the people who built the church were able to get all the materials to the top, I’m just glad it wasn’t my job.  It was so pretty at the top, there is something about old buildings that I just love, they are just beautiful.  Instead of trying to describe everything I’ll just post some pictures.

See that white grouping of buildings... that's the IFP

Gosh this place is BEAUTIFUL!

The Church at the top of the mountain

The church at the top of the mountian... not sure how they got the materials to build it all the way up there... 

Inside

Take a look out that window...

The other side

On the side of the church... 

 Look, Simba. Everything the light touches is our kingdom. (a Lion King reference felt appropriate while we were sitting up there on the ledge) 

An ants view...

To view my children, that'll be, 1 metical, a papaya, and some flour please

We slept surprisingly well (but not that great) considering there were 3 of us on a twin bed, until about 5:30am when we got up to try to find a ride to Chiponde.  We got in an open back chapa, aka a pick-up truck, fairly quickly and it filled with about 30 other people, their luggage and we ended up basically hugging boxes of fish and bags of onions for the next few hours.  On our trip, I got to see several monkeys along the road and when we finally got to Chiponde we got through customs and then made our way to the Mozambican side. 

Most comfortable way to travel...

Here the same man that was there the time before, remembered us and we told him, “See we told you we would be back.”  We joked with them for a little bit, then I was asked for a half American half Mozambican baby by one of the younger men working there and then we were on our way.  Right outside of the office, as we were walking by, one of the big trucks transporting goods from Malawi to other places asked us if we were going to Cuamba and when we said yes, they told us to climb in.  We got in the back on top of sacks of cabbage and potatoes.  

My new Mae, the one furthest from the camera

Several other people were picked up and we made a lot of friends and had a lot of stares on the trip home.  I made friends with this old woman who ended up saying she was our Mae and when ever we would stop and several children would just stare at us and we would be joking around with them, she would say in the local language, “These are my children, you need to give me flour to look at them.”  It became a very big joke and at one point we stopped and there were a lot of teenage boys and men standing there staring at us.  We were talking to them and she arranged a lobolo (dowry) of 1 metical and 1 papaya for Tania and I to marry these two guys.   I guess that’s all we were worth to her.  She received the metical but is still waiting for the papaya… so I think only I am officially (by lobolo rules) promised as of now. 

one of the smallest crowds of kids we attracted along the way

We finally arrived in Cuamba after probably the most comfortable ride I have ever had in Mozambique that wasn’t in a private car.  I could move around as I pleased and the sacks of cabbage/potatoes provided a nice bed to lay on and rest if you found just the right spot.  I have to say although one of the reasons I went to Malawi was to go on a safari and see some animals, even though we didn’t get to do that, I would not change our trip for anything and I still can’t believe what became of our trip.  There is always next time…

Are they leaving for good, good? (Day 5 of our Malawian Adventure)

One of our Chechewa teachers...

 The next day we woke up, had another delicious breakfast and chatted with Grandfather a little more.  As he sat there eating gummy worms, he asked his grandson, “Are they leaving for good good?”  Its official, we are always welcome at that house and I hope we can make it back to visit sometime.  Then it was time for us to head to Blantyre.

 Up until this point, most of the trip I had spent sitting in the front of the trip, but for the ride back I decided to sit in the bed of the truck, so I would have an even better view of Malawi’s scenery.  Two of Roy’s workers were coming along to help Roy with some work in Blantyre so they were sitting in the back with us. Tania and I continued our Chechewa lessons with them.  That day they were extremely chatty and full of helpful phrases for us to learn in Chechewa.

 Roy took us to get us a chapa back to the border town Chiponde, not before meeting his stepfather to complete the family meetings.  We agreed on 3000 kwacha from Blantyre to Chiponde and got in for the trip. 

Our lodging for the evening... and yes it says free bleakfast...

                When we reached the cross-roads town, Mangochi, the driver said he wasn’t going any further and dropped us off at pick-up truck he said would take us to Chiponde.  By this point it was dark out and we weren’t sure if we really wanted to continue or not, we knew we would either end up staying in Mangochi or in Chiponde and leaving tomorrow morning for Cuamba either way, we just weren’t sure where we would end up staying.  The driver then demanded that we pay the 3000 Kw.  We said we had agreed on that price all the way to Chiponde.  He said we didn’t agree on it with him and it is 3000 to Mangochi.  We got in another argument and ended up talking with the police again.  This time, they sided with the driver.  We finally agreed to pay 3000 if the driver would take us to somewhere safe to stay.  The police said he knew this guy and he would drive us to a several different places, until we found one that had space, one that we liked and that was a decent price.  We said ok, and crossed the bridge back into Mangochi, went to the first place, which was full and then to the second place which had rooms ranging from 1500-3000 kwacha.  We said that would work and paid the driver went in to the hostel to decide which room we wanted. 

Enjoying our dinner in our luxury room

         We ended up staying in the cheapest one for 1500, (or 500 kwacha each).   If you do the math for each of us that is about 41 metical, or approximately $1.39.  For this price we got a room with a twin bed, a mosquito net, a flushing toilet, a bucket of water, a broken fan, and energy.  This is a lot for all that and more than I’ve ever seen for so cheap in Mozambique.  By this point, we may have been a little delirious, but we found the fact that we were paying less than $1.50 for this room hilarious. 

We had our dinner of bread and peanut butter on the bed while recounting all the stories from our trip and once again asking the question of our travels, “What is happening on this trip and where are we?”. 

Green everywhere! (Day 4 of our adventure in Malawi)

 The next day we woke up and met Grandfather.  He is this cute, old, half Indian half Malawian man who welcomed us into his family and home.  He kept saying to each of us, “Most welcome, Madam, your most welcome”.  We chatted with him, took some bucket baths, they insisted that we give our dirty clothes to their workers to wash while we were on our next adventure of the day, so we complied and finally had some delicious breakfast.   Roy came in and started the day with his usual sentence, “Today we are going to… o so what do you want to do today?”  By this point we had surrendered all control of the trip to him and returned the same questions, “so, what are we going to do?”  He informed us that we were going to go up the other side of the mountain to where there were tea fields and a beautiful dam that the tea plantations use for hydroelectricity. 

We set out on the drive, and this might be one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever taken. 

Tea fields and Mountains

The road we were driving on.... best views ever

More tea

Best color of green... am I right

Tea everywhere we looked

The Three of us at the dam

We were surrounded by tea fields on every side, and for those of you, who have never seen tea fields, they are the most beautiful color of green ever and to top it off, it was surrounded by mountains, too.  Then we started to drive up the mountains and the view continued to be of more mountains, tea, and beautiful trees.  We arrived at the part where we could no longer drive and then continued on a 45-minute hike up to the dam.  We sat at the dam for a while and then walked a little further up to another little pond.  Again I think I could have sat there for days.

By the dam

The Hike up

                We finally got back to Grandfather’s house and he scolded us because it was around 3pm and it had been 6 hours since we had last eaten.  We did not go hungry by any means at any point of this trip.  When we returned the cook had prepared us a traditional Malawian meal, which was very similar to Mozambican food.  Nsima (xima), Chinese cabbage (basically the same thing as couve), pumpkin leaves, and chicken for us.  Once again, it was delicious.  We sat around talking and it was prayer time for the grandfather, the family is Muslim.  I am not a religious person but I love learning about religions and watching religious traditions so this was very interestings for me.  We got to watch him as he did the ceremonious ritual of washing before he went to the other room to do his prayers (he washed his hands, feet, and head a special way).  We could also hear him doing his prayers and even though I could not understand him at all, it was a very beautiful sound to hear the kind of song like prayers he we doing. 

At that point, Roy suggested we go walk around to see more of Malonje but the three of us were exhausted so he told us to take a nap and he was going to go to his plot of land to do a little work.  So we laid down on the couches and took a nap until we were woken up by some of his family members who lived there (there were probably about eight or so people living there) and we played some cards with the little kids until he returned.  We then left to go get a small dinner and some drinks, had some debates and then decided we were all still exhausted and returned home to get a good night’s sleep.