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!
