December 9, 2010
So yesterday I arrived at my site. I can't believe I'm finally here.
Soon we're going to be leaving to go meet the director of our school
and some of the teachers, but before we leave I have so much to say
about the past week and a half.
First, we went to Maputo for the swear-in ceremony. We all had
capulana dresses, skirts, or shirts made, and they all turned out
pretty well. I liked mine a lot. Capulanas are pieces of fabric with
different patterns or designs that they use here for everything. A lot
of women just tie them around their waist and wear them that way, but
you can also take them to a tailor and get clothes hand-made to fit
you. Which is awesome for someone like me who always has trouble finding
pre-made clothes that fit well. I have a feeling I'm going to have a
lot of capulana clothes made while I'm here, especially because Angoche
apparently has some really good tailors. Awesome.
So once we were in Maputo we checked into our 5-star hotel (the Hotel
Cardoso if you want to look it up) and quickly got ready for the
ceremony. We then headed over to the Ambassador's House for the
swearing-in ceremony. We heard speeches from a few different important
officers of state, the ambassador herself, and our Peace Corps Country
Director, Reuben. Then we took the oath that every public servant takes,
even up to the President. It was really amazing. Then we were
officially volunteers! After the oath, a bunch of us performed a song
that one of the trainees had written, and then a few of us did a
traditional Mozambican dance. It was quite the celebration. Then there
were snacks and drinks and time to mingle with the other volunteers as
well as the ambassador, her husband (who served in PC in the Pacific
Islands many years ago) and our country director, etc.
After the celebration we went back to the hotel for the night and we
drank and ate and just spent one last great night together. We played
cards, sang, played guitars (a few people bought them to take to their
sites) and generally had a great night. I slept for about an hour
before I had to get ready for my flight. My education group heading
to the Northern provinces left the hotel at 5 a.m. with some people from the
Central region. Our flights left at about 7 a.m. Because the roads here
are so bad, anyone going to the Central or Northern regions of
Mozambique traveled by plane.
Upon arriving in Nampula city (the capitol of Nampula Province) we
checked into yet another hotel and spent the next few days trying to
buy things for our houses, as well as meeting our supervisors from our
schools. Audie and I met Julio, the pedagogical director at our
school, or one of them anyway. There are three. We left for Angoche on
Wednesday morning, right before lunchtime. It's only about 150 km or
90 miles from Nampula city to Angoche, but it took a full three hours
to get here, and that was as fast as the car we were in could possibly
go on the roads. The roads were almost all dirt, maybe ¼ of the
distance was paved, and it was pretty random as to when it was paved
and when it wasn't.
However, despite the rocky travel, arriving in Angoche made up for all
the travel woes. I can't believe I actually get to live somewhere like
this for the Peace Corps! It is gorgeous here. It is a city that is
almost fully surrounded by water. Nearly every room in our apartment
has a view of the water. We're on the second floor which makes it much
safer, as well as giving it a better view. We have an entryway, living
room, large kitchen, bathroom, three bedrooms, and two balconies. It's
absolutely amazing. When all the doors and windows are open, there is a
really nice breeze through the house keeping it a little more
manageable temperature-wise. During the day here it's usually pretty
hot, but today it rained most of the morning so it's a little cooler.
It's also very humid thanks to the rain, though. I am so happy to not
have a lot of hair in this weather. lol.
I'll try to take a bunch of pictures of everything here but I have a
strong feeling pictures won't do it justice. It's absolutely gorgeous.
There is a single internet hookup in the house and apparently it's
fast enough to do Skype! So we'll have to get that figured out and
then I can try to set up times to talk to some of you. If you want to
chat to me, please email me back your Skype s/n or something so we can
try to figure it out. I might also be able to call cell phones using
gmail but I'll have to see.
Being able to have a decent internet connection to me is worth the
kind of crazy expense that it will be, especially since my roommate
and I can split the price, and the health volunteer (who has been here
a year already) who lives a few blocks away might be willing to pay a
little each month too, so she can come over and use the internet
occasionally.
The apartment is definitely a little run down (the area reminds me a
little of the communist-influenced areas of Europe, lots of old
concrete buildings), but I think with a little spring cleaning and TLC,
it could be amazing. Once Erin leaves on Sunday (she's around for a
few days to show us around and introduce us to people, which is
great), I think Audie and I are going to do a bit of an overhaul of
the apartment to get it set up the way we want. I'm so excited! It's
just such an amazing place. I see so much potential here.
I have so much more to say, but we have to go see the school and
market, so I'll have to write more later. :-)
Also, attached are a few photos of the views from our balconies. I
can't upload too many photos because while we do have internet in our
apartment (for about $60 each month, which is definitely a dent in our
budget but one we think is worth it), it has a limit on the number of
MB we can use. Okay, I'm off. I'll send another email in a couple days
about our school, which will definitely be the hardest part of living
here in Angoche.
Miss you all!!
~Alissa
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