It seems ages since I first set foot in this big expanse of bush and mud we so lovingly call Africa... And yet it was a mere six months ago that I last saw your smiling faces... Less than six months by a week and a half, actually... In the span of a lifetime, that's peanuts! But to me it's been a long time, and I'm almost sort of disappointed by how excited I am to go home.
It's certainly been nothing I expected. By any account, in every aspect, it's been a basket full of surprises, with, unfortunately, more unpleasent ones than pleasent. Even about the unpleasentness I expected to find---
I just re-read the Poisonwood Bible, and boy let me tell you, does it ever make more sense now that I've been to Africa. One of my favorite lines goes something like (in explaining why she doesn't write home) she goes on and on about her day and says "before i've even gotten to breakfast I've already filled three sheets of paper and then you need words to explain the words and words to explain the explanation..."
It just is truly inexplicable. On every level. Something about this place brings you up short, smacks you hard and wakes you up, another slowly lulls you to sleep in the heat and the drowsy pace of things not happening. I have learned a thousand things I'd rather not know about the cruel reality of life here, and how impotent, hopeless and useless it is possible to feel in the face of such a life. I think I have also learned quite a bit about my own morality...And mortality.
If I take nothing else away it will be a profound, serious and deep appreciation for the things, people, and mostly, the love I have in my life. No, I'm not being silly and cheesey, it is just the most painful thing I have ever seen, in a country where no one has ANYthing, how they do not even show love to one another, and that is the one thing that doesn't cost. Or perhaps it costs more than everything else together, and it is just something else I cannot see. The longer I am here the more I realize I do not know.
I do know I will be happy to be home though.... Sort myself out, re-examine, re-plan, I still have no idea what i'll be doing in the future, I have many ideas but no idea of how to fit them together. Still. But I will be happy to return to a place where, at least, I will not have to see every day the evidence of our destructive worldly demise. Maybe that's cowardly of me, maybe if we all had to see it every day we would do something about it. But I think not. Those who live here seem to be the most uncaring about it. Maybe they just know something I don't.
ANYways, enough of the doom and gloom, I do have one (or two) dazzling adventures to look forward to. On the 19th of July I finally fly to Nampula (A city FAR to the north) to visit my friend David, a volunteer through a different organization there, and then spend a few days in and around the area. Then we'll bus all the way down, to Maragra and then to Johannesburg, three mortal days on the bus, AAARRRRGHHH!!! where we'll meet mom at the airport on the 28th. WOOT!!! We'll rent a car there and drive northeast into Swazi, where we'll spend some nights in a rock lodge (like natural stone not rock n roll :P) and also check out Bushfire, one of the coolest music fests in southern Africa, then drive north into Mozambique, check out Maputo, where I used to live and work, then Maragra where I live and work now, and then hit the beach!!! When we're done tanning we head back to s.a. for a Safari in Kruger Natl Park, then hop on a plane to Cape Town for a few days, then jet back to Joburg and HOME SWEET HOME!!!!
I miss you all like nobody's business.
love,
allie
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
A failure of internet...
This is my blog from friday, but it just wouldn't post, and doesn't it always go, it was time specific!!! Arrrrgghhh!!!! Anyways, here goes. ::sheepish smile::
Today is a very important day for me, because it is a very important day in the life of somebody I love. Today my best friend in the whole wide world is going to graduate from high school, and I’m not going to be there to see it. It will be the first major event in our lives for which we are not together.
As much as I am happy here, enjoying myself, having insane and amazing experiences, I miss home. I miss all of you, I miss Portland, I miss my security and I REALLY miss my anonymity. I am experiencing racism here, every day, and it is harder than you can even imagine. I cannot walk anywhere without people staring at me. I cannot do anything without people remarking on it. Everyone knows who I am, everyone talks about me, it’s bizarre, and I often feel as though I’m an animal in a zoo. I was very unhappy that I didn’t make more local friends, but it’s hard when they can’t connect with you at all. Like, I try to be as open and friendly as possible, but they just can’t get over the color of my skin. When I come home I am going to volunteer against racism. It makes you feel so low, so alone, so….debased. No one should ever have to suffer that. People are people, the more I travel the more I understand that. And speaking of traveling, I’ve decided to come home in the end of July, to come be in my beloved Portland, and just live and work and possibly take some college classes, but I’m really more interested in making some decent money to go to Cape Town with, so if anyone spots a job for me, let me know!!!
I am quite settled here now; my daily routine has fallen into a pattern, altered only by one thing. When I fell off that horse in Tofo, it turns out that I fractured one of my vertebrae, the fourth from the bottom… This is pretty serious, and while fortunately it doesn’t pose any immediate problems, chances are that it will in the future. So I’m taking it easy, dieting and exercising as best I can, it’s hard to lose weight when you’re not supposed to do strenuous exercise, and this Africa rice baby has got to go!!! I’m about twenty pounds over where I should be, and the less I weigh the better it is for my back.
However, this is a bit difficult in that the education system here frustrates me to the point of tears, and what helps a girl feel better more than some fresh white bread and a generous helping of nutella?? I truly despair. The kids here are so underprivileged in so many ways, and no one cares. I feel like I’m trying to move a mountain here, and it’s just laughing at me. Luckily, I am resilient, and am attempting to locate some earth movers. J
I know it’s a common complaint among aid workers, and I’m sure that I’ll be fine, at least I’m still moving forward. And I have all of your smiling faces to look forward to!!!
So don’t miss me too much, I’ll be back before you know it.
Love
allie
Today is a very important day for me, because it is a very important day in the life of somebody I love. Today my best friend in the whole wide world is going to graduate from high school, and I’m not going to be there to see it. It will be the first major event in our lives for which we are not together.
As much as I am happy here, enjoying myself, having insane and amazing experiences, I miss home. I miss all of you, I miss Portland, I miss my security and I REALLY miss my anonymity. I am experiencing racism here, every day, and it is harder than you can even imagine. I cannot walk anywhere without people staring at me. I cannot do anything without people remarking on it. Everyone knows who I am, everyone talks about me, it’s bizarre, and I often feel as though I’m an animal in a zoo. I was very unhappy that I didn’t make more local friends, but it’s hard when they can’t connect with you at all. Like, I try to be as open and friendly as possible, but they just can’t get over the color of my skin. When I come home I am going to volunteer against racism. It makes you feel so low, so alone, so….debased. No one should ever have to suffer that. People are people, the more I travel the more I understand that. And speaking of traveling, I’ve decided to come home in the end of July, to come be in my beloved Portland, and just live and work and possibly take some college classes, but I’m really more interested in making some decent money to go to Cape Town with, so if anyone spots a job for me, let me know!!!
I am quite settled here now; my daily routine has fallen into a pattern, altered only by one thing. When I fell off that horse in Tofo, it turns out that I fractured one of my vertebrae, the fourth from the bottom… This is pretty serious, and while fortunately it doesn’t pose any immediate problems, chances are that it will in the future. So I’m taking it easy, dieting and exercising as best I can, it’s hard to lose weight when you’re not supposed to do strenuous exercise, and this Africa rice baby has got to go!!! I’m about twenty pounds over where I should be, and the less I weigh the better it is for my back.
However, this is a bit difficult in that the education system here frustrates me to the point of tears, and what helps a girl feel better more than some fresh white bread and a generous helping of nutella?? I truly despair. The kids here are so underprivileged in so many ways, and no one cares. I feel like I’m trying to move a mountain here, and it’s just laughing at me. Luckily, I am resilient, and am attempting to locate some earth movers. J
I know it’s a common complaint among aid workers, and I’m sure that I’ll be fine, at least I’m still moving forward. And I have all of your smiling faces to look forward to!!!
So don’t miss me too much, I’ll be back before you know it.
Love
allie
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Burning time
It’s the burning time now, and the tiny wisps of sugar cane leafs float in through every crack and litter the ground. These curling black scraps of charcoal disintegrate under the lightest touch and leave black smudges on walls and fingers alike. The miles of sugar cane, burned before harvesting to get rid of the lower leafs and make the cane easier to harvest that surround Manhiça belong to a sugar mill called Maragra, which is where I’m living now. I moved out of my two little rooms in Manhiça on Monday. I was sad to leave, but the rats in it were quite bad, and though they don’t frighten me, they woke me up at night with their scampering, and because I had very little furniture I was forced to keep my dishes on the floor, and rat urine and feces can cause all sorts of nasty diseases that I am in no way prepared to deal with, being so far from decent medical care. However, what with Maragra Company vehicles going past and the help of some friendly parents from my school, getting to work will actually be much easier. I am continuing my classes with some frustration but a decent amount of progress… Truly, things are different here. Example: Dia das Criãnças, Day of the Children, begun by a speech about how each child has rights and how if you study you will always be happy, followed by competitive contests focused only on winning coupled with smacks from brooms and sticks of bamboo when the children expressed their enthusiasm by pressing too close to the competitors. The day ended with the teachers sitting in chairs under a tree chatting while the kids played soccer, danced and were completely ignored by the adults who were supposedly in charge of them. No cooperative games were played, and a decent amount of fighting took place over everything from who was a better dancer to who was given the most juice at lunchtime. I find it very…different…to teach in a culture where the manners and etiquette that I consider to be the basis of human interaction are rarely even mentioned, much less used as the guidelines and essential tools I was raised to see them as. Perhaps I am not open-minded enough to be able to accept such behaviour with good grace, but it just feels wrong to me, like maybe the cooperative behaviour was one of the things stolen from them by the Portuguese. However, taking into account the long history of inter-tribal warfare in this part of Africa, I’m not so sure. Anyways, I’ve only been here for four and a half months, what do I know? :P
But so much has happened in these months, I find it hard to believe that it has been only such a short time. I recently arrived back from a journey I took to the province of Inhambane, north of the province of Gaza. What was supposed to be a short and sweet beach hopping jaunt with my volunteer friends and then a visit to the far north to see another volunteer friend in Nampula and a visit to the Island of Mozambique turned into a beach bumming, penniless, R&R, party town extravaganza. The second day after arriving in Tofo, a beautiful beach town known world wide for its diving, snorkeling, whale sharks, surfing and general Daytona Beach party scene, I went horse back riding along the dunes. Due to my own arrogance (I know how to ride WESTERN style. I am not a proficient English rider at high speeds. End of Story) I fell off and sustained a rather serious back injury that immobilized me for a good three days, and it took me a full three weeks to recover a full range of motion and the ability to run without pain. I am going to South Africa this weekend to get some X-rays taken as well, no sense in not checking it out, even if it does feel a whole lot better now. After my accident, and the terrifying discovery of how e.x.p.e.n.s.i.v.e. that little tourist trap town can be, I was forced to slow waaaaaay down. In a way I suppose it was a good thing, when you are in pain if you move quickly you don’t feel so bad about not having the cash to go on boat rides or kayak trips or more horse back rides. I was very literally broke, mom texted me about five days into my trip to say that I had a big fat goose egg of a bank account and that she’d had to advance money on my credit card to keep the thing open. Oops! Luckily, the people of Tofo are as generous and kind and lovely and excellent as you could ever possibly hope to find. We (my volunteer friends and I) moved after the first night to a hostel called Bamboozi, a bit further down the beach from town towards the light house and Barra, but with a fantastic atmosphere and beautiful accommodation (or so we thought! more in a bit!). There is also a dive shop adjacent to Bamboozi, and after meeting one of the staff members I ended up spending quite a bit of time there, business was slow for them and I just chilled and hung out with the staff, who I ended up partying with and Cindy, the owner of Liquid Adventures, the dive shop, let me stay at her house for the weekend while her husband was away. What a kind, lovely woman, she has two beautiful, lively, intelligent children and I am so grateful to them and wish them all the best.
With Liquid Adventures I had my second foray into ocean snorkeling with whale sharks, my goodness, they are such beautiful, incredible and fantastic animals. And so big, so BIG!!! One swam right at me and allowed me to swim and duck dive right next to his head, he checked me out with his bright eye and bobbed his head as we swam together… It was a wonderful moment full of peace and a feeling of rightness, of belonging, and I shall treasure it forever. I think that if I am allowed a choice, I would like to come back in the next life as a whale shark.
I also saw that elusive and fantastic creature of the deep, a manta ray… It lifted its fin…wing…arm? Whatever you call the wing like appendages that allow it to undulate so gracefully under the water, it lifted the tip in a curl haloed by sea spray, and the dark eggplant purple of the top and shimmering white of the under side perfected one of the most stunning sights I think I will ever see.
I have decided that if I live here, I would like a boat. ::grin:: I believe that this may be a long term plan, since a decent boat costs more than a car and I have absolutely zero knowledge of how to handle one, but honestly, zipping over swells and spotting denizens of the ocean is probably one of the cooler things I will ever do, and I want to do it again and again and again. :)
Aside from that one snorkeling trip on the boat and brief ride on horseback, I didn’t have the cash to do much else, but that factor allowed me to simply relax, walk around, lie on the beach, work on the first ever real tan of my life (YES it CAN be done! Woohoo!) and get to know a bit of the local people and lifestyle. I also met many many South Africans, all pleasant but a few so racist it was difficult to be around them after a while. On the other hand it was very interesting in a sort of scientific, observational way, to spend prolonged periods of time with people who were so alike, and yet thought so differently than me. What kept me from disliking them (solely on that basis, in every other way they were kind, thoughtful, interesting and lovely) was the thought that if I had grown up where they did, I would be exactly the same. So bizarre to really like and appreciate a person and yet be so violently opposed to some of their principles. Truly a mind-expanding experience, one that I will surely need to accustom myself to if I want to attend college in Cape Town…!
I also got the opportunity to meet and hang out with a great deal of surfers, the cheapest place to stay in Tofo is Turtle Cove, and by tight budgeting and the ever so helpful loan of a tent (thank you Michelle!!!) and a sleeping bag (thank you Bryan!!!), I was able to stay the full extent of the time I had planned to. They were a great group of people, certainly not the spaced out Bros you get in Southern Cali, and I had a marvelous time with them, as the designated watch-the-stuff girl I got rides to some cool beaches, including Tofinho, and watched some fantastic surfers, and sunned and read borrowed books to my heart’s content.
I must also mention the partying, of which I am not at all ashamed to say I did quite a lot of. Apparently I am not a normal American though; I know how to hold my liquor and when to say no more, thanks. :) It helps that I don’t get hangovers. I am told that this golden blessing will wear off somewhere into my mid-twenties, but for now, I am taking definite advantage of it! As it was the middle of off-season, the tourist tide was low low low, and yet it is an indication of the type of place that Tofo is when I say that there was a party somewhere, every single night. The local rum, Tipo Tinto, is sweet and tastes slightly of bananas, plus it’s cheap, four bucks for a fifth, and it goes down oh so smoothly with just a bit of coca-cola. Basically, it was a LOT of fun; I made some great friends, went out dancing almost every night, and just generally had a ball.
A sparse few things happened in Tofo that were not so lovely, I had to rescue a super drunk girl from possible date rape and cajole her home, hoping at each second that she would not collapse on the sand with alcohol poisoning, and I got my camera and mp3 player stolen, no worries though, I managed to save my pictures! I do feel the loss of my music though, and am hoping to find a cheap replacement in SA this weekend, though as all technological items are imported, the chances are a bit slim, and I won’t be able to put any music on it, so perhaps it’s just best left for later. I also got quite homesick at one point, you know, I’ve never had the feeling before, never been gone so long or been without mom and Andrea for so long, and at first I couldn’t understand why I was depressed in the middle of my incredible vacation. But Portland will always have its pull on me, its tree-lined streets, restaurants, cafes, and most of all, all of you who I am missing with all my heart…
But aside from that, my holiday was quite a bit like paradise, and after visiting the vacation homes on my friend’s construction site, huge, gorgeous, fully furnished homes with an incredible ocean view for $130,000, I’m thinking I might just have to win the lottery and buy one. Anyone interested in retirement home? You can watch dolphins and humpback whales from your porch, and the walk to the beach takes all of about two minutes….!
On my way home I got to visit the lodge of a true gentleman I met on my way to Swaziland, an extremely generous, extremely kind chappie by the name of Greg, who invited me to stay for free at his beautiful lodge on Nhambavale lake, about sixty kilometers north of Xai-Xai. There I did the most incredible snorkeling of my life, at a place called King’s pools. These pools are formed between a 25k long reef and the shore and they are total finding Nemo style reefs, with the big green ears of sponges, pink coral, big black spiky urchins, and fish fish fish fish fish! Angel fish and parrot fish and Moorish angels or whatever, black fish and blue fish with turquoise stripes, pink fish and yellow fish and moray eels and colourful black and red lobsters… Absolutely stunning.
Now that I am safely ensconced in this comfortable house with my friend Talo, another beautifully generous, honorable soul who is letting me stay rent free out of simple kindness and friendship (what a good guy!! Round of applause, ladies and gentlemen), my trip seems almost like a beautiful dream. This reality is perhaps a bit more dull, but much more satisfying for my workaholic soul. Also now that I have access to the internet I promise to post more regularly, my apologies and thank you for your concern, it’s nice to know you all still think about me!! I certainly think about you.
With all my love,
cheers!
Allie
But so much has happened in these months, I find it hard to believe that it has been only such a short time. I recently arrived back from a journey I took to the province of Inhambane, north of the province of Gaza. What was supposed to be a short and sweet beach hopping jaunt with my volunteer friends and then a visit to the far north to see another volunteer friend in Nampula and a visit to the Island of Mozambique turned into a beach bumming, penniless, R&R, party town extravaganza. The second day after arriving in Tofo, a beautiful beach town known world wide for its diving, snorkeling, whale sharks, surfing and general Daytona Beach party scene, I went horse back riding along the dunes. Due to my own arrogance (I know how to ride WESTERN style. I am not a proficient English rider at high speeds. End of Story) I fell off and sustained a rather serious back injury that immobilized me for a good three days, and it took me a full three weeks to recover a full range of motion and the ability to run without pain. I am going to South Africa this weekend to get some X-rays taken as well, no sense in not checking it out, even if it does feel a whole lot better now. After my accident, and the terrifying discovery of how e.x.p.e.n.s.i.v.e. that little tourist trap town can be, I was forced to slow waaaaaay down. In a way I suppose it was a good thing, when you are in pain if you move quickly you don’t feel so bad about not having the cash to go on boat rides or kayak trips or more horse back rides. I was very literally broke, mom texted me about five days into my trip to say that I had a big fat goose egg of a bank account and that she’d had to advance money on my credit card to keep the thing open. Oops! Luckily, the people of Tofo are as generous and kind and lovely and excellent as you could ever possibly hope to find. We (my volunteer friends and I) moved after the first night to a hostel called Bamboozi, a bit further down the beach from town towards the light house and Barra, but with a fantastic atmosphere and beautiful accommodation (or so we thought! more in a bit!). There is also a dive shop adjacent to Bamboozi, and after meeting one of the staff members I ended up spending quite a bit of time there, business was slow for them and I just chilled and hung out with the staff, who I ended up partying with and Cindy, the owner of Liquid Adventures, the dive shop, let me stay at her house for the weekend while her husband was away. What a kind, lovely woman, she has two beautiful, lively, intelligent children and I am so grateful to them and wish them all the best.
With Liquid Adventures I had my second foray into ocean snorkeling with whale sharks, my goodness, they are such beautiful, incredible and fantastic animals. And so big, so BIG!!! One swam right at me and allowed me to swim and duck dive right next to his head, he checked me out with his bright eye and bobbed his head as we swam together… It was a wonderful moment full of peace and a feeling of rightness, of belonging, and I shall treasure it forever. I think that if I am allowed a choice, I would like to come back in the next life as a whale shark.
I also saw that elusive and fantastic creature of the deep, a manta ray… It lifted its fin…wing…arm? Whatever you call the wing like appendages that allow it to undulate so gracefully under the water, it lifted the tip in a curl haloed by sea spray, and the dark eggplant purple of the top and shimmering white of the under side perfected one of the most stunning sights I think I will ever see.
I have decided that if I live here, I would like a boat. ::grin:: I believe that this may be a long term plan, since a decent boat costs more than a car and I have absolutely zero knowledge of how to handle one, but honestly, zipping over swells and spotting denizens of the ocean is probably one of the cooler things I will ever do, and I want to do it again and again and again. :)
Aside from that one snorkeling trip on the boat and brief ride on horseback, I didn’t have the cash to do much else, but that factor allowed me to simply relax, walk around, lie on the beach, work on the first ever real tan of my life (YES it CAN be done! Woohoo!) and get to know a bit of the local people and lifestyle. I also met many many South Africans, all pleasant but a few so racist it was difficult to be around them after a while. On the other hand it was very interesting in a sort of scientific, observational way, to spend prolonged periods of time with people who were so alike, and yet thought so differently than me. What kept me from disliking them (solely on that basis, in every other way they were kind, thoughtful, interesting and lovely) was the thought that if I had grown up where they did, I would be exactly the same. So bizarre to really like and appreciate a person and yet be so violently opposed to some of their principles. Truly a mind-expanding experience, one that I will surely need to accustom myself to if I want to attend college in Cape Town…!
I also got the opportunity to meet and hang out with a great deal of surfers, the cheapest place to stay in Tofo is Turtle Cove, and by tight budgeting and the ever so helpful loan of a tent (thank you Michelle!!!) and a sleeping bag (thank you Bryan!!!), I was able to stay the full extent of the time I had planned to. They were a great group of people, certainly not the spaced out Bros you get in Southern Cali, and I had a marvelous time with them, as the designated watch-the-stuff girl I got rides to some cool beaches, including Tofinho, and watched some fantastic surfers, and sunned and read borrowed books to my heart’s content.
I must also mention the partying, of which I am not at all ashamed to say I did quite a lot of. Apparently I am not a normal American though; I know how to hold my liquor and when to say no more, thanks. :) It helps that I don’t get hangovers. I am told that this golden blessing will wear off somewhere into my mid-twenties, but for now, I am taking definite advantage of it! As it was the middle of off-season, the tourist tide was low low low, and yet it is an indication of the type of place that Tofo is when I say that there was a party somewhere, every single night. The local rum, Tipo Tinto, is sweet and tastes slightly of bananas, plus it’s cheap, four bucks for a fifth, and it goes down oh so smoothly with just a bit of coca-cola. Basically, it was a LOT of fun; I made some great friends, went out dancing almost every night, and just generally had a ball.
A sparse few things happened in Tofo that were not so lovely, I had to rescue a super drunk girl from possible date rape and cajole her home, hoping at each second that she would not collapse on the sand with alcohol poisoning, and I got my camera and mp3 player stolen, no worries though, I managed to save my pictures! I do feel the loss of my music though, and am hoping to find a cheap replacement in SA this weekend, though as all technological items are imported, the chances are a bit slim, and I won’t be able to put any music on it, so perhaps it’s just best left for later. I also got quite homesick at one point, you know, I’ve never had the feeling before, never been gone so long or been without mom and Andrea for so long, and at first I couldn’t understand why I was depressed in the middle of my incredible vacation. But Portland will always have its pull on me, its tree-lined streets, restaurants, cafes, and most of all, all of you who I am missing with all my heart…
But aside from that, my holiday was quite a bit like paradise, and after visiting the vacation homes on my friend’s construction site, huge, gorgeous, fully furnished homes with an incredible ocean view for $130,000, I’m thinking I might just have to win the lottery and buy one. Anyone interested in retirement home? You can watch dolphins and humpback whales from your porch, and the walk to the beach takes all of about two minutes….!
On my way home I got to visit the lodge of a true gentleman I met on my way to Swaziland, an extremely generous, extremely kind chappie by the name of Greg, who invited me to stay for free at his beautiful lodge on Nhambavale lake, about sixty kilometers north of Xai-Xai. There I did the most incredible snorkeling of my life, at a place called King’s pools. These pools are formed between a 25k long reef and the shore and they are total finding Nemo style reefs, with the big green ears of sponges, pink coral, big black spiky urchins, and fish fish fish fish fish! Angel fish and parrot fish and Moorish angels or whatever, black fish and blue fish with turquoise stripes, pink fish and yellow fish and moray eels and colourful black and red lobsters… Absolutely stunning.
Now that I am safely ensconced in this comfortable house with my friend Talo, another beautifully generous, honorable soul who is letting me stay rent free out of simple kindness and friendship (what a good guy!! Round of applause, ladies and gentlemen), my trip seems almost like a beautiful dream. This reality is perhaps a bit more dull, but much more satisfying for my workaholic soul. Also now that I have access to the internet I promise to post more regularly, my apologies and thank you for your concern, it’s nice to know you all still think about me!! I certainly think about you.
With all my love,
cheers!
Allie
Thursday, April 16, 2009
CAPE TOWN; the ultimate city of dreams
Picture a city at the southern point of a continent, nestled between a crashing sapphire surf and fierce, sheer cliff-faced mountains. Picture white and butter-coloured houses splashed with vibrant pink, red, and purple from the hibiscus, frangipanni and other flowering bushes that line the streets. Imagine a lively, bustling downtown and a beautiful waterfront lined with restaurants and serviced by water taxis. Imagine a population of interesting people from all sorts of backgrounds, wandering down streets chock full of little alternative stores, restaurants and galleries. Imagine miles of coastline populated by whales, sharks, seals and penguins. and then wake up and realize its all real!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Welcome to Cape Town.
I decided to visit Cape Town after finally getting everything settled and unpacked in Manihca, just in time for the school vacation to start, leaving me with nothing to do for two weeks. Things in Manhica are working out very well, i have absolutely fantastic neighbors who take care of me completely, and the volunteer program in Manhica provides me with many lovely friends to hang out with when my Portuguese falters or when I need a break from the Mozambican lifestyle. So I packed up my house and went first to the beach in Bilene, a guy from the same exchange program as the one in manhica was passing through and needed a place to stay so he kepped at my house and mentioned that he was going to the beach on Sunday with some guys he met at the hostel and would I like to come? We've been through what I say in every similar situation, :P so on Sunday I visited the ever incredible Bilene, this time without search boats and police! I was graciously invited to eat a fantastic meal at my new friend Rui's family's beautiful house, and I took the first hot shower of my trip since Swaziland. Totally amazing!!!!
The guy who stayed at my house, Freddie from England, and I slept at our other new friend Mauro's house in Maputo that night, and for the rest of my week I house hopped and ran errands while visiting the orphanage in Museu every day.
The majority of my kids from Laulane are still in Museu, and it was totally amazing to visit them, I didn't even realize how much i missed them! And how they've grown, especially Chertan, my baby boy. He has three teeth now and is almost walking, I hold his hands and almost cry every time he smiles at me. What a heart breaker! I took a video of him playing in my capulana that I show to just about everyone, the picture of one of those annoying moms who is always shoving photos of her kid under every one's nose.....
I would have left earlier than when I did, but my organization had take my passport to immigration to get me a new visa. Without telling me. Or giving me the receipt to show to the police if they demanded to see my passport. My headache from this program grew exponentially, erasing all traces of happiness I was feeling after seeing the way the program in Manhica works. I also received the information that AJUDE is not going to pay for my living costs in Manhica. Estoy harta, realmente harta. But more of that later. Right now Im in Cape Town, and life, is very, very good.
I took a bus early Saturday morning from Maputo to Joburg, the most cost effective manner of crossing the border, to fly from Maputo to Johannesburg, a flight of only 45 min, can be almost as expensive as the fourteen hour flight to Europe. Go figure. Anyways, I bussed for eight hours and arrived in the Joburg train station right on time, though I am a bit sad, I splurged and spent an extra ten bucks or so to take the bus with air con and a bathroom on board, but it was just as grimy and run down as the normal bus.... :P oh well! Upon arriving in the train station, I bought a South African Sim Card and asked several different people how much I should be paying for a taxi to the airport. They told me that I shouldn't be paying more than 50 Rand, but maybe I misheard, because when I asked how much it was, they said 250 and refused to budge. So I was in a bit of a pickle. What to do, pay the 25 US dollars to the thieving, conniving drivers, (the safest, quickest way to the airport), or spend more time looking for another way. I went inside and asked two security guards if there was any public transport available and they said yes of course, and it is eleven rand, but its not safe for me to walk from the bus station to the combi bus stop. So I went back to the taxi drivers and asked me if they could drop me at the public transport and they told me they didn't know where it was............................................................
Having already met several unpleasant people from South Africa in Maputo and at the beach, I was a little worried that this was how my whole stay would be, but thankfully I was totally mistaken. I went back to the security guards and told them of my plight, and soon came up with a plan. They would walk me to the public transport for 40 rand, the equal of about 4 US. I said great, and we set off. Joburg is a bit crazed at the moment, everywhere you look there is construction being done for the World Cup that will be held here next summer, and it really is a huuuuuuge city. Also, unlike still-segregated Cape Town, there are actually Native Africans living in the city.... What a concept. My only complaint about Cape Town is that it is so white. When Apartheid pushed all the Blacks out of the city proper, small communities were formed that are called townships. And now in the post-Apartheid era there have been a lot of community development projects in the Townships which have served to tighten the bonds between people and create the kind of neighborhoods and little village-like communities that would never be possible in the city, so one has to wonder if it isn't better this way. Or would be better if the living conditions were a bit more equal.
So they took me to the airport and everything went smoothly, plane ride uneventful, and then I stepped off of the airplane into the cold. It's COLD here! sometimes. at night. when the wind blows. Its about 75. POINT BEING, I'm not used to being chilly!!! how strange!
Stranger still is this city. A world city, I am back in San Francisco, really, this place reminds me of nothing more than a big, tropical San Fran. Its absolutely stunning. Since arriving I have met a pair of traveling Danes with the same names as my Danish friends in Maputo!!! Weird. I also stayed at literally the coolest hostel EVER, gone kayaking in the bay where I saw three Southern Right whales, two mating, a leaping, crashing, noisy and fun-looking experience, and one lone male almost close enough to touch, gone on a train down the point to walk on the most beautiful beach that is full of penguins, hiked Table Mountain, wandered around downtown, gotten three cartilage piercings, a rook in my right, and a tragis and normal cartilage in my left, and gone out to some great clubs with some fantastic people. I do love to meet people when travelling, they are just every sort........ So cool.
I've also decided that while one day wandering around in bookshops by myself is fun, I really do prefer traveling with someone else. When traveling I just think of so many things, and when im alone ive no one to share them with. Its also amazing to travel with people you have just met, interesting, eye opening, and surprising. Very bomb.
Well, that only takes the tip off the iceberg, but I'm sitting in a lovely neighborhood now and my tummy is rumbling, so I'm off to get some sushi!!!!!!!!!
love love love
allie
Welcome to Cape Town.
I decided to visit Cape Town after finally getting everything settled and unpacked in Manihca, just in time for the school vacation to start, leaving me with nothing to do for two weeks. Things in Manhica are working out very well, i have absolutely fantastic neighbors who take care of me completely, and the volunteer program in Manhica provides me with many lovely friends to hang out with when my Portuguese falters or when I need a break from the Mozambican lifestyle. So I packed up my house and went first to the beach in Bilene, a guy from the same exchange program as the one in manhica was passing through and needed a place to stay so he kepped at my house and mentioned that he was going to the beach on Sunday with some guys he met at the hostel and would I like to come? We've been through what I say in every similar situation, :P so on Sunday I visited the ever incredible Bilene, this time without search boats and police! I was graciously invited to eat a fantastic meal at my new friend Rui's family's beautiful house, and I took the first hot shower of my trip since Swaziland. Totally amazing!!!!
The guy who stayed at my house, Freddie from England, and I slept at our other new friend Mauro's house in Maputo that night, and for the rest of my week I house hopped and ran errands while visiting the orphanage in Museu every day.
The majority of my kids from Laulane are still in Museu, and it was totally amazing to visit them, I didn't even realize how much i missed them! And how they've grown, especially Chertan, my baby boy. He has three teeth now and is almost walking, I hold his hands and almost cry every time he smiles at me. What a heart breaker! I took a video of him playing in my capulana that I show to just about everyone, the picture of one of those annoying moms who is always shoving photos of her kid under every one's nose.....
I would have left earlier than when I did, but my organization had take my passport to immigration to get me a new visa. Without telling me. Or giving me the receipt to show to the police if they demanded to see my passport. My headache from this program grew exponentially, erasing all traces of happiness I was feeling after seeing the way the program in Manhica works. I also received the information that AJUDE is not going to pay for my living costs in Manhica. Estoy harta, realmente harta. But more of that later. Right now Im in Cape Town, and life, is very, very good.
I took a bus early Saturday morning from Maputo to Joburg, the most cost effective manner of crossing the border, to fly from Maputo to Johannesburg, a flight of only 45 min, can be almost as expensive as the fourteen hour flight to Europe. Go figure. Anyways, I bussed for eight hours and arrived in the Joburg train station right on time, though I am a bit sad, I splurged and spent an extra ten bucks or so to take the bus with air con and a bathroom on board, but it was just as grimy and run down as the normal bus.... :P oh well! Upon arriving in the train station, I bought a South African Sim Card and asked several different people how much I should be paying for a taxi to the airport. They told me that I shouldn't be paying more than 50 Rand, but maybe I misheard, because when I asked how much it was, they said 250 and refused to budge. So I was in a bit of a pickle. What to do, pay the 25 US dollars to the thieving, conniving drivers, (the safest, quickest way to the airport), or spend more time looking for another way. I went inside and asked two security guards if there was any public transport available and they said yes of course, and it is eleven rand, but its not safe for me to walk from the bus station to the combi bus stop. So I went back to the taxi drivers and asked me if they could drop me at the public transport and they told me they didn't know where it was............................................................
Having already met several unpleasant people from South Africa in Maputo and at the beach, I was a little worried that this was how my whole stay would be, but thankfully I was totally mistaken. I went back to the security guards and told them of my plight, and soon came up with a plan. They would walk me to the public transport for 40 rand, the equal of about 4 US. I said great, and we set off. Joburg is a bit crazed at the moment, everywhere you look there is construction being done for the World Cup that will be held here next summer, and it really is a huuuuuuge city. Also, unlike still-segregated Cape Town, there are actually Native Africans living in the city.... What a concept. My only complaint about Cape Town is that it is so white. When Apartheid pushed all the Blacks out of the city proper, small communities were formed that are called townships. And now in the post-Apartheid era there have been a lot of community development projects in the Townships which have served to tighten the bonds between people and create the kind of neighborhoods and little village-like communities that would never be possible in the city, so one has to wonder if it isn't better this way. Or would be better if the living conditions were a bit more equal.
So they took me to the airport and everything went smoothly, plane ride uneventful, and then I stepped off of the airplane into the cold. It's COLD here! sometimes. at night. when the wind blows. Its about 75. POINT BEING, I'm not used to being chilly!!! how strange!
Stranger still is this city. A world city, I am back in San Francisco, really, this place reminds me of nothing more than a big, tropical San Fran. Its absolutely stunning. Since arriving I have met a pair of traveling Danes with the same names as my Danish friends in Maputo!!! Weird. I also stayed at literally the coolest hostel EVER, gone kayaking in the bay where I saw three Southern Right whales, two mating, a leaping, crashing, noisy and fun-looking experience, and one lone male almost close enough to touch, gone on a train down the point to walk on the most beautiful beach that is full of penguins, hiked Table Mountain, wandered around downtown, gotten three cartilage piercings, a rook in my right, and a tragis and normal cartilage in my left, and gone out to some great clubs with some fantastic people. I do love to meet people when travelling, they are just every sort........ So cool.
I've also decided that while one day wandering around in bookshops by myself is fun, I really do prefer traveling with someone else. When traveling I just think of so many things, and when im alone ive no one to share them with. Its also amazing to travel with people you have just met, interesting, eye opening, and surprising. Very bomb.
Well, that only takes the tip off the iceberg, but I'm sitting in a lovely neighborhood now and my tummy is rumbling, so I'm off to get some sushi!!!!!!!!!
love love love
allie
Friday, April 3, 2009
Small Town in the Big Africa
So here I am in lovely Manhiça, population 5 if you dont count the cockroaches, a few of whom are large and intelligent enough to be considered for the census. xD
Just kidding, it´s a very nice little town and its honestly a pity that I cant put pictures up (though I might this weekend!!!) because I could show you my nice little house.... And the pictures from ponto douro.......
A couple of weeks ago I was crouching on the sidewalk (i was tired and its too dirty to sit down) and an interesting-looking dude with curly hair in a ponytail passed by. I smiled and he waved and we got to talking and it turns out his name is Giuseppe (guess what his nationality is!!!! Come on, take a keap xD) from Italy, and he´s working for the Italian government doing desenvolvimento, which is a clever portuguese word that is bandied about all the time but has yet to be properly defined for me in any language. It´s sort of like progress and it´s sort of like developement and it´s sort of like globalization but not any one of these things exactly. Desenvolvimento covers everything from trade relations with the west to agricultural non-profit organizations setting up sustainable farms in rural areas. Anyways, Giuseppe did desinvolvimento work at the local hospital, accounting and bookeeping for their medical goods department, kind of a funny occupation for a hard core rock fan with multiple brightly coloured tattoos.... But hes a gem, and one afternoon over coffee in downtown Maputo he mentioned that he was going to Ponto Douro (point of gold) over the weekend and would I like to come? Well everyone knows what my answer to would you like to come hang out on a splendid and world famous beach for a few days would be. So on Friday I packed my bag and met him at his beautiful house in Matola, a city-suburb just north of Maputo proper. He and his friends that we went with, except for one who is doing voluntary work at a dance school, earn decent Italian salaries in Mozambique, and it was totally bizarre to be around people with disposable income after months of scrimping volunteers!!! They certainly live a different lifestyle than I do....
But they were all super nice and we had a fabulous time bumping along the sandy track that is the main road to Ponto.
The beach there.... is rather beyond words. At sunset there is a sort of pastel glimmer on the water that is so pretty it seems nearly unreal, and at night the stars seem to continue directly into the sea. In the day its even better, the water is just the most perfect shade of turquoise, the water is not to warm though the current is VERY strong and definitely to be watched out for.
So I beach bummed and thought about colleges and took in the sun and didnt get any tanner barely at all even though I didnt use a drop of sunscreen..... I really do have the strangest skin....! And then. On sunday morning at seven, a group of about twelve people got on a boat and went out to swim with dolphins, but we couldn´t find a single pod.
Instead, I swam with three different, beautifully, majestically and totally awe-inspiring whale sharks, or basking sharks. These filter feeders are known for their gentleness and mostly for their size, they are the largest shark in the ocean, and the ones I saw were not an inch under twenty to 25 feet long.... I really have never seen anything like it.
In less exciting news, I am finally moved in and almost entirely unpacked, I will start work at the schools when the holidays are over in fifteen days, and in the meantime I am thinking of going north... At least to Bilene and perhaps to Inhambane and maybe Tofo, but I dont know when I will get a long break like this again and am considering going all the way to nampula and the ilha de mozambique to visit some friends..... but I have other friends going north a bit later so I may just take my two week vacation to travel with them. we´ll see. I have become involved with an exchange program taking place between mozambique and England, 8 vols from the UK and 9 from here, they are doing community developement projects and all have work placements and live with host families. The level of organization is astonishing, they are more than supplied with support and rules and regulations and activities..... and yet I am starting to see the other side of the coin. Yes, there are some serious and basic problems with ICYE and AJUDE that need to be dealt with, but on the other hand, the complete and total freedom we ICYE moz vols are blessed with has been shown into sharp relief here. They are not allowed to do basically anything without group consent, are not allowed to travel or do anything on their own, and can´t really even leave Manhiça at all. I know that I would be totally stifled under those rules, and I am beginning to gain a different perspective on our program in Maputo.... Hmmm........ Oh africa, the place of my deepest and most convoluted thoughts.
However, my thoughts will shortly become much more convoluted if I dont eat something, and I am perilously close to being late for lunch at a friends house, so more later, much love
allie
Just kidding, it´s a very nice little town and its honestly a pity that I cant put pictures up (though I might this weekend!!!) because I could show you my nice little house.... And the pictures from ponto douro.......
A couple of weeks ago I was crouching on the sidewalk (i was tired and its too dirty to sit down) and an interesting-looking dude with curly hair in a ponytail passed by. I smiled and he waved and we got to talking and it turns out his name is Giuseppe (guess what his nationality is!!!! Come on, take a keap xD) from Italy, and he´s working for the Italian government doing desenvolvimento, which is a clever portuguese word that is bandied about all the time but has yet to be properly defined for me in any language. It´s sort of like progress and it´s sort of like developement and it´s sort of like globalization but not any one of these things exactly. Desenvolvimento covers everything from trade relations with the west to agricultural non-profit organizations setting up sustainable farms in rural areas. Anyways, Giuseppe did desinvolvimento work at the local hospital, accounting and bookeeping for their medical goods department, kind of a funny occupation for a hard core rock fan with multiple brightly coloured tattoos.... But hes a gem, and one afternoon over coffee in downtown Maputo he mentioned that he was going to Ponto Douro (point of gold) over the weekend and would I like to come? Well everyone knows what my answer to would you like to come hang out on a splendid and world famous beach for a few days would be. So on Friday I packed my bag and met him at his beautiful house in Matola, a city-suburb just north of Maputo proper. He and his friends that we went with, except for one who is doing voluntary work at a dance school, earn decent Italian salaries in Mozambique, and it was totally bizarre to be around people with disposable income after months of scrimping volunteers!!! They certainly live a different lifestyle than I do....
But they were all super nice and we had a fabulous time bumping along the sandy track that is the main road to Ponto.
The beach there.... is rather beyond words. At sunset there is a sort of pastel glimmer on the water that is so pretty it seems nearly unreal, and at night the stars seem to continue directly into the sea. In the day its even better, the water is just the most perfect shade of turquoise, the water is not to warm though the current is VERY strong and definitely to be watched out for.
So I beach bummed and thought about colleges and took in the sun and didnt get any tanner barely at all even though I didnt use a drop of sunscreen..... I really do have the strangest skin....! And then. On sunday morning at seven, a group of about twelve people got on a boat and went out to swim with dolphins, but we couldn´t find a single pod.
Instead, I swam with three different, beautifully, majestically and totally awe-inspiring whale sharks, or basking sharks. These filter feeders are known for their gentleness and mostly for their size, they are the largest shark in the ocean, and the ones I saw were not an inch under twenty to 25 feet long.... I really have never seen anything like it.
In less exciting news, I am finally moved in and almost entirely unpacked, I will start work at the schools when the holidays are over in fifteen days, and in the meantime I am thinking of going north... At least to Bilene and perhaps to Inhambane and maybe Tofo, but I dont know when I will get a long break like this again and am considering going all the way to nampula and the ilha de mozambique to visit some friends..... but I have other friends going north a bit later so I may just take my two week vacation to travel with them. we´ll see. I have become involved with an exchange program taking place between mozambique and England, 8 vols from the UK and 9 from here, they are doing community developement projects and all have work placements and live with host families. The level of organization is astonishing, they are more than supplied with support and rules and regulations and activities..... and yet I am starting to see the other side of the coin. Yes, there are some serious and basic problems with ICYE and AJUDE that need to be dealt with, but on the other hand, the complete and total freedom we ICYE moz vols are blessed with has been shown into sharp relief here. They are not allowed to do basically anything without group consent, are not allowed to travel or do anything on their own, and can´t really even leave Manhiça at all. I know that I would be totally stifled under those rules, and I am beginning to gain a different perspective on our program in Maputo.... Hmmm........ Oh africa, the place of my deepest and most convoluted thoughts.
However, my thoughts will shortly become much more convoluted if I dont eat something, and I am perilously close to being late for lunch at a friends house, so more later, much love
allie
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
more in the life of pi....
so. here is the flesh to put on that poor poor skinny blog from a couple days ago.
Many things have happened. To finish with the Swazi Story, The 4x4 ing was truly a blast, I got to watch my Canadian friend Dougie do somersaults into a river ahead of me, eat maize and drink hot pepper tea in traditional homesteads, and most excitingly, we climbed a waterfall for a good two hours, each moment like something out of jumanji with the trailing vines, verdant beauty, rushing water, tiny lilies and orchids growing in fragile, unreal beauty from cracks in the rocks, gigantic spiders on poisonous yellow dripping webs, viciously coloured in bright blue and yellow, trees growing in the middle of the river hanging with tenacious fervour to the rocks, and many beautiful granite boulders exuding confidence and serenity in their grandiose largeness. (excuse the verbosity, ive just finished reading A Many Splendored Thing and am a bit inspired....!)
We also went into the capital Mbabane, just for a bit to shop....Swazi has so much that Moz does not, in the way of infastructure, material goods, TRASH CANS, cleanliness and simple human dignity. Truly the most astonishing thing about humans is that they can so divide themselves and the land that they live on that from ten feet beyond the border you are in a totally and completely different world. Really.
Upon my return to Swazi two days later (my very good swedish friend Lina had to renew her passport so i gladly went back with her) I was a bit ill, just the normal stomach ick that most travelers are fated to recieve at some point or another, so I didnt do all the things i had planned to do. However, we visited the Cultural Village, a homestead built to be exactly like things have been in Swazi for hundreds of years, and apparently it is still lived in as a traditional homestead, but I dont really think so. The grass huts had that inescapable "for show" look, and did not appear to be lived in. We also got to see an exhibition of their dancing, a very athletic, high kicking thing of great beauty and excitement. However, here, as in Moz, the men expend a lot of time and evergy trying to make everything seem extremely difficult while the women show off effortlessly and without fuss. I am so proud to be female sometimes. Lina and I split the cost of a dvd and cd set so you can all see it when i return, I forgot to mention the singing, choral works very majestic and pretty, much better than the gospel you see on tv here on sundays. really, gospel gets really overdone sometimes, it loses its melodic integrity with the feral intensity of the religious fervor associated with it.
With our friend Ralph from the 4x4 trip we also went to another waterfall and was the second largest solid rock in the world. It was a far sized hill, solid and absolute and breath taking. The striated granite with rivulets of water and vegetation just about took my breath away. I am such a sucker for amazing natural sites. I HAVE to get to Victoria falls before leaving. End of Story.
Really, Lidwala Lodge was a little haven of paradise in my months of crazed doings. It was quite hard to leave.
After Swazi I was back in Manhiça, putting a down payment on my rooms and getting things fixed up. Yesterday the window bars were fixed and today the door hinges will be reinforced. Mahiça is a quiet, fairly happy little town with a very low crime rate, but as a white woman living alone, I aint takin no chances. There are still problems with getting there, if I cannot find a ride today or tomorrow I will have to pay for taxi and chapa, which will be a hassle and a bother. But such is life here, and I am rather excited at the prospect of living a simple life, I think it will be good for me, especially in light of my jumbled future. I have now been accepted to eight institutions of higher learning, to Washington State University in Pullman, Pacific University in Forest Grove, Willamette University in Salem and Western Washington University in Bellingham all with sizable scholarships. I have also been accepted to Evergreen State College in Olympia with a minimal scholarship, not to mention University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, California State College at Northridge andPortland State University. In addition I am waiting for news of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Reed College in Portland and Whitman College in Walla Walla. I also applied to the University of California in Berkeley but since I didnt take the SATS and dont really see a way of fixing that problem here, I think I will not be admitted.
I applied to so many because I thought that with my strange mish mash of a high school education many colleges would reject me! Seems as though my plan back fired. Add to this the confusion of wanting to know where Andrea is headed, weighing the option of traveling longer, and now thinking that I am still not entirely sure of what i want to major in, (please dont give me the you should go to college to find out speech. I think it is preposterous to waste SO much money if you are not sure, I mean, how many people got their bachelors and dont even use it?!?!?!?!? If I am still very unsure I think I will be using my time far better by teaching, traveling or working, and probably taking classes at community college than spending 30,000 dollars a year to dork around and party.)
Thus is my future a mud pit of confusion, and because of this I smile and focus on the task at hand. Planning curriculum, planning weekend travels, and experiencing life here will most likely help me to see my future more clearly anyways.
So now I am going to go figure out how to get myself to Manhiça, so i bid you all a happy, succesful day,
much love
allie
Many things have happened. To finish with the Swazi Story, The 4x4 ing was truly a blast, I got to watch my Canadian friend Dougie do somersaults into a river ahead of me, eat maize and drink hot pepper tea in traditional homesteads, and most excitingly, we climbed a waterfall for a good two hours, each moment like something out of jumanji with the trailing vines, verdant beauty, rushing water, tiny lilies and orchids growing in fragile, unreal beauty from cracks in the rocks, gigantic spiders on poisonous yellow dripping webs, viciously coloured in bright blue and yellow, trees growing in the middle of the river hanging with tenacious fervour to the rocks, and many beautiful granite boulders exuding confidence and serenity in their grandiose largeness. (excuse the verbosity, ive just finished reading A Many Splendored Thing and am a bit inspired....!)
We also went into the capital Mbabane, just for a bit to shop....Swazi has so much that Moz does not, in the way of infastructure, material goods, TRASH CANS, cleanliness and simple human dignity. Truly the most astonishing thing about humans is that they can so divide themselves and the land that they live on that from ten feet beyond the border you are in a totally and completely different world. Really.
Upon my return to Swazi two days later (my very good swedish friend Lina had to renew her passport so i gladly went back with her) I was a bit ill, just the normal stomach ick that most travelers are fated to recieve at some point or another, so I didnt do all the things i had planned to do. However, we visited the Cultural Village, a homestead built to be exactly like things have been in Swazi for hundreds of years, and apparently it is still lived in as a traditional homestead, but I dont really think so. The grass huts had that inescapable "for show" look, and did not appear to be lived in. We also got to see an exhibition of their dancing, a very athletic, high kicking thing of great beauty and excitement. However, here, as in Moz, the men expend a lot of time and evergy trying to make everything seem extremely difficult while the women show off effortlessly and without fuss. I am so proud to be female sometimes. Lina and I split the cost of a dvd and cd set so you can all see it when i return, I forgot to mention the singing, choral works very majestic and pretty, much better than the gospel you see on tv here on sundays. really, gospel gets really overdone sometimes, it loses its melodic integrity with the feral intensity of the religious fervor associated with it.
With our friend Ralph from the 4x4 trip we also went to another waterfall and was the second largest solid rock in the world. It was a far sized hill, solid and absolute and breath taking. The striated granite with rivulets of water and vegetation just about took my breath away. I am such a sucker for amazing natural sites. I HAVE to get to Victoria falls before leaving. End of Story.
Really, Lidwala Lodge was a little haven of paradise in my months of crazed doings. It was quite hard to leave.
After Swazi I was back in Manhiça, putting a down payment on my rooms and getting things fixed up. Yesterday the window bars were fixed and today the door hinges will be reinforced. Mahiça is a quiet, fairly happy little town with a very low crime rate, but as a white woman living alone, I aint takin no chances. There are still problems with getting there, if I cannot find a ride today or tomorrow I will have to pay for taxi and chapa, which will be a hassle and a bother. But such is life here, and I am rather excited at the prospect of living a simple life, I think it will be good for me, especially in light of my jumbled future. I have now been accepted to eight institutions of higher learning, to Washington State University in Pullman, Pacific University in Forest Grove, Willamette University in Salem and Western Washington University in Bellingham all with sizable scholarships. I have also been accepted to Evergreen State College in Olympia with a minimal scholarship, not to mention University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, California State College at Northridge andPortland State University. In addition I am waiting for news of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Reed College in Portland and Whitman College in Walla Walla. I also applied to the University of California in Berkeley but since I didnt take the SATS and dont really see a way of fixing that problem here, I think I will not be admitted.
I applied to so many because I thought that with my strange mish mash of a high school education many colleges would reject me! Seems as though my plan back fired. Add to this the confusion of wanting to know where Andrea is headed, weighing the option of traveling longer, and now thinking that I am still not entirely sure of what i want to major in, (please dont give me the you should go to college to find out speech. I think it is preposterous to waste SO much money if you are not sure, I mean, how many people got their bachelors and dont even use it?!?!?!?!? If I am still very unsure I think I will be using my time far better by teaching, traveling or working, and probably taking classes at community college than spending 30,000 dollars a year to dork around and party.)
Thus is my future a mud pit of confusion, and because of this I smile and focus on the task at hand. Planning curriculum, planning weekend travels, and experiencing life here will most likely help me to see my future more clearly anyways.
So now I am going to go figure out how to get myself to Manhiça, so i bid you all a happy, succesful day,
much love
allie
Friday, March 20, 2009
A new-ish beginning...
If you are ever presented with the opportunity to visit Swaziland, please, please take it! I never thought a monarchy could be so good.
I went to Swaziland twice, once with my Danish friends Søren and Rasmus, (soon joined by the ever present Dougie from Canada, my resident brother), and again two days later with my friend Lina from Sweden. The place we stayed is about four hours from Maputo straight through, longer with the stop at the border and the change from bus to combi (the swazi term for chapa) in Manzini. Regardless, it is SO worth it. The part of Swazi we were in is "mountainous" only we pacific northwesterners have a different definition of "mountain" and "big hill". ;) Differing definitions or no, these old lava flow mounds are incredible, consisting of huge boulders of granite, striated granite and huge bare rock formations (forgive me John Richter, it has been SO long since year of the mountain)rising out of the forest in gravity-defying positions. Swaziland is rainier and more fertile than Mozambique, and even though it´s fall right now, the flowers, hibiscus, lillies, and flowering bushes of all kinds line the road. The backpackers lodge in which we, er, lodged, was breath-takingly landscaped, with a stream running through it, avocado trees, white lillies in huge clumps, aloe plants, purple flowering bushes and all sorts of cute and clever paths through the vegetation. It´s called Lidwala Lodge, and for €7 a night you get hot showers, free coffee and tea, a comfortable bunk bed, a big porch with an incredible view, and some of the best company in southern Africa. The lodge was partially filled with volunteers through a program called All-Out Africa, one that seems to be organized, up and running, fun, and jesus C-hrist I don´t think it is in any way corrupted, if you can believe it. They were mostly from England again, so i picked up a Northern English accent and with their help, I actually won a game of pool!
With the danes and dougie I went 4x4-ing....don´t freak out. I did it because it´s partially a community developement project and you get to see parts of Swazi you´d never get to without one....YES, it was terrifying and NO, i´m not doing it again, give me a fast horse any day.
Ok so apparently this internet cafe is closing early for no good reason..... Oh Africa, the beautiful, the stunning, the frustrating.
So there are things I need to say. First off, I have a position in Manhica now, teaching english at a Maristas Brothers religious school and teaching music and theatre at Manhica Cede, the local primary school. This should be perfect, although the curriculum I was given IS English from England, so Iºm gonna have to fudge the rhymes. And what is a block of flats??? An apartment building, right??
My apartment is mine, two little rooms in a house on the main road with lots of friendly neighbors to look after me, no running water but i haul it from the tap next door, an outdoor shower and pit toilet. Looks like I´m getting the experience I expected after all! AJUDE at first told me they wouldn´t pay for it because it´s an apartment and I "didn´t follow procedure", I SWEAR beaurocracy is my worst enemy, but we´re talking now.
I´m moving in tomorrow with the help of my English friend Michael and there is an internet cafe in town so I will flesh this bone structure of a post out soon.
Much love
Allie
I went to Swaziland twice, once with my Danish friends Søren and Rasmus, (soon joined by the ever present Dougie from Canada, my resident brother), and again two days later with my friend Lina from Sweden. The place we stayed is about four hours from Maputo straight through, longer with the stop at the border and the change from bus to combi (the swazi term for chapa) in Manzini. Regardless, it is SO worth it. The part of Swazi we were in is "mountainous" only we pacific northwesterners have a different definition of "mountain" and "big hill". ;) Differing definitions or no, these old lava flow mounds are incredible, consisting of huge boulders of granite, striated granite and huge bare rock formations (forgive me John Richter, it has been SO long since year of the mountain)rising out of the forest in gravity-defying positions. Swaziland is rainier and more fertile than Mozambique, and even though it´s fall right now, the flowers, hibiscus, lillies, and flowering bushes of all kinds line the road. The backpackers lodge in which we, er, lodged, was breath-takingly landscaped, with a stream running through it, avocado trees, white lillies in huge clumps, aloe plants, purple flowering bushes and all sorts of cute and clever paths through the vegetation. It´s called Lidwala Lodge, and for €7 a night you get hot showers, free coffee and tea, a comfortable bunk bed, a big porch with an incredible view, and some of the best company in southern Africa. The lodge was partially filled with volunteers through a program called All-Out Africa, one that seems to be organized, up and running, fun, and jesus C-hrist I don´t think it is in any way corrupted, if you can believe it. They were mostly from England again, so i picked up a Northern English accent and with their help, I actually won a game of pool!
With the danes and dougie I went 4x4-ing....don´t freak out. I did it because it´s partially a community developement project and you get to see parts of Swazi you´d never get to without one....YES, it was terrifying and NO, i´m not doing it again, give me a fast horse any day.
Ok so apparently this internet cafe is closing early for no good reason..... Oh Africa, the beautiful, the stunning, the frustrating.
So there are things I need to say. First off, I have a position in Manhica now, teaching english at a Maristas Brothers religious school and teaching music and theatre at Manhica Cede, the local primary school. This should be perfect, although the curriculum I was given IS English from England, so Iºm gonna have to fudge the rhymes. And what is a block of flats??? An apartment building, right??
My apartment is mine, two little rooms in a house on the main road with lots of friendly neighbors to look after me, no running water but i haul it from the tap next door, an outdoor shower and pit toilet. Looks like I´m getting the experience I expected after all! AJUDE at first told me they wouldn´t pay for it because it´s an apartment and I "didn´t follow procedure", I SWEAR beaurocracy is my worst enemy, but we´re talking now.
I´m moving in tomorrow with the help of my English friend Michael and there is an internet cafe in town so I will flesh this bone structure of a post out soon.
Much love
Allie
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
And so it goes, and so it goes, la la la la la la la la...
Well. Just, just well. You know, well in that kind of harrumph-y ruffled englishwoman way.
Things here have turned upside down, AGAIN. I had just established my monday to friday routine in life; get up, work on things at home (teaching tools, toys, guitar, cleaning my room. yes. i do clean it. often, actually.), walk to work, change the baby, do building or drawing or singing or book reading with the kids, feed the baby, put the baby to sleep, walk home for lunch, walk back to work, play outside, teach COOPERATIVE recreation, walk home, go to bed. However, at work on friday afternoon, the chefa (or boss) Josina, happened to mention that the center was closing on saturday and that all the kids were being sent to other orphanages. I, of course, thought she was joking, but apparently not. I spent my last hour with my kids in a daze, wistfully looking at the progress I had made and the routine that was about to be destroyed. The kids were coming up to me and reciting parts of the alphabet, and we had only started that three days ago and they´re only four years old. Rozhinha spoke to me and came to sit by me and hang out with me all of her own accord, and that took a month of coaxing. And now, its gone.
The head Pastor of REMAR, the institution based in Spain, for some reason decided to close the Laulane branch of the Mozambican orphanages, and REMAR here in Maputo was only informed on Tuesday about its eminent closure. So now I am in the position I had hoped never to face. Jobless, with a family I dont like who feed me food I cant eat. (beef, beef, pork, pork, white rice and white bread. AAAAAAAH!!!)
Of course, I have many options, I can work in the completely overcrowded orphanage in Museu, without a quiet corner or any chance to create a routine. I could probably just chill, say that I was working and never show up again, no one would notice or care. But Im not like that, and I think I may have found a solution far better than either option.
Last weekend, not two days ago but the one before that, some volunteers and I went to a work camp in Manhiça, a small town about 100 kilometers from here. We set up camp in the central park, a huge twenty person tent and a few other regular sized ones, stayed up until the wee hours (yes, drinking, although my tummy didnt feel well so I only had a beer and a shot) and in the morning we walked to the central primary school next to the church. There one of the local men who works in MOZARTE, the arts center, gave an incredible ceramics demonstration, I have really never seen anyone make a pitcher that fast in my life. I herded kids and held toddlers up to see, most of them awed, a few of them annoyed, and some of them completely enraptured by the mulungo in their midst. Then we gathered in the shade under a tree to see the music demonstration, where Pati, a dancer from MOZARTE, danced galanga with this adorable little girl who was really really good!! so far as I can tell, galanga, like other types of African partner dances, has a few basic moves and many stylizing options, as does any folk dance. But the defining thing for me about African dances is the release. The way they allow their entire body to shake, to kick, buck, and generally wig out. There is something freer, and yes, more savage, dont tell me im racist, its just a description of the style of movement and certainly not all African dances are like this... Its just the way that they dance like there aint no one there, and thats the style.... Anyways, so in the ever-encroaching crowd of children, the teachers and I were constantly having to move the kids back, which produced the same phenomenon it does everywhere here. One would think that these people are desperately selfish if one didnt understand how simply destitute the majority of them are... Every inch counts for them, and boy, are they willing to fight for it. And how are they to know better when its their own principle poking them back with the handle of a broom?? (and what is it with brooms and child abuse????) So I managed as best I could, mainly by wading in and stopping the trample (nothing confuses little mozambican kids more than an assertive white girl), and pulling out the nastiest of the fighters. Really, the brutality here is horrifying, and when I saw the same kid beating on his peers time and time again, I just grabbed him.
He was a textbook example of an abuse and neglect victim, his only known method of communicating with others was through violence, as Im sure is the case in his home. But irascible Joaquim and I made a good pair. Oftentimes all a naughty child needs is some positive enforcement of positive values. I stood behind him, clasping his arms to his sides and making him dance, for truly, this was the only way to stop him from continually stabbing (with his pen), punching or kicking the children next to him. They all knew his ways and his temper with its 1\2 inch fuse. They would provoke him and run, fast, or respond to his provocation in kind, because just like him, that is all they have ever known. But my recognition of his existence in a positive way, dancing, hugging, even just the mere physical pressure from someone who visibly has his and his peers best interests at heart, plus the fact that this someone was a bit of a celebrity, new, and white and old but much older, all this combined to have him playing soccer, and even sitting and talking with the other children in a totally decent, non-violent, productive, normal way. It was incredible, seeing him go from seriously wailing on everyone in sight to calmly playing ball and sitting in the park with them... Probably one of the more rewarding achievements of my life, and one i´ll definitely remember.
He came to visit me the next day and we talked and drank juice and he actually picked up my phone from where I had dropped it and returned to me without anyone asking, a big deal for someone whos families wages from an entire month might not equal what this phone cost, and I bought it here for only 34 dollars.
The town inspired me, the next day some vols and I went down to the river and crossed it in a tiny boat, walked through the fields on a little insect safari, as we jokingly called it, and said hello to the solitary man living in the bitty power station who operated the two tiny turbines and managed the flow of water and power.
So this town has become my alternate possibility. I am going to visit the school tomorrow and ask them if they might not want a volunteer to help teach english and maybe start an after school theatre program.... (!!!) and then I´ll ask around for a host family. There are several there, the program bringing the immenently arriving English is housing them in Manhiça and I have several Moçambican friends with relatives there.
Hopefully it will work and I will work there during the week and come into town for the weekends and such... It really is a beautiful place with parks and the river and it has a vey relaxed ambience that is rather difficult to find here in this city of five million.
I still feel a bit as though my world has been shaken, I was really and truly in love with those kids, and I miss them so much already. This change opens up many options for me, but I was happy with my job, and could have put up with the family, no problem. Really I just feel sorry for my family, they are all so unhappy so much of the time..... From cholera to cinema, the world is burning people!!! Wake up!!! somebody hit the lights and find the hose and when the fire is out, what will we have lost? What parts will we rebuild and what must we change?
The ever confrontable questions still remain. What are we doing here? What truly matters? Is our manner of existing now wrong or just the fate of a self-destructive species? Should it be left alone, that we may complete our downward spiral and allow the world to re-emerge again without our evolutionary mistake? What the heck is a quark anyways and what good does it do? And for Christs sake. Where on EARTH does the other sock go?????????????????????
:) beijos para tudos,
love you and miss you,
Allie
p.s. pictures soon!!!
Things here have turned upside down, AGAIN. I had just established my monday to friday routine in life; get up, work on things at home (teaching tools, toys, guitar, cleaning my room. yes. i do clean it. often, actually.), walk to work, change the baby, do building or drawing or singing or book reading with the kids, feed the baby, put the baby to sleep, walk home for lunch, walk back to work, play outside, teach COOPERATIVE recreation, walk home, go to bed. However, at work on friday afternoon, the chefa (or boss) Josina, happened to mention that the center was closing on saturday and that all the kids were being sent to other orphanages. I, of course, thought she was joking, but apparently not. I spent my last hour with my kids in a daze, wistfully looking at the progress I had made and the routine that was about to be destroyed. The kids were coming up to me and reciting parts of the alphabet, and we had only started that three days ago and they´re only four years old. Rozhinha spoke to me and came to sit by me and hang out with me all of her own accord, and that took a month of coaxing. And now, its gone.
The head Pastor of REMAR, the institution based in Spain, for some reason decided to close the Laulane branch of the Mozambican orphanages, and REMAR here in Maputo was only informed on Tuesday about its eminent closure. So now I am in the position I had hoped never to face. Jobless, with a family I dont like who feed me food I cant eat. (beef, beef, pork, pork, white rice and white bread. AAAAAAAH!!!)
Of course, I have many options, I can work in the completely overcrowded orphanage in Museu, without a quiet corner or any chance to create a routine. I could probably just chill, say that I was working and never show up again, no one would notice or care. But Im not like that, and I think I may have found a solution far better than either option.
Last weekend, not two days ago but the one before that, some volunteers and I went to a work camp in Manhiça, a small town about 100 kilometers from here. We set up camp in the central park, a huge twenty person tent and a few other regular sized ones, stayed up until the wee hours (yes, drinking, although my tummy didnt feel well so I only had a beer and a shot) and in the morning we walked to the central primary school next to the church. There one of the local men who works in MOZARTE, the arts center, gave an incredible ceramics demonstration, I have really never seen anyone make a pitcher that fast in my life. I herded kids and held toddlers up to see, most of them awed, a few of them annoyed, and some of them completely enraptured by the mulungo in their midst. Then we gathered in the shade under a tree to see the music demonstration, where Pati, a dancer from MOZARTE, danced galanga with this adorable little girl who was really really good!! so far as I can tell, galanga, like other types of African partner dances, has a few basic moves and many stylizing options, as does any folk dance. But the defining thing for me about African dances is the release. The way they allow their entire body to shake, to kick, buck, and generally wig out. There is something freer, and yes, more savage, dont tell me im racist, its just a description of the style of movement and certainly not all African dances are like this... Its just the way that they dance like there aint no one there, and thats the style.... Anyways, so in the ever-encroaching crowd of children, the teachers and I were constantly having to move the kids back, which produced the same phenomenon it does everywhere here. One would think that these people are desperately selfish if one didnt understand how simply destitute the majority of them are... Every inch counts for them, and boy, are they willing to fight for it. And how are they to know better when its their own principle poking them back with the handle of a broom?? (and what is it with brooms and child abuse????) So I managed as best I could, mainly by wading in and stopping the trample (nothing confuses little mozambican kids more than an assertive white girl), and pulling out the nastiest of the fighters. Really, the brutality here is horrifying, and when I saw the same kid beating on his peers time and time again, I just grabbed him.
He was a textbook example of an abuse and neglect victim, his only known method of communicating with others was through violence, as Im sure is the case in his home. But irascible Joaquim and I made a good pair. Oftentimes all a naughty child needs is some positive enforcement of positive values. I stood behind him, clasping his arms to his sides and making him dance, for truly, this was the only way to stop him from continually stabbing (with his pen), punching or kicking the children next to him. They all knew his ways and his temper with its 1\2 inch fuse. They would provoke him and run, fast, or respond to his provocation in kind, because just like him, that is all they have ever known. But my recognition of his existence in a positive way, dancing, hugging, even just the mere physical pressure from someone who visibly has his and his peers best interests at heart, plus the fact that this someone was a bit of a celebrity, new, and white and old but much older, all this combined to have him playing soccer, and even sitting and talking with the other children in a totally decent, non-violent, productive, normal way. It was incredible, seeing him go from seriously wailing on everyone in sight to calmly playing ball and sitting in the park with them... Probably one of the more rewarding achievements of my life, and one i´ll definitely remember.
He came to visit me the next day and we talked and drank juice and he actually picked up my phone from where I had dropped it and returned to me without anyone asking, a big deal for someone whos families wages from an entire month might not equal what this phone cost, and I bought it here for only 34 dollars.
The town inspired me, the next day some vols and I went down to the river and crossed it in a tiny boat, walked through the fields on a little insect safari, as we jokingly called it, and said hello to the solitary man living in the bitty power station who operated the two tiny turbines and managed the flow of water and power.
So this town has become my alternate possibility. I am going to visit the school tomorrow and ask them if they might not want a volunteer to help teach english and maybe start an after school theatre program.... (!!!) and then I´ll ask around for a host family. There are several there, the program bringing the immenently arriving English is housing them in Manhiça and I have several Moçambican friends with relatives there.
Hopefully it will work and I will work there during the week and come into town for the weekends and such... It really is a beautiful place with parks and the river and it has a vey relaxed ambience that is rather difficult to find here in this city of five million.
I still feel a bit as though my world has been shaken, I was really and truly in love with those kids, and I miss them so much already. This change opens up many options for me, but I was happy with my job, and could have put up with the family, no problem. Really I just feel sorry for my family, they are all so unhappy so much of the time..... From cholera to cinema, the world is burning people!!! Wake up!!! somebody hit the lights and find the hose and when the fire is out, what will we have lost? What parts will we rebuild and what must we change?
The ever confrontable questions still remain. What are we doing here? What truly matters? Is our manner of existing now wrong or just the fate of a self-destructive species? Should it be left alone, that we may complete our downward spiral and allow the world to re-emerge again without our evolutionary mistake? What the heck is a quark anyways and what good does it do? And for Christs sake. Where on EARTH does the other sock go?????????????????????
:) beijos para tudos,
love you and miss you,
Allie
p.s. pictures soon!!!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
And so, indeed, things continue...
Life, it seems, flies by without one noticing. I know that must be one of the most overused cliches, but really, ill have been here a month tomorrow, and i could swear that I only flew in last week....
Things have been improving here in some areas, and continuing to lack in others. My project has, of course, captured my heart, there are now between eleven and twelve kids at the orphanage, depending on which women are working there. The women who staff the place are usually orphans themselves, raised in the system, without money or futures, they are stuck in the never-ending cycle of broken families until they die, young, usually, because the amount of disease in these centers is staggering. Out of the eleven living where I work, there is almost always one with malaria, and they all have some kind of chronic respiratory infection that looks like bronchitis, and Im dearly hoping isnt TB. The kids are fantastic, beginning with their names, Abeli, Aninha, Amarildo, Nono, Chertan, Nicoli, Julinho, Rozinha, Mattias, Aleixandro, and Carlitos, and ending with their incredible tenacity. Through the shouting and beatings they are dealt by their "care takers", through the minimal sanitation present where they live, no medical care to the point where each small scrape becomes a gigantic lesion and then scar because it is not treated properly if at all, and despite a total lack (except for the Eight to Five volunteers) of good role models, they remain intelligent, optimistic, sweet, eager to please, kind, willing and adorable. I am starting work full time next week, which means I can start some immersion lesson plans, Portuguese in the morning and English in the afternoon. As I only have a few months with them, and they all do get to go to school free of charge until theyre eighteen, Im aiming for basics, alphabet and counting in both languages, maybe some simple word groups....
Really, what I would like to impress upon them is that I love them, that someone loves them and cares, and even if they forget me completely, I will forever hold them in my heart, and they will have had at least that much of what they deserve.
I can hardly believe that anyone could deprive children as they are deprived, but I know that it happens every day and in such worse ways.
Enough, or I wont be able to write anything else. Wish I could fit them all in my suitcase and take them home with me. They make me incredibly hopefully and totally suicidal at the same time. Anyone reading this must promise me to treat every child with the utmost respect you can muster, because they are our mirrors in a way that is more truthful than anything I know. So:
HUG A CHILD TODAY, DAMMIT!
My host family has unfortunately turned out to be a little bit of my worst nightmare. They are like a typically dysfunctional American household, the father at a job that takes him away from the house for three days at a time, the mother speaks constantly in a tone that makes you cringe, always yelling and threatening to hit her children, the twin brothers in constant, slightly cruel competition, and the young daughter as spoiled as they come. However, they are all totally decent to me, which makes it even stranger... They tell me it will be a good experience for me, but Im not so sure. Dysfunctional families, especially of the argumentative kind have never been easy for me to handle...
And when I mentioned to this to the organization Im working with, I was told that this is simply the way things are done here. THATS scary. We (the volunteers) seem to be running into this problem quite a bit here. Its a sort of cultural, perhaps heat-induced lethargy, and I feel that it is what has allowed for the rampant corruption and general disastrous lack of infrastructure that is present in this country. It is really only to be expected, in the sudden switch from colonial slavery where less was more and the more one resisted working (because this meant for the Portuguese), the better. And before the Portuguese was a small community, tribal system which meant working for yourself, your family, and your village. So the whole imposed Western capitalist system, pushing buttons for a faceless corporation for pennies while witnessing the country your fought so hard for fall further into disrepair and disease, is not really viable here, and even if it were, no one has ever really taught people how to operate within it, and really, with the way that the Western capitalist systems are going now, who would want to?
The thing that keeps me working is the position at which I believe we find ourselves. Mozambique, like many other developing nations, has the advantage of loads of prior knowledge and the opportunity to create a lifestyle without committing the mistakes anyone else has. However, putting this creation idea into practice is just SO DAMN HARD!!!
Well, as Dougie would say, the Contrasts and Complaints Department is now closed, and there are definitely some things I should say before ending this latest blog.
The nightlife here is pretty fantastic, not in the least because I can order BEER!! No, im not drinking myself into a puddle, but I have been to two clubs, one of which, Coconuts, the biggest club in Sub-Saharan Africa, is brilliant, the other totally decent, except for the shitty house music, and the VOLUNTEERS HERE ARE FUCKING MAD!!!! Everyone is smart, mature, interesting, kind, cool, and most a bit nerdy, which, you know, is necessary for me to like anyone... :) They form the kind of support network that the organization does not provide, and they are my bread, jam, and butter. In fact, its a bit odd, here I was, expecting to work my butt off, and instead every weekend im bar hopping, beach bumming and eating delicious fried chicken and coleslaw and the occasional coke. My favorite thing about people here is their love of laughter. Their Portuguese may sound like its all queijas, complaints, grunando (grumbling) and shouting arguments, but say hello and their faces crack open with smiles that light up the whole road. The best is to be called Mulungo, the word for whitey in the local dialect of Changaan, and to wave back and say Mulande, blackie. Hysterics, every time, even though its the only two words I know!!!! Speaking of speaking, i aim to take classes in Changaan, its fairly pretty and damned useful here....
In conclusion, things here are hard, but thats what I was looking for. Full of despair, but also of laughter, I feel like this experience will cement me as a person, after this I will know what is the what, if you know what I mean.... :P
May this post find you all in the best of health and happiness, I miss you and love you, beijos,
allie
allie.unisus@gmail.com
allie
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Second Installation
Each day I spend here seems to be more of a contradiction. Even though I feel as though i am discovering more about Maputo and its inhabitants each day, so do i also feel as though for every one thing I puzzle out, six different and more complicated and shrouded things appear beneath it. Much of my situation here is operating on double standards, from the prices for mulangos (white people) and the prices for everyone else, to the mission of this organization and the reality that I am discovering. Things are certainly never what they seem.
Take this as an example. This tuesday some friends and I went to the beach, a semi-touristy place that advertised turquoise waters called Bilene. The 100 kilometer journey was a real thing, forty minutes haggling about the price only to have to pay the original upped price anyways. Then after two hours of bearable chapa ride, (the windows were down, the breeze was good and the company very enjoyable) the tire completely blew out and we were stranded on the side of the road for an hour and a half. This, however, was also not terrible, there were some nice acacia trees where we climbed and rested in the shade. Then we piled back in the chapa for another hour and after one more twenty-five minute chapa ride, we finally arrived at the beach. I plunged into the lagoon and struck out for the other side, meeting my friend simon a little ways out. We swam and picked our way through zebra clam beds (they cut like razors!!) for a few hours....a few hours longer than we thought. What with the buoyancy of the super salty water and chatting all the way, it took so much longer than we thought to reach the island that by the time we eventually headed back (thankfully catching a ride in a boat with a local fisherman), our friends had called the police and hired a boat to come look for us!!! To top it off, apparently swimming to that island is prohibited, as is walking on the Island, because of traditional rituals that used to take place there and the huge amount of negative beliefs about swimming to this Island. After we got the legal bit sorted out (no repercussions other than a stern talking to because the police chief couldnt be found) the night turned into a bad movie, wed missed the last chapa home, so we had to look for a hotel, only nothing was open, so we camped out in front of a hotel for a while until it started to rain, and then we wandered some more until we ended up sleeping in the police barracks for money we said wed pay in the morning!!!! Attempting to take money out was also a bit of a nightmare, at that point I hadnt eaten for 24 hours, and we were going to be in BIG trouble if we couldnt get money somehow. The police here are not known for their kindness. Luckily, a local shop owner took pity on me and allowed me to take cash out on my card.
And yet being on that Island ranks among the top experiences of my life. Apart from a few bits of plastic washed up on the ocean side of the island, it looked as pristine as it must have a thousand years ago. We felt like we were on Gullivers Island, or treasure island, or one of those bad survivor tv shows, because all we had with us was ourselves. No shoes, no water, no clothes... Just our swimsuits, and somehow that added to the experience, because we felt as though we werent intruding in any way, simply offering of ourselves as the Island offered of itself. Its white sands, dragonflies, fronds, bushes, reeds and massive sand dunes could have formed the set for a Jurassic Park film, and they were beautiful in themselves. But nothing compared to the Indian Ocean on the other side. Sweeping steeply down to the crashing surf, the white sands were populated by thousands of pink crabs that darted in and out of waves, and the sky above the sea rose pristinely turquoise forever. I certainly believe that there was something special about that stretch of beach, whether it was spirits as is the local belief, the concentrated force of untouched nature, or the impression of solidarity and harmony that such original beauty provided, whatever it was, it was a powerful thing.
Also as I believed that for tropical nations that the rains caused only good, bounty and joy, so I had not taken into consideration the urban systems. Streets, which are only packed earth to begin with, washed away completely in places, rubbish was strewn everywhere, (more than usual, which is saying something) whole neighborhoods were flooded, and cases of cholera rose by 30%. Thankfully my bairro was spared, and aside from having the transportation become much more packed as less chapas were driving, my life was unaffected, but hundreds of people lost lives and property.
However, the worst double standards have been those of the program I am working with. The organization is not paying for my living costs as it said that it would, and how clever of them to say that they wont pay any visa related costs, because the only type of visa you can get requires you to leave the country once every thirty days, and I have to pay all of those costs. This organization is not even paying for my toilet paper. If my family doesnt prefer to use it, its on my bill. The host families are also a problem, many dont even seem to want a volunteer to live with them and dont provide for their resident volunteers at all. The work postings are also a bit of a joke, we are put wherever, regardless of any previous skills, and so far, 75% of them say that they are not actually needed at their projects, and they havent really done much in their time here.
Im looking into solutions and I really hope that I will succeed, but if anyone ever asks you about United Planet, tell them to not touch it with a ten foot pole.
Not all is bad, not at all, in fact its felt quite a bit like a vacation, lots of writing and chilling and practicing my guitar, along with super warm weather, beach trips and lots of going out for drinks with the other volunteers and friends. And i am TAN!!!!!!!!!! This is the first tan of my life, and Im quite excited. We cook at each others houses, and some friends host families are totally amazing. Im having a blast, but I miss you all, so send me an email, or comment on here, I love to hear from people.
Love,
Allie
allie.unisus@gmail.com
Monday, February 9, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
FIRST FEW DAYS>>
Sapphire blue skies, air that's more water than air, red earth and terrible instant coffee.
From the first minute I arrived, it's been an adventure. So far, only the police and the driving scare me, and then not too much at all. Things have been much more comfortable than I could ever have imagined. Each volunteer I met at the orientation camp (held at a tourist resort complete with pool and bar) is a total gem, there are eight of us, Mette and Katerine from Denmark, Alex from England, Simon from Germany, Alma from Iceland, Lina from Sweden and Dougie from Canada. And everyone is happy, laughing, joking, jovial, kind, willing to help, to tell you the truth, I was not expecting to have this much fun!!! It may sound cliche, but it's true. My host family is great, my two little brothers are very kind and interesting and funny, they love my guitar, and my host sister a bit spoiled but very fun. I don't know much about my host parents yet, they've been away most of the time, but the brothers (Benito and Franz) take care of everything. My house has a bathroom with a toilet, bidet and bathtub, but no running water most of the time, so we operate on a bucket system. :) lots and lots of buckets. There is a tv (i saw Popeye yesterday!!!), stereo, and gas stove.
From the first minute I arrived, it's been an adventure. So far, only the police and the driving scare me, and then not too much at all. Things have been much more comfortable than I could ever have imagined. Each volunteer I met at the orientation camp (held at a tourist resort complete with pool and bar) is a total gem, there are eight of us, Mette and Katerine from Denmark, Alex from England, Simon from Germany, Alma from Iceland, Lina from Sweden and Dougie from Canada. And everyone is happy, laughing, joking, jovial, kind, willing to help, to tell you the truth, I was not expecting to have this much fun!!! It may sound cliche, but it's true. My host family is great, my two little brothers are very kind and interesting and funny, they love my guitar, and my host sister a bit spoiled but very fun. I don't know much about my host parents yet, they've been away most of the time, but the brothers (Benito and Franz) take care of everything. My house has a bathroom with a toilet, bidet and bathtub, but no running water most of the time, so we operate on a bucket system. :) lots and lots of buckets. There is a tv (i saw Popeye yesterday!!!), stereo, and gas stove.
Things are much more expensive than I had hoped, either comparable or or only a little bit cheaper. Food, especially since I dont know the proper prices for items, so Im sure Im getting over charged. But aside from that things are great here, though Im dying for a fan.
I miss you all tons and hope to hear from you soon, either email me allie.unisus@gmail.com or drop me a post on facebook or right here on this blog.
Love,
Allie
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
OPEN HOUSE MONDAY JAN 19th!!!!
I almost forgot!!! There is to be an open house from 1:00PM-11:00PM Monday at my house, please call or email for my address if you don't have it, so if you would like to say goodbye, drop on in!!!
Bring food or drink or advice or music or what have you, mostly bring yourself!!
Hope to see you then.
Allie
Bring food or drink or advice or music or what have you, mostly bring yourself!!
Hope to see you then.
Allie
Monday, January 12, 2009
In the beginning...
Oi~ (Portuguese for hello!)
On the 20th of January, I begin my biggest adventure yet. After 38 hours in transit, (@_@) I will arrive in Maputo, Mozambique, where, through the program United Planet-International Youth Cultural Exchange, I will be living and working for six months. I will be living with a host family, the Gaves, a mother, father, twin eleven-year-old boys and a six-year-old daughter. My job posting is with a charity organization called REMAR (look 'em up on the web!), and I have the pleasure to be working with 0-5 year-olds at an orphanage in the same neighborhood as where I'll be staying. Woohoo for more public transit. Every day. Awesome. At least this won't be another three busses to CHS every morning.
I'll be keeping this blog as regularly as I can, but I'm not sure what kind of access I'll have to a computer. However, I now get email on my phone, so feel free to contact me at allie.unisus@gmail.com No, this is not facebook. Nor is it myspace. Drag your old hotmail account out of the trash and dust it off, because chances are I won't be able to check my fb. So there.
For all that I'm leaving... I'll be back! Perhaps not immediately, my return ticket goes as far as Frankfurt and from there I have options, but I shall return! I have been accepted to Western Washington University, Cal State Northridge and Washington State University at Pullman so far, and I have a few applications pending. However, if there is one thing I am good at doing, it is being flexible about the future.
I'll miss you all and think of you often, so tchau, e um abracao forte.
Allie
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