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

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

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!!!