Under the Milky Way

Last night we enjoyed a final island dinner of shima, fish, and vegetable curry. It was so delicious and half of our group was totally impressed by our shima-eating skills (aka using our hands). Then, a young guy who works at the place we're staying at and who had escorted us to the restaurant, took us to a discoteca - basically a village dance bar. There was really loud music and flashing disco lights and NO people. We went to grab beers and then they closed the door and said we had to pay to get in.....to an empty dance floor. So silly. Instead we all sat for a bit before walking back to our lodge down the dark, sandy streets with a twinkling sky stretched above us. This morning we woke up with the call to prayer at 4:30. The sound of the call was like a distant hum echoing in the nearby village. As we shuffled down to the port in the early dawn, the island was hauntingly quiet; the silence only broken by the lapping waves. Approaching the dock, we found it completely d...

Today was one of the coolest days of my life (I've said this phrase so many times since I moved to Africa, I know). Instead of beginning the journey back to Malawi today, Kelly and I were convinced to stay another day on the island by our newfound traveling friends. (We also decided to stay because so far we had only had one chill day and three full travel days!) This morning, we got on a boat at the dock on the island and headed out to sea. After maybe 20-30 minutes, we began to see dolphin fins on the water! We got our snorkeling gear ready and when we got close enough, we jumped in the water and swam to find them. I (and two others) caught up to them and swam quickly after them. At this point I was DIRECTLY above them in the water, and I could count all 10 of them as we swam along together. It was the craziest feeling ever just swimming along with these dolphins-watching them flip over and swim upside down and couple up and swim in pairs. The water was bright turquoise and you c...

After a full day in Pemba, Kelly and I were not suuuuper impressed. So we decided to make the trip to a nearby island named Ibo. It's in Quirimbas National Park in Northern Mozambique. That day we traveled via so many modes of transport. We started with a hitch to town, then we got in a chapa (a mini bus) for an hour. Next we were in a matola or a flatbed truck for an hour. Then we were dropped at a dirt road. We made friends with some people there at the "trading center;" Kelly helping some boys with their English homework and both of us enjoying feeling like we were back in the village for a bit. There were no cars or trucks going in our direction for over an hour, so I was starting to get a little nervous. Right when I was wondering if we'd reach the island that day, a car with three azungus in it turned the corner. We wildly waved our arms and thankfully they stopped. We rode with them to the dhow port where we then took a 30 or so minute motorized boat ...

Kelly and I are thoroughly enjoying our vacation now after the 2 days of travel to get here! On our first day in Pemba, we went for an exploring run (when you go out for a run and walk/stop where you want to see things more). We stopped to watch a major dance party at a school or something before approaching the cluster of women with their buckets of  treats and buying at least one of everything. These snacks included little twisty things, scones, mandasi, etc. Then we decided to run to Pemba town. We found an ATM, a covered market similar to malawi, and wandered around some. Neither of us were very impressed and people were a lot more hassle-y in town. So we got a hitch back to our place and decided to have lunch (seafood of course!) and go play in the ocean. So that's exactly what we did!  The water was decently warm and pretty clear although it was very shallow! Most of the time we were only swimming in like 2-3 feet of water, and you could walk o...

We made it to Mozambique! Kelly (my PCV travel buddy) and I are here in Pemba, Mozambique on the coast of the Indian Ocean. All of our travel plans fell through the day before we were going to leave, so we had a bit of a scramble with our trip. And we got so lucky! My wonderful friends at the tea estate who live even closer to the border than I do, let us stay at their home and even drove us to the border crossing at 6 AM after a cup of coffee. We got to the border and crossed through in maybe 30-45 minutes. Thankfully people right around the border still spoke Chichewa, so it was fairly easy to communicate. We started on our way-our plan being solely to hitch or catch local transport if that didn't work out (it was a Sunday which is a hard day to hitch sometimes with low amounts of traffic). And, SURPRISE, Kelly is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and Spanish are almost the same. So she has saved us on this trip!!!! We stood on the side of the road trying to get a ride to Mocu...

I legitimately don't think people in the village sleep during the month of August when initiation ceremonies are happening. Usually by  8 PM  in the village, it's completely silent. Maaaaybe you'll hear the footsteps of someone walking home. However, this past week, there's so much commotion outside at night! Either it's girls singing and dancing, large groups of boys or girls walking through the village and chanting, distance drums and yelling, or my neighbors up late chatting; it's been wild! Right now it sounds like there's a massive party happening in the middle of the village. It sounds so fun, and I wish I could go find it and see what's going on! I've already learned my lesson once tonight though. My neighbor kids were over when we heard a group of boys chanting and coming right by our houses. We ran out to see them but it was too dark, so we grabbed my headlamp and one of them shined it on them. The boys acted surprised, one or two of them ca...

This morning, I dragged my sleepy self out of bed at 6:15 (or maybe it was 6:30....) to get prepared to go to the health center. While I was getting dressed, I heard ridiculously loud sobbing and screaming next door. I peeked out my window and saw a neighbor kid wailing. On my way out, I stopped by to see what the commotion was about. She had burned herself playing with the fire that the kids make every morning with the leaves that the amayis sweep out of the yard. Especially during cold season, everywhere you walk, you see kids huddled around smoky little fires  in the morning before it warms up. She was still sobbing very loud as I checked it out. I ran back down to my house to grab an Aloe Vera clump and came back up with it. As I approached her to slather a little bit of the gel on her burn, she was absolutely terrified and her  agogo  (grandmother) legitimately had to hold her arm out so I could put some on it. Drama drama drama!  At our health center, Thursday ...

This morning, the air was thick and damp and in the rays of sunlight, you could see the moisture dancing around. I woke up and literally ran to my sitemate's village to help her with her very first SOLID meeting! Since I am the southern region coordinator for this training program, part of my responsibility is supporting other volunteers, so I was happy to go and be there for her. On my way, I "ran into" my village running buddy, and he decided he would run with me to wherever I was going. So together we ran down through fields of tea, into the dambo (the low land next to the river where people grow most of their vegetables), hopped across the rocks in the river, and huffed and puffed our way up the very steep path up to Nessa village. Thankfully Tanvi saved me some sweet potatoes and tea for when I arrived and lent me a chitenjen to wear to the meeting. Things went very smoothly although Tanvi put me on the spot and made me lead energizers in front of the group! After th...

Highlights of the day: I taught Judy and Ester (my 8- and 9-year old neighbors) how to use a Chichewa- English dictionary this morning. They still aren't awesome at it, but little by little I think they'll get it and it will be a useful skill for them in the future!  At lunchtime, Judy came, as she has the past few days, with a plate of nsima to share with me. Instead of eating it on my porch like usual, I let her come in although my house was a complete disaster with materials for various projects strewn everywhere. Then of course her mom and little brother (Bule) came walking on in. Being in my house is like a treat for the kids because there's so much stuff everywhere to look at and touch. Usually I try to hide things away when I know people are coming over just so I don't look like a rich mzungu with all kinds of awesome to things in my house. This time though, I was exposed! Bule sat there the whole time while Judy and I ate, pointing things out-I was slightly emba...

Today I'm going to write in reverse order.... The air is filled with songs tonight as a group of maybe 15-25 girls are singing and clapping nearby. August is the month of initiation ceremonies (think girls becoming women and boys becoming men), so a lot of commotion in the village after dark. While this sound used to be so cool and "cultural" to me, now all I can think about are the potentially negative practices that might be happening. When I ask, people always tell me that during initiation, kids "learn to respect their elders." If that isn't a cover up then I don't know what is! But recently, a younger couple who I'm friends with dished a little more of the truth. Basically, both boys and girls are learning about sex and their changing bodies (puberty) as well as other cultural ideas/practices/behaviors by village elders. In our pre-service training for PC, we learned that SOME places are still doing old cultural practices like having the kid...

Day 2 This morning, I journeyed to Limbuli market which is the big market at the Mozambique border. To get there, I walk 3 miles down to the road and then board a mini bus that takes maybe 20 minutes. I left my house around 7 AM and hustled down to the road, making it there in good time. I was going to the market to buy zitenje or old bed sheets as well as towels/blankets to use for pad making this coming week. Now, I've only been to Limbuli 3 times previously-none of which did I spend a ton of time looking around. The place is super sketchy with massive crowds of people everywhere (legit, the road is almost overtaken by shoppers and bikers), but it's also a gold mine for anything and everything you might want. I brought a big plastic Africa tote bag with me and wandered around. Mostly I bought the things on my list plus a few other materials for potential projects (red, yellow, and blue oil paint as well as some maize sacks). Then as I was about to leave, I decided I should e...

Alright! So I've decided to try to do my own "blog challenge." Because so many people ask what my daily schedule is like, I am going to try to write every day for the next month (except for the week when I'm in Mozambique and have no service😉).  Today was a pretty typical day of running around doing a million things (or that's what it felt like anyway). I overslept a little, allowing myself to drift back into sleep after every time my alarm tried to wake me to go for a run. When I finally woke up, it was almost time to go meet my counterpart. I gulped down some cold tea from last night and gnawed on some biltong from town then rushed off to his house. We walked a mile along the dirt road to the primary school while discussing upcoming projects and as I gawked at the mountain. It was damn beautiful this morning-crystal clear with a dazzlingly blue backdrop of sky and a few wispy clouds resting on peaks. We met with the head teacher at the primary school to ask per...