21 December 2009

P.S. Merry Christmas!

I keep on forgetting that Christmas is coming in 4 days.  It might have something to do with the 90 degree heat and lack of snow.  And since I have no electricity, when I want to listen to Christmas music, my best options are to sing or whistle it.  I think I will spend Christmas on Xai-xai beach, which, although is as antithetical to my typical midwestern Christmas as possible, will certainly be festive and memorable. 
I´ve had requests for my new mailing address and care package ideas.  The best mailing address will still be the Maputo address; mail sent there will eventually reach me, and as inefficient as that may sound, I believe it is the best option. 
Alycia Overbo
c/o Corpo da Paz
Av. do Zimbabwe No. 345
Maputo, Mozambique
As for care package ideas, I would be thrilled to receive anything, but I´d be especially happy to receive wasabi soy almonds (found at your local Kmart or Target), black licorice, instant pudding mix, stickers for students, ground coffee, granola bars, books, magazines, or maybe a new t-shirt or tanktop, as excessive sweating and handwashing are together killing my clothing.
Lots of love to you all, and best wishes for your holiday season!

Chapter V: And Then I Smuggled a Cat into Gaza

Life in Mozambique thus far has been fairly eventful (to say the least), but the last two weeks have been particularly noteworthy. On Tuesday Dec. 8, we trainees went to Maputo to be officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers and on Wednesday, we packed up and left Namaacha. It was sad to say goodbye to my PCV friends and host family, but after 10 weeks of Portuguese classes, medical sessions, and culture lectures, it was time for a change.
And what a change it is; after a short conference in Xai-xai to meet our supervisors, I traveled to Chimundo, Gaza province, which will be my site and my home for the next 2 years. I arrived that Friday morning with my supervisor, my bags and, much to the surprise of my supervisor, my kitten Bea, whom I successfully concealed throughout the entire trip from Namaacha. Bea and I were dropped off at the school and made a short trek to our new home, which is on school grounds. My first impressions of the house were very positive; it is quaint, with a grass bathhouse, outdoor latrine, two bedrooms, and sizeable main room. My second impressions were a little overwhelming; I quickly saw that the only furniture in the house was my bed, a small plastic shelf, and two plastic chairs. Also, the house has no electricity. However, my house has a kerosene lamp, a gas burner, dishes, and notably, a Mozambican roommate, Amelia, who is a fellow teacher at my school. Amelia has been very patient and helpful in the last week, showing me where to get rides to the nearby city of Chibuto, cooking for us, and introducing me to her family in Chibuto. Bea and I have a standing invitation there to wash clothes and take advantage of their electricity, and I fully intend to take them up on that, especially since Amelia and my other colleagues are leaving Chimundo for the holidays. Thankfully, there is another volunteer who lives in Chimundo, so I can easily visit her and her electricity oasis. Meanwhile, since school doesn’t start for another month, Bea and I will start working on furniture acquisition and try our hand at Mozambican foods. We should have plenty to keep ourselves occupied.

30 November 2009

November Rain, November Sun, November Gone

So… November! I’ve come to the conclusion that November is the universal month of crummy weather. For every day of sun in Namaacha, we have had five days of rain, and weeks of continuous mud. I think I’m getting all of my cold and rainy days in Mozambique upfront, so I’m trying to embrace it.
Anyway, while I was waiting for my laundry and the cement walls of my room to dry in the perennial humidity, November sneakily flew past me. In mid-November, we went to different cities in Mozambique to visit current volunteers. I traveled to northern Mozambique to visit a volunteer who coincidentally stayed with my family two years ago during training. The family was overjoyed that I was going to visit her, and gave me a bag full of cake, fruit, and special Namaacha bread for her, which I dutifully dragged onto the airplane and chapas (overcrowded mini-buses) throughout my journey across Mozambique. She was a great hostess, so my ill feelings about lugging the large plastic bag of food quickly dissipated. We traveled around the area a little bit, seeing Ile de Mocambique and Chokis, the most perfect beach I have ever seen in my life. It was informative to see another site and meet current volunteers, but it was effectively like a Peace Corps-sponsored vacation. It was fantastic, and I’d like to think, well-deserved.
It’s a good thing we had that break, because upon returning to Namaacha, there was an explosion of activity with preparations for model school. We have been teaching students biology, chemistry, and English from 7:30 AM until 11 AM for the last two weeks. School is out of session right now, so the students are volunteers who are motivated by either certificates, free school supplies, cookies, or learning. I had a particularly energetic class, which was a blessing and a curse, but a good no-stakes crash-course in classroom management before going to site. They did well on our test and were excited to receive their treats and certificates, especially because I took photos of all of them receiving the certificates. This is a huge reward here; even though the students don’t receive photos, getting to see their photo and imagining me showing people in America is “ultimo”. The students were pretty adorable today, and a few asked for autographs. I even got to sign the backpack of one of my favorite students. Aww. At times, the idea of teaching biology in Portuguese every day for the next two years is daunting, but things like that are great perks.

26 October 2009

Ninjas of Namaacha and Muito Mais!

Where do I begin? I’ll start at 5:40 in the morning, an hour of day I never thought I’d see on a regular basis, the hour I emerge from my mosquito net. I start my day by brushing my teeth outside at the rock wastewater drain. Upon seeing the whites of my eyes, my mae boils water for my bath, either over a fire or in a hotpot, which I later carry to the reed bathhouse in my small, multipurpose bacia (tub) for my bucket-bath. After getting ready for the day, I have a little instant coffee and fresh bread with jam and peanut butter; on Fridays, I also take a little malaria prophylaxis with my morning coffee. The morning Portuguese classes are small and are held at volunteers’ host homes. This week, they’re at my house, and the other 4 biology volunteers in my class get to experience the biodiversity of my home, with the multitude of pigs, ducks, and chickens that roam the yard (I sleep well at night knowing I have Tamiflu on hand). After language class, I walk with my fellow trainees to our education classes, winding/hiking our way out of our bairro (neighborhood) along the red dusty walkways. Cross-cultural and language application classes follow, and we generally wrap up by 4 or 5 in the evening. When I get home, my sister Anina gets me a Coke and a package of cookies for my lanche (snack). (I also receive a package of cookies for my morning snack; I would say that cookies and soda compose about 20% of my diet here, so I try to share with my special lanches with my sibs or the various visiting neighbor children.) I usually do a little T.P.C. (trabalha para casa (homework)), play with my little brother Pedro, and sit outside with my sisters Anina and Atalia as they prepare dinner. I chat with them and with my brother Castro as I wait for opportunities to be remotely helpful (usually stirring, but occasionally chopping veggies). For dinner we typically eat rice, a meat or coconut/vegetable dish, cucumber salad, fresh fruit, and for me, Fanta. (Soda is cheaper than bottled water, so I just brush my teeth at the rock for a little longer to compensate for my copious sugar consumption.) While we eat, we watch “Beia y Feia”, a thinly-veiled Brazilian rip-off of “Ugly Betty”, and I’m not going to lie, I thoroughly enjoy it. Coincidentally, my host dad generally becomes very chatty around this time, but on nights when he goes to bed early, I watch with my mom and she explains things to me. By this time, it’s about 9:30 or 10, time for me to hit the sack and crawl back under my mosquito net.
Filling in the gaps from that brief narrative, my Portuguese is improving and I’m slowly weeding out my Spanish accent and replacing it with “sh” and “ao” sounds. I have already given three biology presentations in Portuguese in my education classes, so at present, a disproportionate amount of my vocabulary is related to water pressure in plants, the structure and functions of skin, and the circulatory system, but it will all even out eventually. If you want to learn a little Portuguese, the word for "thief" in Portuguese is "ninja"; we´ve been having fun with that one.
The weather is variable but great; Namaacha is temperate, being at a high altitude, and getting dressed in the morning is a daily exercise in luck and probability. Mornings are typically cool, and afternoons can either heat up past 80 degrees Fahrenheit or just hang out at 60 degrees Fahrenheit under cloudy skies. It keeps things exciting.
All in all, things are going just swimmingly. I have a phone here, so if anyone wants to give me a jingle, email me and I´ll happily give you my digits. I left out just a few details of the last month (ha!), so there is plenty to chat about.

02 October 2009

Across the World in 15 Hours and/or 10 Business Days


I can never get over the strange disconnect of traveling; a person can get on a plane, watch a few movies, have a few snacks, and then land in a completely foreign place, another world.  After landing in Maputo yesterday afternoon, we haven't had much opportunity to explore this new world, being restricted to the hotel for security purposes, but we're still getting exposure to the Mozambican world outside of our hotel through extensive orientations and presentations.  And through our Portuguese language interview, which was effective foreshadowing to how wretched my communication will be for a while.  My miming skills, however, will improve drastically.
We've essentially had a crash course on Peace Corps service in these last two days, and tomorrow, we drive to Namaacha to meet our host families.  I don't think there will be much internet availability in Namaacha, so until my phone gets set up, the best way to communicate with me is probably snail mail.  If a person were to write me a letter, a person might expect to receive mail in return, and if this would be strong enough incentive, mail would be sent to: 

Alycia Overbo, PCV
c/o U. S. Peace Corps Mozambique
Avenida Zimbabwe 345
Maputo, Mozambique

And in case Mom is worrying, I have gotten most of my immunizations (and subsequently can't comfortably lift my arms above my head), so I'm not coming home with typhoid fever.  Tudo bem, everything is good!

13 September 2009

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

I've never been to Philadelphia, and my knowledge of Philadelphia is fairly limited; thinking of Philadelphia mostly brings to mind the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and cream cheese. So while I will be in Philadelphia for less than 24 hours for my pre-departure orientation on September 29, I won't need to see much to greatly increase my knowledge of the city. And since my group of volunteers will be checking out of our hotel at 2:30 AM the following morning for a bus ride to NYC and 15-hour trans-Atlantic flight to Johannesburg, I don't think I'll need to worry about losing beauty sleep in Philadelphia. There should be ample opportunity to catch up. (If anyone is wondering, we have no layover, so evidently planes can fly for 15 hours without refueling. Evidently.)
After flying from Johannesburg to Maputo, we will have a three-day orientation where we'll learn basic survival Portuguese, get our immunizations, and receive safety advice. On day three, we will travel to Namaacha and meet the host families we'll stay with throughout the 10 weeks of training. Hopefully we'll learn valuable bits of conversational Portuguese during orientation, because my Portuguese vocabulary currently spans greetings, numbers, colors, major cities, and days of the week. At least I can tell my host family that my favorite day of the week is Thursday, and that I've never been to Moscow. It's a start.

12 August 2009

Mozambique Romances Recaptured

Some of my family and friends perusing this newly-christened blog may be under the impression that I have been in Africa during the last year. Some might (understandably) think I am still working in Fargo or that I am still hitting the books at St. Olaf. So to get everyone on the same page (bad pun), here is the scoop: I am leaving for Mozambique at the end of September to teach biology as a Peace Corps volunteer (and yes, I did graduate college).
I applied to the Peace Corps during my senior year of college and was accepted and slated for departure to Portuguese-speaking Africa (effectively Mozambique) in September 2008. Later that summer, the Peace Corps was following-up on my application and learned of a recent death in my family. After 12 months of applications and preparations,
I was suddenly deferred due to their "major life event policy". Since I hadn't known this policy existed, it was a bit of a surprise; in short, it was time to get a job.
Thankfully, I found one. For the last 10 months, I worked as a medical writer at a clinical research facility in Fargo, which was a great experience. But when my "major life event" deferment expired, I found I was still itching to volunteer with the Peace Corps and work on my Portuguese. So here I am. Here we are. Hence the blog.
Speaking of the blog itself, in case some folks are curious about the titles of the blog and of this post, they are borrowed from Walt Kelly's Pogo (above, left). His subtle views and voice seemed appropriate, but it's mostly a nod to my dad, who was a Pogo fan and a former Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines.
So without further ado, here is alycia's will be that was, or highlights and musings from my upcoming 27 months in Mozambique. I hope you like Technicolor-inspired color schemes.