The Carpenter I never was, but always wanted to be

12/23/2016

The past 3 weeks I’ve been slowly working on making my house my home. My roommate, Curtis, has been living in Namuno for one year now and has one year left in his Peace Corps service. On my first day in our house, Curtis offered to take his decorations out of the main living room so that we could decorate together! Needless to say, I told him the living room was just fine (he has a US flag and a few sports flag around the room along with some local decorations). For the past year Curtis has been living in Namuno alone so he was using one bedroom as his and the other to store sport, workout, and game equipment. He cleared out the second bedroom prior to my moving in. Additionally, he was using bookshelves/a dresser as kitchen shelves but let me use it once I moved in.

And starting on day 2 in my site began the building. Since all our kitchen supplies were on the ground, I began by building kitchen shelves. Using leftover bamboo and tire from the market I built the shelves you can see below! My town sells tire that has been cut up to various sizes and thicknesses so I used tire-rope to lash the bamboo together. Fortunately, growing up I had various opportunities to learn how to lash wood together to build structures. One summer I spent an entire week with a friend (shout out to John Barth) just building things out of rope and wood and learning about knots! In the past I have built a trebuchet along with some other random stuff. After a few trips to my market’s hardware stores and a few days, my kitchen shelves were complete! Next step was to work on unpacking my bags and setting up my room.

Up until Wednesday night of this week (two days ago), I had been sleeping on a thick sleeping bad on the ground. No bed and no mattress upon my arrival to site. Peace Corps gave me clearance to buy a bedframe and mattress for reimbursement, so I went out and bought a mattress. Unfortunately, my town only sells bedframes for queen mattresses and I bought a twin so that it would fit better in my room. I had two choices, build my own bedframe or go to Montepuez, buy one, and pay to have someone bring it to Namuno or just build my own! I’ve always wanted to learn more about carpentry so I made the only logical choice – build my own bedframe! Up in the north we call them Makua beds because the southern parts of Mozambique don’t build them. They’re made from wood with a reed-rope weaving for the bed part.

I began watching YouTube videos about joint making with wood, continued to frequent the market for tools, and began buying wood and reed-rope. My town has some lumber but it’s extremely expensive: a 2x4 can sell for 150-200 Meticals. Comparatively, a log of about the same size or smaller costs 30 Meticals.  Step 1: debark the wood. It’s hot and tiring but oddly fun to debark wood with a machete. Step 2: Measure, Measure, Measure once more and then make cuts with my handsaw. Step 3: Sand down the legs and attempt to make them more level. Cuts with a handsaw and without any workbench or table make it more difficult to have level cuts – especially when you’re a beginner carpenter. Step 4: Measure and begin the Mortise and Tenon joints. These joints are some of the strongest but each one would take me 60 to 90 minutes to build the Mortise and another hour to build the tenon – there were 8 of these joints in total. By this time, I had about 8 blisters on my right hand. Most had broken and half of those either had blood blisters or another blister forming underneath. On day 7 of construction, I begin the reed-rope weave. I’m about 75% done with the weave when I realize one of the tenons has strong signs of degradation. It was a joint I rushed and only spent 30 minutes fitting the tenon to its mortise hole. Frustrated and tired of sleeping on the floor I began the process of thinking about potential solutions. I tried to fix the joint and continued the weave. Shortly thereafter, the entire joint broke.

I did the one thing sports has trained me to do – I took a deep sigh, went outside, and began debarking another tree to replace my broken piece. I bought a few hourly data packets and played my YouTube pump up playlist I usually listen to while working out. In my rage, my machete slips and cuts threw the glove I was using. Hilariously, I cut my left thumb (I’m fine now) right above where I cut my thumb growing up! I have a large scar on the inside of my left thumb from some carpentry I attempted to do in Middle School. I was using a chisel and it slipped – the result being my scar. I could only help but laugh at my hand full of blood. Damn, sometimes I’m straight stupid. Well, I did the only logical thing – took a shot of jack, cleaned my gash, taped it up and finished debarking (fortunately I had my machete sharpened the day before so it was perfectly sharp so the cut was clean and easy to deal with. Unfortunately, my machete was sharp and cut a little too well). On day 9 I finally completed my bed. See the pics below! Materials used: logs about 2.5 inches in diameter and rope made from reed. Tools used: Machete, handsaw, pencil, ruler, 24 mm chisel, 18 mm chisel, and sandpaper.

My hope is to build another similar type bed to work as a couch for our living room. One of my joints is again showing some stress, but it should last at least a month or two. It just means I still have some work ahead of me! I also have a list of about 9 or 10 other things I would love to build for our house. School starts on January 20^th so I have a bit of time until work begins. I’m also hoping to ask our carpenters if I could rent a power saw for an hour – that would definitely make things a bit easier!  

Until January 20^th, I will continue to make my house my home. It is important to have a place of security and comfort. I am beyond excited to have unpacked my bags and put up my photos from home. I will also continue to practice my Portuguese and continue to learn a bit of Makua – vaccani vaccani.

~Daniel

“If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children” – Confucius

P.S. Sometimes you need to plant rice, mango trees, and teach in the same year. In order to plan for hundred years you must live past the next year.

P.P.S. Some logistical information about mail! My new address is:

Daniel Bladow

P.O. Box 95

Pemba, Cabo Delgado

3200

Mozambique

Make sure you write “air mail” or “para aviao“ on any piece of mail. Also, if you’re sending a package here are some tips: when you list the items inside and the value of those items, please understate the value. The higher the value, the more I must pay to receive the package. As far as packaging, the most effective methods I have heard about are: use a cardboard box of some kind (think shoe box or any other box), put the box in a trash bag, and then wrap it with brown packaging paper. This tends to prevent spills when it tears and prevents people from stealing. Lastly, if you address the package as Padre Daniel or something like Para Cristo then it is less likely that people attempt to open the package and steal things.

The Simple Life

(Family photo at our going away party. Sometimes it's hard to get everyone looking at the same spot)

12/1/16

As of yesterday, I am an official Peace Corps Volunteer!! (During training, we are called Peace Corps Trainees). We had a ceremony at the Ministry of Education in Maputo and now I am on my way to my site Namuno, province of Cabo Delgado. So, my two years of service officially start now!! I have passed my proficiency test in Portuguese, received an introduction to my local language (Makua), and will spend the next weekend making my house into my home.

To wrap up our time in Namaacha with our host families, we had a despedida party (going away party). I would like to take a moment to reflect on some of the differences between parties and celebrations in Mozambique versus my experience in the United States. In the US, there are usually leftovers after a big party and everyone has their fill. Celebrations are typically with family and close friends. The cake is large and everyone gets a piece. The only time I have seen people sing when cutting a cake is for birthday celebrations.

So far, my experience in Mozambique has been quite different. There aren’t always a ton of leftovers, but there is always enough food for everyone to fill up on something more than rice and xima (xima is made from water and ground corn). With our families in Namaacha we had chicken, pork, and potato dishes which are all significantly more expensive items (brief side note – potatoes in Namaacha are fairly expensive as compared to my site in Namuno). There was one bottle of soda for every family. Normally, celebrations tend to be neighborhood events. Your neighbors tend to be your closest friends or your family members. Most houses aren’t split by distinct property lines or fences. Oftentimes walking paths cut through someone’s “backyard” or right by their bathroom. And cake is treated 1000 times different! For my neighborhood, we had two cakes (the size of a round cake pan) to split between 12 families. Before even cutting into the cut, we were singing, dancing, and clapping. I love cake – but I had never experienced so much excitement focused on having cake before that party. Eventually, two people took a fork full of each cake and held it in the air. The singing and dancing grew louder as we began to break into the cake. Every family received one slice from each cake and the families divided those slices amongst themselves.

For me, the past 3 months have been a simple reminder of the simple things in life. We talk about how easy it is to take things for granted. We do it all the time, oftentimes without even realizing it. We grow accustomed to our lifestyles. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking food for granted. Having food and water is a basic necessity that is a basic human right. However, I find myself extremely happy living a simpler lifestyle thus far. On a typically day, my biggest worries include:

-When do I need to go shopping next?

-Do we have enough food for dinner? When do we need to start cooking dinner so it’s ready before 8 PM?

-Do we have enough water for the next week or do we need to go get more?

-When do I need to wash my clothes next?

Being a Peace Corps Volunteer, I am fortunate to have all of my basic necessities covered. Looking at my list above, none of my concerns are related to money. I have enough money to buy food and to eat out every now and then. I have enough money to buy drinking water when I don’t have enough water currently filtered. I have enough money to pay for my phone credit and electricity. I have enough time in my day to go for a run every morning and to go for a walk every afternoon. I wake up and go to bed shortly before and after the sun rises and sets. I am able to take the time and celebrate the small things in life. And when something occurs that warrants a cake, I am able to join my neighbors and friends in song, dance, and celebration.

To further put my life in perspective, I was able to pack up everything I own within an hour and a half. Today I took my last shower with running and hot water that I’ll probably have access to until May. Life is simple.

- Daniel -

 “Happiness is in the present moment – which is the only moment in which we are alive”

P.S.  At the end of December I plan on writing a post to compare prices of food and the social value of money as well! Hopefully that can help place my experience into a different perspective.

10/31/2016

Time to share some stories and experiences about the few weeks I have spent at my site in Namuno, Cabo Delgado! If you read nothing else in this post, please please at least scroll to the very bottom and read the quote from another director.

Executive Summary

-My site is in the middle of nowhere, in a relatively large farming town. It often feels like a paradox because Numuno is rural yet large. I’m in the “mato” but have excellent internet connection. It’s a 2-hr drive on a dirt road littered with potholes to the nearest city of Montepuez, which quickly turns to a 5+ hour drive from December through March because of rain. Despite the long drive and inaccessibility, there is constant transportation to Montepuez and I have almost all of the market items I want in my town (minus cheese and toilet paper). My future house will be one of the few in the town to have power. I will also have running water via an outdoor spigot, that is – whenever it works.

-I am the 4^th American to live in this town so needless to say I turn a lot of heads when I’m walking around or out on my morning run. Sometimes it’s very friendly looks and sometimes it’s very confused looks. One of my first morning runs I passed a young girl. She quickly ran inside, called for her parents, and came out pointing at me. I can only imagine her asking her parents, “Mommy what’s that over there? That thing running?”. At least, that’s how it feels sometimes. Most other times, people are fascinated to meet and greet me!

-Lastly, I will be learning Makua in addition to Portuguese. Portuguese is used in the schools and the other teachers all speak it well. However, most students dislike speaking Portuguese and speak in Makua whenever they have a choice. 

Story Time

-It’s been one of those two week stunts where a LOT has happened. Hopefully you enjoy as much as I have –

As with my first 36 hours in Namaacha, a lot can happen when you don’t know the local language. Especially when you don’t know the local language but still want to go out into the community and greet people. In Portuguese there’s this word – passear – it means to go for a stroll or to go for a walk. It’s not meant as a form of exercise but rather as a form of meeting people, seeing your neighbors, and building community. Hence, it’s essential to success community integration. One of my host brothers and I were out passear-ing greeting people and explaining who I am and where I’m from to anyone that asked. We passed a group of women sitting in the shade under the tree and one said something in Makua and extended her hand. Confusingly, I looked at my brother who translated her statement into something like “she wants to shake your hand”. So I shake her hand, no big deal right? 5 minutes later my host brother is explaining that I just agreed to make a child with her… Whelp. I wish he would’ve explained that along with the Makua -> Portuguese translation. Haven’t seen that women since, and I’m kind of hoping I can avoid an awkward explanation “No, I don’t actually want to father a child for you. It was a huge misunderstanding”

Along a similar train of thought, when I’m out walking around I get greeted as papa, father, or dad. The first day my host brother asked how old I was and after hearing I was 22 he belted a marvelous laugh and said everyone is going to think I’m lying. Regardless, even at 22, the majority of Mozambicans are married and have started a family. If you’re 22 and single in Mozambique, then something is probably wrong with you – or at least that’s the social image and the norm. As such, I also get asked how many children I have…

I’ve never turned so many heads in my life. Day 1 just walking through town with the Director of the school everyone is pausing their conversations to take a look at me. Because of my privilege and being an American, the Director of the school introduced me to all of the authorities in Namuno. I met the Director of Education for the District, the Governor of the District, and the Police Chief for the District. The second weekend in my town I attended the town’s local soccer game where about 700 people were in attendance. Upon walking into the soccer area, about ¾ of the stadium turned to stare at me. It’s not a judging stare but a jaw-dropping stare.

On one of my runs I passed a young girl whose jaw immediately dropped upon seeing me. She ran back inside, called for her parents, and brought them out and pointed to me. I can only imagine the young girl asking her parents, “Hey mom and dad, what’s that over there?”. On the same run I passed a man riding a bike – but here’s the catch, there was a goat (alive) strapped to the handle bars.

And now it’s time for the rapid fire stories:

-I was ralaring coco (shaving coco out of a coconut) and within 5 minutes my entire leg was crawling with ants. Still not sure how I did not notice them sooner or earlier…

-In Namaacha my bathroom is basically a hole in the ground with 4 walls. In Namuno my bathroom’s hole was at a slant for draining. So after dropping a #2, I had to grab a rock/cloth to push it down the drain. Oh, and Namuno does not have any Toilet Paper. As such, I learned to use my left hand and consequently I took the same number of bucket showers as poops…

-New record for most packed chapa!! Driving from Montepuez to Pemba (about 200 km). Reminder – a chapa is a 15 passenger van that seats 21 people. We packed 28 people in my Chapa, but to be fair 2 of those were babies and another 2 were children sitting on their parents’ laps.

-On the way back from one of my runs I saw papaya falling from one of the papaya trees. Low and behold, someone had climbed this 40ft papaya tree and was knocking down the fruit… No ladder, no tools, no nothing. Just climbed the tree barefooted.

-I did some tutoring at site which was both horrifying and invigorating. It took me 20 minutes to explain to a 10^th grader why 180 – 130 = 50. I tried to break it into 80-30 and then had to break it into: what is 8-3? Shortly after, I was tutoring a 12^th grader teaching integration! And the student was able to understand and solved several other integration problems I made for him.

-This last week has been test week for the trimester (school gets out in another week for summer break). One of the math professors asked me to help type up his math tests because I know how to type. Which was excellent practice for my Portuguese typing skills! And also, shout out to my Professors at Gonzaga who have helped me learn how to format mathematical documents. Two main things occurred during this period. First of all, another history teacher typing up a test had a bottle of whiskey and was “sneaking” sips while he made his test. Secondly, I found myself teaching explaining to the math teacher that 2 * sin(x) is much different than sin(2*x).

-During test week I was sitting under the big tree with other teachers just chatting. Casually the history teacher (a different one than the previous whiskey drinking teacher) said he’ll be right back because he needs to go collect the tests his students are taking… After speaking with other Peace Corp Volunteers, cheating is highly prevalent and teachers do not do a lot to stop it (normally and at least in many of our experiences. Also recognize that most PCVs are placed in rural sites so the larger cities do have a better education system). Also, 50% is considered a passing grade.

-I’ve been living with the pedagogical director of the secondary school. Three of his nephews live with him so they can attend school. They do all of the cooking, cleaning, and household chores. When I tried to wash my own laundry the mae even yelled at them to help me… I’ll tip my hat to them for breaking conventional gender norms!! At the same time, they do the household chores as payment for living and eating there. Oh, and their hands are made of steel or something. They are able to grab boiling pots and lids with their bare hands.

-I was walking back from the soccer game and a white car that looked that a Peace Corps car passed me. It stopped and starting reversing! A little weird especially because the closest Peace Corps Staff is 8-ish hours away from me and the closest PCV was 2 hours away. Turns out it was an American family living in the city of Montepuez!! They’re currently on an aid project of some kind and even invited me to their house for Thanksgiving!!! Unfortunately, I won’t be able to join them because I’ll be back Namaacha for Thanksgiving. On the up side, the Country Director of Mozambique does host us for a Thanksgiving dinner!

-Several of the students asked me to coach/train their soccer team. I suppose it’s time to learn how to seriously play soccer!

-I have a basketball court in my town but there are no hoops – just the concrete floor.

-I made mashed potatoes for my host family and the brothers called it candy

-A 29yr old teacher at the EP2 school (like a middle school) passed away while I was in town. No one knew what he died from, but statistical it is most likely he had HIV and died from tuberculosis. I was invited to attend the funeral service which was an enlightening cultural experience. After the funeral, the immediate family does not leave their house for 3 days. Friends and extended family spend the majority of their time just sitting at the house with the immediate family.  

Fears/Challenges

Looking toward the future, I now see the struggles I will face in teaching high school Math, Physics, and English. The majority of students struggle with basic arithmetic. Negative numbers are impossible: 3-7 is nearly impossible for students to solve. Multiplication and division? Not happening. However, the curriculum is basically just as fast as the rest of the world. It is quite similar to the US curriculum. As such, I will have to plan classes that also teach the basic arithmetic to mathematics. Some students will be motivated and some will not be. My hope is to share passion and a love for learning and hopefully a few students will be able to connect. I want students to know that their learning is their responsibility – learning is not a passive action that occurs when a teacher writes something on the board. Learning requires active action and intentional time spent studying or practicing.

Adjusting/Learning

There are two things I would like to share in this space. Passear-ing & the lack of stress. First of all, the verb passear means to stroll or go for a walk. Passear-ing is how my community stays so strongly connected. It is normal to just passear to a neighbor’s house, pull out a chair, and sit and chat for a bit and then continue your passear. The point is not to get exercise or to be active. The purpose is to pass time walking and interacting with the community. While at site, I passear-ed daily. I introduced myself to people. I admired the amazing trees with massive trunks that cast shadows providing relief from the midday sun. I watched people in the market play games I’ve never seen before. I even found a cashew tree!! (before a month ago I did not even know that cashews grew on trees and that there are things called “cashew fruits” and that our cashew nuts grow at the bottom of the fruit).

I was talking to a friend back home about what I’ve learned about myself. Overall, I do not have any deep profound insights that are life changing or prophetic. But, I am happy here. I was explaining to my friend that I do not even remember the last time I felt stressed. Which is funny because I have plenty of things that should rightly stress me out. My chapa from Montepuez to Pemba was stopped 3 times by the police to check my ID and so the driver could pay the cops (technically 21 people in a chapa is illegal so there is an agreed upon fee drivers pay cops instead of being fined a ticket…). I haven’t had or seen toilet paper in weeks. The ATM ate 3,000 mets which is about $45 USD (fortunately I filled a report and now have my money back). I do not speak Makua and that’s the main language of my town. I speak enough Portuguese to get around. Before arriving in Pemba, I had not seen another PCV or American for 2 weeks. I had 3 conversations in English, 2 of which were from friends back home and the other with an English teacher at my school. It gets reaaaal hawt in Cabo. Not quite as hot as the province of Tete, but it’s hawt. My future students don’t know simple mathematic arithmetic. I will have a roommate who I have just now met. We will be friends because we have to be friends. I’ve accidentally said I was married, and accidentally agreed to father a child with someone. I believe I’ve witnessed students paying for higher grades. I’ve seen a teacher drinking in the teacher’s lounge while making a test. 6 hours is now considered a short trip for me. I rarely get to drink a cup of coffee.

With all of that said, I am incredibly happy. My intention is not to end with a vent, but to end with the explanation that I’m deeply content with my life here. Easy? NO. Without challenge? HEEEEECK NO. Toilet Paper? Think again. But, right now, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Mozambique is beyond amazing.

Logistics

I have one more month in Namaacha and then we head to Maputo to “swear in” at the Ministry of Education. After that, I head to Cabo Delgado in early December. I’ll probably spend a few days at the beach of Pemba and then head to my site. Summer break goes until January 20^th so I have time to adjust to my community and begin the Makua learning.

I want to end with a speech by another director given to the volunteer headed to Moma, province of Nampula. While this was not my director giving this speech to my community, it heavily resembles my experience living in Mozambique.

(original speech was given in Portuguese)

“He is here without a father. Without a mother. Without uncles, brothers, sisters, or friends. He does not speak our language, he does not know our land, or our ways. And yet he has come. So your fathers will be his fathers. Your mothers his mothers. Your homes will be his. You are his brothers and sisters. His protection, his happiness. These are our responsibilities and he is welcome here”

- Daniel –

 

Training Update - Site Update

(it can get cold here!!)

10/18/2016 (Full disclosure – because of procrastination, logistics, and life it took me an extra week to finish this)

I am currently in Nampula City attending a 2-day conference with our future school supervisors before heading to “phase 2” where we visit our future sites for 2-weeks before completing training. To provide some structure, I will start this post with an executive summary for all of the busy folks out there, share some stories, discuss how my expectations have been both accurate and inaccurate, share about the hard aspects of my experience, and wrap up with a bit of logistical information on my life!

Executive Summary

-Tomorrow I head to the city of Namuno in the province of Cabo Delgado. I will be there for 2 weeks, return to Namaacha for 1 month to finish training, and then begin my service in December. I will be teaching high school Physics & Math (my subjects have been more or less confirmed for my first year) in Namuno. Namuno is 60km or a 2-hour ride away from Montepuez. My town has a market and some shops, but no bank.
-I had a conversation with a man in a grocery store about cheese (in Portuguese!), ordered a taxi (in Portuguese), helped my family prepare for a wedding, made “xima de batatas” aka mashed potatoes, and rode on a bus sooooooooo packed I could not move. I miss things like coffee, showers, tea, and pizza but there are places to get them and I knew I would miss them.  I had no idea how much I would miss having clean feet. I wash them daily/twice a day but the dirt stains don’t seem to go away no matter how hard I scrub. As a white male, I receive attention, honor, respect, and special treatment that I do not deserve. Downside: prices magically get more expensive when I want to buy things. Lastly, I have received some mail and I sent some out while in Nampula!!

Story Time

The day before I flew from Maputo to Nampula, my host family had a wedding. Technically the wedding had started on Wednesday, but Saturday was the main day for the ceremony. The cake had been cut on Thursday. Unfortunately, because of the location of the wedding and the amount of time required for transportation, I was not able to attend the ceremony. Instead, I helped my mom and a few others prepare all of the food for after the services. I spent about 2 hours just turning biscuit dough into biscuits… I also helped carry the 20 (living) chickens to the house and helped build a large roof covering for the yard to provide shade.

During one of the Portuguese classes we had, our class made American food for our host moms and our host moms made a traditional dish for us. My class made mashed potatoes and chicken sandwiches. My host mom loved the mashed potatoes so much that she had me make a batch for after the wedding so her parents and the bride/groom could taste them!!

 

Transportation for the whole wedding event was a blast!! And I mean that in the exhilarating adventure type of excursion – by no means was it comfortable. It took us 2 chapas and 1 bus to get to the reception location. (a chapa is a 15 passenger van that seats 21 people in this country). In High School, I used to bus a fair amount. In the US there have been times where I was unable to get on buses because they’ve been too full. That 3^rd chapa brought too full to another level. It was my host mom, 3-yr-old brother, 1-yr-old baby and I traveling together. When we got on (and we had to push hard to get on), someone picked up my 3-yr-old brother and just put him on their lap. I climbed my way to the back (literally climbed) because there was enough space for me and my duffle bag (my 1 duffle bag with all of my stuff for 3 weeks – talk about learning how to pack light). During one of the curves in the road during this rollercoaster of a ride, I thought I was going to fall down. But I couldn’t fall down because there was nowhere for me to fall… All sides of me were held up by the other people on this bus. Yay transportation!!

That evening, my host father came with me to the hotel so he could help me get there. We were in a suburb of Maputo about 15km from my hotel (my flight to Nampula was at 6am). It took us 3 or 4 chapas and 90 minutes to get there. On the 2^nd chapa, my host dad and I were seated at the back. A young kid took a seat in the front row and my host dad ends up yelling at him to come back here and sit with us. There was a mother with a baby behind the “joven” and the kid had taken the easiest seat. When the kid got back to our row in the chapa, my host dad was very kind – he explained that the kid needed to pay more attention and let the mother carrying a baby have the easy seat. He then struck up a casual conversation with this kid just about their days.

From these two experiences I have obviously learned that it is customary to look out for each other. Whether it is a 3-yr-old who needs a lap on a bus or a mother with her baby trying to fit into an over packed chapa, people lookout for each other.

The first night in Nampula, some of us went to a restaurant about 1-mile away from our hotel. On the way back, some criancias (children) asked for money to buy food. We said no. But myself and 2 others said – “if there’s a bakery still open we’ll buy you some bread”. It was 4 children probably ranging from 3 to 6/7 years old. They followed us the ½ mile to the bakery and we bought bread for them. Of course other people say this and asked if we could buy them bread too. Our response was simple: this bread & water is for the children. Normally, people never stop asking for stuff/money. Amazingly enough, they nodded and did not bother to ask us again. What amazed me from this entire experience was how understanding people are.

 

The large cities in Mozambique have well sized grocery stores that have just about every commodity one could want. Being in Nampula has been the first opportunity to visit one of these miraculous stores. As a small group of us volunteers began our journey to the grocery store, a man started following us. Before we knew it, he was waving a stick and shouting at us. I still have no idea what he was shouting about. He followed us all the way to the market.

If you don’t already know this, I love cheese. So, I was standing in front of the cheese section for a solid 5 minutes trying to decide what I wanted. A man came up to me and started talking about his favorite cheeses (all in Portuguese) and convinced me to buy Gouda and Brie. As we left the market, the man with the stick was waiting for us!! He continued to shout and wave his stick at us all the way back to our hotel. Quite the odd experience.
(Give me a week or so to upload my blogpost about my site and oh boy do I have some more stories to share)

Expectations

- As with any experience, it is best to not have expectations. As with any human, it’s pretty near impossible to not have ANY expectations.  

Like I said, I miss things like coffee, showers, tea, and pizza but there are places to get them and I knew I would miss them. But don’t you worry, once I get to site permanently I’ll be able to feed my coffee addiction once again J.

I had no idea how much I would miss having clean feet. I wash them daily/twice a day but the dirt stains don’t seem to go away no matter how hard I scrub. Dirty/clean feet are probably the biggest expectation I did not even realize I had.

In the US, I feel comfortable pulling my laptop out in public. Today is the first time I’ve brought my laptop out of my room (I’m finishing up this blogpost 1-week late so I’m currently with my host family in Namuno). My host family in Namuno is fairly wealthy compared to the standard here. I try to be careful with electronics such as my laptop because of how valuable it is. It’s not just the monetary value that comes with electronics. It’s also that most technology here is 3-8 years old. I’m not worried about anyone knowing that I have a laptop – 99.9% of people wouldn’t even think about stealing it. Rather, it’s the status that comes with things like laptops that I don’t want. I don’t want people placing me on a pedestal (just wait for my next blogpost… LOL). And I certainly don’t want people thinking I’m rich (I plan on doing a post about prices and living wages in Mozambique sometime in December).   

Adjusting

Overall, I have been adjusting well. I’m happy and love the constant adventure and learning experiences. Before leaving Namaacha for Namuno, I had a daily routine. Morning run, breakfast, class, lunch/play with my host siblings, class, hangout with volunteers for a bit, help prepare dinner, help do the dishes, eat dinner, practice Portuguese, go to my room to wind down, and go to bed. My host mom started calling me “querido” which means darling. She’s been an absolute blessing helping me adjust to a different culture. 

Logistics

I’ve made it safe and sound to Namuno!! In about a week and a half I’ll upload another blogpost about my experiences here. Namuno is in the province of Cabo Delgado. If you want to come visit me, I promise to take you to Pemba!! For the month of November, I’ll be back in Namaacha to complete training. In December, I move to Namuno for my 2 years of service. I will be learning Makua, the local language spoken in Namuno. I will be teaching high school math my first year, and maybe physics too. I will have a roommate who is about to finish first year of service. 

- Daniel -
Se quer ir vai rapido, vai sozinho. Se quer ir vai longe, vai juntos. Lema de Mozambique – Estamos Juntos. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Mozambiquen Motto – We are together.

36 Hours My Friends

September 16th, 2016

Whelp, I am in Mozambique living in Namaacha which is a town of about 45,000 people just outside of the capital, Maputo near the borders with South Africa and Swaziland. I’ve been living with my host family for about 2 weeks now and have been doing Peace Corps training for about 3 weeks. Every day thus far has brought a new set of adventures and I already have plenty of stories to share! Instead of trying to cover everything that has happened the past few weeks, I am going to start with the first 36 hours living with my host family. After that, feel free to keep reading if you’d like but it’ll just be logistical updates on what my life looks like and such.

We arrived in Mozambique on Thursday, September 1^st after about 30 some odd hours of busing, waiting, flying, waiting, flying, and busing. On Saturday we were dropped off in Namaacha at a secondary school with our bags and told to find our host families on the gym court. The national language of Mozambique is Portuguese and for most people that is there second language here, where their first is a language local to the geographical region. At this point, I barely spoke any Portuguese - I could say my name and ask where the bathroom is, but that was about it. So, on Saturday I was dropped off with my bags and a Peace Corps manual. As am sure you might imagine, I felt dropped into an abyss with limited preparation. Following a plethora of hand gestures and broken Portuguese, I followed minha mae into a van. Stripped on the inside, the van had one row of seats that was not bolted down. Another volunteer and a grandma were sitting on buckets so I crawled to the back and grabbed my seat.

After following my mom for a little bit, we arrived at my new home. There’s a 20 ft by 40 ft courtyard that three rooms open up into. One room is mine, one the kitchen, and the last is the living/family/dinning room. At the back of the living/family/dinning room is another door that leads to the bedroom for my parents. Immediately after setting my stuff down, my mae told me to come and sit in this chair (remember that this was mostly expressed in hand gestures and occasional Portuguese words). I immediately met two of my sibilings – Sarafina (she goes by sophi or fifi) who is 8 years old and Diago who is a 3-4 year old energetic boy. Fifi grabbed me a package of crackers and a juice box, served it on a plate, and placed it in front of me on another chair. Diago attempted to grab a cracker but immediately minha mae reprimanded him and said something along the lines “The crackers are for mano daniel not you”. Mano is a term used out of respect for an elder sibling.

By this point, if you know me I’m sure you know how awkward and undeserving I felt at this point. Before even knowing me, my family decided to show special love and treatment toward me. My room looks like it’s been built in the past year. The interior of the room is decorated especially for me. My parents definitely heard that Americans enjoy gynamisticos (aka working out) as there is a stair stepper exercise machine in my room – it was one of the first things minha mae pointed out to me (with an excited face I might add).

So, whenever mae’s not watching I slip Diago a cracker and a sip of my juice. After the crackers I just sit with minha mae and we “chat”. She asks me questions about my family and tells me about hers/my new family. I share a picture of my family that I keep in my wallet. She calls us “muito bonito gordo” – something like very beautiful fat family. I should clarify that while gordo means fat, it is a huge compliment in the culture here because it implies that your family has enough to eat. Being called Magro (skinny) means you don’t eat enough and is generally an insult. Here’s where it gets good: I may or may not have told mae I’m married to the volunteer Allison across the street. And here’s where it gets better: several things have occurred since then that reaffirm my accidental and unofficial marriage. In our conversation I said I was Catholic. The following morning (Sunday) Allison and her mae came to my house to take me to church with them instead of me going to church with my mae. Saturday night I insisted on helping my mae cook – the kids thought it was hilarious that I knew how to cook (partially because of conceptions about Americans and partially because of gender norms). Without me noticing, my mae had been taking pictures of me and sending them to Allison all night…

Now, I say I may or may not have told my mae I’m married because the conversation went something like this: my mae asked a question in Portuguese that I did not understand but she was gesturing toward Allison’s house. Earlier in the day, she had practiced pronouncing Allison’s name because Alice was usually the closest she could get. So of course I’m thinking she’s talking about Allison so I respond to her question by saying “Sim, Sim!! Allison!”. About 2 seconds later I realize that her question had the word “esposa” in it, which means wife… One other complication occurred earlier this week. My grandma was in town visiting my mae (grandma lives in Maputo). Allison, two other volunteers, and I were meeting outside our house to go somewhere and Allison arrives first so I introduce her to grandma as “minha amiga Allison”. Grandma gets super excited and proceeds to invite her to our big family party in Maputo next month…

But not to worry, my Portuguese has significantly improved since the first accidental unofficial marriage! Now after sharing that story, I’d like to share some highlights that all occurred within the first two days (yes all of this really happened within the first 36 hours):

-Was dropped off with my host family with a nonfunctional cell phone, peace corps manual, and my stuff (Fortunately I decided to open the manual and it just so happened there was a schedule at the back!)

- Accidentally said I’m married to a fellow volunteer

-Accidentally said all of my grandparents passed away because I really struggled explaining which of my grandparents are still living. Not to worry, I’ve since clarified.

-My family has roosters. They start at 3 AM.

-Found a dead cockroach Sunday morning in my suitcase.

-At mass, the priest paused all of mass when he realized there were 3 Americans in the crowd. He sent an altar server to ask us if we spoke Portuguese. Since we didn’t, he paused mass to re-explain the sermon but in English. After mass, he informed us next week we’d be expected to share about ourselves, in Portuguese of course.

-Prepared dinner and then walked with my older brother and a friend/neighbor carrying 17 empty 5-galloon jugs. We started filling the jugs and the entire time I’m thinking “How in the world are we going to carry these back!?! Each Jug will weigh about 50 lbs and it’s me and two 8^th graders. Even at best I doubt I could carry more than 200 lbs of water the distance we needed to walk”. Low on behold, mae, Fifi, Diago, and the baby arrive to help us! Still not sure how this is going to work. Well, we finish filling the jugs and proceed to wait around for 2 hours until a truck arrives. Ahhhh now this makes sense L O L.   As we’re about to leave, Fifi grabs Rakelly (the baby – about 1 year old) and flips Rakelly over her head and onto her back. Fifi grabs a capulana and ties Rakelly onto her back. I just witnessed an 8-year-old flip a baby over her head so she can carry her baby sister home… Oh and I forgot to mention that usually my mae carries Rakelly on her back almost all day and will cook dinner, clean dishes, do laundry, carry water jugs and all with a baby on her back.

-And to tie it all off, after dinner as I’m going to bed I find a second dead cockroach in my room right in front of the bed.

And that was my first 36 hours with my host family!!!! Thanks for reading my second blog post, I appreciate all of the love, support, and prayers I’ve received from family and friends back home. This is my first time out of the US and I feel incredibly supported. Oh and quick shout out to Dr. Stevens for preparing me for an assignment with 0 directions, 0 guidelines, and 0 ability to ask questions. Who knew?

Daniel

One month ago I was leading an Urban Plunge. Tammy, a person who experienced homelessness for 10 years commented on one thing that could have helped her while she struggled on the streets: “I wanted someone to acknowledge me for who I was, not what I was”

FiFi and me in our living/family/dinning room!

P.S. If you’re still reading, wow. Here’s a quick update on my lifestyle/living style.

-I have 4 siblings: 8^th grade brother, 3^rd grade sister, 3/4 year old brother, and a 1 year old baby sister. My family has two parents and my dad works in Maputo every now and then so he is gone for a few days at a time.

-I wake up at 5:30, run, take a bucket bath, and eat breakfast. I have Peace Corps training or language classes from 7:30 to noon at which time I return home for lunch. In the afternoon are classes again until 4:30. I spend 4:30 to 6:00 hanging out with other volunteers. The sun sets and rises around 6am/6pm so I like to be home by 6 pm to spend time with my family. I help wash dishes for dinner, prepare dinner, and take my second bucket shower. It is expected for me, as an elder male in the family, to take a shower before breakfast and dinner so twice a day. We usually have dinner between 7:30 and 8:30 and I’m in my room by 8:45. I usually take 15-30 minutes to reflect or send messages to peeps back home (maybe fit in a snap or two) before I crash on my bed.

-I have a working cellphone and use what’s app/fb messenger for contacting peeps. My family has a TV (and aka electricity) and watches TV at night/during lunch.

Well that’s my life!! Thanks for reading this unintendedly long post!   

Peace Corps: Starting With Why

8/20/2016

Welcome!!

You have stumbled upon my first blog post - and to get things started I will be explaining why I chose to dedicate my near future to the Peace Corps and give everyone a bit of logistical information. Firstly, please bare with me as I am sure I will learn a lot about my own writing style as I continue to blog and write more and more.

I am going to explain why I choose the Peace Corps with a story. The past two years I have set myself up to enter a PhD program within the field of Computer Science. After my experience working in the Human Robotic Interaction (HRI) Lab at the University of Southern California (USC) last summer, I had every intention of entering into a PhD program in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). I had finally found a field that intersects my passion for people with my love for developing unique solutions and algorithms. Applying to PhD programs requires a substantial amount of research into different labs across the country, the professors in those labs, and various other attributes of the lab. As such, I had set aside a 3-4 hour block of time on a Saturday morning last September to continue my research. At this point, I had already compiled a list of 9 different schools/programs to look into. The 10th item on my list was the Peace Corps. I remember not wanting to go to bed Friday night. Dreading the morning block of research time, I brewed a pot of coffee and went straight to the Peace Corps website. Healthy procrastination I told myself. After all, it was on my list. I spent the next 2 hours compiling a list of Peace Corps programs and sites that were of interest to me. As I went to the kitchen to finish the pot of coffee (whoops), I became aware of my exhaustion concerning PhD programs. I had not changed my mind or passions, but rather I was, and still am, burnt out of school. So, I spent the rest of the morning beginning the process of my Peace Corps application.

Here's the executive summary to my decision:
1) Burnt out of school
2) Passion for learning, people, challenge, and growth
3) Cultural experience and immersion

Any abroad experience between a few weeks to several months is enough to experience and taste another culture. 27 months is enough time to live within another community and culture. Looking ahead, I could not be more excited to enter into a new culture and societal paradigm.

Okay, time for a few logistics.
-On August 28th I fly from Seattle to Philadelphia for pre-departure training. On August 31st, our group flies to Maputo, Mozambique through South Africa.The first three months I will be in training living with a host family. After that, I will be a high school math teacher.
-Sometime during my three months of training, I will be placed in a high school. Once placed, I will know my living standards for the following two years. As a high school teacher, I could be placed in an urban city or rural town.
-The national language of Mozambique is Portuguese. So yes, I will be fluent in Portuguese by the time I return to the States. I have not been able to make as much time as I had hoped to study Portuguese this summer. However, I view it as a sink or swim scenario. Good thing I have three months...

Lastly, I should have access to internet while I am in training for three months. If you would like to send me letters, here is my mailing address:

Daniel Bladow, PCT
Peace Corps
C.P. 4398
Maputo, Mozambique

When writing letters, number the letters. Aka put a (1) in a corner of your first letter you ever send me, and a (2) for your second ... Additionally, write "Airmail" and "Par Avion" on the envelope. Lastly, if you send me a letter just shoot me a Facebook message or email so I know to expect it.

Thank you for taking the time to read my first post. If you continue to follow my journey, I hope you are able to learn and grow alongside me. We may not have the same experience, but maybe - just maybe we can all learn to engage more fully in our shared humanity.

Daniel

"In every place in our lives we are more the same than different" - Judge Mary Logan at Spokane's Community Court