Little by Little

Still making progress!  Despite minor set backs like lack of wood for burning the bricks, lack of transport for the bricks, and the builder forgetting to include items in the original budget, things are still moving along and progressing in the library construction!  Now you can see the space for the door and the window.  There is only going to be the one window, which we thought would be bigger, but oh well, it's still pretty big by Mozambican window standards. 

Maybe another week or so left in the brick construction phase, then we'll move on to the roofing and installation of the door and window along with metal grates on each, and eventually things like bookshelves, table, painting and decorating.  Still lots to go, but little by little it's going, and still pretty exciting!

Picture from June 10th

Hakuna Matata

After almost a year of planning, May 19^th arrived and Adam and I were finally leaving for our vacation to Cape Town and Zanzibar.  In Cape Town we met up with Adam’s older brother Matt and his wife Vanessa.  Unfortunately, due to a delayed flight, Matt and Vanessa arrived about 15 hours later than planned, but it didn’t seem to put a damper on anyone’s spirit. 

Our first day in Cape Town, we explored the V&A Waterfront, a huge shopping mall, enjoyed lunch on the water and later a delicious Mexican food dinner.  (Adam and I were probably most excited for the food during our trip and did extensive anticipatory research on Cape Town restaurants.  I apologize ahead of time for the perhaps overemphasis on the delicious food we ate.) 

 

The following day we drove about 3 hours to the Inverdoorn Game Reserve for a safari.  We had originally planned on doing a multi-day safari in Tanzania, but this became nearly impossible after our original flight to Tanzania got cancelled.  Fortunately, Inverdoorn is located close to Cape Town and offered a great opportunity to do at least some game viewing.  During our three hour safari drive, we saw antelope, springboeck, lions, white rhinos, ostrich, wildebeest, buffalo, giraffes, elephants, and zebras.  Situated somewhat in the middle of nowhere, amongst low growing shrubs with beautiful mountains on the horizon, the game reserve is really an interesting setting.  We would be driving along and then suddenly see two elephants with nothing else around them, almost as if they were planted there with a green screen behind them. 

 After a quick lunch, we were all very anxious to begin our next adventure, a cheetah encounter!  Inverdoorn is also the site of the Western Cape Cheetah Conservation Center where they are working to increase the genetic diversity of the endangered animals.  We were fortunate enough to have a one-on-one interaction with Velvet, a cheetah rescued from a life of living in some greedy man’s bathtub.  For over an hour, we were able to pet Velvet, who simply relaxed, lying down, purring loudly as we each took turns stroking her back.  How many people can say they have pet the world’s fastest land animal?!  Our drive back towards Cape Town city center was one filled with reflection on our truly once in a lifetime experience.  Amazing burgers and an oreo shake for dinner completed the outstanding day.

The following day, we started our morning with breakfast in our apartment-like hotel room, taking advantage of its fully stocked kitchen and the fresh market next door.  In the afternoon, we met Friso, our wine tour driver who took us out to Stellenbosch, one of the three main wine regions in Cape Town.  We visited two wineries, one pairing the wines with freshly made cheeses and learned about the wine making process, and then walked around the town of Stellenbosch, admiring its architecture and quaint streets.  We returned to Cape Town in time for dinner, heading to a local pizza place.

For our last day in Cape Town, with the sun shining and blue skies, we drove to Camp’s Bay and enjoyed mojitos and nachos on the coastline before heading to Table Mountain.  The view atop this wonder of nature is pretty spectacular, even with some clouds blowing in over the ocean.  We celebrated our last night in Cape Town with an authentic South African dinner at Karibu on the Waterfront.  Both Matt and Adam got traditional South African braai (or BBQ) with beef, lamb and ostrich skewers and I got a Lamb Bredie, kind of like a stew but so flavorful!  It was the perfect end to our Cape Town trip.

The following day and a half were some early and long travel days before we reached Zanzibar island.  We began our first travel day at 3am in order to get to the airport for our 6am flight to Johannesburg, followed by a 6 hour layover before our flight to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. 

Dar was the first adventure with real Africa.  Immediately upon departing the airplane, it was obvious we were far from Cape Town, a city much more European than African.  Adam and I quickly fell back in to our usual travel modes of arguing with taxi drivers over prices, ignoring people asking for money, etc.  Emphasized by such a long day already, it was quite the culture shock for someone who had never been to Africa before. 

The following morning, my birthday, was another early day as we left around 6am to get to our 7am ferry to Zanzibar.  Again, another very African experience.  First, our drive, which should have taken less than 5 minutes, took about 20 minutes as our driver first started taking us back towards the airport.  Somewhat stressed now, wondering if we’d even make our ferry, we navigated ourselves through the crowd of people at the entrance gate, of course no sense of a line visible.  We then waited in line, the only non-Africans or

non-Indians around, slowly moving our way towards the metal detectors and baggage scanners before reaching the actual boat.  We were quickly shuffled away into the VIP seating area of the ferry, an enclosed room with two flat screen televisions, air conditioning, and incredibly comfortable chairs, a escape from the chaos outside.  We all felt a sense of relief at finally being on board and en route to Zanzibar.

After the hour and a half ferry ride, we picked up our rental car, drove around for a bit attempting to get Matt’s international license, and then were finally on our way to explore the beautiful island.  First impressions, Zanzibar is incredibly green!  The end of May marks the end of the island’s rainy season, so everything was incredibly lush, so many different kinds of trees lining the road, lots of banana and palm trees.  Zanzibar is almost entirely Muslim and the green setting provided an incredible backdrop for the women’s colorful dresses and hijabs. 

Before heading to our beach resort, we drove southeast to the Jozani National Forest, eager to see the unique Red Colobus Monkey which exclusively lives on Zanzibar.  Accompanied by our guide, it was amazing how close we could get to the monkeys!  One rushed by and even touched Adam’s pant leg.  The monkeys could have cared less with us standing just a few feet from them, cameras in their faces trying to get the best angle for a picture.  They were more interested in their fellow monkeys around them than us humans watching them.  They clearly are very accustomed to humans.  After watching the monkeys for a while, our guide took us through another part of the forest, pointing out plants and informing us of their various medical uses and then to the mangrove forest.

After an incredibly long day and a half, we finally arrived at Uroa Bay Beach Resort, all of us looking forward to an afternoon filled only with relaxing poolside and looking out at the Indian Ocean,  not having to move or go anywhere for a couple days.  For my birthday, the resort made me a cake, "Happy Barthday" it said and sang a traditional Swahili song.

Now May 27^th, we left Uroa Bay and drove to Stone Town, about a square mile area of the capital city Zanzibar Town.  We spent the next two days wandering and getting lost in the narrow streets winding through Stone Town, browsing in the shops selling wood carvings, paintings, and jewelry, and watching the sunset on the rooftop terrace of our hotel.

May 28^th we did a spice tour, driving out to the spice farms and walking amongst the spice plants and fruit trees, guessing which spice this seed was or what spice came from that leaf our guide handed us, sampling the incredibly sweet grapefruit, sour star fruit, refreshing coconut water, and even receiving hand woven hats and crowns at the end of our tour. 

Later that afternoon, we did some shopping for Tanzanite, a precious gem stone found only in Tanzania and worth quite the pretty penny back in the States.  After dinner, Adam and I walked briefly through the night markets in the Forodhani Gardens just outside our hotel.  There local chefs, dressed in their chef whites, set up tables filled with all sorts of sea food from crab to octopus to shrimp.  It was pretty quiet while we were there but we could easily imagine the place packed with both locals and tourists during the height of the tourist season.

May 29^th, after some quick last minute shopping, we left early in the morning for our last fancy beach resort, Sea Cliff Resort.  Situated on a low cliff overlooking the ocean, with stairs down to the water and a bar and sitting area located on the end of a jetty, ping pong table, air hockey, foosball, pool tables, and two huge pools, we were in paradise.  The grounds of the resort were beautiful.  We enjoyed our first day relaxing in the sun and I don’t think anyone was disappointed even when it rained our last day.  Everything was still so beautiful and incredibly relaxing.  The perfect way to end our vacation…

And then it was time to say our goodbyes and return to Mozambique.  It was an amazing trip, and as you can see, we did quite a lot!  But now it’s back to work; the second trimester is more than halfway over now and I’m starting to organize this year’s science fair which will be in early July.  We have a REDES workshop coming up at the end of this month where my counterpart and I will take five girls from our group to participate in a two day workshop with other groups in the province.  And finally, I’m happy to report that the library is in the actual building phase!  It’s been a long process, but the bricks are actually being cemented in place, finally!

Burning bagels and bricks

 A quick update blog before I leave for an amazing trip to Cape Town and Zanzibar (an island off the coast of Tanzania) with Adam and his brother and sister-in-law.  All last week, Adam and I were excitedly researching restaurants in Cape Town, planning out each meal, making sure to find the best burgers and pizza Cape Town has to offer.  Crazy to believe I will soon be in the first world again for a couple weeks!

Meanwhile, back here in third world living, last Sunday, Adrienne and I decided to try to make bagels.  We lit our carvão (charcoal) and prepared our “oven” using the smaller-pot-inside-of-a-bigger-pot formation, excited with our idea for spending our lazy Sunday morning.

How to make bagels:

1.  Prepare the dough – yeast, sugar, salt, warm water, flour

2.  Let dough sit 30 minutes

3. Separate dough into small balls and add any desired seasoning then form in to bagel shape

Adrienne makes her bagels

4. Let rise 20 minutes

5. Put bagel in boiling water until it rises to the top, then flip over

Boiling the bagel

6. Remove and sprinkle with any topping seasonings

7. Bake until brown on bottom

A peek into the baking bagels

 8. Enjoy!

We each made three bagels –cinnamon sugar, garlic and onion, and random spices

In the end, our “bagels” came out…okay.  They didn’t really rise and were kind of a dense consistency, I think at least partly because the “oven” doesn’t get to the designated 400-500F temperature.  It was a fun experience, but not one that Adrienne and I are eager to repeat again J

--Library Update--

Things are still progressing with work on the library.  Everything takes longer here than it should, but slowly but surely, we are right on (African-time) schedule. 

Making the bricks has taken much much longer than expected.  After some complications this week with obtaining wood to begin the second phase of brick making, brick burning, I think we are finally in the last stretch of the process.  All 5,000 bricks have been formed and will now spend 4 days in a giant “oven”.

The "oven" and our brick masters

The “oven” is a giant structure made with about 6-7 rows of bricks stacked about 4-5 feet high and 3-4 feet deep and then everything covered with mud and sticks.  For the burning process, they will lay the wood in between the stacks of bricks and keep the fire going for the entire 4 days.  Then, they will let the bricks sit and cool off for about three days.  After, they inspect the bricks, checking for ones that did not burn well and repeating the entire process again.

Veranda in progress

I am hoping when I get back from my trip, we will actually be able to start the construction of the library building!  This past week, we began the construction of an outside covered patio area and have begun preparations with our carpenter to start making the window and door.  Once the bricks have finally been completed, I am hoping things will finally start to progress a little faster!  After almost a year of planning, preparation, grant applications, donations, and waiting, it is all finally starting to happen!  Pretty amazing J  

Later this afternoon, they actually started the burning!  You can feel the heat emanating even standing several feet away!

Criancas

What is a Crianca?  They make you smile.  They make you scream.  They greet you on your way to school.  They meet you at your gate when you return home.  They stand outside shouting your name for over an hour.  They are not content when you tell them you can't play today.  They stare and watch you exercising in the morning.  They ask for everything and anything.  They are the ones who can totally brighten your day, if even just for a moment.  They are Mozambican children.

Mozambique, and Africa in general, is known for its huge population of children.  In fact, over 50% of Mozambicans are under 18 years old.  It's a staggering percentage to try to imagine, but while walking around and seeing the vast number of children, usually totally on their own, without any adult supervision, it becomes a statistic that is not so surprising.  It still shocks me when I see a five year old carrying her five month old sibling on her back or when that two year old is just walking down the road by himself. While, admittedly sometimes, criancas can be frustrating such as when they throw rocks on your tin roof and don't want to leave you alone or when the baby next door will not stop crying, but most of the time they are hilarious, so cute, always full of energy, resilient, and extremely entertaining.  I can't help but smile each morning when my four year old neighbor Selema and her little brother climb the ladder in their yard to look over the fence and greet me, "Bom dia, Sara."  It's a great way to start the day as I walk past the group of children my way to school and they excitedly shout my name when I pass by, "Sara! Sara! Ta-ta! Ta-ta!"

Here are a few of my favorite crianca photos from my time here in Murrupula so far.  I'm sure there will be plenty more to come!  Most of the pictures are of the group of children that regularly come to my house to visit.  Hope they make you smile too!

Following my prompt to smile

The mistake of letting them braid my hair.
Took over an hour to get all the knots out!

Models complete with make-up

Building houses with some extra bricks.

These girls love to model!

making dolls out of fabric

Fun Friends

You always hear stories of crazy bugs and critters in Africa.  Well here are the fun friends I have made so far!  Typically, before I find a fun friend in my house, I first grab my camera to take a picture of it.  Then I use my best friend Mr. Broom to sweep my friend out of the house, or I use my other best friend Mr. Shoe to smash my housemate.  Enjoy!

I'm pretty sure that was some kind of egg sac...

Yup, the lizard is inside my mosquito net...

Scorpion surprise!

I stepped on one of these huge slugs once! So sticky!
But these are the biggest snails I have ever seen!  The shell is like 6 inches long!

A friend in the kitchen. That's Adrienne's hand for a size reference.

Google Golden Orb Weaver!  They eat birds!  This one's torso was
as long as my thumb!  I killed it with a huge rock while my
neighbors watched over the fence.

I'm not even sure what to classify this as...spider/scorpion interbreeding!

Doesn't it make you want to come visit.... :)

Quelimane - The City of Bikes

A typical Mozambican bus stop full of vendors

My last first trimester of teaching in Mozambique is over!  Only two trimesters left to go in the school year before I head home in November.  Excluding the first week of the remaining trimesters when students don’t show up, plus holidays and provincial exams, I only have 16 weeks left of teaching for the entire school year!  Trust me, it’s as crazy to me as it might sound to you.  I can’t believe how much faster time is passing this year than last year!  I remember being so thankful last year that I had made it through that first trimester that just never seemed to end.  Around this time last year, my terrible reaction to the malaria prophylaxis and the accompanying physical manifestations the anxiety caused were just beginning.  April and May were not good months for me.  But this year, things couldn’t be more different.

                                                      

During the school holiday, a huge group of volunteers from all over the country had planned to meet at Vilankulos.  Unfortunately, just before we were planning to begin our long travel to get down there, there was some political unrest in sites along the national highway, creating unsafe travel situations in that part of the country.  Peace Corps issued a travel restriction, prohibiting volunteers from travelling on that part of the highway, making it impossible for us to get to Vilankulos.  A group of 8 of us here in the North created a new plan to go to the city of Quelimane, located in Zambezia province along the Zambezi River.

Looking over the Zambezi River - Back (from left): Tony,
Sara, Adam, Sam, Derek, Erik. Front: Patrick, Adrienne

Last week, we all hopped on an 8 hour bus ride and spent the week relaxing in a new city, eating out at new restaurants and spending time with some Americans, escaping our normal lives for a bit.  An American guy who works in Quelimane and is friends with many Peace Corps volunteers, very generously opened his house to us while he was travelling.

One day, the group of us decided to head to Zalala Beach located about 40km outside of Quelimane city.  After a 30 minute chapa ride in the back of a very over-packed and bumpy truck, the driver stopped, no beach was in site.  We were soon informed that the road the rest of the way was closed, something which none of us were aware of beforehand.  We were told we would have to take a bike taxi the rest of the way, a twenty minute ride.

Bike Taxi to Zalala Beach

Bike taxis are extremely common in Quelimane.  Walking the streets can be somewhat dangerous or stressful as you must always be on the lookout not just for cars but also for passing cyclists.  For just 5meticais, you can get on the back of one of these bike taxis, sitting atop a seat just above the back tire, and the cyclist will take you anywhere in the city.

None of us were super thrilled, however, about this totally unexpected twenty minute ride on the back of a bicycle to head to this beach where the Zambezi River dumped into the ocean meaning swimming was probably not a good idea.  We had all come this far though, so we could only continue forward. 

It turned out to be kind of fun actually.  The ride was beautiful, going through rice fields filled with lily pad pools, all around us flat land spotted with the occasional house situated amongst a grouping of palm trees.  Chatting with my bike driver, I was shocked to find out he makes the trip at least 5 times every day, sometimes upwards of 7 or 8 times a day!

We reached the beach, not the prettiest beach in Mozambique, but certainly an interesting one.  Just past a line of densely packed pine trees, the sand began, sparkling due to its high content of metal deposits.  We walked along the shoreline for a bit, reaching a group of people selling fish and then headed to a restaurant to re-
hydrate and eat some lunch before heading back.

Now, back in Murrupula, the second trimester is beginning.  My computer students will learn how to use Microsoft Word this trimester, granted the electricity cooperates and I can actually use the computers to teach regularly.  In a few weeks, Adam and I are headed to meet with his brother and sister-in-law in Cape Town and Zanzibar, a trip I am so excited about!  In the meantime, I’m still keeping busy with my REDES girls group and English Club.  I am hoping to start a science club soon and am continuing organizing things as they continue to make bricks for the library.  With April coming to a close, I only have a short 6-7 months left!  As I prioritize my to do list, balancing travelling with actually working, recognizing my limits and realizing that time certainly does fly and there is always more you can or could have done, I hope to focus on strengthening not only the projects I have already started, but most importantly, continuing to strengthen the relationships I have made.