Week 2 in Namaacha

So this internet thing is somewhat frustrating, but I have decided that if that is the most frustrating thing, then I think I am doing pretty well.  But here is a summary of Week 2 in Namaacha....

Each day, I wake up around 5am to the sound of roosters, though whoever said roosters only crow at sunrise is a liar, they definitely cock-a-doodle-doo at all hours of the day and night… Some mornings, I may be greeted with the presence of a cockroach lying on my floor.  I'm not sure why, but they lie there on their backs, seemingly dead, until you touch them and those legs moving signal they are indeed still alive.   Yes, disgusting, I will be the first to admit that I hate cockroaches, but after hearing about all the other critters I could find someday, I can live with the only four cockroaches I have seen in my room while I have been here and when they are lying there on their backs and not running around, they are easy to sweep into a dust pan and dispose of far away.  I faithfully tuck in my mosquito net every day, all day and night, so as to prevent as much as I can, such critters from potentially cuddling with me at night, as I have heard stories from other volunteers…

My family always has water already boiling for me to use to take my shower bath and then I eat breakfast, typically bread or an egg and I am beginning to miss milk and cereal.  Then it is time for language class.  As I think I said, my class has only three people in it.  My Portuguese is improving a little at a time J; learning how to conjugate verbs in different forms so I don’t always have to speak in the infinitive, exposure to more vocabulary, etc.  Sometimes it can be frustrating when I still don’t understand things my family tells me, but I have to remind myself that, though it feels like I have been here forever, it has only been less than two weeks.  And when it seems nearly impossible that in eight weeks or so I will have to be at a level of Portuguese good enough to teach biology, I remind myself how much I have learned in just these less than two weeks.  Pouco a pouco, little by little…..

Our daily lessons now also include Technical training to teach us how to teach, essentially.  We are divided into which subject we are “supposed” (and I use quotes because it is highly likely that once you get to site, the subject changes) to teach.  This week we discussed how to incorporate the community into our lessons as relevant examples and did some mini lesson planning, even giving a 10 minute biology lesson, yes in Portuguese! 

Once a week, we have a HUB day in which all the volunteers meet together and, this week, we discussed common medical diseases contracted by Mozambique volunteers (makes you not want to go anywhere, swim in anything, eat anything, etc.), and HIV/AIDS in Mozambique. 

After we had what was probably one of my favorite activities thus far: Ngoma Time.  We will have two more Ngoma times and it serves as a venue for artistic cultural exchange between us Americans and the Mozambicanas.  This week, a girl dancing group danced Marabenta for us and a drumming group played music accompanied by an instrument resembling a xylophone made out of coconuts.  (hopefully I can get some photos uploaded eventually).  We were invited to join the girls dancing and, naturally, I jumped at such an opportunity!  It was a blast and exactly what I needed J.  I went home and showed my family what I had learned, much to their amusement.  I am certainly looking forward to the next Ngoma time and am trying to get some people together to do some line dancing for them.  

NO Fear Cooking in Mozambique

Inspired by assisting my irma with cooking dinner on Tuesday, I want to share a little about the Mozambique cooking style.  Here, there is no need to measure, sit and watch the pot, use pot holders nor a cutting board.  I will elaborate…

For dinner, I helped make chicken which we cooked in coconut and peanut milk.  To begin, I learned how to shave the coconut by sitting on this board and scraping it against the “shaver tool” (sorry, I have forgotten  the name).  Then we smashed the peanuts to a dust by putting them in this giant container (called an “almofariz”) and repeatedly dropping a long pole (the “pau de pilar”) on them (hopefully I can upload some photos soon because that is a terrible description).  Combining the coconut innards with the peanut dust in a large bowl, you add some water to the mixture and squeeze handfuls to squeeze out the milk from the coconut, strain it, repeat again with more water, strain and ta-daa! the cooking liquid/milk. 

We then added an onion and tomato.  Okay, this is my favorite and I sit there watching them dice the onion in amazement.  No cutting board is used, they simply dice that onion,or peel and dice that tomato right in their hand, blade going toward themselves, no fear!  No one seems to ever worry about cutting themselves, and trust me, that knife they use is sharp!  It is quite the sight! 

We heated the milk on the caravao (kind of like a really miniature BBQ about a foot off the ground with two burners using wood as charcoal).  There is no low or simmer setting, no temperature regulation, the wood just burns, hot, but, magically, things don’t burn.  They don’t sit there watching over the pot, stirring it every second for fear of something getting stuck to the bottom, they go on about their business doing other things and occasionally checking on the dish.  I sat there watching that milky mixture, stirring it constantly, and my Irma kept telling me, “Rest, rest it is fine.” 

Cooking rice is another thing!  In the US, I fail at cooking rice almost every time.  I have always thought that the rice to water ratio had to carefully be measured so as to avoid crunchy or soggy rice, but apparently I was wrong.  They just add some water to the rice, let it boil for a bit, sample a few grains and either drain the remaining water or simply throw in some more.  No rice cooker, no precise 2:1 ratio, and it comes out perfectly every time!

Which brings me to another thing, they have incredible heat tolerance!  I know I am somewhat of a lame-o when it comes to touching things that might be hot, but they must just have no temperature receptors in their hands as they just take whatever is cooking directly from the boiling pot and put it on their hand to test seasoning or doneness.  I watched my avo do this and asked, “isn’t it hot?” to which she just laughed probably thinking something along the lines of silly American girl.

Anyways, after letting the milky stuff reduce down a little, added the chicken to cook in it and then time to eat.  And it was very very tasty!  Some more Mozambique dishes I can’t wait to try: Matapa and Samosas!

Coming up next week: Monday we are going to South Africa for a memorial service for the anniversary of the first president's death.  Tuesday, we are learning how to cook Mozambique food with our language classes and then are making American food for them.  I'll try to post at least once a week, with interesting stories, but each day is pretty similar to the next, class, lunch, class, dinner, some free time, then bed time.  Email me any questions you might have!