I’m Going to Alto Molokwe (or Alto Molocue if you prefer)

(Note: sorry for the weird formatting but blogger was giving me problems and this is the only way the text would show)

Last Wednesday was a big day for Moz 17: Site Placements!

After an excruciatingly long Hub day where we all came together to attend classes/lectures on Mozambiquean birth, initiation, marriage, and death rituals, the legal environment in Mozambique, and the dangers of landmines + cyclones (quite a fearsome combination), we gathered in the gym of the Instituto a Formacao des Professores for the site placement ceremony. 

Standing around the outside edge of the basketball court, upon which a giant map of Mozambique had been drawn in yellow, black, and white chalk, each trainee was given a white, full paged envelope with our name written on it. Once everyone had their envelope in hand, and we had all read the letter from the Peace Corps staff discussing how the selections were made, we tore open the envelopes and began reading the contents.

Inside was a list of trainees and where they were heading, as well as a map of each of our regions of the country with our site location highlighted. It was at this moment that I found out that the next two years of my life will be spent in Alto Molokwe in Zambezia Province. Zambezia is in northern part of the country and is considered the breadbasket of Mozambique, yet Alto Molokwe is in the mountainous region of the province. Seasonal monsoons bring a large amount of rain which provides for fertile soil, but also increased rates of Malaria. Alto Molokwe is a transit town between the regional capitals of Quelimane and Nampula, and therefore has all manner of vegetables, grains, consumer goods, and raw materials available. This also means that there are frequently South African tourists in town, so my status as a volunteer might not be as well-known as it would be in other towns. The Escola Secundaria de Alto Molokwe, where I will be teaching either French and/or Physics, is very close to where I will be living but also very close to the town’s holding cells. It is also quite large, based off the fact that turmas (a class of between 50 and 100 students) are each assigned a letter, and at ESAM they run into the double letter. 

My site placement letter, map, and Moz 17 list

Though some trainnees received information about their site in their placement packet, I did not get more than a location and an assignment. Luckily, I was able to quickly get in contact with Chris, a Moz 15 education volunteer who I will be living with, and Dylan, a Moz 16 health volunteer who lives about 5 min away. Having them there as a source of knowledge and support will be extremely helpful and I look forward to getting to know them. Luckily, Moz 17 has a large number of volunteers heading north to Nampula, Cabo Delgado, and Niassa, so I should be able to see many of my friends from training on a regular basis.

In honor of this important moment in my Peace Corps career, I have written a piece, in the style of my fourth grade mother’s day poem from which I’m quite sure comes my affinity for acronyms (ie S.A.M.T.E.C.H.), describing my feelings at this moment.

	Although I’ve been
	Living in Mozambique for 7 weeks
	The “real peace corps” experience,
	Or whatever you’d like to call it,
	Mandates an integration that includes losing
	Oneself within another culture.
	Likening the past few weeks to being lost is like saying that eating
	Oreos in Times Square is to have
	Knowledge of American life.
	While I’m going to miss training, I’m excited to begin what I came here to do,
	Education.

Hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I enjoyed writing that.

Another highlight of this week was my first bout of travelers sickness, aka diarrhea. I think the culprit was a questionable padjia (fried bean patty) that I ate at 9 on Saturday night, or maybe it was the fish samosa that I had at 3 that day, or the piece of bread the day before, or.... well you get the idea. The result was all the same, 36 hours of stomach pains and bathroom dashes followed by sips of rehydration salts infused water all with the background noise of "The West Wing" episodes. Luckily, it passed in a day and a half, and I didn't have to miss any of the lessons I am teaching at model school this week, more on that latter. So the lesson learned here wasn't to be more careful about what I eat, cause that would have lasted until the delicious fish samosas I just devoured, but that you should always have some un-watched episodes of a good TV show on hand and several of your favorite movies ready to go for the day that nature calls.

So I'm packing my bags for the Misty Mountains
where the spirits go now,
over the hills where the spirits fly.
I really don't know.

Led Zepplin- Misty Mountain Hop