Ao final!?!

On Friday April 4th I took a chapa down to the Tete airport to meet my dad who was flying in from California (by way of South Africa).  At the airport we rented a car and that weekend drove to Cahora Bassa, a huge lake in Tete formed by a dam on the Zambezi river.  We stayed at Ugezi Tiger Lodge, which was a bit lacking in food quality and room cleanliness, but made up for it in great scenery and wildlife sightings.  We went on a boat trip on the lake and saw hippos and crocodiles, watched monkeys in the trees as we ate lunch, and saw a troop of baboons cross the road as we were leaving.

Father and daughter at a photo stop on our way up to the lake.

Lake Cahora Bassa and the Cahora Bassa Dam

A giant moth at Ugezi Tiger Lodge.  We thought it was dead until it abruptly flew away when Dad tried to look at the red part under its wing.  Nearly gave me a heart attack when it flew right into my face.

From Cahora Bassa, we drove back to Tete, returned the rental car, and headed to Zobue.  Dad spent 10 days in Zobue living the village life.  He observed some of my classes, went to the market, and hung out with the neighbor kids on the front porch.  I really enjoyed introducing him to people here--most of them couldn't believe he was my dad, who had come all the way from the United States.  The most common response was:

"Ao final? E seu pai?" Really? He is your dad?

And then, 

"Ele ainda e joven!" He is still young!

It was great having an outsider's perspective on my life here.  Since I've been here for almost 6 months, there are some things I take for granted or don't notice anymore so it was fun to see what he noticed and commented on.

One of Dad's first nights here Leme and his family came for a visit.  I'm posting this because both Leme and Servina are smiling.  If there is anything harder than getting a Mozambican to smile for a posed photo, I haven't yet encountered it.

Three sisters: Sylvia, Albertina, and Celia.  I'm posting this also because of their amazing smiles.

Last weekend we traveled into Malawi together.  This trip was only possible because Dad made a 13 hour trek by chapa to another volunteer's site to pick up my passport, thanks Dad--you're the best!  It was great to finally be able to travel into Malawi.  Since it is a much smaller country than Mozambique, it is much easier to get around. AND there are more police officers that actually enforce the capacities of the minibuses so travel isn't nearly as squished as it is in Mozambique.  That, and the fact that you can travel much more cheaply than in Tete makes it my new favorite nearby travel location.

The first night we went to Liwonde National Park and went on another boat trip, this time up the Shire River into the park.  We saw lots of hippos, many kinds of birds and ELEPHANTS!  The second night we went to Zomba, an old colonial town at a lovely elevation with huge trees and a beautiful botanical garden (I was very surprised to see that...one big difference between Malawi and Mozambique).  The third night we spent in Blantyre so I could head back to Zobue the next day in time for class Monday afternoon.  Dad stayed in Malawi and will head back to the USA next week, again via South Africa.  I was sad to say goodbye to him--it was great having him visit and getting to show him a bit of my life here!

Hippos!

Elephants! Not a great picture, but it was the best I could do...

Birthday in Zobue

It has been a while since I last published a post, mostly because I've been busy with a very special visitor! Dad has been visiting here for the past 10 days or so! It's been so fun to have him here.  I'll post more about his trip soon, but here I just wanted to share a few pictures of how I spent my birthday yesterday.  

Yesterday I turned 25 in Zobue.  Dad was planning to make me a cake in the morning, but we woke up to no electricity so instead we made breakfast and coffee on the charcoal stove.  The rest of the morning was spent playing guitar and dancing with the neighborhood kids.  In the afternoon we went to Zobue's only restaurant, Quinta Monte with Emma, Albertina, Sylvia, Leme, Servina, and their two daughters Marnela and Suneila.  After dinner the electricity had come back on so Dad made the cake--a delicious Deep South Oatmeal Spice Cake from the "You Can Make it in Mozambique" cookbook.  I'd say it was a great birthday spent in Zobue. 

Sardinho and Celia hanging out for guitar and dancing time.

Celena and Jano being the adorable siblings that they are.

Dance party to Wavin' Flag

Dad in Zobue!

Dinner party--blowing up balloons.

Leme and family plus Emma, Dad, Albertina, and Sylvia.

Suneila! Such an adorable baby--and she NEVER cries!

Cohesao

As of March 7th I have officially been in Zobue for three months.  In celebration of that accomplishment (and the fact that we can now leave the province) all the volunteers in the central region met for the annual Cohesao reunion at Casa Msika.  Casa Msika is a lovely lodge outside of the Chimoio, the capital city of Manica, the province south of Tete.  Travel to Casa Msika from Zobue is a full day--Emma and I left Zobue at 7 am and didn't arrive in Msika until 6pm.  I counted a full 7 types of transportation we took during the journey and we still counted it a very successful travel day.  It was tiring travelling all the way down to Chimoio on Friday and travelling all the way back on Sunday, but it was worth it.  The lodge was gorgeous, it was great to see other volunteers, and I got to see quite a bit of wildlife.  It is weekends like that when I really appreciate how lucky I am to be living here in Mozambique.

The lovely pool and view from the main area of the lodge.

This is an animal called a dykka (I have no idea how to spell that).  It turned out the lodge was also a small nature reserve.  It had a few of these animals in a large enclosure close to the lodge and other animals such as zebra, wildebeest, and giraffe in a much larger, more wild area.

They also had crocodiles in an enclosure (separate from the dykka).

There were also a ton of these amazing bird nests and we even got to watch some being built.

Jeff, Thelma, and Carly outside the crocodile enclosure.

All the Tete volunteers showing off our awesome shirts.

On our second night we were able to get a ride up the hill to try and find the giraffes.  We got to see an amazing sunset...and oh yeah, giraffes too!

We got to see a family with a 6 month old baby.  With the gorgeous sunset in the background it can't get much better than this.

Ata

New fruit of the month: atas!  These fruits are nothing like anything I've ever eaten before.  They are currently Emma's favorite Mozambican fruit, but they are actually too sweet for me.

To eat an ata, just split it in half and eat the fruit around the big black seeds.

I'd say the taste is kind of like brown sugar--very sweet.

Bonus: You can use the seeds to play mancala once you're done eating.

Neighbor Friends

We've become friendly with a lot of our neighbors, but there is one family in our neighborhood we've become particularly close with.  All the kids are incredibly well mannered, sweet and thoughtful and I love having them around.  There are 6 kids total: Sylvia (17), Albertina (15), Januario (13), Celia (9?), Celene (6), and Acontece (2).  We see the parents infrequently, but the kids are over at our house all the time.  Albertina has been particularly generous--she has been over a few evenings recently to teach us to cook couve (large green leafy vegetable) and squash.   The other morning she made squash for us at her house and invited us over there to eat it.  She even set the table for us.  This is same family whose house I went to to watch Rihanna music videos.  I am constantly amazed by their generosity.  It's nice to feel like we have some friends in the neighborhood.  

This is Celene (6).  She looked so adorable in her overalls I couldn't resist taking a photo.

Celso (cousin and neighbor to these guys), Albertina, and Celia on the night Albertina taught us how to make couve.

Sylvia getting help with her math homework. Doesn't she have the best smile?

Emma carrying Aconte (2).  He's almost too big for the capulana sling!

Cooking the couve

I forget how small Mozambicans are and then I see a picture of myself with Albertina and I look like I giant!

Mmm, couve!

The little kiddos on the porch

New Mailing Address

I opened a PO Box in Mwanza, the town in Malawi just across the border.  It will be much easier for me to check this PO Box than the one in Chimoio since it is only 20 minutes away instead of 6 hours away.  My mom sent me some letters and they got here in just a few weeks so we're good to go!

Here is the mailing address:
Sienna Laughton
Box 81
Mwanza, Malawi

Thank you to everyone who has sent me mail--I love getting it! And now that I know where the post office is in Malawi I hope to start sending some mail as well!

Week 4 of School

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post and we are now into our 4^th week of school.  I’m getting more comfortable with teaching and finally learning my student’s names.  I’m giving my first test this week, mostly about natural numbers, negative numbers, addition, and subtraction.  Teaching is still very challenging, but at least all my classes usually have an eraser for the chalk board, provided by one of the students.

Life is settling into a routine, which is extremely welcome after the past few months of no structure.  I teach only in the afternoons, Monday through Thursday, so I have time in the mornings to do lesson planning, workout, go to the market, and hang out with the neighborhood kids who aren’t in school.  (Kids here either go to school from 7am-12pm or 12:30-5:30pm, depending on the grade).  Since I teach only 8^th grade I teach from between 12:30 and 5:30 pm.  The schedule is different depending on what day it is.  Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays I only teach 3, 45 minute classes per day, but on Wednesdays I teach three doubles in a row so I am teaching straight from 12:30 until 5:30. It is exhausting! I don’t know how full time teachers do it and survive the week.  It’s also really nice to have three day weekends.  It makes travelling on the weekends much more realistic and gives me a chance to really unwind from the week.

My evenings are pretty much the same as they were before school started.  We have visitors hanging out on our porch until it starts to get dark.  They play cards, listen to me play guitar, or just chat.  Once the sun sets they head home and I make some dinner.  Then it’s a quiet evening of reading, watching TV or movies on my computer, and playing cards with Emma.  I recently found a travel scrabble game in some of the stuff Lisa and Dan left so I’m pretty excited about that.

Two weekends ago I went down to Mabvudzi Ponte (Laura and Helen’s site) to visit.  It was a quick trip, but we had fun.  Matt and Jeff came over to celebrate Matt’s birthday and we ended up going out for a beer with some teachers from the school.  Getting back to Zobue from Mabvudzi Ponte is always an adventure since there isn’t much traffic on the road to Mabvudzi Ponte that connects with the main road that leads to Zobue.  I ended up getting in the back of a truck filled with goats, charcoal, and chickens for the 45 minute ride.  Sitting on a crate of empty beer bottles with the cool wind blowing in my face, I was loving my life.   

Three of the guys in the back of the goat-filled truck with me.

Some of the many goats I shared my ride with.

Other random life events in Zobue:

The other morning when I looked out into my yard I saw that the brick wall of the showerhouse we never use had fallen down! It must have rained so much that the mud holding the bricks together gave out.  Luckily our other brick walls are made with cement, not mud.

This is a side view of the showerhouse before the wall fell down.  This picture was taken when we first got to Zobue and the rains hadn't really started.  Was it really that dry and brown?

This is a front view of the showerhouse after the wall fell down.  Also notice all the green grass that has grown up since December!

Last weekend I went hiking up the mountain behind my house with my neighbor friends Albertina, Celia, Sardinho, and Jaime.  Afterwards Albertina invited me to her house to watch some English movies or listen to English music.  I wasn’t really sure what that would be like, but I accepted anyway.  We ended up watching Rihanna music videos with about 10 kids crowded around the TV and me trying to translate the lyrics to Albertina and her sister Sylvia.  Sitting in a house with a dirt floor watching Rihanna music videos—not an experience I ever would have had if I wasn't a Peace Corps volunteer.

It is definitely not a Mozambican thing to smile for pictures.  People here are all smiles until you want to take a picture of them, then they are all serious business.

This is me with one of my neighbors, Sardinho.  He is a 4th grader who comes over in the mornings and asks me to help him learn math and practice reading.  How can you say no to that?

Other than that, life continues on here.  I can’t believe it’s almost March! These two years are really going to fly by.