Back to the Start: Namaacha, one year later

“Paragem! Paragemmm!"I bubbled to the coborador excitedly. Minutes before, we had rolled past the bright blue “Cascadas” sign and crested the final hill into town. And now, after paying the driver, I was standing in front of the Mercado central where I was going to pick up some renown Namaacha pão – bread so wholesome and fluffy, it rivaled pao throughout the entire country. “Slap some bright yellow Rama on that and you’ve got yourself a lunche!”I thought happily to myself, giddily quasi-skipping into the bakery. Bread and fake popcorn-like butter. The lunche of champions. I then smiled wryly at myself, thinking of all the other wonders that have graced such warm buns. The bright pink Palony balone mystery meat that my Mae used to deep fry in oil for me every morning and slap between the doughy goodness. The angry purple jam. The blessed Gato Preto peanut butter that held me through fish head soup dinners. It made PST – or Pre-Service Training – feel like years ago instead of a simple 14 months. With the warm round loafs in a plastic bag and an easy grin, I sauntered out of the market and began the hike to Fronteira – the barrio on the other side of town where I would be staying at the PC guesthouse with my buddy and fellow 19er Matt.

It was an amazingly routine start to my week revisiting Namaacha – in some ways it was as if I’d never left. The fondness I found myself feeling while walking past certain homes and places around town was comparable to the love one has for their hometowns. Except this was my Mozambican hometown – where I came into my Mozambican self. Yet contradictingly, I was stunned by just how different it seemed in other ways. Similar to revisiting your elementary school as an adult – where the desks, chairs, and tetherball poles that had once seemed soooooo big before become magically dwarfed – I looked at Namaacha from a completely different perspective than when I arrived. For example, I remember not being particularly impressed by Namaacha. Yes, it was beautiful but it seemed so poor and undeveloped. My host-family’s cement block home with electricity and a private water pump once seemed decrepit and dirty – now its borderline palacial. And the Mercado that was so limited in its selection? Abundant with flavorful options and opportunity. Really, that first walk left me somewhat in awe, and I caught myself feeling that numerous times during my week in Namaacha.  Beautiful old homes, rich flowery gardens, decent roads, SIDEWALKS, and the greenest, lushest land I’ve ever seen.  Namaacha nearly transformed into a Mozambican nirvana. Funny how I didn’t know to appreciate it while I was there. Yet, how could I have known without enough time to learn to look in from the other side of the glass?

Leading PST instead of being in it was as refreshing a change as you can imagine. Matt and I prepped and facilitated nearly all of the CORE, TECH, and HUB sessions … which we really didn’t realize we’d signed up for but were happy with the responsibility anyways. And Matt and I made a good team!  I’ll admit I didn’t know Matt very well during our PST, and we got sent to opposite ends of the country for service, but I really enjoyed his company working in Namaacha. He is just such a GOOD human being. Fun, insightful, introspective, honest, complimentary.  We had some great convos and reflections about our own service, and how we’ve responded to the challenges of Peace Corps. Those convos helped balanced the stress of presenting 4-6+ hours of information straight. Experience offers perspective. I’d be reminded of that time and time again, especially with my interactions with the Moz 21ers. The Moz 21ers are cool, but very young it seems… which is funny because I’m actually the same age as them. “But,” I kept reminding myself, “They JUST got here! They’re in the PST bubble. They’ll learn ten times more once they get to site. They’ll grow up because they’ll have too. Like I did.” I remember that’s partly what the allure of Peace Corps was at the beginning – a fascination with the person I could become through the experiences of Peace Corps. And its funny, thinking back to the shenanigans of my PST just a year ago, I’m conflicted between wanting to bust out some fist-pumps and cringing in embarassment.  Such is the life of a PCT – member of an incestuous clan in which the main stress reliever is social drinking and mooching internet from the one fancy-ish hotel in town. Sooo yeahhhh. Not one to judge. We’ve all been there. Call it growing pains.

In any case, I did get to tear away from the group for my morning runs. Gah, it was soooo nice running in the RAIN!!! I loved it! My eyelashes filling up with raindrops, my shoes squishing with each step, the MATOPPEEEE (yep, that shit still stains everythinggg haha)!! I got to do all my favorite routes, like the cemetery loop, the border run, and the tres fronteiras (three borders) run/mountain climb. Sad to say, hills kill me now… they used to be my forte, you know, with these thunder thighs and all, but after a year of running on the N-1 pancake… dun dun duunnnnn. Anyways.

My favorite run to the Tres Fronteiras, or Three Borders (Mozambique, South Africa, and Swaziland) - Ever wanted to be in three countries at once? Come with me on my next run/hike! :)

 

Perhaps the highlight of returning to Namaacha was visiting my host family. I was a little nervous at first and let the craziness of PST work push my impending visit to the back of my mind. I hadn’t even told my host-family that I was going to be in town. My excuse was I wanted to surprise them… which was mostly true. But really, I was just nervous. When I left Namaacha last December, it was an awkward goodbye. I had begun having some small fights with my Mae over some of her little rules. I was fed up with being treated like a 14 year old with curfew. Mae and Pai were fed up having their four-person family live out of one bedroom. My departure, least to say, was overdue. That compounded by the guilt spiral of not keeping in frequent communication after I left was making me start to worry about how much I’d be welcome back. But, I told myself, I was just being dramatic. I’d be a coward to leave Namaacha and not have tried being a good host-daughter.

And so, the day before I was leaving to go back to Namaacha, I hitched a ride from the Peace Corps office to the market, bought some ananas (pinapple), stocked my backpack with goodies, dangled a squawking chicken from each hand, and strode up to the house. It was still the same simple cement exterior, with the same beautiful view overlooking the rolling hills. As I strode up I caught eyes with a very surprised Marina, still beautiful as ever, who quickly called for Mae and Elias. Pretty soon everyone was outside the house hugging and laughing. At some point during the enthusiastic welcome party, someone whisked away the chickens, which freed up my arms for some big bear hugs for Elias and primo Toni. Everyone was excited and all smiles. But little did I know, Mae had a surprise for me too! After I left Namaacha for Mapinhane, Mae became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy September 11, 2013!! Mae calls him affectionately her little “America baby” in honor of September 11.  They won’t officially name him for at least another year… babies here in Mozambique have to survive long enough to earn a name… but I was absolutely blown away by how beautiful he was!! I felt so proud, haha J

Mae's new addition to the family, her "America baby" born on September 11, 2013

In any case, we proceeded to have a spontaneous festa pequena with beer and of course all the relatives poured in to say hello to their American daughter. It was awesome. And after the first hour it felt like I blended right in with everyone else. Like I hadn’t even left. Except for one main thing.

Perhaps the best part of the visit was being able to show Mae just how much I’d learned in the past year. For the first time really, I could communicate easily in Portuguese, understand the conversation, laugh along with them during their fav telenovelas. I was 110% engaged. To prepare for our small celebration, Mae even put me in charge of preparing and cooking the chickens and cooking the xima, both of which exceeded expectation. I was “ïn.”  Finally. And because of this I realized to what degree I admire my host mom. I always understood that she ran the house and had her way of doing things, but seeing and understanding how she coaxed, cajoled, teased, and demanded things from Pai and the numerous uncles and cousins (and still got her way despite being the “woman”), really impressed me. Mae is smart, educated, professional, working teacher, mother who somehow cares for everyone. She is respected tremendously by everyone in the family. She knows how to balance fun with her role of being the boss. And, happily, my new and improved ability to communicate lent me some respect and admiration from Mae… and being one of my fairest and most constructive critics, her approval felt DAMN GOOD.



Marina, me, Mae, and Elias! My amaaaazing host family in Namaacha! It was a wonderful visit and I was excited to show them just how much I've grown in the past year!

 

I also got to chat with Elias, my host brother. He’s in seventh grade now! I told them that if they studied hard maybe I’d come back to Namaacha to be their teacher next year haha. This incited a fit of excited giggles that lit me up. Elias is a special special boy. I have yet to meet a little boy more caring, kind, compassionate, good-humored, and loving (especially to his new little brother!!). There is never a hint of jealousy or meanness in him. I think if anyone ever stripped Elias’s sheer goodness away from him, I’d come after them with a vengeance and a vendetta.  I hope beyond hope that he has the opportunity to grow into a wonderful, sweet young man that preserves that goodness. Humanity could certainly use it.

And Marina!! What a beautiful young woman she is already! Unfortunately I didn’t get to chat with her a lot because she had a church function… but she did walk me home partway so we could catch-up. Apparently, she LOVES chemistry and wants to go to school in Maputo to become a teacher!! I couldn’t be more thrilled! She’s also getting baptized this weekend. While I’m not religious, I love seeing a young girl with a big heart and convictions. Maybe one day I can help pay for both Marina and Elias to go to college or start a business or something… whatever their dreams may be. I just hope I’ll get to be there for them after Peace Corps. When Marina and I reached the turnaround point for her to return home, she started crying and it took three sets of hugs and goodbyes before we finally split. It felt really good to be missed and to be seen as a role-model for her. I’m so so glad that I didn’t let my reservations get the best of me. My one afternoon with my host family was incredibly transformative and rewarding. It feels good to finally belong and it erased whatever reservations I’d had.

And so, after Friday’s Halloween party, Matt and I packed up and left our little Peace Corps home to go back to our normal lives. I’m so glad I got to meet and connect with the new volunteers. They will put new energy into our ranks… we could use it, for sure. 

Two 21ers, Maria and Victor came back to Mapinhane with me for site visits. Of course, I first took them to Vilankulos/Chibuene where I introduced them to Pat and Mandy and the wonders of a beach town. Then I brought them back to Maps for a good “bush” tour. While it was testing week and they thus couldn’t sit in on classes, Maria and Victor had a blast getting to know my colleagues, walking around our little village, talking with the nuns, and even tutoring some of the students at the mission. I think they really enjoyed their break from Namaacha and I’m excited that I’ll get to share my amazing village with Maria and Sarah next year as new sitemates!!! So thrilled to finally have a friend in town, I was getting a bit lonely up here. Couple that with Amy coming down to Inhassoro… I’m thrilled!!

Perspective is earned through hard experience. It’s fair to say that my newfound understanding and connections is the product of a year+ of hardddd work. And I’m proud to see the progress I’ve made. Thank you Namaacha, for being my mirror with which I can reflect on my time here in Mozambique.