dont throw off my groove

While traveling alone, I am never really alone. My visa for Mozambique expired and so I had to leave the country. I traveled into Zimbabwe on a short chapa-ride from Chimoio. The first half of the trip I sat beside a sweetie-pie of a man who talked with me cautioning me of the dangers in Africa. He got off at the city of Manica and other passengers filed in. At the border I got out and was immediately followed by a fellow. Passion is a commonly used word in Mozambiquan Portuguese. He told me how he had passion for me… him and all the other Mozambqiuan poets. However, he was able to help me walk through the steps to get my Zimbabwean visa.

On the other side, in Zim, a taxi picked me up. My drivers name was Harry. An awesome guy! His car has had it, and next time I go to Zim I doubt that thing will still be running. He dropped me off at a hostel-house that was recommended to me. 99 – Fourth St. At the gate a small pear-shaped Zimbabwean woman named Emma greeted me. She lead me in the house and showed me her family who lives with her as well as all the rooms and told me to choose one. Super-quaint little place. Her son showed me a good restaurant for lunch. If I were to open a place that place would be pretty much IT. I ate outside in an Aunty-Laurie-decorated garden (if you know my Aunty-Laurie and her purple-house and multiple-award-winning garden, you will understand). Everyone there seemed to be white and had prestigious accents, but it was wonderful. I even proceeded to talk with a British accent…in my head. :)


I walked, (in terrible sandals that did more harm then bare feet would have), and came upon the most beautiful park! Zimbabweans sure know how to make a nice landscape, or rather to place a path in perfect splendor. As I walked oohhing and ahhhing at the different flowers and trees around me, I lowered my chin to focus my vision on dozens of little monkeys running around me. I could never have imagined something more magical.

Zimbabwe has gone through some recent economic problems and is now, just recently, using ONLY US cash. There seems not to be the existence of coins. So at the grocery store when I bought a yoghurt, my 13 cents was paid to me in a couple pieces of bubble-gum. It was not just me, each costumer in like was handed a couple bubble-gum depending on how much was to be repaid.

During the evening, I went back to my cute little house and met 2 interesting woman, one from Australia, the other from UK, both living in Zim for the majority of their lives. One was a chain smoker, the other obese. They invited me to chat with them as they drank their wine and ate their sliced cheese.

The rest of the night I spent with Emma and her family. They invited me to watch “Big Brother Africa” as Amanda, Emma’s’ daughter plaited (braided) my hair. Simply the worst show I have ever witnessed. They were so into it.

I have defiantly surpassed my previous record of how many cute cafés I have gone to in the same day. Mutare, Zimbabwe is absolutely littered with wonderful cafés and teahouses. In less then 2 days in Mutare I went to 8 different places! Now I know, it was just gluttonous. I ended up meeting someone interesting at each place, either a worker of the café, or a local resident. I have numbers and cards of each person as well as had an invitation for a ladies-dinner with a couple of UK girls. Next time I go to Mutare, I will have numerous places to stay, as well as personal tour guides.

The chapa ride from the border to Chimoio was quite hilarious. I sat in the front middle beside the driver and a fat, friendly woman. She has 4 boys and no daughters. We joked around and I told her I could be her daughter she never had, she was so happy. The back of the chapa was filled with boys/ men. The whole 4-hour ride I got taps on the shoulder from them asking me whom I choose as my boyfriend. The cobrador (the money manager of the chapa) told each new passenger that entered the chapa that I was his love. Once again I was the entertainment of the evening.

Jon is someone I think I will get along with real well. He also works for MCC up in the Mozambiquan province of Tete building sand-dams. He and I are continuously called the two most enthusiastic people in MCC. Back in Chimoio, staying at Jenny and Joel’s house (more country reps), we made real chai tea, real stove-popped popcorn then watched the ‘Emperors New Groove’.

thanks giving

How will I ever make it home without taking some little children home? They are too cute. The other night, having to be home before the gate shuts at 18:00 and the sun is down, I started running down the path. i was followed by a group of little girls who screamed with joy “VAMOS CORRER!” (Lets run). They giggled all the way down dirt road with me. When we reached my destination I lifted my hand to HI-5 the four little girlies. With scared faces they suddenly turned to run back, I quickly told them to wait, not to be scared and called them over to teach them what a HI-5 was and said “chau amigas!”. They were enamored. The next day one of the girls came to the center to give me a gift. It was a plastic bag of batata doce > sweet potatoes. She had dug them from her garden all by herself for me. What I am going to do with all those potatoes I don't know, but I was thrilled.

So I have many secret goals or fetishes if you will, that I have developed over the years: becoming a bee-keeper, riding a lion, back-flipping, etc etc etc… before I come back to Canada, I will have succeeded at at-least one of those goals. I went to KEDESH, which is a boys orphanage in Beira. The boys are full of energy, ranging from around 8 – 19 years old. They found out I do some capoeria and when they heard I was coming for a night they put on a show of dancing, singing, karate, and capoeira, as well as other talents. So today, I told them I have to learn to back flip. All morning I was being lifted up in the air and flipped backwards by the guys at the orphanage. I am determined to learn to do it independently… I will succeed . The boys were definitely exited to have another girl there, and loved that I could hoola-hoop and walk on my hands. They are naturally better then me at both. I intend to spend the 3 months that I girls in Machanga are not at the center (November, December, January) here with Heather, the English girl who has been working here almost 2 years, and John, the one who started the KEDESH boys orphanage. I had stayed the night and in the morning we made personal flat breads. Some put cinnamon spices, other fresh coriander or onions from the garden inside their bread. John knows what kind of fun boys like to have and allows almost everything, no matter how distructive or messy it may be. In short, we had a water and flour fight. By 10am I was covered in flour and water from having flour fights with the boys. The shy young boys warm up to you so fast, and I had kids sneaking up on me with handfuls of flour in minutes> It was as if I was being initiated.

Me, Heather and Zee (another North American girl who works at another orphanage a 30 second walk from KEDESH) went out to a café called Riviera and had refrescos (too hot for hot coffee) and pastries. *sigh* one of my most favorite things ☺

Happy ThanksGiving! Going for a good chicken dinner at the Country-Reps house. Getting HOTT over here! For that I am thankful.

bofar

You know you are making it somewhere with language when you begin to communicate feelings. The other night I sat under the stars with Tio George our guard, and Tia Amelia. We talked about God and religion. I surprised myself that I understood the things I did. Last night I had one of the best conversations with the girls. I was taught the verb “to fart” in Portuguese and Ndau. It was possibly the funniest conversation I have had.

A group of Canadians came in to Machanga for the purpose of creating plans for a new girls centre in a new villa that is being created. Having 5 white MEN come into the GIRLS center was a big deal. They observed each of them very carefully. As the Tia’s and me sat from a slight distance from the group of talking men they told me the things they observed. How many times one went to the latrine indicated he had diarrhea, or how the hair in-between ones eyes could be braided. These women have more of a personality then one may think at first. Once you start to get in on the language, a whole new world is opened. I was asked to translate a lot of the trip back, and I was so surprised at how much I can translate and understand. Being here for these 2 months I have learnt so much and feel so at home, I feel proud to call the rural Machanga, out-in-the-bush-middle-of-who-knows-where, my home.

At the moment I am back in Beira, just got in from a delicious meal, outdoors on the oceanfront. The center has gone through a slight dry spell in food because of problems with transportation, and miniature-dried shrimp (with grains of sand unfiltered throughout) has been served for lunch and dinner for the past week. It was a DELIGHT to have a vegetable curry dish! Sand not included.

PS> if you want to see more photos, go to my facebook page: Alexis Goertz, it is easier to upload photos there :)

collecting conches in the morning

September 27, 2009

I have started to run in Machanga. Saturday and Sunday, 5 am, I led the whole group of bare-foot girls running around the district of Machanga. Mid-run we stop in the soccer campus to stretch, do yoga and other aerobic and anaerobic exercises. No one here has yoga mats to keep their bums clean, we are pretty much rolling around in the dirt and welcome that bucket shower with open arms when we return.

Yesterday was a day of WAITING. The church had a party to celebrate the end of the week party is just had (they have any excuse to party). Party is usually revolved around the food. There defiantly was a lot of food; I just had to wait until 4:30 pm to have lunch. It was a lot to prepare, and I got right in the kitchen-hut to see the action, and got some good photos and video of chicken slaughterings. I ate some pretty good duck too.

There are little quarks and cultural differences that I am picking up on. Expressions such as, “chEE!” and “Ai-bahhhhh”. When we ran past smelly cow-dung everyone spat on the ground in disgust. Also, in Machanga, everyone is “EE-way”. Direct translation – YOU.

Today I held a birthday party for the girls who have a birthday in September. We went out to buy ingredients then spent the whole afternoon making 2 cakes. One girl took over claiming she knows best. She wouldn't even let me crack my own eggs that I bought! Nonetheless, the cakes turned out. Since it was cloudy the solar panels did not get very much sun to turn to energy so we had our party by carocene lamplight. I showed photos of Canada, which they found VERY interesting.

September 30, 2009

People constantly talk about how Machanga “talks”, or gossips if you will. One can’t walk out of their house without being asked “Onde via?” (Where are you going?), and later that afternoon the whole district knows what you were up to. It doesn't help that I am the only white girl here and since I speak a little Ndau, they love to greet me then ask where I am going in Ndau. They get a kick out of it every time. I have befriended many people, and some of the best cooks, I have gone for lunch three times with this Indian woman, Zianabu, and had delicious food. Its good to change up my palate a little. Madinia, the large, friendly woman at another shop loves to sit with me. They were selling apples and I had to get one (even though one apple was over 50 cents), and she brought me out a fresh piece of cake and a coke with it. A bit of a contrast from a healthy fruit, but it was nonetheless delish cake. I am known now as the runner, and countless people know I am training the girls ‘gymnastica’, sports, capoeira etc, and have asked me to train them (guys included). Madinia is one of them. She gave me a capolanah that she said she used to fit, but is no use to her now. Tia Casilda seemed a little jealous that I have only been here less then 2 months and have received a free capulanah and she never has. Then she went ahead and asked for my other one. I said no. She has MANY; I think it was one of her little tests. She keeps mentioning how she has no money, and I go in to a shop with my friend Alberto and there she is with Tia Amelia having a coke, with a new capulanah in hand. She and Alberto then bickered on who was going to buy me a refresco. Cant say I don't feel loved ☺

Everyday is such an adventure with the girls. I love that I teach them; I never thought I would love sharing things so much, I know that I love learning, but really giving is so much better then receiving when you get the responses that these girls give. I know that my language is really coming along when I can have deep conversations with the girls, and during our English lesson on Monday some of the girls stayed after and we got to talk about boys: their favorite subject.

Paulina, what a gem. She is one of the smaller and younger girls (15) but defiantly one of the brightest. Like Tia Casilda says she has a “cabeza fresca”, a fresh mind. She has loads of creativity and catches onto ideas faster than anyone, and does everything without difficultly. I had given her half a coconut one day and she continuously comes to my room to hand me a little toffee or hard candy. A family from Manitoba is coming down to the center to see it and donate money, and so I said the girls should put on a show. So we have been working on making some theater, and Paulina has written a script all herself, and got me to translate parts of it in English. They are using my stuffed lamb as a baby, and I let her sleep with it that night. The next day she carried it around with her in a capulanah all day like a baby.

Last night I joined in on the dancing in the misty rain in the dark night with the girls. Hip-hop and rap they sung and clapped and I was pushed in the middle. It was so energizing, these sort of moments you cannot take a picture of, only have them stored in your heart.

October 5, 2009 – Vilanculos

Friday I headed out to the beautiful area of Vilanculos with Richard and Lee the two white guys living here in Machanga with Peace Corps. Our adventure began after leaving early in the morning, crossing the river on a canoe, waiting for a chapa to drop us off at the main highway #1, then waiting to a balaia> “hitchhike”. We didn't wait terribly long until we got into the back of a giant semi. We three sat behind the driver and his colleague on the mattress. Plenty of space, comfy ride and free.

We arrived in Vilanculos and I was warned by many not to be too jealous or compare lives with Machanga. It sure is different. It was my first time seeing an ocean that crystal clear and sand so fine. The girls we stayed with had the sweetest house made out of bamboo. We got the guest house, also amazing, witch is directly on the ocean, so I woke up in the morning to a sun rise and a sun set directly behind me; windows strategically placed so I can enjoy both from the king-sized bed in the loft of the house.

Since it is quite a touristy area, people can speak more English, and try to practice it with you WAY more then Machanga. I don't know how much more I could take it if I lived there.

I made a rookie mistake and put my trust in an area I was not familiar with. I left my beautiful gladiator sandals 10 meters away from where I was collecting conch-shells on the beach, 2 people walked past, I returned and they were gone. Robbers are plenty, and it is not as small of a community like Machanga, where I can walk around the market and see who has new sandals. I looked for them in the market but had no luck.

Peace core is a great organization. There are volunteers all over the world doing pretty much the same thing as I am. Richard and Lee have tones of other colleagues there and all over Mozambique. We had a get together and I got to meet a group of awesome people who have experienced Mozambique for a year and some people 2 years. It was so great to talk with them and see that this is a place they love and know very well. I now have connections all the way down to Maputo.

Our plan was to leave Sunday morning, but the chapa never ended up coming, and Sundays are hard day to hitchhike out of Vilanculos, so we decided to go out for pizza, lay on the beach, buy some local art and stay the extra day. It was not a hard decision and a well spent extra day ‘stuck’ in Vilanculos.