Arrival and Orientation

“My name is Isadora, I am your Peace Corps Medical Officer. They call me Izzy- I don’t know why… I am not always easy person…”

That was our introduction to the Peace Corps medical team today. We’re pretty lucky to have so many great staff here who will be looking after us. But I’ll backtrack now to explain how we actually arrived here in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, the day before.

After a 14-hour flight to Johannesburg, followed by a 45-minute hop to Maputo (during which we were served a full on snack of a sandwich, drink, and cake- service on an American flight now seems ridiculously stingy in comparison), we finally stepped onto Mozambican soil (aka asphalt)! 55 people’s worth of bags were loaded onto several trailers and trucks with the help of Peace Corps staff, then we ourselves loaded into two mini-buses, and drove to the hotel in the city.

Green mountains on the way from Johannesburg to Maputo

The trip to the hotel was full of a lot of little introductions to Mozambique- storefront signs in Portuguese, a couple of women on the sidewalk making eyes at the guys in our bus, the view of the ocean at the end of a road, the nonsensical way that traffic still manages to function largely without stoplights or rules, the unidentifiable green fruit hanging from a huge exotic tree. A lot of these things reminded me of Ghana when I was there two summers ago. Actually, by complete coincidence I sat on the bus next to another Moz 23 member who had also traveled to Ghana with her university around the same time I was there! Life is pretty crazy sometimes.

In the mini-bus driving to the hotel in Maputo

We finally arrived at the hotel, blocked the entire 30-foot entryway with our luggage, and met our training coordinator and the two current Peace Corps Volunteers who would be helping with our training for the first week. They explained to the group that we couldn’t sit down to just relax and have a drink yet- but that since Peace Corps was so grateful for having us here, later tonight we would be having shots! Smiles started creeping across several people’s faces- before realizing that they were talking about vaccinations ;)

Apart from the shots, we had a pretty relaxed evening, during which we were able to just hang out and enjoy being at the hotel, which, as it turns out, was RIDICULOUSLY FANCY. Especially considering we're all set to spend the next two years living without a lot of the amenities we're used to back home. The rooms here are comfortable and air-conditioned, with hot-water showers, high-end and exotic food prepared buffet-style for breakfast, lunch and dinner, a swimming pool, free wifi, and, to top it all off, a gorgeous view of palm trees in front of the ocean. Seriously.

The view from my hotel room

Some of the RIDICULOUSLY FANCY food

After a wonderful night sleeping the whole night in a bed for the first time in three days, we started our training sessions. We received a booklet with info about our training schedule for the next 10 weeks, about our homestays, and it also included some general Mozambican cultural info. When I first sat down to start paging through it, I yawned and stretched, still a little tired from the day before. I then glanced down at a random page on cultural do's and don's, and read, no joke:

"It is considered disrespectful to stretch yourself in front of people and yawn with your mouth open."

Well... dang.

Then, on the next page, it said:

"NEVER sniff food! It is considered an insult to the hostess."

Okay well in that case you have my word that I completely DID NOT sniff half the food at last night's dinner buffet to figure out what all the different dishes were made of... DID NOT. 

Anyway... after that we listened to info sessions and staff introductions, including one from the aforementioned medical officer. We got an introduction to safety and how to avoid crime, what our jobs as teachers will be like, and the details of our water filters and malaria prophylaxis. It was a good start on the info we will need throughout the rest of training and eventually our next two years of service. Tomorrow late morning we will leave our lovely hotel to drive a couple hours outside the capital to the small town of Namaacha, on the border of Swaziland and South Africa, where will be staying for the remainder of our next 10 weeks of training. I don't know if I'll be able to post right away after we arrive, since I won't have internet on my personal computer yet. So anyway, see y'all on the flip side!

And So It Begins

It’s finally here- today is the day I leave for Peace Corps service as a high school science teacher in Mozambique for the next two years!  As I write this, it’s 4:30am, and I’m on a bus with my 54 fellow Moz education volunteers on the way to the New York JFK airport for our very loooooong flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, followed by a much shorter one-hour flight to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. 

Waiting in the hotel lobby at 2am for the bus to JFK airport

Once there, we’ll stay at a hotel in the city for two days of safety sessions, cultural info presentations, and medical debriefing before driving a couple hours west to the smaller town of Namaacha, where we will all stay for the next 10 weeks learning Portuguese, receiving some teacher training, and listening to safety presentations. After those 10 weeks, our volunteer group will split up and be placed at sites across the country to work and teach for the next two years. We won’t find out our site locations until the last few weeks of training though. Oh, the suspense…

Jumping back a bit, yesterday afternoon our volunteer group, called Moz 23 (since we’re the 23^rd Peace Corps volunteer group to serve in Mozambique), met for the first time in a hotel conference room in Philadelphia for what Peace Corps calls our “staging” event, aka our pre-departure orientation. It was an afternoon of signing forms (the point at which we all became official Peace Corps Trainees!), and reviewing the Peace Corps mission, goals, and policies, as well as an introduction to safety and security. I already got to meet a couple group mates who were flying out on the same flight from Minneapolis in the morning. Actually, it turns out there’s quite the handful of Minnesotans in our group- at least four of us! OH YAH.

Outside the staging conference room

Post-staging, a group of Moz 23 having our last "American" meal

It’s been such a bizarre experience to finally be here, meeting my group, and facing the fact that I really am leaving the U.S. for two years, and that I really am going to Moz and that I really am going to experience all the things I’ve been imagining and reading about (thank the lord for reddit, facebook, and volunteer blogs!) for years. It’s both insanely exciting and nerve-wracking. I have to admit I’m also excited for the possibility of meeting current volunteers whose blogs I’ve been following, since they’re kind of like celebrities in my mind now, haha. I’ll do my best not to be star struck ;)

For friends and family who were wondering about my mailing address, here it is below:

Corpo da Paz/U.S. Peace Corps

Avenida Zimbabwe 345, C.P. 4398

Maputo, MOZAMBIQUE

HOWEVER, mail often takes several weeks to arrive, and it’s possible that after training I will be in a different part of the country. So personally I would recommend waiting at least until December to send mail, after I know my permanent location. Either way, whenever sending mail to Mozambique, there are several tips for ensuring that it arrives, since corruption in the post offices often leads to theft and delays:

·      Write the address in red ink, it looks more official.

·      Don’t value a package at more than $10 if possible, since it’s risky to send valuables, but also because in order to receive the package I will have to pay a significant percentage of the value as customs tax.

There we go! It’s really happening :D Thanks all, hopefully the next post will be from Africa!