It's been awhile

Sorry for the grammatical errors, computers are difficult here. I'll finish this next time I get to a computer. Ya, it sure has. A little difficult to make it to computer since the end of January, so I will start with events from then and go in a chronological order. Quick comment about the police in nampula city, they sure are pricks. They love checking the id of white people and if you don't have your passport they are f'n jerks. those people who love racial profiling, you sure would hate it when your subjected to it an unacceptable rate. I mean, we are there to help people and spend money, they need a lot of both. Calm down. So i began my work in February, you all know the layout of Mugulama and its size so i began visiting a new zone every sunday. That is the best time to do it because i can speak in multiple churches and meet the leaders and its the best way to reach people far into the bush. so first i went to naholossa, about 4 km into the mountains, usually i go with the president of the volunteers but i went with this other volunteer bc it was a thursday. he is a character let me tell you. anyways this was the only non sunday i went out to the zones, bc it is tough to gather people during the week. i spoke with the leaders and some other community members and then the chefe da localidade, or kinda of the mayor, asked me to visit a few people who were sick. i said sure bc you don't want to say no to a man who lives in this type of traditionalist society where people just don't say no to him, and i need these men on my side for the future programs i seek to implement. i am not a big fan of being a visiting nurse, bc i am not a nurse, but there is absolutely nothing i can do physically at that moment except to advise and tell the family to feed the person better food. i do capacity and development, its a little different. anyways, the first lady was laying down, she just gave birth the week before, prolly lost a lot of blood, and i asked a few questions and said to go to the hospital. the volunteer that i was with starting yelling at me that i need to buy them a car for ambulance work. i just ignored it bc like i said this guy is a character. so i leave the house and go to the next one; there was a woman there with tuberculosis which had horribly progressed. i advised them that she need to tb treatment immediately and spoke about the types of foods they were feeding her, that being only corn. this whole process took about 2 hours, and the whole time the leaders were still in the same place waiting for me to come back. at first i felt bad bc this was my first experience in another zone with very important old men that i had never met. this contributed to the thinking i will get to later. later that week the brother of the first lady brought me a huge sugarcane to my house just for visiting her, it was very nice. the next week i went to nanretete, and the volunteer out there is a good man. i spoke at two churches to 280 people. afterward, they fed me chicken and rice, and this is in a place where it is extremely difficult to find meat of any kind. the community and leaders were very graceful and it was just like in those pictures, myself sitting outside a mud brick church with 100 little dirty kids standing around bc it was probably the first time a white person went out into the bush since they have been alive. after the church gathering, i went to the house of the volunteer and he gave me a stalk of bananas (70 total) and 4 stalks of sugarcane (1 stalk is about 4-6 feet long). since i am going in chronological order ill throw in some other stuff that happened in the week. my cement guy finished making my fence, i wanted to do it but was having a wedding soon and wanted to make money and i wanted to help (the wedding is this sunday). plus, he did it way better than i could have, but it is nice now, bc i feel a little more secure especially when the drunks come over from the market. also that week a lovely lady name fatima had a boy and said i could name it, i thought nothing of it and since mozambicans wait a few weeks to register names, i slipped from my mind. she returned to my house and asked for the name, i was thinking my name but no one can pronounce it so i picked my old man's name, Rosario. its a good name and they can pronounce bc it has that italian tongue to it. so pops has a baby named after him in the mato of africa. the next sunday i went to elope, about 7km from my house. it was a difficult bike ride, but when i arrived there was a huge gathering of 3 churches, prolly the only time the baptists sat in the catholic church. the leaders know for many days before i arrive and they have always come through with sizable crowds. on this sunday i spoke to 588 people. afterwards, the churches gave me 40 bananas, 5 stalks of sugarcane, 2 pumpkins, one live chicken, 8 heads of corn and the next day, the pastor of the baptist church brought me another stalk of bananas (about 30) and then went and did the HIV test. he is 76, haha. he then came over to my house to tell me he was healthy and that they gave him condoms, he laughed, i asked him to tell his fellow churchgoers that he did the test and not to be scared. He assured me he would. so after 2 sundays, in my house i had over 100 bananas, i had to give some out, its impossible to eat them before they went bad. that week my roof was fixed so now in only one area does it leak a little and it isn't very important. some quick observations about those first few weeks. lets just say malnutrition is rampant. one big problem is access to certain foods, but another is women become pregnant so quickly after they have given birth, that sometimes the baby doesn't receive the necessary breast-milk for the first 6 months, and an additional 6 months after that with supplemental nutrition. a baby will become health with 6 months of breast milk and then corn three times a day and not enough water, let alone clean water. these babies bellies are enormous. but the odd thing is, the african race are incredibly powerful, muscular human beings. obviously, as they get older they gain access to the foods that they were at the mercy of the families to provide for them. but also, can you imagine if they received an american nutrition from the day they were born until 15 years of age. they would be superhumans, give an african meat everyday of his life after the age of 4, and from birth to 4 milk and other body-building proteins, and i could not possibly fathom the physical capabilities of them, not to mention an increased intellectual ability. they already are smart, i mean how many languages do you speak? i though, no where near as many as them.
So our test days are monday, and we have seen an incredible increase in the amount of tests since i started traveling the countryside. from 4, 7, and 3 tests per monday before i began work to 22, 41, 30 etc. Obviously, in a community with a population of 32,000 it is not good enough, but when you have to walk 27 km to get a test and then walk back barefoot, i mean i cant think of anybody in the states that would do that. without shoes by the way, through the dirt-roaded mountains. Also, its tough to preach good foods and healthy diet when it takes soooo much energy just to eat the foods which lack the nutrients needed. i am also supposed to be thinking about income generating projects, but how can i make an IGP when there is no purchasing power at the bottom of the economic ladder; perhaps a trickle-down process will reach us soon :) The people here are amazed at card-shuffling, my water bottle and the stupid bike helmet i have to wear. the man who built my fence and has his weeding this weekend, he saw the easter eggs I had with hersheys in them from Laura, all different, bright colors and thought they were the best thing since the rainy season. he asked if he could have them bc he wanted to put them over his wedding table during dinner haha. So i am looking forward to seeing American easter eggs hanging above the head dinner table at this weekends wedding.
someone once told us to let somebody do a favor for you, and it is true they are extremely welcoming in the rural areas and they love doing things for me. we have a great group of volunteers, 31 in all, who represent the 22 zones of mugulama. they work for nothing, some don't have bikes and leave at 3am to walk 25km to make it to a monthly meeting at the hospital by 9. so they decided to build a fence around the hospital, with 4 new latrines and a new house for people to stay the night in if they arrive after the hospital is closed. it was great, they organized the leaders of the zones and on the day we began, over 300 people brought wood, bamboo, hoes and dried bark to tie the fence from all over mugulama. each zone had an area to work on especially so i did what any PCV would do, i made sure i was the dirtiest person when we were done. and it was fun, it was like i was landscaping again in the states. and the community leaders were very happy with my help also i believe laura calls that brownie points. but the day before, we were measuring the fence and a bunch of women were sweeping the hard in the blazing sun with babies tied to their backs while a bunch of men were sitting in the shade doing nothing. i was with a few lady volunteers from the community and a few men i commented on the situation, "as mulheres aqui em Mozambique trabalham muito, quando os homens gostam de descanser, por exemple, aqueles homens podem ajudar essas mulheres com as bebes, mas nada, querem sentar-se la na sombra. i pretty called out the men for the lack of help in the home with the family, dont get me wrong, the farming work is a lot but they dont have big machambas, they are small. but the women enjoyed the white man speaking the truth while the men had nothing to say. boy do they need a feminist movement here, badly. apparently a few of my neighbors just got up and left and new people just moved their stuff in from behind my house. well, they actually didnt have anything to move in they just started sleeping there, but at 5am they are pounding the local made liquor, EVERYDAY. listen, there are idiots everywhere in the world, have you ever seen 'Cops'? thought so.
so pineapple season ended, and now we are into oranges, tangerines and avocados, its phenomenal. iI put this here bc all this stuff i have written down and now i can copying, congrats on the baby katie and mark and congrats to andy and kristen on their engagement. I'm looking forward to getting blitzed with uncle ron at the wedding. So there is this one guy who is a jehova witness and he has a bible in english too. he wants me to teach him english using the portuguese and english bibles,i said he can do it easier himself bc they have the same words, i looked at it. but he said he doesn't understand portuguese that well so i need to help him, but i said the only way to help you is with my portuguese haha, it was a good attempt on his part, he is a nice guy.
So march 5th and onto nampula for 4 day regional meeting with PC. on the way there i picked up a ride with this truck coming from maputo and carrying clothes, supposedly. as we were entering nampula city, we were stopped 3 times and police check points and each time the drive, with me sitting in the front seat also, paid off the cops with a 50, 50 and 100; equivalent to 2, 2 and 4 dollars. not a lot, but it is the act that is important. so then i get to nampula and i am walking down the street and a kid is running by me with a bag of rice, two other kids hell cops and run and i turn around and two cops with rifles tackle the kid and take him behind the bank. they do not like thieves here and they whipped this kid with their rifles and grabbed the barrel and came down from over their head to smash this kid. I was watching from about 50 yards because i did not want to be close to the action but they whooped this kid. so i return from regionals with an idea of using the 31 volunteers over a 2 month period, give health palestras in the schools, churches and market. I will contumelies to visit zones and speak with as many people as possible, but it is not possible to visit all of these places and why wait two years to bring info to some places when i hav the resources (volunteers) to bring the info now. also, part of my plan is the get this group of volunteers legalized by the government so they can gain a little respect, and use the standing to try and get funds from other organizations in the world. I stressed to them the fact that if we do a solid program, we can send our successes to many people throughout the country and world. The program is still in its preparatory stages but hopefully we can talk to kids and churches about aids, malaria, tuberculosis, nutrition, condoms, abstain from sex, monogamy, cholera, lepra, gender equality and maybe a few others. I am writing up the project plan and talking to the proper leaders in the community in order to receive their permission to talk about sensitive topics and to receive their support in terms of implementation and any problems i could have with the schools and teachers. the Sunday after regionals i visited napua and received a nice reception of a couple hundred people, i received a couple pounds of peanuts and enjoyed the company of the volunteers. side note, i sure am tired of writing this, i need to get to the computer more, anyways. then i visited naume the following Sunday and talked, again, with a couple of hundred people and received more sugar cane, bananas and corn. the next Saturday we had a meeting with the volunteers and the head nurse to go over some things about the hospital, and after i was going to present my ideas for a project. so it takes 3 hrs to finish the first part of the meeting, i present my project, the nurse gets up and leaves but everyone stays. and so the meeting of asking me for things begin. lets set this up with the fact these people have absolutely nothing, and i get dropped off at my doorstep by a brand new truck whenever i leave site, so i don't blame them for asking. also, the third goal of the peace corps is to help other citizens learn about America on the part of the volunteers and since so many volunteers are so incredibly dynamic and open to living within the culture they find themselves in, they feel it may be disrespectful to do certain things that we would do in the states. not me. if the time is right and i feel that certain traits of our culture are needed in certain situations i will happily introduce American society to my fellow mugulamans. for example, our straightforwardness. when the first person asked me for a car (ambulance) i said no before he was done asking and then said next. second, shirts, under PEPFAR we cant get shirts, i disagree with that, but why get frustrated with policies created by an aristocratic hillbilly? live with them, then acquire that mans job and implement much better policies, thats all you can really do. but i said no to that, then they wanted more hospitals...no. pots, pans, clothes etc for their family...no, no, no. I would love to get these things for them but it inst possible. this past lasted a few minutes, i garaunsheed you none of them heard no's like that before, but they didn't mind, they are too easy going a people.
Earlier on i spoke about how i began noticing the way i was treated by these leaders when i visited zones. they seemed to show great deference towards me, as long as i showed the utmost respect for their culture. these are incredibly influential men in these old societies and they determine the success as you as a volunteer and community member. i was always afraid of what to speak about in these old patriarchal churches and communities. you must tread lightly on the heritage and any thing that would shock the normal community member is a shock and threat to the traditional power structures of the old leaders. but during my visits to these churches, i would sit on the highest chair, above the leaders, and they would get up one by one and introduce themselves and i would stay seated. they would also put their left hand on their right elbow as a sign of respect. as i am seeing this in each of the zones i start to wonder if i should take advantage of the status they are awarding me in front of their community members. what i mean by this is talking much more openly, and forthrightly about topics you may not think they would appreciate: sex, condoms, gender equality, monogamy, abstain from sex etc. but i am doing it, and if they are thinking anything it is that i am still naive about the culture, or something to that affect, they definitely are not feeling insulted. so we will see how this progresses.
the worst case of AIDS and tuberculosis i have been apart of was this 25 yr old with aids and a horribly advanced stage of tuberculosis. he stopped treatment for tuberculosis and he is probably afflicted with an resistant strain, but it was terrible to look at in the office. he prolly weighed 75 lbs. so the next weeks we travel by car 27 km into the bush to talk to this chefe of the locality. wow, i live in the middle-class mato, bc this was like going back 500 yrs or something. but on the way this same man is on the side of the ride, i am still shocked he is alive, and needs to get to a hospital so we give him a ride. we couldn't do anything for him the week before because he needed new tb treatment from the district capital but since Africa lacks access to everything, he had no choice but to go home and die. but apparently vanderbilt brought him to ile and he is receiving treatment now, but most likely, he is receiving treatment for the strain of tb that is resistant to the drugs. its common in the 3rd world. Last Sunday i went to matumane, about 100 people, during the service in the catholic, a line of ladies was formed stretching out of the church and they were all laying food at my feet (close to them); and then I gave my nice little introduction and palestra. but after all of palestras in all of the churches, the president and vice president of the mugulama volunteers gives their health talks in elomwe about other sicknesses. then they ask for problems with the hospital, and in every single church the first complaint is the local guy who works there paulino. he weighs babies and organizes the days activities but he is real demanding and works real hard. but I like him and he is a good guy to me and i think he does a good job in terms of coordinating the daily schedule of a hospital with no water or electricity that serves 32,000 people. but apparently, he insults a lot of the women about not showering and other things, but i mean, these women cant afford soap nor do they have the power in their family to determine what the money is spent on. so thats funny to listen to everyone complain.
there is this one young guy who just left for the city to go back to school and he visits me bc he has nothing has to do and he speaks so fast, its hard to understand. he is a little prick and always laughs when I say i don't understand, and he is a prick bc he thinks if he lived in America, he could learn English in 1-2 weeks. all he knows now are single words, it's annoying and I am glad he left. i am still sick of writing this.