Carry On

6/12/10

So I'm in Chimoio now mid-way through our Supervisor's Conference. Chimoio is my provincial capital but also the regional capital for the Central Provinces of Manica, Sofala and Tete so all the central education volunteers are together for the next couple days. We are meeting our school directors, colleagues and/or counterparts and having sessions to get them better oriented with how we work and what can be expected. It’s pretty much all in Portuguese and incredibly exhausting. I feel like it’s week one again and everything is new. But I need to get used to that feeling because come Wednesday Mona and I are headed to Dombe and, quoting my friend Amanda, “things are about to get real”!

So as you should remember, I am opening a new site here at the Escola Secundaria de Dombe which is a Catholic mission school 2-3 hours south of Chimoio. Now in my mind mission school meant nuns, padres and some money floating down from the Catholic Church. Maybe I was being naïve, bringing in my American way of thinking. Either way I was wrong because I am headed into the mato complete with elephants, crocodiles, forests and no electricity. I was talking to Custodio, the PC guy in charge of my conference, and he was saying “oh Dombe is so beautiful, right in the forests, close to the mountains. Oh you just have everything there, it’s so beautiful. The one thing you don’t have is electricity”. The one thing? I was expecting to hear “oh but you don’t have mangos”, something innocent. But this throws a whole new wrench into the situation.  Okay I’m being dramatic; it’s not really that bad. Mona and I are going to be experts at cooking with our carvão stove and I’ll finally complete my goal of trying to live more simply. I just wish I’d had some more time to wrap my head around it. There are some positives though – we won’t be spending money on a refrigerator or electric stove, we don’t have to worry about finding fans and there won’t be an electric bill to pay every month. Custodio says that when conference time rolls around it’s us in the mato that have money to spend and the city folks are all broke. It’s the little things in life, now more than ever.

What this all means for you, my faithful followers, is that these posts may start to get pretty far apart. I still plan on writing things up as they happen I just might not be posting them very often. I found out for sure that I can get mail at the PC office here in Chimoio so that’s sweet and I’ve included that address down below. I have a few requests if you’re up for sending packages (I realize it can be expensive): movies (old and recent), books, any new music, candy (specifically skittles, starbursts, Swedish fish, sour gummies), dry foods (macaroni & cheese, couscous, seasonings, oatmeal, spices, raisins), rechargeable batteries and stickers. As much as I would love chocolate and peanut butter type things, the heat and time it takes to get here makes those items a bad idea. I guess that also rules out me getting a Chipotle burrito anytime soon but the sacrifices have to start somewhere.



Emily Rosser, PCV
Corpo da Paz/Castelo Branco Hotel
Rua Sussundenga 295
Chimoio, Moçambique


Carry On - Pat Green