Festa de Sumo

Festa de Sumo

Things have been buzzing along pretty quickly these past few weeks. As per usual participant issues and a couple near deselections have kept us on our toes. All the highs and lows involved with the participants have by far made our time here seem to fly by. It seems pretty slow at times as the pace of life here is pretty slow and laid back, however, with our group there is always a bit of drama going on so things never seem to remain constant.

That aside from my perspective things have been going well and the phase has been a success on many fronts. We went to the beach for three days for our group midproject meeting. The whole weekend was completely surreal, as the group seemed to be functioning at its best and we saw near full participation by all (which is not common on our team). I am sure it helped that two participants were very close to being deselected (code name for nearly sent home), so any inappropriate behaviour or actions on their behalf could have been enough to send them home in a flash.

Last weekend I got delightful opportunity to go back to the beach again, this time with a packed van full of 18 other passengers, most of whom were 20-30 something unmarried Mozambican men (as well as a few single women) who all drank way too much beer that day! We were invited to join by Marciana's host sister and her husband, they were mostly her husband's friends, who really love to have a good time and drink a lot. It was pretty crazy, as Marciana and I didn’t know whether we would make it back alive! The chapa ride there and back were pretty intense and they made quite a scene when we got caught using the private showers at the beach lodge we stayed at the last time we were there. Nonetheless, apart from the chaos of the drunken men, the one hour journey to the beach was worth it, as we bathed in warm, greeny-blue turquoise waters and laid in the shade of the palm trees on the white sandy beach.

Last Saturday I had another adventure worth writing about. As per usual not really knowing exactly where I was going on Saturday I somehow ended up just outside of the community at a village juice party, otherwise known in Portuguese as: Festa de Sumo. A neighbour friend had offered to take me to a place just outside of the host community for juice; I thought okay sounds like a nice afternoon activity to do on my day off. So we hopped in a Chapa (public bus) headed for Maputo, we got off just 6 km outside of the community, then walked down a trail and couple other trails 'till we arrived at a village, where everyone was drinking this cider like drink, made from a fruit called "canu" which looks sort of like crab apples.

The village members that converged for the festa, approximately 50-60 young and old, sat in a semi circle in groups- with the women sitting separate from the men. I was quite a sight in the village and they all smiled as to welcome the white women to their party, and offered me some of the juice/cider. I tried a little but it had quite a strong taste so I drank a little and then offered my glass to the women next to me. I was offered fresh peanuts (not yet roasted) and caju fruit (the fruit we get our cashews from). I sat back and observed the village members and how the conducted the festivities. The women would continuously serve the men, liters upon liters of the juice in dried out gourds, which were used as cups. In the middle of the semi-circle where we sat different community members who seemed to have consumed their fair share of the juice would get up and dance to the local traditional music that was being playing on the stereo that was set up in the sand.

After a couple hours I was certain that my neighbour had had plenty to drink as the women wouldn’t stop filling their cups full and I had to be back in the community. So a friend of his offered us a ride back to town in the back of his pick-up. Luckily enough I arrived just in time to host the Bateman party some of the participants organized at my house to watch the film in my sauna of living room. Seriously the TV room is usually on par with the temperature of a typical sauna, as by half way through the film we were all dripping with sweat. The climate here hasn’t seemed to change. It was supposed to have gotten hotter here in January, however, I am not sure if I have just started to get used to it, or the temperature has remained constant, but I haven’t noticed it has gotten any worse. If it did get worse I don’t think we could handle much more!

SAD DAY

Today bright and early my host mom woke me up to tell me she is leaving with her husband to South Africa. For how long, she didnt know... It was really sad, I even cried and hugged and said goodbye. We have become pretty close and its like having your best friend leave you. As we talk about everything together, go out together and have honestly really enjoyed each other's company.

I sort of saw this coming, but I didn’t what to believe it!My host dad came last week and he has been talking about talking Maezinha to South Africa with him when he returns to work. However each time I asked my host mom about it she would say she doesn’t want to go, that she isn’t ready and that its not a good time for her to leave. Marciana seems to believe that it might be that he wants her to have children and so he wants to have her around for some time in order for that to happen. They are married so it makes perfect sense for her to go and to be with her husband, but it’s sad, as she is so much fun, always laughing, smiling and generally a great person to have around as company here at the homestead.

My host dad generally comes home once a month for a couple days and works the rest of the month at a large mine in South Africa near Swaziland. So I am now expecting to see them in a month's time. It’s a sad situation but what do you do.

The past week Maezinha spent a lot of time in Maputo with her extended family, as someone in the family passed away. In her absence I really learned first hand as to how much work it is to maintain a house in Mozambique. Most days I made breakfast/lunch and a couple times I attempted to make dinner over the coal-burning stove, which took hours to prepare! Besides the cooking and food preparation, I would wash my clothes as usual by hand, and then try my best to maintain the two houses in an orderly fashion. As the ground here is sand the houses constantly need to be swept because although we take off our shoes at the front door the house is always full of sand within hours. Apart from all this every couple days I purify 10-20 liters of water to drink. Its difficult to get everything done, because of the heat. You do all this work and it might not seem to be so much, but in 34 degree heat accompanied by extremely high humidity and you are naturally always feeling a little groggy and sleepy.

In lieu of my host mom, her husband has asked her cousin to come stay with us. As currently in the house there is only me, my male host cousin from Bilene and avo, my host great grandmother. Although we seem to make quite the team, having another younger woman like myself around the house would be extra nice, as women are expected to do most of the work around the home. I am not sure what to expect but I hope that it works out. In the meantime, we are nearly half way through the African phase of the program, as this coming weekend it is participant midproject. There have been a number of issues and problems lately, but as always we seem to be on top of it all and are moving forward and onward.

New Years Celebrations

New Years was a big event here in Manhica for my host mother and me. We woke up at 5am and left the house at 5:30am, as she was told that we must be downtown by 6am in order to catch a chapa -the public bus to church. So we were at the place to catch the chapa at 5:55, a whole 5 minutes early. But unlike what we were told we waited at that point from 6 to 9am till our chapa came to pick us up and take us to chuch. It was an interesting morning, as we didn’t even have time to have breakfast, so without my regular instant coffee fix needless to say I was a little tired. But rest assured I was kept awake by all the hussle and bussle of Manhica, as there was an endless stream of people walking to and from downtown. And every 30 or so minutes a full wheel barrel of freshly slaughtered meat would pass us by, as we were waiting on the same street as the two local butcher shops.

Finally by 9:20 or so we were a full busload and we left for church. We took the main highway for about 10-15 minutes and then ended up going another 30 minutes on a little, sandy, trail of a road into the middle of nowhere. It was so beautiful the whole bus load (about 20 or so of us with a few children and babies) broke into song as soon as we started onto this road. They began to sing all sorts of songs until we reached our destination, the local Changana Church situated in the middle of nowhere. It appeared as though the rest of the church was waiting for us to begin the service as since as soon as we unloaded ourselves from the mini bus and paid the driver 16 metacais (equivalent to about 65 cents Canadian) each for the trip there, they all started to enter the church.

As I entered the simple church made of canniso (the branch-like material most traditional homes here are made of, which resembles bamboo) I nearly started to cry. I seriously had to hold back the tears; it was so beautiful and yet so simple. My host mom told me I must wear my best clothes and right before we entered the church she helped me to cover my head with a scarf/capilano (a capilano is a large1-2 metre sheet of colourul fabric that women use as a wrap around and/or put on their heads here in Mozambique). Everyone was dressed so nicely, the men mostly in tie and suit and the women in nice skirts, dresses and suit-jackets. The ground of the church was sand; most of the congregation was sitting down on their colourful capilanos. They all seemed to be sitting in specific sections as the children were in one section on the floor, a group of women were sitting on a low cement bench and then here was a large group of men at the back that stood at the back and were standing through the whole mass. As we entered and sat on our capilano the whole church was singing beautifully all sorts of songs- harmonizing perfectly. It was not long after we sat down that I was asked to move from the floor and sit at the front of the church in my own chair. I hesitated and insisted that I can stay on the floor with my host mother and her friends, however, with out much luck I was convinced that I should not be on the floor that I was a special guest and must sit at the front of the church in my own chair.

The pastor was a short, round & jolly man, who was very enthusiastic and gave me a very warm welcome. I was so impressed as he even got one man to do simultaneously translation of the whole service into Portuguese for me, as normally the service is only done in the local tribal dialect-Changana (the first language of my host family). The service was a 2 hour mixture of scriptures intermixed with amazing song and dance. The end of the service ended with a mini flash flood, as it started to rain pretty heavy. And since the church is made of canniso in many areas of the church it was also raining. They tried to continue the service despite the sudden down poor and many people brought out their umbrellas and we shifted from corner to corner taking cover from the rain. Eventually nearly everyone was soaked and we just sang in the rain and enjoyed the moment. The pastor didn’t seem to want to wrap things up and kept suggesting they sing another song and that we all start dancing and appreciate the rain that God had blessed us with on the last day of 2006. Eventually after many songs church ended and we all ran to the nearby village to await the chapa to pick us up and take us back to Manhica. By the time we reached the village we were all soaked and pretty cold (for the first time I actually felt cold in Mozambique!). Regardless of the cold and the rain the group was still enthusiastic and continued to keep good spirits, and continued to sing and dance. After an hour had passed we were all fed cornmeal with little pieces of meat in a curry sauce. Followed by warm black tea with condensed milk.

Finally after nearly 3 hours one of the clergymen offered to take us all back to town. So we piled about 25 of us into the back of a small pickup truck. As I am the white girl, I got to sit in the front with the driver and one young women and her baby. We got about half way down the little sandy road and something happened to the tire, so we had to get a spare and more than two thirds of the passengers had to get out and walk. Finally we reached the highway and hopped in a passing chapa and got back to town. As soon as we got home all I could think of doing was to take a warm shower and get out of my wet clothing. What an adventure!

After I prepared New Year's Dinner for my host family. With limited ingredients in the cupboards, I made hashbrowns, eggs, toast and pancakes! Later after a little nap I headed downtown to ring in the New Year with Marciana (my counterpart and co-worker) and many of our participants. All along the main street there were Djs on the sidewalk and people dancing along the streets! We didn’t stay out late, as it was raining and much to my surprise my normal path home became a river in a matter of a couple hours. So getting home after the new years celebrations last night was quite a maze and again another adventure, as I had to go in and out of different people yards, walk through half a meter of water, and walk through a garbage pile in order to get home. I must say it was quite shocking, and even more surprising today as there are very little signs that it actually rained that much. Where the water all goes I have yet to discover. Perhaps that will become my personal project for the week...