Maputo: PST Orientation

“Take your time, take it smoothly, breathe, and you will be able to succeed.”

Doctor Sacramento closed Friday’s Medical Orientation with these calm words of inspiration. It was only noon, but I already had a crowded page full of notes detailing the Country Director’s introduction, the introduction to Mozambican culture, the Admin overview and breakout groups (collecting passports, taking photos for Peace Corps IDs, distributing and installing Moz SIM cards, and receiving our first living allowance), the overview of Safety and Security, and the orientation from Dr. Sacramento. She is the lead Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO) and has been in that position for 16 years. She is a local, and prior to joining Peace Corps, she was a researcher of tropical diseases—specializing in malaria—at an institute in Mozambique. The other doctors on staff have backgrounds and expertise in HIV/AIDS and tropical diseases, and many formerly worked for the Mozambique government in some capacity. The level of distinct competency has been overwhelming from all of the staff here in Maputo, from the directors to the medical team to the facilitators and everyone in between, and I could not feel like I am in better hands in terms of health, safety, and my potential to succeed.

My page of notes from that first day and today has many fun tidbits:

• curfew at 7pm during PST
• 20 indigenous languages
• capulanas (local fabric) are often given in lieu of flowers
• don’t feed random dogs - they will follow you to training and want more food
• greet everyone, including strangers
• chega = I’m full! I’m done! (mães will feed you until you physically can’t eat any more)
• “View of time? We have plenty of time. Don’t worry. What’s wrong with you?”
• 61 meticais = 1 USD
• must learn national anthem by end of training to lead at swearing in ceremony
• call PCMO, even after hours, if you would call 911 for a medical reason in the States
• bathing only once per day is unacceptable
• being called gordida is a compliment - it means you are eating well and are healthy
• purifying water - boiling vs. bleach
• underwear must be washed daily and hung on the line to dry, but must be covered by a capulana because it is ropa interior
• “We’re not here to dictate what it should be; we’re here to help what exists.”

Peace Corps Mozambique’s 32nd training cohort, safely assembled in the Maputo airport. Photo from Training Director Lindsay.

We arrived in Maputo on Thursday. We were greeted at the airport but the Country Director Ellen, Training Director Lindsay, two currently serving volunteers, Jackie and Nikkia, and various other Peace Corps staff. We were each gifted 1.5-liter bottles of water, divided into small groups, (gratefully) separated from our heavy luggage, and loaded onto two buses, or chapas. We then traveled to a hotel downtown, our home for the beginning of training.

Our luggage meticulously packed away outside the Maputo airport.

From the back row of bus 2, with the Green, Blue, and Purple groups.

We have not been permitted to leave the hotel—we’re adjusting to a new country and time zone and have packed schedules, so we are contained to a controlled space—but honestly, that’s been fine. The accommodations are excellent and feel comfortably familiar, as though this hotel could be anywhere in the world: there is great WiFi, three awesome meals each day, a large conference room for trainings, a huge outdoor pool, and plenty of lounging space in the courtyard out back where we’ve been playing every card game we can think of in our downtime. When we arrived on Thursday, we had a brief introduction outside and then ate lunch. After lunch, I received my Rabies and Typhoid vaccines, connected to the WiFi to text my mom, and got settled. Then dinner, then the first good night’s sleep I’ve had in over a week.

The beautiful hotel.

I won that coconut during the “Intro to Mozambican Culture” training session.

Our mornings on Friday and Saturday were spent in formal trainings, and the afternoons were spent in interviews: a medical interview to review needs and updates since we received clearance back in April and to choose our anti-malaria drug, an interview with the Country Director, an interview with the Training Director, and a language interview to confirm our level of Portuguese for training group placements. Plus, three more vaccines for me: Hepatitis A & B, and Meningitis.

Our large training room, used Friday and Saturday morning.

It is remarkable that one week ago, I had not packed a single piece of luggage and was riddled with anxiety about what was to come, and today, I know just about all 53 (one sadly had to go back home due to a family emergency, so we’re down to 53) of my fellow trainees and feel relieved and relaxed about so many things that used to be scary and unknown. The more I learn—even if it is about the Portuguese I cannot speak or the pit latrines and bucket baths that are right around the corner—slowly makes me feel more comfortable, more at ease, and more confident in this new space.

But the newest space is yet to come: tomorrow at 8am, we depart for our training village out west in the mountains. We will meet our homestay mothers (our mães) at the training hub downtown and join our new families in their homes for the morning and lunch.

I can hardly get through introducing myself in Portuguese without slipping into Spanish or silence. Tomorrow will be awkward, but it will assuredly be an adventure. I’ll take my time, take it smoothly, and breathe.

Staging, and Saying Goodbye: Reflections from the Flight

(written Wednesday, August 28, 2019)

A fifteen hour flight is a long flight.

I’m currently eleven and a half hours into the flight from JFK to Johannesburg, and I’ve slept for a few hours, listened to two and a half episodes of Never Not Funny, and drifted in and out of sleep to Hearts and Bones and The Rhythm of the Saints a handful of times. A fellow trainee seated diagonally in front of me has had the map/flight info screen on for the duration of the flight, and I keep glancing over to see when in the trip we are and where in the world we are. The first few hours seemed interminable, and I got pretty excited when I saw we had passed the six hour mark—but then I realized that meant we weren’t even halfway through.

This lengthy flight is the perfect cap on the end of a long journey that has led to this day: over a year of applications and essays and interviews and medical clearance and legal clearance and passports and visas and packing and preparing and saying goodbye, all leading to this, the first official day as a Peace Corps Trainee in Pre-Service Training (PST). A much longer journey awaits, and we are finally so close.

On Tuesday, we had our all-day staging event at the Hampton Inn in Philadelphia. Staging was a whirlwind of introductions and refreshers to the rules, policies, and procedures of the Peace Corps and our imminent time in PST. We reviewed the three goals of the Peace Corps and the ten core expectations of all volunteers, and we confirmed we were ready to make our commitment. (In a particularly serious moment, we were warned: “If you are not 100% certain you are ready to commit to the Peace Corps, do not get on that bus in the morning.” The air dropped out of the room, and then we nervously moved on to another activity. One person did not get on the bus.)

After spending Monday night in Princeton with Bill and Steph and Abby, my mom and Hannah accompanied me to the hotel for this big day of staging. I checked in, got my bags stowed away, and then we quickly said goodbye. For all of the preparations I have done in the last year, nothing prepared me for that last goodbye. The first core expectation for Peace Corps Volunteers states that volunteers are expected to “prepare [their] personal and professional life to make a commitment to serve abroad for a full term of 27 months.” I think I could have done a better job attempting to prepare myself for the emotional tax of the last week leading up to departure—I was overwhelmed by the enormity of leaving so many dear people just at the last moment—but then again, I’m not sure that I could have done much to prepare. I said goodbye, I cried, and then I walked into a room of strangers, my new 54-person support system and family for the next three months and beyond.

So far, everyone is great. We are a young cohort—many, many people just graduated college this past May, and by my estimate, everyone is under 30. During staging, we had the chance to share some of our anxieties and aspirations for service, and even though on an intellectual level I’ve been telling myself for months that this would be the case, it was incredibly comforting to witness and feel firsthand: we are people from all different backgrounds, but we share so many of the same concerns, anxieties, and dreams. We don’t speak Portuguese. We’re worried about communicating with our host families. We haven’t taught high school before. We fear a grandparent or a pet or a loved one will die while we’re away. We miss our family and our friends already, and we don’t know what our relationships will look like after being across the world for over two years.

But we can’t wait to be fluent in Portuguese. We are looking forward to forging new friendships and meaningful relationships with our counterparts and host families. We’re excited to try pirri pirri chicken and eat fresh mangoes and see brand new constellations at night. We brought stickers for our students and long to see successes measured and potentials fulfilled.

We are overflowing with anxiety and fear and hope and motivation.

We just want to get there already.

“Train in the Distance” just came on my Spotify, and 6357 miles from home, up in the clouds a few hundred miles off the coast of Angola, Paul Simon just whispered in my ear, “The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains.” That’s what this is all about, right? Peace Corps Volunteers take the thought that life could be better—for everyone—and hear it not as a complaint, but as a committed, directed call to action.

Three more hours on this flight. Then a quick hour connection to Maputo, Mozambique. Then, I take the first steps in answering that call.