The
End of June and Halfway through 2013
I’ve lost some ground on my writing goals
of chronicling events and doing so regularly.
At first, my inconsistency in writing was due to work: teaching eats up
so much time, even when you’re in between classes. Students, particularly ours here, need a lot
of help. Yet I have been on winter break
for the last two weeks, and I still didn’t do much writing. I’ve got myself in another rut, I’m sorry to
say.
So I’m back. Hoping that writing would again get me
unstuck.
And yes, we are on “winter” break here. In the middle of the day it’s still usually
warm here in Cuamba, but in the mornings and in the evenings it’s been cold the
last five weeks or so. The beginning of
June was particularly cold. I would wake
up in the middle of the night, shivering.
Thus, my electric fan has been on winter break, as well. In fact, every night in bed for the last
month I’ve been slumbering cocooned in my sleeping bag. I’ve been hibernating, I guess.
I do read a lot. I’ve been sleeping with my kindle (my
apologies for the product placement) pretty much every night. Thanks so much, Nay and Tay, for sending me
that book light that I can just clip on the side of my bed. When you sleep in a mosquito net, it really
sucks to get out of bed just to turn the light on or off.
Other than reading and a bit of writing,
life in Cuamba has been quiet, to say the least. I’ve been aching to travel out of
Cuamba. But the atrocious roads (or lack
thereof, which leaves us with atrocities of dust clouds and exhaust fumes), the great
distances between towns, and the ludicrous transportation system—the closed
ticket booth for the train, and then no tickets when open, insane drivers of chapas (or minivans), not to mention the
junky-tin-can chapas, etc., etc.—these
are the things that put me off. But I
shouldn’t whine anymore.
In the central regions of Mozambique,
PCVs have been consolidated, moved to safer sites, due to political
tension. I know little about
Mozambique’s political climate, except that it is “tense” because this is an
election year. Or actually the
presidential election I think is next year, but the primary election is this
year, so I suppose this “tension” will go on for another 12 months. My main news sources are the headlines from
google email alerts and the security updates we receive via SMS or text messages. RENAMO, the “opposition party” (i.e., the one
not in power) has stated publicly that they would close the main highway in the
province of Sofala. So PC has enforced a travel ban, with good reason, from
travelling through Sofala. RENAMO says
that the Mozambican government (FRELIMO) is planning to kill its leader, as
troops have been deployed in the central province. There has been “armed conflict” at a military
base, far from PCV sites. Thus, the
consolidation of PCVs.
In all honesty, a part of me wants to be
among the consolidated. . . That sounds horrible, I know, but at least my
chronicling of events here wouldn’t be so limited. I could provide a proper, bloggish treatment
of what’s happening. And of course, I
also wish I could just hang out with fellow PCVs I haven’t seen since last
December.
Did I say, by the way, that there are no
Cape Verde Transfers anywhere near Cuamba?
Sodade Kabu Verdi cuts all the
more deeply when no one around you feels it, when you alone are stricken by
it.
I’ve been away from the states for almost
two years. Next month will be our
two-year anniversary, of leaving the states and arriving in Cape Verde. I plan to post a bunch of photos, a sort of
retrospective of Cape Verde 2011-2012 in two weeks. So I guess I’ll just pour out my sodade-stricken-soul in July. I’m sure you all can’t wait. . . yeah,
right.
I do appreciate the peace and quiet here
in northern Mozambique; don’t get me wrong.
I sleep, and over sleep. I do
yoga, most mornings. I’ve been creative with
my coffee. It is Ricoffy after all, which is fake coffee by Nescafe (again, sorry for the product placement). Just add coco powder, then powdered milk,
which is Nido “fortified,” in case
you didn’t know. I sometimes like to add
some rose syrup called “Rosa.” On the label it states “Premiado em Exposições
Internacionais”—Prize Winner in International Expositions. Oh yeah, and I’ve also made rose ice cream, a
recipe borrowed from fellow PCV Zackaria.
My favorite, though, is adding Amarula* as a sweetener for Ricoffy.
I discovered an inverse relationship between the amount of Amarula and one’s level of nostalgia for
real coffee (i.e., the more Amarula,
the less you remember you’re drinking faux coffee).
Amarula enhanced Ricoffy—breakfast of champions, if you haven’t tried it.
*Amarula is the South African version of Bailey’s. Except it’s not as strong.
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