This morning I was
walking back to school from the community, trying to balance a bucket of water
on my head. Water was spilling all over
me and I clearly wasn't going to make it all the way back. One of my students was watching the whole
thing and was nice enough not to laugh.
She gave me a funny look, and then like it was nothing, took the bucket
off my head and carried it for me. I was
bummed I couldn't make it all the way by myself, but thankful she came to my
rescue! It amazes me every day how
strong Mozambican women are! They can balance
huge buckets of water on their heads with no hands, while carrying a baby on
their back and make it look effortless.
When I first arrived
at site we had plenty of water at my school that the generator pumped for us,
and I could just walk outside of my door 5 feet, put my bucket under the faucet and WALA I had water. This changed about
3 months ago, when… our generator broke.
Thankfully our school has a couple of small back -up generators that we
hooked up to the water pump, so we had water to use for everything expect
drinking. Our drinking water now has to
come from the main town of Mabote about 15 km away that we can get if we send
our buckets on a car that’s going that way.
Last week, just when we thought the problem was solved when a new
generator finally arrived, the water pump, you guessed it…broke. So now all of the students and teachers have
been walking about 15 minutes to the pump in the community to get our water to
bathe, cook, clean, etc. When I need to
do laundry I put my dirty clothes in my backpack, grab my bucket, and walk to
the pump where I wash my clothes in the shade under a tree.
This isn't anything
out of the ordinary for most people here, it’s just life. Having to get water is part of your daily
routine and conserving water isn't even a question, you just do it. I’m learning how to conserve water (you learn
pretty quickly when you know what’s involved in getting more) and I don’t think
I’ll ever take water for granted again.
I live in a part of Mozambique that doesn't get much rain, but when it
does rain, everyone, including myself, rushes outside with buckets and basins to
collect every drop of water they can! Well
at least it’s more fun than having to pay a water bill, right?
I’m learning a lot
here in Mozambique and really love where I am, challenges with water and all. My students are wonderful and I can always
count on them to make me laugh. It’s always
really fun trying to translate slang they hear in American rap music into
Portuguese! I’m teaching geography and
English and also helping manage the student dormitories. I've started a girls soccer team and am
working on trying to get a girls leadership/empowerment group going. I have a great counterpart who is the only
other female teacher at my school. She is
really creative and has lots of ideas about how to make our school better. My conversations with her are always
meaningful and I have learned a lot from working with her.
My favorite moments in
Peace Corps are when something really little happens but puts the biggest smile
on your face. I found a quote that seems
to describe these moments really well, “awareness is when we become happy and
realize it, if only for an instant” –Anonymous.
My peace corps experience is very different here than it was last year
in Cape Verde, but what hasn't changed are these small moments of awareness
that remind me of why I’m grateful to be here.
