MERRRRYYY belated CHRISTMAS from Mozambique!
I just got back from my Christmas
adventure to find the best Christmas present I could have asked for waiting for
me: RAIN!!!! I was a couple of miles
from my house, tightly packed into the bed of a pickup truck with about 20
other people, when the wind whipping through my hair suddenly got cool and the
sky darkened. The truck stopped in my
village, I handed the chickens that had been in my lap to their owner (her lap
had been occupied by her baby and toddler), and said goodbye to my new friends. Being squished into tiny spaces makes making
friends unavoidable on Mozambican public transport, and everyone on this ride
had been especially cheerful in anticipation of rain. As I jumped out of the truck with my backpack
and headed towards my house, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky,
thunder rumbled in the distance, and huge raindrops began falling, quickly
escalating into a powerful monsoon miracle.
The scorched, dry earth welcomed the moisture and the temperature must
have immediately dropped 10 degrees. I’m guessing it was still at least 80, but
hey, after the last couple of weeks, that almost seemed chilly!
I spent Christmas with most of the
other volunteers from my training class who are stationed in the central region
of Mozambique. There were 16 of us who
all made adventurous efforts to be together for the holidays. Helen, the
closest volunteer to me, and I got on a big yellow school bus with the words
“All America” on the side (we were in fact the only Americans on board) at 4am
in our Provincial capital. As the sun rose, passengers were tightly packed into
the bus amid a festive holiday atmosphere.
Families clutched their children and possessions, Mozambican holiday party-goers
boarded in various states ranging from hungover to incredibly drunk, and
several passengers cracked open bottles of beer. We just smiled, negotiated
seats together, cozied up with our backpacks, and observed. After the few arguments over who was going to
sit where had subsided and the driver, who to our delight looked very sober,
awake, and friendly, arrived, we were on our way. It was 4:30 am, techno beats
were blaring entirely too loudly, and the Christmas adventure had begun…or so
we thought. About five miles outside the
city, we got a flat tire. We spent the next three hours waiting for the mechanics
at a truck stop and the driver to locate a tire big enough for the giant bus,
and as the sun rose, it became sweltering hot. Most passengers disembarked and
sat on old tires in the dusty shade of a tin structure. Helen and I tried to stay positive, and
napped while many of the other passengers speculated about how long the tire
change would take and of course drank beer.
Finally, at nearly 8am, we drove off into the exponentially increasing
heat of the day among clapping and celebration! The rest of the trip was
relatively uneventful, an 8 hour blur of naps, reggae music, and the occasional
stop where passengers separated by gender to opposite sides of the road to
relieve nature’s call.
Once in Chimoio, a city in the
neighboring Province of Manica, we caught up with the other volunteers over a
delicious lunch at a local restaurant specializing in brick-oven pizzas. It was
great to hear how everyone was doing at their new sites, figure out who had the
sketchiest latrine, and of course EAT PIZZA WITH REAL CHEESE…there was even
feta on one. Helen and I marveled over
the relative cool weather, lush vegetation, and heaps of beautiful fresh
produce of Chimoio, which is located in one of Mozambique’s most fertile areas.
Back at the beautiful house of our
host (she even has a shower!), we relaxed, planned our festivities and feasts,
and did some Christmas crafting as carols filled the house. Christmas Eve (which
also happened to be my very good friend and fellow volunteer, Alexandra’s,
birthday!) was a night of coconut curry, wine, Christmas movies (Elf never fails to lift the Christmas
spirit), and of course snuggling which becomes a necessity when there are 17
volunteers sleeping in the same house.
The next morning, we did not awake
to a white Christmas, but at least it was not beastly hot. A few of us spent
the morning decorating a small tree in the yard with the fruits of our
Christmas craft session and then it was on to the chicken slaughter. Our menu
included roasted chicken, so here that means it also included killing,
plucking, cleaning, and butchering the four chickens that we were going to
cook. I will never again take pre-dead poultry for granted. The feast took
nearly all day to prepare, as the majority of the cooking was done over
charcoal. We even managed to bake sugar
cookies, ginger bread, and a green mango crisp in a makeshift Dutch oven,
constructed from a few big pots and some sand, put atop the coals. The feast of grilled chicken, roasted chicken,
fried chicken, mashed potatoes, yams, salad, and green beans was accompanied by
mulled wine and cider, and turned out great! There was lots of merriment,
emotional calls from family at home, and wondering at the weirdness of being so
hot during a day which for most of us usually falls in the dead of winter. Although being home with friends, family, and
the winter temperatures of the northern hemisphere would have been ideal, we
did our best and all in all had ourselves a very merry little Christmas…and so
did the mosquitoes who feasted all through the night.
As always, love to you all and
Happy Holidays! I apologize for any typos made in my rushed internet time, and I
don’t have a good enough connection to upload any photos with this post but
hopefully next time! Oh and lots of people have asked about my address, so here
it is:
Szasha Ozard
Corpo Da Paz
C.P. 331
Chimoio, Mozambique
