The Christmas Adventure

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