AND THE SITE IS...............

We had our site announcements last Thursday and I will be living in Chokwe in the province of Gaza for the next two years of my life. I will be working for John Hopkins University Communication Program (PACTO). I am so excited!!! In two weeks I finish training and I will officially be a Peace Corps Volunteer. YAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Visit to the Curandeiro

I visited a curandeiro (a healer who practice traditional medicine) generally; people would reach out to a curandeiro to get treated. The curandeiro can (supposedly) cure people with plants but also can see the future.

See, this is how it works. The curandeiro has a bag filled with shells and coins, he spits in the bag, the ‘patient’ needs to blow on it and the container of the bag is thrown on the floor. This is how the curandeiro can see what kind of ‘disease’ the patient has. And offer to get rid of the disease through various practices such as combining natural plants but it can go to using scalpels and then I don’t know how it goes. So at the end, how to do in the case of a person who is HIV positive? How can a curandeiro see if the patient is HIV positive?

How can he/she help cure the patient with plants if he contracted HIV?

I realize how complicated cultures/tradition interferes with modern medicine…

Usually, there is a curandeiro in each town, and as a health volunteer, how can I manage working with a curandeiro to incite people to go straight to the hospital, get tested and get medicine. Curandeiros can transmit HIV with their practices in which they use scalpels and where rituals are asked to pass the blood from one to another as a ritual path. After several training on traditional medicines and talk. I do believe that it is important to educate curandeiros first since there are the first demanded by the community and educate them to practice safe manners when curing patients and incite patient to see a doctor if the patient does not feel or look well after being treated with traditional medicine. 

Short visit to Mocuba, Zambezia

4 volunteers and I flew to the province of Zambezia to visit a current volunteer. This visit is called Shadow Visit. It is way for trainees to see what life like for real! Redeena and I were sent to visit Tanya Riddle in Mocuba. From Maputo we landed to Quelimane. We had to stay one night over to another volunteer since it was late at night. Then early the next day, we hopped in a chapa to Mocuba.

I posted a photo of myself in a chapa and I did not explain it is. It is a way of transportation here in Mozambique. It is a minivan. A chapa won’t move anywhere until it is completely full. So sometimes you get to wait at the chapa station for 2 hours until it’s full and you go. It is totally uncomfortable, dangerous and long. It’s perfect for short people but people like me with long legs it is uncomfortable. Also I would say that you need to have good knees and be flexible. It can be very frustrating because the conductor would blast his songs, you might sit by the speaker throughout the whole journey (which can take up hours depending on where you are), it’s incredibly hot, so of course you will encounter people with severe BO and you have your bag in your lap. It is a great way to travel cheap in Mozambique. You can catch them anywhere in the street. There is no bus station. You just hop in and hop off but you definitely need to be open minded and ready to go to experience a chapa.

So back my short visit, after two hours, we arrived in Mocuba.  Tanya leaves in this nice compound with her organization.  It is a faith-based organization. Tanya educates orphans; she runs a theater group that does skits about HIV AIDS and malaria. We assisted a meeting where professors were recapulating what they learned about Malaria and how can they reach to the community door to door and incite people how to put mosquito nets and its importance and the different practices to avoid getting malaria and so on. It was interesting. Tanya also showed us her wells projects in which she was able to get funding. So in the next couple weeks, the community will be able to access water in their community and not go to further public wells in which generally the water is dirty and contaminated. I think it was such a great project to see. Two volunteers are supposed to go to Mocuba because Tanya is finishing her service in a couple of months. I think that this place is very secure. It is a compound watched by two guards and there are more than 10 dogs there. (Side note: Mozambicans are terrified of dogs) I felt very secure there although a part of me would rather be living within the community and not in a compound close off. But I enjoyed my visit. I thought Tanya is doing a wonderful work with the kids. I was very admirative and inspired. So I come back full of excitement because soon I will be living it somewhere and do my workshops on HIV/AIDS.

From Mocuba, Redeena and I took a chapa back to Quelimane and the flew to Maputo and stayed there overnight. I spent a nice full day in Maputo with Lisa. We walked around the city, shopped then met up with other volunteers to go to the Chinese store. I love my Chinese people! The only places that look like a wall mart are owned by Chinese people and you can find ANYTHING you want!  It is heaven there! The funny thing is that literally everything is imported from China. I know that because I was able to find the exact same shower gel I used when I was in Xiamen for a month. It was nice little day of shopping and seeing the capital and the same day came back to Namaacha with 5 kinds of cheese that I brought in Maputo. I was in Heaven. J

My permagarden

I decided to do a permagarden at my host family house. I asked permission to my host family to use some space in her garden and she was glad to let me do it. Sabrian,Colin and Lis helped me to do it along with the training facilitator Paula and Lucio. In two hours or so, we made this great machamba and planted tomatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, pineapples trees,  a lychee tree and some peanuts as well.

I initiated this project because I want to gain more experience on permagarden because I intend to do my own at my site. I thought it would be a good idea to re do one while I am in training and have the facilitator around if I have any questions. So yes! It was a success. I also taught my host family what was the system of permagardening. Unfortunately I would be present to see the results of my garden but at least I was able to practice how to do it again. I think it is so funny that I am doing a permagarden. I would have never thought I would get interested in gardening to be honest. Oh well there is a first time for everything J