First Banana Harvest

Just Another Bus Ride

This was the most ridiculous chapa (bus) ride I’ve been on yet. We accidentally got on the local chapa that stops every mile between Macia and Chokwe, instead of going straight through, and it took several hours longer than it should have. Definitely didn’t make it back before dark. In this picture I’m sitting in the front row along with 4 other people, and then there are 3 people standing by the door, bent at the waist and stacked one on top of the other across our laps. I don’t know if this was the most people I’ve ever seen in a chapa, but it definitely wins the record for least air space.

It Should be Obvious

The Peace Corps is about coming up with creative solutions to problems, but it’s also about coming up with stupidly obvious solutions, that just aren’t obvious to us after living in America. This happens to me all the time.

Like when I’m craving ginger tea but can’t get any because they only drink black tea in this country, and I realized I can grate fresh ginger and use that to make tea. It’s delicious!  I don’t know why it only took me three months to think of that one.  And when I want green tea, I can just go pick some leaves off our moringa trees. (Fyi, moringa trees are super badass, super healthy trees that grow here. They’re currently using them as part of a program to fight malnutrition.)

When I want to plant things that I don’t have seeds for (or I do but they all die because they are not prepared for the African sun), I can go to the market and plant the seeds from the vegetables I buy. Tomatoes. Green peppers. Squash. Green beans. It’s so easy. How did I not think of that sooner?

When I want to hang my bed net but can’t reach the hook on my super high ceiling (even with chairs) I can put nails in the wall and hang the net from those.  I didn’t even think of that one, my sitemate had to tell me. I felt pretty silly after.

When the plug adaptor on my electric tea kettle melts from the scary electricity, I can still have hot bucket baths and tea in the morning by boiling water in a pot. Duh!  I did think of this one myself, but it took me several long moments of despair first.

And so on. I’m sure there are many more examples, because I have one of these oh of course! moments every few days, but those are the ones that come to mind right now.  Without fail they make me feel like a ridiculous person, but I’m also pretty sure they’re making me into a smarter, more resourceful person, especially after working at Starbucks melted my brain.

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– In other news, I’m learning how to cook leaves, specifically squash and sweet potato leaves. They’re one of the staples of the local diet, and I don’t know why we don’t eat them in the States. We have squash. We have sweet potatoes. But as far as I know, we never eat the leaves, even though it turns out they’re completely edible and pretty tasty. The locals cook them up into a kind of a curry using peanut flour, and serve it over rice or xima. And it’s not bad at all.

– Finally, last night I had a nightmare that my main counterpart got transferred to another school, which would be horrible for me. Counterparts, aka the mozambican professionals we have to partner with on projects, are incredibly important. My counterpart is an English teacher named Americo (seriously) who is soft-spoken and competent and all-around wonderful. We’ve just started an application to get our high school a library (it got destroyed in the flood two years ago) and I’m getting a whole new appreciation for how amazing he is to work with. Especially compared to some stories I’ve heard. I would hate it if he were transferred.