Sunday, March 26, 2006
Cats dogs and lanche
We just finished with the ACP week, which was interesting... I barely had to work although Eli had to control a lot more exams than I did. We each caught kids cheating with cabulas, little hidden cheat sheets (up until now they´ve been using their notebooks). Eli actually has to go back on Monday to proctor another test on account of school being canceled last thursday due to an enormous rain storm here in Nacala.
It was raining cats and dogs, or maybe bigger animals, because by the end of the day a big section of the road by our house had been washed away! Now there are piles of dirt and rocks at the bottom of the hill here and in front of our new apartment. At some places the water was 5 inches deep and running fast. It all came down a hill with dirt roads, and brought most of the dirt from those roads with it. And Eli had to walk to school in that rain only to learn that school was canceled!! We´re not complaining though, rain is the one thing that this city desperatly needs. Unfortunately, the rain should have started months before it did.
Friday was our moving day! So we´ve had 2 nights in the new house. We spent ALL DAY friday moving, it was especially hard because we hadn´t really packed beforehand. The moral from this story is that you shouldn´t bring a lot of junk to Peace Corps, but what can you do. The new places is really nice in a lot of ways- and needs fixing up in others. Also there´s a small problem with cockaroaches, but we´re getting that under control (not to worry anyone who is visiting, esp. renee and lynn!) Eli´s going to train our cat to eat them, and we have 2 cans of bug spray so we´re good. The place is a lot smaller, but its comfortable, and will be a lot more so once we get some furniture :-) The school bought us a big fridge (!!) a table, a 200L water tank, and a baby bath (I think its to store water...but its still not clear), a bed with a nice mattress, a TV and some dishes. We just had an electrician come over and get all our lights working again (including outdoor lights on our 2 porches) so that´s nice. We´re hoping for some wicker furniture and homemade seats later. The bathroom could use a lot of work but I guess we have 2 years to fix it up. It´s a lot more ´peace corps´, but its still an apartment with TV!
The harder things are that our sink does not have plumbing- we just have a bucket under the sink drain to catch the water, and we have to flush it every day. We have running water, but it only comes out of the bathtub faucet! And of course, there is no roof on the stairwell.
Last night was our neighbors daughers birthday. They were playing loud music and little kids were running around, having a good time. Our neighbor came to tell Eli she was sorry about the noise but it was her daughters birthday. When Eli asked if she was having a party, she said, oh no, just a lanche (snack). Well, that Lanche was still going strong at midnight, and they had definetly broken out the booze, and they may have had a DJ. I don´t think the lanche was just for the kids anymore. Anyways, our building seems to have a lot of character and friendly people so we´re excited about that. It should be interesting to meet everyone. I went out into the stairwell today because I heard a thump thumping sound, and was surprised to see someone with the big wooden pilao on the stairwell, grinding away at some peanuts! Its funny to see some of the traditional moçambican things going on in the stairwell.
On Friday our new empregada started as well. Her name is Rosa, she´s much older than our old empregada, and I think we both imediately liked her a lot more. She seems much more capable and I trust her a lot more- especially since she was recommended by our missionary friends.
Everything else is still going well. We went to the market yesterday for a few things for lunch and spent an hour talking to people. By now everyone there knows that we´re the white people trying to learn macua, so everyone tries to talk to us. Unfortunately, we can really only say basic things so we have almost the same conversation multiple times, but its a lot of fun. We´re buying from the same people over and over, and now they´re starting to give us bonuses :-) like free guavas or extra tomatoes. This last time we also bought a ´watermelon´ (although it was white and pink inside with red seeds, but still tasted good) and made a fruit salad. We wanted to know if it was red inside, to know if it was an american watermelon, so they cut a slice out of the side to show us! It was only a little pink, but they had cut it and then they dropped it, and we felt bad so we bought it (at a cheaper price since it had fallen). We also have oranges here, although they´re completely green- but still good to eat.
Speaking of food, we´re also making our own yogurt! Its experiments in microbiology. We had to sterilize all of our equipment, mix the new culture with the old starter culture, and incubate our yogurts in the oven. I think it turned out really well, although I dumped out a whole jar on accident because I had to get up at midnight to put the cultures in the fridge (hence I knew that the lanche was still going strong) and I was so tired I dropped a jar. Now we can use the yogurt as a sour cream substitute, or get fancy and put some fruit in it. We´ll see what happens. If it wasn´t against Peace Corps rules, I think we´d go into business selling it.
Keep the posts comming. Grandma, call my dad and ask how to post, then you can send me some of your recipes! Jim, thanks for your posts and updates of barcelona, keep them comming!
We´re looking forward to hearing from the rest of you. We´re off to correct our ACPs (Eli has over 350!)
paul and eli
It was raining cats and dogs, or maybe bigger animals, because by the end of the day a big section of the road by our house had been washed away! Now there are piles of dirt and rocks at the bottom of the hill here and in front of our new apartment. At some places the water was 5 inches deep and running fast. It all came down a hill with dirt roads, and brought most of the dirt from those roads with it. And Eli had to walk to school in that rain only to learn that school was canceled!! We´re not complaining though, rain is the one thing that this city desperatly needs. Unfortunately, the rain should have started months before it did.
Friday was our moving day! So we´ve had 2 nights in the new house. We spent ALL DAY friday moving, it was especially hard because we hadn´t really packed beforehand. The moral from this story is that you shouldn´t bring a lot of junk to Peace Corps, but what can you do. The new places is really nice in a lot of ways- and needs fixing up in others. Also there´s a small problem with cockaroaches, but we´re getting that under control (not to worry anyone who is visiting, esp. renee and lynn!) Eli´s going to train our cat to eat them, and we have 2 cans of bug spray so we´re good. The place is a lot smaller, but its comfortable, and will be a lot more so once we get some furniture :-) The school bought us a big fridge (!!) a table, a 200L water tank, and a baby bath (I think its to store water...but its still not clear), a bed with a nice mattress, a TV and some dishes. We just had an electrician come over and get all our lights working again (including outdoor lights on our 2 porches) so that´s nice. We´re hoping for some wicker furniture and homemade seats later. The bathroom could use a lot of work but I guess we have 2 years to fix it up. It´s a lot more ´peace corps´, but its still an apartment with TV!
The harder things are that our sink does not have plumbing- we just have a bucket under the sink drain to catch the water, and we have to flush it every day. We have running water, but it only comes out of the bathtub faucet! And of course, there is no roof on the stairwell.
Last night was our neighbors daughers birthday. They were playing loud music and little kids were running around, having a good time. Our neighbor came to tell Eli she was sorry about the noise but it was her daughters birthday. When Eli asked if she was having a party, she said, oh no, just a lanche (snack). Well, that Lanche was still going strong at midnight, and they had definetly broken out the booze, and they may have had a DJ. I don´t think the lanche was just for the kids anymore. Anyways, our building seems to have a lot of character and friendly people so we´re excited about that. It should be interesting to meet everyone. I went out into the stairwell today because I heard a thump thumping sound, and was surprised to see someone with the big wooden pilao on the stairwell, grinding away at some peanuts! Its funny to see some of the traditional moçambican things going on in the stairwell.
On Friday our new empregada started as well. Her name is Rosa, she´s much older than our old empregada, and I think we both imediately liked her a lot more. She seems much more capable and I trust her a lot more- especially since she was recommended by our missionary friends.
Everything else is still going well. We went to the market yesterday for a few things for lunch and spent an hour talking to people. By now everyone there knows that we´re the white people trying to learn macua, so everyone tries to talk to us. Unfortunately, we can really only say basic things so we have almost the same conversation multiple times, but its a lot of fun. We´re buying from the same people over and over, and now they´re starting to give us bonuses :-) like free guavas or extra tomatoes. This last time we also bought a ´watermelon´ (although it was white and pink inside with red seeds, but still tasted good) and made a fruit salad. We wanted to know if it was red inside, to know if it was an american watermelon, so they cut a slice out of the side to show us! It was only a little pink, but they had cut it and then they dropped it, and we felt bad so we bought it (at a cheaper price since it had fallen). We also have oranges here, although they´re completely green- but still good to eat.
Speaking of food, we´re also making our own yogurt! Its experiments in microbiology. We had to sterilize all of our equipment, mix the new culture with the old starter culture, and incubate our yogurts in the oven. I think it turned out really well, although I dumped out a whole jar on accident because I had to get up at midnight to put the cultures in the fridge (hence I knew that the lanche was still going strong) and I was so tired I dropped a jar. Now we can use the yogurt as a sour cream substitute, or get fancy and put some fruit in it. We´ll see what happens. If it wasn´t against Peace Corps rules, I think we´d go into business selling it.
Keep the posts comming. Grandma, call my dad and ask how to post, then you can send me some of your recipes! Jim, thanks for your posts and updates of barcelona, keep them comming!
We´re looking forward to hearing from the rest of you. We´re off to correct our ACPs (Eli has over 350!)
paul and eli
# posted by Paul and Eli @ 5:31 AM 
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oooh my mom used to make homemade yogurt for us in our food dehydrater - it was a lot more sour than regular yogurt, but the fruit and goodies we put in it really rounded it all out! My favorite were tart Michigan cherries with a tablespoon of vanilla stirred in, mmmm - yay for homemade goodies!!!
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