Time in Mandimba seems to be flying already. The activistas have continued on their
mission to prove to me just how badass they are by taking me on 15km uphill
bike rides without even breaking a sweat.
No, really. The other week,
Lourdes took me to a town called Lissiete (which is actually the official
administrative post of the district, but for all intents and purposes, Mandimba
is where business happens). We biked 5km
uphill on a paved road, and then turned off to the right to continue another
10km on a sandy, still uphill, path. She
had pity on me, and we walked our bikes up the worst of it. We got back on our bikes when the slope was
less steep and the sand gave way to red dust.
As I was still puffing away, she proceeded to tell me all about the
history of the abandoned farm that we were biking past – how it was owned by a
Portuguese couple before independence, how it gave jobs to a lot of people in
town, how, in those times, there was much less fome (hunger).
Lourdes is one of the oldest activistas, with a mild goiter,
a serious need to see a dentist, and the faint tattoos common here on the women
of three parallel lines between the eyebrows or right in front of the ears. She likes to wear of pair of earrings from
which dangle little white plastic high heel shoes, and she has the air of
someone who is not opposed to beating people up, but I’ve never seen her get
confrontational. She is also the
activista that has the most patients she visits on a regular basis, and her
plot in the association’s garden is particularly vibrant.
After arriving in Lissiete, Lourdes introduced me in the
administration building, the hospital (they have a doctor AND a PA!), to the
neighborhood boss (the old one just died, so some kid took his place and seemed
pretty clueless), to a previous patient of hers that she had discharged, and to
two of current patients. On our way back
out of town, we caught up with one of the international NGOs that does a lot of
community health work in Niassa province, stashed our bikes in the back of
their truck, hopped in front, and caught a ride back to Mandimba. Thank goodness, I was out of water.
I’m nearing the end of my home visit regimen – of the 26
neighborhoods and communities that these activistas work in, I’ve already
visited 16. I’ve been prohibited from
visiting 6 of them because they are even further away, and I think my bosses
are afraid of breaking their brand new Peace Corps Volunteer. I would like to think that I can do it if the
activistas can, but honestly I think the possibility of me keeling over, 20km
away from Mandimba, under that hot Sub-Saharan Africa midday sun is pretty
high. Yet again, proof that the most of
the activistas are way more hardcore than I am, despite being HIV+, having
suffered and recovered from full-blown AIDS in the past few years, and experiencing
serious side effects on a daily basis from their ARVS. Again, they are beasts.
The remaining 4 communities and neighborhoods are on the
schedule for the next week, but there is yet to be discussion of what will happen
after I finish the list. I tried to
gently approach my supervisors about it, and they give happily vague answers.
So, again, I am being patient and will just wait and see. That is very normal around here, but it makes
sense. For example, the other day the
electricity was out. Electricity in
Mandimba comes from the Malawi power grid, and I guess they occasionally go on
a “power trip” (ha… excuse me.) So, they
cut of energy from 7am until 6pm. If I had
plans to do anything productive in the office, they would have been made moot
by the lack of energy, because most office work happens on computers. Instead, because there were no plans to mess
up without energy, the whole plan for the day just shifted.
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| The Activista's Horta |
I started the day going to visit the
orphanage that ESTAMOS is building, and then going to Irmãos
Unidos to pick up a head of lettuce someone had brought me from the
garden. Then my supervisor suggested I go
back home to put it in the fridge, even though the fridge wasn’t on, due to the
lack of electricity. After putting my lettuce into a warm fridge, I stopped by
and chatted with a local shop owner for a while, and got some town gossip. I went back to work to check in, and ended up
talking with two of my supervisors for a very long time about Mozambican politics
and economics. They are very interested
in outsider’s opinions on the foreign investment that is happening in
Mozambique’s natural resources, and what it means for their population. Then, I went back by the shop to chat and
gossip some more. Then I went home, and
waited for the electricity to come back on to cook dinner. See?
If I’d had plans, they would have been messed up because there was no
electricity, then I (probably) would have been a typical Westerner and got bent
out of shape because of messed up plans.
Instead, I had a lovely, laid back day full of unexpected
conversations.
I think Mandimba has power outages, on average, 1 to 2 times
per week, but they usually don’t last all day.
Regardless of power outages, I do end up with lots and lots of free
time. I like this very much. I have found good ways to fill up my
free time. I have started some little
seedlings (mint, thyme, cilantro, peppers, basil, cherry tomatoes, and dill), I
have an adorable puppy, I have been reading more books than I have had
the time and motivation to do for many years (about one per week), and I sit in
my plastic lawn chair in my kitchen and just think for long periods of
time. When I finish a good period of thinking/sitting in my solitary chair, I go outside, do some gratuitous plant watering,
pick some fleas and ticks off my puppy, then perhaps I’ll go to the market and
see if they have the good kind of bananas.
They rarely do. However, green
mango season is in full swing – I’m just not sure what to do with them yet. I then may go by one of the shops in town –
one has better gossip (and a generator, which is good for getting cold drinks on
those electricity-free days), and the other one will usually give me free
chocolates. Jackpot.
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| Miga! |
So, yes, time is flying in Mandimba. I am pretty sure it is because I am having
fun. I think a lot of people might not
find the above-mentioned series of events fun, but I am very lucky in that I
do. It is probable that my schedule will
not be this loose for all of the next 22.5 months; I’ll probably have some
times when I feel like time is crawling by, and when work gets busier. Maybe I’ll get sick of extraneous shopping
trips around town down the road, but I am really pleased that, for now, I’ve got
things to do, places to be, and people to see – even if they aren’t that
important in the big picture, they make life a lot better for now.
P.S. Speaking of
flying, I biked down my town’s airstrip the other day. This is because it is just a spiffied up section
of road to outlying communities.
However, the view from the airstrip of the surrounding landscape is
exceptional.
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| Airport |
