Family

“Boa tarde minha filha como xta? Nos ca tamos bem so quero te saudar como vai o trabalho? Tchau aqui e mae Marta.”

That would be the text I received yesterday from my host mae.

Translation (side note, Portuguese is hard enough but I have to learn Portuguese texting shorthand, too????):

“Good afternoon, my daughter.  How are you? We here are well.  I just want to say hello.  How is work?  Bye. This is mae Marta.”

It doesn’t stop there, either.  I sent her a text which I concluded with “I miss you all always!”  So what does she do?  She calls me this morning just to say hi!

                When I said good bye to my parents in Philidelphia over four months ago (holy cow! Four months!), I thought I’d only have access to my “family” maybe but a few times a month via phone.  I was definitely not expecting a nearly endless supply of surrogate families to keep me sane during my Peace Corps service.

                I obviously anticipated forming some kind of bond with the family I would be living with for 3 months during my Peace Corps training, but wow!  I mean, they basically had to raise me all over again.  They had to teach me how to behave at the dinner table, how to wash my laundry, how to cook over charcoal, and heck, even how to take a bath.  They held my hand while I stumbled like a toddler through learning the motions of this brand new culture and lifestyle (though it appears I literally do stumble like a toddler which greatly amused and frightened my mae on a number of occasions).

                By the time I finally got comfortable living with my host family in Namaacha, training was over and I was shipping off to Montepuez.  I felt like a toddler again.  I had no idea where the food was in the market, where the school was, what to do with trash, when the city water ran, etc.  I almost had to start learning how to live in Mozambique all over again.  However, I was lucky enough to be placed at a site that had volunteers.  My neighbors already knew the drill and so I inherited my second Mozambican family.  Two of my neighbors are even in my second 12^th grade chemistry class!  When I’m feeling intimidated by teaching or insecure about my Portuguese, it’s really nice to see their faces amongst the judgmental or confused stares I get from the rest of their class because at least they know just how far I’ve come and how much work  I put into their lessons.

                Of course I love my host family and my neighbors, but they are no American family no matter how many parallels I could draw.  Here is where, again, I couldn’t have been luckier with my site placement.  There are three American missionary families in Montepuez!  They really take care of our rag-tag group of volunteers in western Cabo Delgado.  When I’m at a family dinner or one of the kids’ birthday parties, it’s hard to remember that I’m not actually back in the states.  Not only are they a quick cure for homesickness, they are invaluable resources to have when figuring out life in Montepuez.  They have been in Mozambique for 9 years and it’s nice to have someone who can explain Mozambique in way that an American can understand.  Plus they speak the local language perfectly.  I really need to learn Makua.

                As if five actual familes (if you’re keeping track there two Mozambican and three American families) weren’t enough of a support crew, I have a HUGE new family in the other Peace Corp Volunteers.  I’m not just referring to people in the market thinking that Will is my husband (“Oh, are passear-ing with your family?”  “Yeah, sure…”), though sometimes that is convenient.  It’s pretty amazing to think that I could go almost anywhere in this country and have the roof of a friend to stay under.  It sounds cheesy (though cheese is pretty expensive to be using that phrase so maybe I should go with corny), but there really is a unique and almost automatic friendship between PCVs.  Even the most articulate of us must have trouble getting family and friends back home to understand what it’s really like to be here.  It takes a lot of energy to try to describe the tiny everyday events that really make up our experience and sometimes we just have to talk to someone who doesn’t need hours of explanation to appreciate our troubles and our triumphs. 

Quick tribute to my host family:

Sitting around the table for my birthday lunch :) Clockwise: Adriano (Pai), Laurenciana, Carla, Patricio, Ana, Marta (Mae)

It's a Mozambican thing not to smile in pictures.  They're normally happy kids, I swear.  Clockwise: Junior, Jose, (me), Ilha, Patricio