January 18

I was playing in the yard with some of the seemingly infinite number of children that live behind my house and casually trying to teach them English. In many ways this is a lost cause because quite a few children do not speak Portuguese (the national language), instead they speak one of the many local languages spoken in Mozambique (really throughout Africa - Mozambique has more than 60). In my case, people here in Gondola speak one of three local languages (the names of which I cannot spell or even pronounce for that matter – though I do know a few simple phrases). Anyway, back to the point, the kids were saying words in Portuguese and I was translating them into English. They got to mae and pae which I translated to mom and dad. They were confused with the word “dad” so I began to explain it and one boy asked me “ Você tem pae?” which means, “do you have a father?” I thought it was a silly question and I quickly answered yes, but than I thought about it a bit…

I live in an area of Mozambique that is on a major highway (resulting in sex between Mozambicans and residents of neighboring countries that are passing through), near Zimbabwae (which has a comparatively high prevalence of HIV), and near a large city (resulting in lots of transactional sex). Although I don’t have the numbers I would estimate the HIV infection rate here in Gondola to hover around the 25% range for the 15-49 age demographic (this is a guess, not a real statistic). Additionally the extremely high rates of HIV here in sub-saharan Africa are generally attributed to a culture of concurrent relationships (that is multiple sexual relationships going on simultaneously rather than the western method (generally speaking) of one monogamous sexual relationship after another). Hence, HIV infection rates are extremely high not because Africans are having more sex, but because they are involved in these concurrent relationships (that may last years or even decades). If you are confused, think about in terms of everyone’s favorite high school illness: mononucleosis (which we generally associate with kissing – though it is spread in other ways). If Betty has mono and she makes out with one dude (and that dude is with Betty exclusively and Betty is with him exclusively) only one dude is going to have mono. However if Betty is in concurrent relationships with two other guys – at least three people are going to have mono (and if one of the other guys is also in a concurrent relationship even more people will have mono - the numbers have potential to multiply quickly).

Back to the original question “do you have a father”, which I now realize is not silly at all. There are many reasons here (whether it is an AIDS death or the child was the result of a concurrent relationship gone dry) that a child would not have a father. I originally dismissed the question, but I now realize it is not only not silly, but extremely relevant here in Southern Africa.

February 11

Well, school finally started. It was supposed to start on February 2, but it took about a week for the school to get everything organized and for students and teachers to start showing up. I have six turmas (classes) each with anywhere from 40-70 students. Here in Mozambique the turma stays in one room and the teachers come to them, that being said most of my classrooms are decent. However I have two classes in the basement of a nearby Catholic Church that feels like it was built in the 1600s. So I feel like I am teaching in the middle ages (and my chalkboards in those classes are about three feet by three feet). The students don’t really want to learn chemistry (but who really does?) however, I think they are at least excited that they have a white (and tall) teacher.

Our (that is my roommate and myself) neighbors took us on the 10k walk (their family members walk it everyday) to their machamba (farm) one day. It was interesting; they grow corn (to be made into corn flour – which is a staple here), peanuts, and sugar cane with seemingly no organization at all. They also have a random assortment of fruit trees (guava, banana, mango, avocado, and more). For the most part, people in Gondola rely on subsistence farming to support themselves (and they sell whatever extra food they have) so it was good that we saw the farm – which is basically their life.

I have gone into Chimoio (the big city that is nearby) quite a few times for get-togethers with other pcvs. The central region of Mozambique (which is where I live) is the worst geographically (because we don’t really have a beach) but it is nice because people are close enough to each other to see each other on occasional weekends. It is also nice to be near Shoprite (the South African grocery store chain). I recently figured out that Shoprite does not have sales (because there really is no competition) but that they mark down food (mostly dairy products) significantly if it is near the expiration date. So my roommate and myself go to shoprite and buy almost expired butter and cheese (we can not afford the good stuff we can not get any dairy products in Gondola – although they do have un-refrigerated margarine – which is a novelty to me) and than we have to race to finish it before the expiration date (it is really a lot of fun).