Well, it has been a while and so there is much to catch up on as alluded to in the title. My time off was a lazy two weeks, and I am happy to say I am ready to get back in to the ole’ grind. Lucky for me I was greeted with some small successes. But first of all, I’m thinking you may be curious as to what Mozambique was like, which I do need to mention is beautiful, really Florida has got nothing on this place…
For me, unlike many other volunteers, Mozambique wasn’t the life changing, rejuvenating, revelation of trip that it seems to be for the other Lesotho volunteers, however (I enjoy the beach but I really think I’m a city girl at heart), I do think it did help me buck up some courage and let me tell you how. So, okay, just kind of go along with this, and I’m not saying I believe in these things, I’m just giving you some background so you know where I am coming from. So a few weeks before I left one of my friends here did my star chart, I mean, why not, right? I don’t have much else to entertain myself with and getting a star chart done doesn’t really hurt anything. Anyways, the results are, interesting to say the least, but it was what inspired a lot of what I did on my Mozambique trip. There are parts of the star chart which can get quite specific, one part in said my favorite type of exercise is water sports. Well I’m in Mozambique, a surfer and marine life haven of sorts. So, and needless to say after the star chart explanation, I took a surfing lesson and it was a blast. I didn’t stand up but I did get my feet up on the board at one point which I thought was pretty good for my first try. And it said I would enjoy water sports not that I would be good at them. So I like to think of the surfing excursion as a success and that maybe there is something to this star chart nonsense?
The success with surfing gave me the lift I needed for my second water sports excursion. So, I don’t know if you know this but, the waters off the coast of Tofo, where we were in Mozambique, have the largest population of juvenile male whale sharks. And a popular tourist attraction is that you get to go on these things called “ocean safaris.” So me and all my girlfriends I’m with decide to go. We get there and the person in charge is, to say it mildly, crazy and the whole trip is the hectic mess. As I am sitting on the edge of this rubber like scuba boat cruising out farther from the coast, I’m thinking to myself, sooo no safety instructions, no life preserver, barely any instructions on how to use what I gear I have and I’m diving in the open ocean with sharks, people have lived through worse, right? So after about a half hour we all hear the person at the lookout go, “I think I see one.” The scene on the boat quickly went from a serene ocean outing to this hectic grapple to get our gear on and in the water post haste. So naturally in the confusion and chaos I’m flabbergasted and after everyone else gets in the water I realize what’s going on, get my gear on and begin arguing with myself “do I get in, can I do it? Did I just wet myself?” And then as I am teetering on the edge of this boat I realize I am probably never going to get to go swimming in the open ocean with whale sharks (which are truly peaceful giants of the sea) first because I have no idea when I will be back in Mozambique, second it was expensive and I don’t want to waste my money, and third this is kind of an unsafe practice and may not be allowed to continue for much longer. So I let go of the ropes and plummet into the ocean with my snorkel gear on. Once I up right myself and get my breathing going I look right underneath my feet to see a freakin’ whale shark ten feet below me. I give it an honest effort to swim with the darn thing, but it is as fast as it is big and was soon out of my sight. I then realize, “Shit, I’m in the open ocean with no life jacket” and fight the waves back to the boat and ever so ungracefully pull myself over the side of the boat and back in. Whew! About 15 minutes later we spot another one and I recreate the magic of the first try, but am so promptly tuckered out that I don’t even try to chase the animal and head straight back for the boat. After that sighting we see another right at the surface of the ocean, at first we just saw his dorsal fin out of the water but then as we got closer he surfaced and one of my friends almost bumped into his face as she jumped in. They are so amazing to see, I mean I know that’s pretty obvious, but you are talking to a devotee to Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. To see the world’s largest fish (not to mention a freakin’ shark) in person and then to get to swim with it is quite the experience. I was so proud of myself that I got in the water, I can’t even imagine how mad I would have been with myself if I hadn’t. So yay Mozambique and the yay to the whale shark if I may say so myself.
After our two week stay there I really was happy to return to site. The first day I got back one of the ladies that work at the clinic gave me some fantastic news. So I often work alongside the ladies that work in the kitchen here at the clinic. We’ve bonded over a lot of things, like food, Sesotho, and knitting. With all the yarn everyone has sent me, which of course is awesome, I soon realized that I will never get through all of it and have begun giving some away to the ladies that work at the clinic so they can knit during their lunch hour and in the evening at home. They have really taken to it, I mean, it takes me like two months to knit a scarf (and I’m also pretty scatterbrained though) and these ladies have been making themselves hats, scarves, heck one even made a skirt and they do this in like 1-2 weeks. It’s quite amazing. They always show me what they make and tell me how people ask for them the make them things or how people ask them to give them what they have made. And, me, taking on the quintessential Peace Corps role, hint around to them maybe start selling what they are making and begin some sort of income generation project. Now I’ve been telling the ladies this for about the past month or two that they need to charge people for what they give them. It just so happens that yesterday I was talking to one of the ladies that works at the clinic, and she has begun charging people! She said one of the bartenders at the Jakaranda admired her scarf and she told her if she bought the wool and paid her for her labor she would make her a scarf. I was sooo excited and happy about this I think I gave her like two more skeins of yarn just to motivate her more. It was fantastic. I know it isn’t large scale or even life altering, but I was just so happy that this lady 1) found an opportunity for herself to make money 2) wasn’t passive and finally stood up for herself and decided to charge for her work (again with the passive stuff and Basotho) and 3) I’ll be here for a while yet and can help her develop this into something sustainable and hopefully (cross your fingers) profitable. Not only will she get money but this will empower her and her daughters will hopefully see this and be able to follow her lead. This success ranks right up with the ladies in the kitchen finally using soapy water to wipe down the surfaces in the kitchen. Look at that change all over. Anyways, I was just sooooo excited and it was just what I needed to be greeted with. It made that gigantic stack of backed up paper work that I had to organize not too bad.
Well, so now I’m back and I think Mozambique helped my heart to begin to defrost from the cold Lesotho winter. I’ll now dive head first into library stuff and I have some kids interested in a youth group. I’m thinking a drama club is in order and that they need to learn about musicals right away. So that’s my next few weeks. I hope everyone is enjoying the summer still, it is slowly, but surely warming up here (or at least that’s what I keep telling myself). Take care and salang hantle!
No comments:
Post a Comment