Perspective

I’m writing this post in the Frankfurt airport– my first time outside southeastern Africa since arriving in Mozambique 15 months ago! It’s nice to wait in efficient, orderly lines & to hear people speaking english, but some reverse culture shock has also set in. I feel very grungy & very overwhelmed by all the stores and food options. And this is just a layover en route to my final destination(s) of Florida, Maryland/DC, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Chicago. I couldn’t be more excited to spend time with friends and family & attend two very special weddings. But I’m definitely interested to see how I can integrate my Peace Corps reality with my life back home during this visit.

My visit home was timed around the aforementioned weddings, but the midpoint of my service is also a great time to take a break and recharge. This time next year, I’ll be done with my Peace Corps service, which is simultaneously exciting and terrifying. Hopefully I’ll return from this trip with renewed energy & motivation to really make the most of my remaining time in Mozambique. The month-long vacation should be the perfect antidote for burnout. It’s already included traveling through 4 countries in 24 hours, running a marathon, and seeing one of the seven wonders of the world. So I’d say it’s off to a good start! But before I plunge into all the awesomeness of weddings and family (and Starbucks and sushi and IPAs and washing machines…) I want to take a step back and talk about the last few months.

From May through mid-July, I spent all my time in Lichinga, without so much as a day trip to the lake. I established a solid routine and got momentum behind projects like my REDES girls’ group, an English club, some grant applications, home improvements, and marathon training. It was nice to have so much uninterrupted time at site; it’s an up-side of our relative isolation & tough travel logistics as volunteers in Niassa. But at the same time, I was motivated by the fact that I had several great trips coming up. And each opportunity to leave Lichinga gave me a new perspective on the work I was doing back at site.

In mid-July, I flew to Tanzania for a safari with my mom, dad, sister, aunt & uncle. After a few days in the Arusha area, we all came back to Lichinga. This visit will absolutely be one of the highlights of my service & something I talk about for the rest of my life. (Maybe I can even solicit a guest blog post about it). I was incredibly excited to sit and have a leisurely, in-person conversation with my family after a year of emails sent across time zones and pre-scheduled phone calls on bad networks. And the luxury of being in the SAME PLACE as my family was, of course, just that– an incredible luxury and privilege. They spent a ton of time, effort and money on visas, shots, flights and hotels, which not every family could do or would even have the desire to do. We definitely weren’t traveling on a Peace Corps budget, which emphasized that despite my two years without running water, my life will never really be anything like my Mozambican neighbors’ reality. My family’s standard of living is out of reach even for many Americans. I’ve had amazing opportunities and support throughout my life, and will hopefully go home to even broader horizons. During our time in Tanzania, I felt a bit awkward being the stereotypical white tourist. But there’s no point in feeling guilty when I should just feel grateful & motivated to work that much harder.

Being a tourist also made me appreciate once again Peace Corps’ emphasis on community integration. We have a very unique opportunity compared to other expats, whether they’re travelers or development professionals. We don’t have cars, guards, large salaries or families with us at site, but we DO have great language training, supportive staff & fellow volunteers, and tons of flexibility/freedom. We have the incredible gift of 2+ years to conhecer Mozambique’s realidade, without the pressure of 9-to-5 jobs or fundraising requirements or rigid, top-down goals. (That last point could be debatable, but in theory all PCVs are here to further the goals of our communities, not to impose any external agenda. I’m basically re-stating here the message of the Sargent Shriver quote in my last post.)

As a volunteer in a provincial capitol, I sometimes feel guilty that I’m not “as integrated” as PCVs in smaller/more rural sites. But my family’s visit showed me how much relationship-building I HAVE done in Lichinga. They remarked that we couldn’t walk down the street for more than five minutes without being stopped and greeted by a neighbor, coworker or friend. I warned my family that Sonita’s take-away stand would probably be closed, and rattled off her specific travel plans. My sister’s response: “WHY do you know all that about the lady who makes your chicken sandwiches? Sorry that when you visit Boston I won’t be able to introduce you at every store I go to.” My family spent almost their entire visit just meeting neighbors, coworkers and friends. Everyone in Lichinga (up to and including the mayor) was eager to meet them, and they really managed to connect with people despite the language barrier. It was great to see my life-long biological family interact with my new hodge-podge “family” in Mozambique, from my PCV sitemates to the neighborhood crianças.

Shortly after my family’s visit, I went down to Namaacha to help with the final week of training for the new group of health volunteers. It was a great reminder of why we all chose to come here & what our goals should be at site, as well as a nice opportunity to see staff & my host family. But as I discussed homestays and practicum projects with the trainees, I also realized how much more confident & independent I am after a year at site. At my own group’s midservice conference a few weeks later, it was awesome to be all back together for the first time in 7 months & to compare notes. We all do very different things & have overcome different challenges, but every single person has great stuff going on at site.

Of course, this great community integration can bring out some quirks in our personalities. My excitement over food buffets & care packages, as well as my references to the rural “districts” outside the “capitol” of Lichinga, reminded my sister of the Hunger Games. My family wasn’t very interested in my sitemates’ gossip about where to find the cheapest pumpkins or where a new cell tower just went up. My hissy fit when I was served a “chefe beer” at a hotel seemed ridiculous to them, whereas a PCV would NEVER buy the smaller, more expensive bottles that are status symbols for the “chefes” or bosses here. At least they did agree that homemade avocado ice cream is delicious.

I’m sure more idiosyncrasies will emerge during my visit home– perusing wedding registries & shaving my legs above the knee have already proved challenging. But I absolutely can’t wait to swap stories with everyone at home, and hopefully I’ll be back on this blog in October with more frequent (and therefore shorter!) updates.