A typical day

While it might not be so thrilling on my end of the spectrum at least, I figured some of you might be curious to learn how my life differs from the normal day to day in the states. And so, in the spirit of the third part of the Peace Corps Mission (‘to promote a better understanding of other people on the part of the American people’) here it is…  Enjoy!

6:30am Wake up to my phone alarm. Most people in the neighborhood have already been up since sunrise an hour before, so I’m starting my day relatively later. While most people have already cooked breakfast and gotten dressed, I’m tying my mosquito net together and making my bed. NOTE- There aren’t many mosquitoes in the area, but I have the net because you never know what other ‘fun’ creatures could make their way onto my bed. (ie. Spiders, roaches and non poisonous scorpions…goo!)

6:35am Feed my dog the concoction of boiled shrimp and Xima (see previous blog) that I’d cooked the night before.

My dog’s name?, you ask. Let’s just say that if adventure had a dog, then its name would be…

… yeah, I went there.

6:37am Sweep my yard. This was one of the things that caught me off guard when I came here since… well… people here are essentially sweeping a yard of dirt and sand. Many Mozambicans take pride in having a neat looking yard though, which includes making sure that the sand has a combed over appearance and is free of leaves and other garbage.

6:40am Iron my clothes for the day and clean my shoes. I plug in my iron (I have electricity as many people do here) and brush off the dirt and sand from my shoes as I wait for the iron to heat up. Like I said… Mozambicans like neatness and if somebody shows up somewhere wrinkled and with tons of crap on their shoes (even though there is dirt and sand almost everywhere), they are not afraid to call you out. This actually happened to me once before. It’s not fun. Lol

6:55am Breakfast time! Fresh bread I bought at the market the evening before that I store in my trusty zip lock bag and South African peanut butter (optional banana and/or mango). Yeah… the peanut butter here (Black Cat) is A-mazing! My dog Indiana seems to like it too. :)

7:00am Shower time. So my shower is essentially a massive blue bucket (as tall as my waist and about a meter wide) in which I store water every Saturday for the week. How this works is you crouch down (still standing) and with another smaller bucket, pour water on the hair, back, chest, legs, and shoulders/armpits. Then you scrub with whatever shampoo and soap you have (Old Spice body wash/ shampoo, how I miss thee!) and repeat pouring with the bucket after you’re done. It’s very simple. And the water all drains off to the small hole in the wall off to the side. Important to note is that this is a room located outside which is separate from my house and is right next door to my concrete hole-in-the-ground bathroom.

7:15am Get dressed and brush teeth.

7:35am Start walking to work. The walk is about 20 minutes long and follows a series of winding roads through the trees which are made up of sand, dirt, tree brush, and the occasional garbage. By now I have taken the same route so many times that people and faces have become very familiar. And while the series of ‘good mornings’ and attempts at English greetings by others collectively make it a pleasant walk; the heat makes it a sweaty one. Let the countdown commence until Winter! :)

7:55am Run into the store near my work to buy ‘Maria’ crackers. ‘Maria’ crackers are essentially pseudo-graham crackers, but way better. They’re relatively inexpensive and serve as a good snack in between breakfast and lunch break.

8am- 1pm (or 13h); 2pm-4pm Work at ADECI (See ‘What I Do’ blog)

1pm-2pm Lunch Break. I walk from the ADECI building to the post office, which is a few blocks away, to check for mail at my PO Box. Then I trudge over to the ‘heart of the city’ as I like to call it (where traffic of people and cars is at its height) to a somewhat secluded spot off to the side under a big tree.

I like to go there because I can always find Mozambican women walking around the chapa stops and selling lanha (‘baby coconuts’). They carry the basin full of coconuts on their head and per request they pull out a machete and cut open the top of the coconut for me to drink. Then once I’m finished, they chop it in half and give me a spoon fashioned from another part of the coconut to scrape out the meat. SUCH a good snack!

Now its chill time under the tree until the end of break in which I usually am reading mail or a book. (Right now it’s ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’… highly recommended’)

4pm-5pm Very up in the air. But depending on what I did during lunch it either includes post office trip, reading once again, or just walking around for a bit. Regardless of the day I walk into the ‘heart of the city’ to buy what is in my opinion the freshest bread in all of Maxixe. It’s warm, it’s fluffy, and it’s D-licious!

5pm-6pm I make my trek up the dirt road back towards home which can include a stop to get samousas from the nice ‘samousa lady’ (as I call her) and/or the occasional visit to Anne’s (another Peace Corps Volunteer who lives by me). Whatever the case, I always like to stop by the marketplace by my house to buy the night’s groceries. (See marketplace blog)

6pm-7pm I come home and wash the dishes from the night before, straighten up my house a little bit then start dinner.

Cooking dinner, as I’ve mentioned before, has become one of my favorite things to do… always with either some classic rock or the blues playing. TO give you an idea, I have my share of pasta nights but I also make things like sushi, fried eggplant, and Spanish tortilla (French fried potatoes mixed in beaten eggs and cooked like a pancake) topped with bruschetta. Afterwards I make the dog her food, serve half and then save the rest for the next morning.

8-10pm Either hanging out with my neighbor Vaz, reading, writing letters, or watching something on my computer.
10-10:30ish Set up the fan and mosquito net in my room and go to bed.

Just another day in Maxixe!