During PST (pre-service training), I’m living in Namaacha. Now, I realize that yall don’t know what Namaacha (or Mozambique, in general) is really like…so I’ll try and describe it… The key word there is “try”! ha!
Namaacha is a village about an hour and a half North of Maputo City. There is one paved road that cuts straight through the center of the village and it will lead you right into Swaziland. Along this lovely paved road are 4 “neighborhoods”…clusters of huts/houses. Most of the houses are very small and have tin roofs, although there are a fair number of round, rock huts that have thatched roofs sprinkled in the mix. Since there is only the one actual road, everything else is dirt paths. And by “path,” I mean wide enough for one person, rocky paths that are easily mistaken for goat paths or walkways to people’s backyards (someplace I’ve ended up on more that one occasion). There are no signs and the paths are not named. So when someone asks me how to get to my house, I usually respy something like this, “Take a right at the mercado. Keep walking down the hill until you see the tomato stand on your left. Then, walk under the Coca Cola sign. Keep going until you pass two round huts. Take a right at the house with brown swirls painted on it….” Blah blah blah. At which point whoever I’m talking to usually asks if I will just come meet them somewhere. This whole “landmark” business was a struggle for the first week or so. Especially considering I have absolutely zero sense of direction.
Other random things….
There are chickens and roosters everywhere. Seriously. Everywhere. They’re taking over. And the roosters start crowing at 3:30 am. How do I know that? Because I wake up every time they start!! Also, there are tons of goats. And occasionally our neighbor’s pigs wander around my yard.
People here have yet to experience the “earth day” phenomenon and throw trash everywhere. I can count the number of trash cans I’ve seen here on one hand. Trash everywhere.
The last “everywhere” thing in Namaacha….kids. This place is swarming with children. And they usually run in packs. It’s totally normal to see a couple 2 or 3 years olds wandering around unattended. Can you imagine if you saw a 3 year old in the states just wondering down a road?! Um. No. Someone would call CPS so fast your head would spin. Here, that’s completely normal….
Women and girls here carry everything on their heads. I’ll be honest…. It’s pretty bad ass. Giant containers of water from the well? Check. Milk cartons full of glass Fanta bottles? Check. Huge bags of beets, rice or any other food from the market? Check.
Every bar – and even some random houses- has those overly large speakers [Rhodes kids. Think kappa sig house. Yeah…. Thoseeee] Anyways, they love musica here and they blare it on these giant speakers TWENTY FOUR HOURS A DAY. Totally serious. My house is located in prime air-space apparently, so I usually get dueling music. And what type of music do they play? Ah. Well, they love random American music…. Lots and lots of old Akon, Snoop, Cher, Michael Jackson. Oh and Justin Bieber is a god.
We have a gas station (“Total: a boutique”…great name) which sells laughing cow cheese, Cadbury chocolate bars and the occasional ice cream sandwich. A high school. The Mercado central. A post office. Two restaurants. A bank. And lots of little hole-in-the-wall bars. Note: any town in which you can buy chocolate and/or any kind of cheese in Mozambique is considered a big deal…
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