Reasons

January 8,2011

One of the many reasons why I love Mozambique....

I spent a good part of my two week vacation taking out my braids. It was time...they were hanging on by a wish and a prayer. I washed, conditioned, twisted my hair and rocked a cute fro-hawk for NYE and New Years Day. (I got all cute both days with nowhere to go...) During this period of time everyone thought I was Brazilian...I guess Brazilians are the only people who wear curly fro hawks....anyway... On the 4th, the nurse from my org came by (she calls me her daughter. She said she missed me) and noticed I took out my braids. She asked if I wanted more. I told her yeah, it would be nice if I could find somebody to do them. She left and about 20mins later she came back with a girl. We went to the market, bought some hair...

And voila!! My hair is braided again. And it looks really good! And I only paid 100mts. Which is the equivalent of like...3dollars. And this girl is probably the fastest braider on earth...

Yep...I love it here. Its the simple joys :)

One of the reasons why being in Mozambique isn't always so great...

All kinds of people were texting me the past two weeks, but the mcel network was out, so my blackberry didn't have service. How the service could be out for TWO WEEKS is beyond me....ugh. So annoyed. Thankfully, I could still communicate because I have a vodacom phone, and that cell phone provider is actually more reliable here where I am. But anyway, today when my service came back, I got a text from my cousin (you know, from my host family in Namaacha) that he had sent on Wednesday. He was asking how I was doing, saying he missed me, asking when I was coming back, etc etc. I responded by saying that I didn't have cell phone service, so I couldn't respond on wed. Then I asked how he was doing. He responded with "I'm fine".

That was weird because he's usually way more talkative/expressive than that. I responded with "so where are you? How's the family in Namaacha?". And that's when he responded with "I'm in Namaacha. Vanya died.".

If you remember, I had 4 host sisters. Vanya was the 2nd youngest sister. She had a 9month old baby boy. I was shocked and immediately called him. He said she had been sick and she died this morning. Then he got another phone call and said he'd call me back.

The thing about Mozambique is that people die. A lot. Granted, people died everywhere. But in Mozambique, it happens way more often than in the States. Its one of the things that they prepare us for in training. People will die. On my home visits here in Niassa, I see people who are sick. Really sick. Everyday...and already, just this week, one of the people on our home care program, died. When you see these people everyday, emaciated and weak, with high fevers or low blood pressure....its a little easier to process the fact that things may not get better.... you hope they do get better. And that whatever antiretrovirals or other meds that they're on work to make them healthier. But that's not always the case. Sometimes people don't make it, and when you work with mostly HIV+ people in a country where there are so many complexities adding to the problem...you kinda prepare yourself for these things.

But when someone who was seemingly healthy passes away, its a little harder to accept. Then...when it's someone who isn't REALLY your family...but was a part of the only family you had for the first 10wks in a new country, who took you in and made you one of their own....well that also complicates things. And when you're way across the country, unable to see them...it adds to the frustration. And when language barriers and cultural differences get in the way of knowing what to say or what to do....well.....

You see where I'm going.

Everywhere in the world, life has its ups and downs.