It was finally here! This was the
day we had been waiting for since week one. The day that made concentrating in
training sessions almost impossible for the past week. The day people had
dreams about, had nightmares about, and spent hour after hour anticipating and
wondering about. It was finally site placement day.
All 68
trainees from the 19th group of trainees in Mozambique had gathered
in the semi-covered basketball auditorium with all of the Peace Corps staff and
some volunteers who were just waiting to see the chaos unfold. This was the
same auditorium where we were welcomed into the town of Namaacha by our singing
host mothers 7 weeks before. That day, they had whisked us off to our new homes
and we were left to figure out the language and cultural barriers
for a few days with our families.
By the
time we got to site placement day, everyone was feeling pretty comfortable in
Namaacha. Now we were speaking Portuguese, haggling prices, joking with our
host families, and observing with Mozambican culture. But site placement day
was similar to training in general. Pure anticipation. Session upon session was
based in training us for what we anticipate we might encounter at our future
site, fueling our desire to know where we would go. We had learned to adapt to
many different living situations, so we would be prepared for the possibility
of living without electricity or running water. We had been analyzing the
possible situations of Mozambican schools and the potential problems. We had
been discussing Mozambican culture, knowing that it depends greatly on the
geographic area and the native language spoken there. We did visits to current
volunteers to see what a site might look like, but just learned that they were
all different and they would all work out. But the problem was we didn’t know which
schools, we didn’t know what living conditions, we didn’t know what languages,
and we didn’t know which sites we were going to have to prepare for.
We had
to come up with one magic wish for our site. I put “Math,” knowing the one way
I would be disappointed would be if I was assigned to teach something else.
Other people had put electricity, people, site-mate, mountains, north, south,
city, or mato (aka, the middle of nowhere). We had interviews so we could say
what we most wanted in a site. But we all knew we had agreed to be sent where
ever we were needed, and that our requests would probably be taken with a grain
of salt.
In the
gym we all formed a semi-circle around a map of Mozambique that was drawn on
the floor. We each held an envelope that contained our future for the next two
years. What we will teach, where we will live, and who we will live with. I
stood arm and arm with Jamie and Cheyanne, two wonderful ladies that I had
shared the plane ride from Denver to Philly with and been great friends with
ever since.
Just
like that, on the count of three, everyone tore open their envelope at the same
time and the room erupted in chaos. Frantically reading and trying to
understand through the excitement of the moment was almost impossible. I read
in flashes, not catching a lot of content. Jamie, Cheyanne and I broke off in
different directions as we raced to the outline of our respective provinces to
see who we would live close for the next 2 years.
After
arriving in the Nampula outline, I started to realize exactly where I would be
going. Angoche, a place I had heard of from current Peace Corps Volunteers as a
beautiful beach site with a wonderful house and very difficult access. After a
bit I realized I would be rooming with Mafe (Maria Fernanda). I could not be
more excited! Mafe and I were next to each other for the 15 hour JFK to
Johannasburg flight, as well as the flight from JBurg to Maputo. Then, we were
roommates in the hotel for a few days before we came to Namaacha. I had a
feeling we would be together again and I could not be more thrilled that I was
right. Plus, if we could make it through the flights and jetlag together, we
could make it through anything!
But
after the initial flurry of activity, I was able to process more and more. I
looked around and saw Jamie in the next province over but Cheyanne was way down
south. Many people I have become so close with during training were spread out
all over the country. Nampula is in the northern region of Mozambique, and it
can take up to 4 days to travel down to the capital city of Maputo in the very
south of the country. Training is set up to have us clinging to each other for
one second, then ripped apart in the next. But I know that many of us have made
some strong bonds that won’t be broken by distance, just like our many
friendships that were stretched across the world when we set foot on that JFK-
JBurg flight. Plus, it just gives us more places to visit over the next few
years.
But
truthfully I had trouble containing my enthusiasm that day. I was all smiles as
I read the letter from the past volunteer in Angoche. I couldn’t put down the
map because I wanted to see exactly where everyone else was going. We all
headed to Xavier’s, a bar that has become a daily hangout spot, to swap info on
what we know about the sites, what we are going to be teaching, and hypothesizing
what the next two years might look like. We might have gotten the answer to all
of our questions, but that answered opened up more and more questions that
can’t be answered until we leave our safe and comfortable town of Namaacha and
head our separate ways. But now, in the last two weeks of training, we are left
to anticipate what our new communities will be like, how well we will be able
to integrate, and what on earth we are going to do for the month and half we
are at site before school starts. But we can also focus on the here and now,
the spending time with our host families and bonding with our friends before we
go off in different directions. Then, we will arrive excitedly to site only to
discover that we will never quite figure it all out.
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