A Nova Vida

During my time in Namaacha, in addition to learning the information and skills for my community health volunteer work, I also learned life skills that I took for granted. Let me give an example: communicating. When I first arrived, I did not know a word of portuguese. It was a very acting oriented first two weeks. Also, taking a bath. It's easy right? One simply needs to go into the shower and turn the knob. Yeah, that's not the case... to take a bath here one needs to first heat water (that takes about twenty minutes). Then, one pores the near-boiled water into a bucket and add cold water. One takes the full bucket to the outhouse (emphasize on out because it's outside) and uses a small cup to pour water over yourself. Also, since it's winter here, it's freaking cold man. Cooking is another thing that takes a SO much longer. You know those prepared meats that you can buy in the grocery store? Yeah, that's not really available here. You need to prepare the meat yourself. But preparation is so vague isn't it? Don't worry I won't go into gruesome detail, but I had to learn how to kill a chicken. It wasn't that bad actually. I stepped on the wings and the feet of the chicken to keep it pinned down, then I just cut off it's head and let it bleed out (and stop moving). The de-feathering part was actually worse for me. I had to pore boiling water of the dead chicken and pluck it's feathers out by hand. After, I cut it up into pieces that are easier to cook. It was an important life experience; I think that anyone who eats meat should do this kind of thing at least once in their lifetime. Also, you guys know how laundry is SUCH a pain? Well, it's more of a pain here. You guessed it: washing clothes by hand. It's pretty wearing on the clothes that I brought. I'm pretty confident that they won't make it the whole two years. Not to fear though, I can buy clothes here (stating the obvious there, sorry). If all of this sounds like complaining, I assure you it's not. I've grown to like taking these things slow. Washing clothes is a whole morning affair, but it's kinda nice to be doing a repetitive task. It's pretty relaxing when you add listening to an iPod while doing it. Other important life skills that I've learned: cutting vegetables without a cutting board and using a mortar and pestle. I have never knew the convenience of a simple piece of plastic/wood  I've learned how to use a mortar and pestle. Sounds easy right, I thought so too... until I saw the freaking massive mortar and pestle. Seriously, it's about a three feet tall mortar, and the pestle is about five feet tall. It's all carved out of wood; honestly it's impressively heavy and just plain impressive.

In addition to the life skills gain, I think my perspective on life has changed slightly. But, I will write more about that once I'm at site. Also, I've gotten questions about the food here. I'll write a post about that as well. It is the last week of training!!! Wish me luck on my Portuguese language test tomorrow! Until next time!

~Yao-Chieh "Jack" Cheng