Well, today arrived in dramatic fashion, and it started with
some rain. It hadn’t rained in about 4 days and had been so hot that I was
practically beginning for the crappy weather to role in. Today, it finally did, and I was quickly
reminded of why walking anywhere sucks when it rains in Namaacha. About two minute into my soggy trek to school
this morning, enough matope had latched itself onto the bottoms of my shoes to
make it feel like each of my feet weighed about 20 pounds.
The morning itself crawled by at a turtles pace. Some representatives from USAID spent the
first few hours talking about a new initiative they were starting in Moz, and
then Carl, our Country Director, did a session on the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator. When 1pm finally rolled
around, every single trainee was sitting on the edge of their seat. We were given the go-ahead to pack up our
stuff and head to the Gymnasium where the site placement ceremony would take
place.
As we entered the gym, we formed a big circle around a giant
map of Mozambique that had been drawn out with chalk on the floor. Our language
professors then handed each of us a personalized envelope that contained a
piece of paper with the name of our sites, a short job description, as well as
a map.
Now, I’ve opened plenty of envelopes in my day, some more
interesting than others. While the
majority of the envelopes I’ve opened have contained complete crap (e.x. credit
card offers, magazine subscription renewals, valentines that didn’t include a
piece of candy…), some have not (e.x. Report Cards, SAT scores, college application
decisions, birthday money…). This
envelope definitely fell into the latter group.
Upon grabbing the envelope, I felt my heart begin to beat a
little faster as a tidal wave of excitement surged through my body. Endorphins released; my fingers went
numb. I stared deeply into the
envelope’s empty white surface, lost in thought; my mind erupting with
visualizations and fantasies of how the next two-years would all pan out. I was excited.
I’d been waiting nearly eighteen months for this exact moment;
for my life to finally have some sort of certainty. Ever since finishing grad school, my life has
been a messy clump of ambiguity. Between
moving away from Colorado, watching a family staple disintegrate, bouncing
around from job to job, and looking for a new path in life, I can’t remember
the last time I was able to confidently answer the question “Where will I be in
two months, and what will I be doing?”
And it’s taken a stressful toll. But the contents of the envelope would
change all that.
After counting down from three, all 68 of us opened our
envelopes and then ran to find our places on the giant map so that we could
meet our site-mates and new neighbors.
And just like that, life became a little more clear.
PCV Name: William
Zweig
Subject: Physics Teacher
Site: Montepuez, Cabo Delgado
School: Escola Secundaria 15 de Outubro
Initial reactions:
I’m psyched. Know why? Because I
wanted the north, and I got the north. I
wanted rural but close to a city, and I got rural but close to a city. I wanted to replace someone at an
already-established site and live alone, and sure enough, I got both of those
things. My house is fairly new, apparently
has consistent electricity and even water that comes out of a tap (albeit
sporadically). There are nearby
mountains, and lots of hiking trails to explore. I have two site-mates, which
is also awesome. One is a Moz 17’er
who’s been living in town for a year already.
The other is a delightful young woman from my group named Anna. Even more awesome is the fact that she is the
only other person in my group that happens to be from Maryland. There doesn’t
seem to be much to complain about (well, it’s supposedly pretty hot, but it’s a
dry heat like Colorado and not miserable and humid like DC!). Maybe that’ll change once I settle in and get
to know it better, but for now, I’m going to sleep a pretty happy guy.
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