I find myself asking this question often…and not because of the crazy Malaria meds we have to take.  No, I find myself realizing exactly what is going on right now in my life and I often can’t grasp that it is reality.  For the past few years, when people asked me what my plan was, I told people my dream is to join the Peace Corps…and most of the time people just asked why, but I knew deep down it was what I was going to do.  Then, almost exactly a year ago, my plan (and thus life) seemed to be falling apart as Peace Corps was looking less and less like an option.  Fast-forward to the present and, all of a sudden, I am at site doing what I love to do: teaching.

In between last year and now is all a big blur and I often can’t even think back to what happened nor the worries I used to have.  All that nervousness, excitement, drama, struggle, etc. has all passed.  Chidenguele, Mozambique, Africa is to be my home for the next two years, and these are to be my students.  This is the first time (probably since high school) that I have a plan for the next two years and I truly could not be happier that this is how I am going to spend them.  Everything has come together flawlessly: from my beautiful site, to my roommate situation, my school, my students, and the surprisingly awesome first days of class.

In Peace Corps, we go through a lot of extreme highs and lows as far as emotion, but this isn’t just an outburst of me on a high note.  I had a moment today when I was teaching that it all seemed to hit me at once: my students correctly conjugated each verb I put on the board after tons of drilling, and I almost shed a tear of happiness.  It made me remember my ESL classes in Minnesota and I realized I haven’t felt happiness like this since then.  And to think of how far I have come since my days in Minnesota…it is truly like I am walking in a dream.

I often think about if my life right now were made into a TV show.  Not because I am so self-indulgent that I think I deserve one, but simply because I worked for a TV show before coming here…and I watch a lot of TV shows in my down time (guilty pleasure)…and I really like ‘The Truman Show.’  Anyway, when I do think about my TV show, I realize it would have waay too much to do with water.

Most of my time is spent either bringing water from one place to another, transferring it from one container to the next, using it, drinking it, sweating it, and repeating. 

To explain, I get my water from a cistern/well that collects rain water that runs off the school through a system of pipes– problem is that the cistern is at the BOTTOM of the hill, and I am at the TOP. To make matters more difficult, the road up is all sand.  This hill is going to be the death of me…or it is going to give me legs, abs, and a back of steel (I am hoping for the latter). 

(This is not to complain, other PCVs have it worse: I talked to someone who had to wait 3 hours for water at the pump and then walk it home.)

It is amazing how important water is to our lives.  You realize this when you are forcefully conscious of how much water you use.  I use about 16-20 liters a day.  4 liters for baths (one day, one night), 8 for drinking, 2 for cooking, and 4-6 for cleaning.  The water I use to wash clothes isn’t counted because I use a separate, dirtier cistern and I do that at the bottom of the hill.

Never have I been so worried/obsessed with water.  Until a few days ago, the cistern was getting pretty low and I was beginning to get worried…like seriously worried.  But, luckily, “rainy season” lived up to its name and we finally got a bunch of rain.  The cistern is now full just in time for all the teachers to get back and use it all…starting my worry all over again.

That said, there would be interesting parts of this TV show; including transportation, embarrassing foreigner moments, the many wonders of Mozambique, and much more that I will get into in this blog.  I’ll leave it at this for now.

Happy New Year to all, may it be full of happiness, adventure, and successes.

Yup! I’m back to blogging…since the world is supposed to end after today, I guess that it seems fit I at least throw something out there on the interwebs :-p

On a more serious note, I will catch you up a bit.  I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer and at my site: Chidenguele, Gaza Province, Mozambique. I now call Africa my home, crazy, I know.
 
I am sorry to not have written during training, but it seems pretty insignificant compared to getting to site.  I can sum it up as the second coming of study abroad, except the days were more structured and I learned more.  ‘Twas complete with host families, language struggles, long classroom hours, drama, cerveja intake, and good times.  It was sad to leave site and my new PCV family, but that’s not what we came here for.

I can say, though, that after two months I am very pleased and surprised with my level of Portuguese — too bad people speak the local bantu language (Txopi) most of the time at my site.

My site is absolutely gorgeous: hilly, green, sandy, palm trees, [insert more synonyms for gorgeous], lake 4km away, beach 15km.  It is on the main highway, but it has a small town feel.  I have easy access to the north and south and have a great site for bolea-ing (hitchhiking to avoid taking the slow, hot, crowded public transportation called chapas aka the bane of my existence).  I am currently 3 for 4 on rides out of my site of the bolea sort rather than the chapa sort.  More on my site in another post.

Side note: You will have to excuse my use of Portuguese words in my blog…see it more as an interactive learning experience.  Truth is, I am forgetting English.. I rarely get to speak proper English and when I do, it is with fellow PCV’s who understand the Portuguese I throw out when i can’t think of the English word.

I promise my next post won’t demorar as much :-p Love and miss you all (you know who you are). 

Oh, and Happy Holidays?? It doesn’t feel like Christmas time when its 90+ degrees out, but I guess Santa can come to hot places too…

Hey all,

Just a quick update since I don’t have internet and might not for a while.  Everything has been fantastic.  I love my host family which consists of 7 kids and a mai and pai. 

Language classes are going well.  I understand a lot and am *slowly* starting to understand how to speak correctly rather than use spanish.

Looking forward to a break this weekend after a long week of training.

Sending love,
Yuri

So, tonight is our last night in Maputo as we head off to Namaacha tomorrow afternoon and meet our host families.  This also might be my last post for a little while.
My host family has 9 members with 7 kids ranging from 6 to 19.  That’s quite different from my normal smaller family life!  It will definitely be a different experience, but I am so excited to finally get immersed in Portuguese and meet my new family.

Along with finding out our host family, we also found out where in Namaacha we will live.  English volunteers are kind-of secluded in our own little barrio, which is a bit sad that I won’t be seeing a lot of the people I have been meeting.

ALSO, I just took my first hallucinogenic malaria pills which I will take weekly, every Friday.  Please don’t let me forget to do that…and please don’t let there be nightmares. 

Anyway, all is well.  I will try to take some pictures for next blog.

-Yuri
 

This is just a quick update since internet is off and on at our hotel. 

The trip over here was extremely long but also went off without much of a hitch.  I was so worried leading up to the flight that I am way too tall (and have too many knee problems) to be on an airplane for 14.5 hours — but I ended up only being awake for about 3 of those hours…all to eat and fall right back asleep.

Side note: I have been teaching people how to play the Russian card game “Durak” and it has been spreading like wildfire.  Takes a little while to explain, but people seem to be getting the hang of it and enjoying it!  At least I am making some sort of contribution thus far.

Off to bed and an early day tomorrow…but plenty of time to relax in the afternoon at our beautiful hotel with a view of the ocean (but not from my room…YES I AM BITTER)

Bottom line, I haven’t gotten much sleep the past few days with travel and such + staging…and it doesn’t help that we leave in an hour at 2AM to go to JFK and start hour 26 hour + journey to Maputo.

Anyway, I want to say a few things:

A) Meeting all the rest of the volunteers (even though it has been overwhelming to meet 56 people in one day) has definitely been awesome.  A bunch of likeminded people setting off on an adventure together is definitely a crazy good vibe.

B) With all of the goodbyes I had to say, it got to be kind of numbing and I feel bad that I wasn’t as emotional as I should have been at most of them.  I am so glad to have been able to see so many people before I head out.  The love and support have been amazing.  I love that the word “love” is in the English language as it’s always hard to explain how much people in your life mean to you — especially when you are trying to do so in alarming numbers.  But, with one word, I can at least express a morsel of that in a nice little package.  You know who you are!!

C) I am beyond excited to begin this incredible adventure.  I will try to keep this updated but communication will be limited for the next few months during training.  I sent out an e-mail to many as far as how to reach me and such.  If you would like that e-mail forwarded to you, please contact my mom with a descriptive subject line at elenam@morris.umn.edu and she will forward it to you.

Adeus for now!!

Sincerely,
Officially a Peace Corps Trainee, Yuri Machkasov

Yup, that’s what we call ourselves.  (The 19th group of PCV to Mozambique).

Tonight I went down to Bethesda to meet up with someone from my same Mozambique group leaving in two weeks from tomorrow (Tuesday).  We are both in the 19ers Facebook group (which has been a great resource) and decided to meet up since we were both in the DC area.

It was great to sit down with someone going through the same stuff I am — from having to say so many goodbyes to packing anxiety to sheer excitement.  I would recommend doing this to any to-be PCV out there that have a Facebook group.  Message someone in your group that is in your area, DO IT.

Not only did I meet someone I am pretty positive I will get along with — I was given a few tips I didn’t think of,  I realized I NEED to start reading up more on Mozambique (especially the civil war which definitely still affects the country), and I feel much more at ease.  Definitely glad I took time out of my busy week to do it.

ITS GETTING REAL PEOPLE!!  TWO WEEKS!!

Hey all,

I am finally getting back to my blog.  Following up to my last post a few months ago, I succeeded in paying off all my debt and it feels really good to be debt-free going into this next chapter of my life.

I am sorry about the delay, but these past few months have just flooown by.  I leave for Mozambique in just over a couple weeks on September 26th…which is a concept that is still hard to grasp.  I am overwhelmed with excitement as well as the pressure of trying to say all my goodbyes and pack.  Even though the time has flown by, these last few months could not have gone better.

I am typing this on my phone on a bus to New York (my third time in the past month — a lot, I know, but I am living it up in my brief time left in the US).  My last day of work is the 14th, then starts my crazy week of travelling before I fly off to my new adventure.

Boston -> Minnesota -> Boston -> Philadelphia for a one day training -> JFK -> Johannesburg -> Maputo -> Namaacha for 3 months of training -> ???.  Those question marks will be the site where I spend the next two years and I’ll find that out in December.

I’ll get back in the groove of posting now that it will start getting interesting

I WILL DO IT!  And I have only 3 months.  I am publicly declaring it so that it keeps me accountable.  (I read I should do that while researching personal finance blogs for work)

How am I going to do it?  Simply do away with the ‘wants,’ and focus on the ‘needs.’  I have read plenty of books on Minimalism, living with less, and living within your means – and I am generally successful — but I will admit to having had the occasional slip up.

Anyway, I have come up with an action plan of what I will do, starting today:

 Action #1: Selling my unneeded stuff.  Today, I agreed to sell my iPad2 for $400.  Why would I need an iPad in Mozambique when I might not even have electricity?  I never even needed it in the first place…

That $400 will supplement my income – allowing me to put all of my next paycheck towards my credit cards and start my journey of paying these damn things off: big chunks at a time.  Not only does getting rid of the iPad bring $400, but it saves me the $30/month I spend on the 3G plan, my $20/month subscription to the NYT, and $10/month on Hulu Plus.  That’s $60 a month x 3 months = $180 = most likely my monthly salary in Mozambique.  Yup, once I put this stuff in perspective, it kinda makes me feel like crap…

Action #2: A commitment to living more frugally — which includes, and starts, with the next actions.

Action #3: I have started bringing my own lunch to work rather than eating out.  Something I try to do every month or so but usually only succeed for a week at a time.  Now, it is final.  It is happening every day besides special occasions.

Action #4: That occasional Starbucks coffee run?  Also done.  Why overpay when I can just spend the 2 minutes to make my own.  There is even a coffee machine at work…why did I ever do this?? WHY!

Action #5:  It costs a fortune to go out in DC.  I am not looking to meet people anymore.  In fact, looking at action #6, it is the opposite of what I want to do. This usually creates effort and usually ends in some sort of drama.  Drama I can do away with.  So, I am limiting going out.

Unfortunate Action #6:  I will have to make a list of things I ‘need’ for Mozambique and prioritize.  There are some expensive items: good boots, repairing my laptop and getting a long lasting battery, external hard drive, a Go-Pro camera, I also ‘want’ a polaroid and film :-/…etc.  I might make another post about sorting through these wants and needs but we shall see.