Friday, April 8, 2011
Put Your Claws UP!
Want Your Bad, Your Bad ROMANCE!
You all know that it was only a matter of time before I had Mozambican children doing Gaga’s “Bad Romance” dance, monster claws and all. And let me just say these little monsters did Gaga proud! If you have not yet seen them then you should check it out on youtube NOW! And share it with every one you know.
When my site mate, who works with a girls program asked me to help her teach her girls some American dances I couldn’t think of a better and more fun dance than Bad Romance. For those of you who are like ‘ummm what the hell is the Bad Romance dance anyway’ you need to stop reading this post immediately at watch the brilliant and epic music video for Bad Romance and then you will know why Mozambican children and really everyone should learn the dance.
When we told them that we were going to teach them some Lady Gaga all the girls went crazy and then started singing Bad Romance. It was heaven. They totally love Gaga….but who doesn’t?
Before we even started dancing, we showed them the music video. They were obsessed. Most of them had never seen this music video. I thought it would be cool for them see the video and then learn the dance that is in the video. It was so cool to watch their faces as they watched for the first time the insanity and brilliance that is Gaga’s Bad Romance.
Then I broke down the main dance sequences for the girls and showing them first and having them mimic me. I also counted out loud each dance sequence for them, which really helped them. Although it took several tries they learned the dance relatively fast and were excited to practice. By the last time we did the entire dance they were pretty good. But the best part was seeing them getting into doing the monster claws and monster faces. I was literally obsessed! And so were they. We all had so much fun. My site mate and I decided that each month we would teach the girls another iconic American dance. We are thinking for next month “Bye Bye Bye” and “Thriller” Any other suggestions?!?
Dia de Mulher
On April 7th Mozambique celebrates women and girls in a national holiday called “Dia da Mulher”. What a fabulous idea…a national day to recognize and celebrate the huge-ass role women play in Mozambican society. Women play an enormous role in the daily life functions in Mozambique. They fetch water (numerous times a day), grow food, harvest food, cook food, clean, care for children, care for the sick, teach children, sell things, buy things, and almost anything else you can think of. I am in awe of Mozambican women. They are truly amazing!
Yet on this national day dedicated to women and girls, I can’t help but think about what it would be like if Mozambique was a society that celebrated and truly valued women and girls everyday. It would be a society that would not tolerate gender violence. It would provide endless opportunities to women and girls. It would not tolerate sexism and would dispel traditional gender roles. It would empower women and girls and ensure that they have control over their bodies and lives.
I am really hoping that one day we can live in such a society.
oh the places I go!
One of the fabulous things about being a Peace Corps volunteer is the opportunity to travel and visit other volunteers and their sites! Traveling is a great way to see the different parts of the country…and in Moz these parts can be very different from one another…which makes it all the more important to travel as much as possible.
However, it should be noted that traveling within Mozambique is a total bitch (please excuse the language but it is), and this is especially true in the north of the country, where I live. The main mode of transport is Chapa. A chapa can be several things, however most commonly it is either an oversized van (think 20 people smashed into a space for 15 people) or a pick-up/flat bed truck in which case people ride in the back in the open air.
Anyways.. a few weeks ago my site mate (the other Peace Corps volunteer) and I traveled down 2 whole provinces to Vilankulo. Vilankulo is located in northern Inhame Province and is right on the Indian Ocean. It is absolutely gorgeous. The water is a beautiful blue and there is beach for miles. Vil is a total tourist town, attracting vacationing South Africans and others, which gives it a completely different feel than other places in Moz.
We spent time hanging out with the volunteers that are living there. The highlight of our time there was horseback riding on the beach. It was breath-taking and so much fun. My horse was named Brutes and he was a great horse. We started out riding along the shore of the Indian Ocean and then went inland up a few hills and got to have amazing views of the coast. It was great!
Equally amazing was getting to know the woman who owns the horse riding business. She is an expelled Zimbabwean that has been living in Mozambique for the last few years. Talking with her and hearing her story, especially as it relates to being forced to leave Zimbabwe was extremely interesting. She had a beautiful spirit and I very much enjoyed her company.
Cell Phones in MOZ
While there are lot of things that people don’t have here in Mozambique that we would consider necessities in the States (although they are certainly not), a Cell Phone is not one of those things.
Almost everyone past the age of 15 has a cell phone here. It may not be the nicest phone…almost no one has a blackberry or iphone, but they do have a simple cell phone that they can receive and accept calls and texts, which are called SMS here.
What people don’t have here is phone credit. Let me explain. In the States most everyone has a cell phone and connected to that cell phone is a contract, normally for 2 years with one of the various cell phone providers. Shout out to Sprint! They are the best! Under the contract the person pays a monthly fee for various services they want for their phone.
In Mozambique no one has a contract. Instead people have a cell phone, with a removable sim card, that is provided by one of the 2 cell phone providers here, mCel and VodaCom. Each sim card has a phone number connected with it. You put the sim card into your phone and then your phone is connected with that particular phone number. But to send SMSs or to call out you have to buy phone credit. Phone credit is sold on literally every street corner in various amounts. You buy the credit and then upload it onto your phone.
Because phone credit is expensive and using that credit to call people is every expensive, people rarely call each other just to chat. Most people just text message each other. This system works great for a country like Mozambique. It allows almost everyone to have a phone and they just buy phone credit when they can afford to. The major problem with it is that most people don’t always have enough money to buy phone credit, which means, even if they have a phone they can’t call out. And because most people don’t have a lot of credit they often turn their phone off, which makes it virtually impossible for people who does have phone credit to contact them.
In short…everyone here has cell phones but they certainly don’t use them as much as we do in the States.
ps… they don’t have voicemail on their phones either…it would probably be lots more credit.
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