Snippets from recent emails and letters detailing the past few weeks :)

Thursday, Feb. 18
I went up to the hospital in my town because the Mobile Clinic is always there on Thursdays and Dr. Monica said she wanted me to go sit with this FGH psychologist down by the mobile clinic and just listen and learn about how they talk to the patients that are about to start antiretroviral treatment. So I sat with this guy for a few hours and could actually understand all of his Portuguese and just listened to him explain about HIV and the treatment to these people, he’s just sooo good at his job! It was like the craziest thing, he would ask these people “so, do you know or do you remember what illness you have?” Most of the people were just all shy and wouldn’t even look him in the eye and just would say “yea, I have HIV.” And then couldn’t explain what HIV even was or what the difference between HIV and AIDS is..which I know, most people back home probably couldn’t either really, but I think if you had the virus you would educate yourself a bit and know then! So, he had to sit there and explain to all of them in like the simplest way possible that HIV is a bug that likes to eat things in your body and once you start to get other illnesses too than it turns into AIDS but by taking this medicine you can stay healthy and live a long time still and that HIV isn’t a death sentence anymore. The medicine doesn’t kill the bugs, you will have them your whole life, but the medicine will put them to sleep and they can’t eat if they’re sleeping. And then he was telling them that for the first couple weeks the medicine might make them sick, but to keep taking it because it will get better and help them and then he was trying to explain that the medicine needs to be taken every day, twice a day, 12 hours apart. He’d ask what time they wanted to take it in the morning and then say “Ok, so if you take it at 6 am, then what time do you need to take it at night?” and seriously, a lot of them couldn’t figure out what time to take it 12 hours later then! It’s just so crazy the lack of education here. I wonder how many of them even understand what he was telling them and fully comprehend what they have??!! For many of them he had to try and explain by using analogies and comparing it to malaria and a couple of them then would get all confused thinking malaria and HIV are the same or something. He would ask “what causes malaria?” and some people didn’t even know!! Anyhow, so then he had to ask stuff about if the spouse knows and if they have an “amigo other than their spouse, and if they do, it’s fine, it’s normal,” the patients would be all shy and obviously not want to talk about it and I’m sure many of them lied because they were too embarrassed or ashamed. It’s just crazy how so many haven’t told their spouse, mostly the women, because they’re just afraid the husband will be mad and blame and possibly even beat them. The doctor would tell them to try and get the husband or whoever in to get tested and fill out these forms asking them to come in but not writing what it’s for on the form, so basically they’re tricked in to coming in. I don’t know, it was just a crazy experience, it was the first time I’ve been around all the HIV type stuff you think of or hear about when people talk about Africa and the epidemic, it’s just effecting soooo many people it’s so sad, especially when the women come in with their babies that are HIV+ and were helplessly born into this disease!

Friday, Feb. 19
Friday I was supposed to go with Infinha to go search for these people that haven’t showed up for their hospital visits and find out why, and try to make whatever arrangements are needed to get them to come in, and just see if they’re still taking their antiretroviral medication or what the deal is…but of course that fell through. I went up there and sat for about 3 hours and finally gave up because the supposed car never showed up!

Wednesday, Feb. 24
Wednesday I was going to go with Marcel, the Brazilian Volunteer that works at the school, to Musaliwa, that village along the ocean and just bike there with the TCE Activistas to listen to their meeting. So we bike to this town and I just love the little village along the ocean there and the kids are just so cute, I just love them! I sat and listened to the TCE people teach this group about HIV andthey handed out paper and pens to all the people there so they could write stuff down and seriously, they had to go soooo slow and repeat everything over and over for the people to be able to copy down what he was saying, some didn’t know how to read or write and I could tell they felt a little embarrassed that they weren’t writing things down. So then some TCE person started talking to them about vertical transmission (parent to child) and is telling them that they can only pass HIV during birth but that it’s safe to breast feed because there’s no blood in breast milk so they can’t pass HIV then. I was listening thinking no, no, I must not be understanding it right or just hearing it wrong or my Portuguese is just not right or something??!! So I asked Marcel “are they telling them that breast milk doesn’t have HIV??” he’s like “yea” I thought I was going to have a heart attack! I was like, NOOOO, you have to correct them! So Marcel tries to tell them that it does have HIV so women that are HIV positive should find another mother that isn’t and have her breast feed for her or buy milk..which I also was freaking out listening to because somewhat ridiculous considering the cultural. HIV is so stigmatized here, it’s just not even really an option for women to ask another woman to breast feed her child because then everyone would know why! And buying milk isn’t an option either because it’s so expensive and people are way too poor here. I feel like all of this just confused them even more. They just changed the rule of what HIV+ women are supposed to do, which is breast feed either way for the first 2 years (this is for Mozambique) because it’s more dangerous if you don’t because it’s more likely the child will starve to death and it’s a somewhat low chance that they’ll get HIV if they’re taking antiretroviral medication.

Thursday, Feb. 25
I went up to the hospital to try and do something for the day and ended up taking patients weight as they came in for their consultation with Infinha. Not one person weighed over like 150 or 160 pounds, not even the men, I’d say the average was maybe a little over 100 pounds! It’s pretty sad, it’s because they have HIV and can’t eat and have so much weight loss from all the complications and stomach problems they have..so sad! A few ladies were in the 80s…it’s really sad! Oh, and Infinha and I were talking because he always likes to practice his English and ask questions about America. He was like “so..what is HIV like in America??” I tried to explain to him “well..less than 1% of the population has it there…and here it’s like 15-20% or more, so it’s wayyyy less in America..” Then he asked if someone with HIV from Africa is allowed into America….and this is the educated hospital staff, so great… then he asks what about malaria in America? I’d say the Mozambican educational system has a ways to go…

Friday, Feb. 26
Friday I went up to TCE to go to their weekly meeting and make sure someone set them straight about the HIV in breast milk incident and Marcel was there and planned on giving a talk about the subject so I was happy to hear it was being addressed.
Later on that evening, this TCE guy showed up at the restaurant place across from my house where the new ADPP Volunteer from Finland and I were hanging out and chatting. He was with some Mozambican friends and is just a nice guy that I always say hi to here and there and so they sat with us so we could chat in Portuguese to help the new volunteer practice and learn. Eventually the guy start talking about the other day when they said breast milk doesn’t have HIV and he’s like “yea, Marcel came and talked about it at the meeting,” and then starts telling me/asking me like “yea so when a mother is out at the machamba(like in the fields/crops) and she’s sweaty and has her baby tied to her back, and the baby starts crying and so she takes the baby and puts him/her to her breast to have milk and she doesn’t wipe the sweat off, that’s how the baby can get HIV?? She needs to wipe the sweat off her breast first..??” Needless to say, they are clearly still confused and I’m going to have to plan some kind of demonstration to make it clear!

Last week (Feb. 28-March 3) I had to be in Quelimane for a work meeting with FGH.

Monday, March 1
We were only supposed to have a meeting March 2nd and the other days were free days and needed for transportation for some of the Volunteers that are further out. So Sunday night when we all got there we went out to dinner and had a pretty late night, staying out chatting and just enjoying being with other English-speaking Americans!  Monday morning we were just lounging around at the hotel trying to watch a movie on my computer when another FGH volunteer comes in and says she just got a text from our boss saying we have a meeting at 2pm today, which is in an hour!! So we all run off to try and get ready. The Volunteers that have already been with FGH for a year tell us we’ll probably have to present to all our bosses in Portuguese on what we’ve been doing at site so far and our plans for the next 2 years!!
We got to FGH and our boss starts the meeting, which is with a bunch of higher-up bosses, some of which have flown in from Maputo! He said we’ll go around and hear about what we’ve all been doing and asks how long we each want to have to talk..20minutes each?? Or do we need more time than that?? Yikes!! We were all completely unprepared! When my turn came around I told them about all these projects I’m going to start and the organizations I’ve already started working with, then I told them my library idea and they seemed to love it, so hopefully that won them over!

March 2
Tuesday we went to the office again and filled out these sheets in Portuguese with our goals for the 2 years and what projects we want to do. Then we had a talk about with our boss about any problems we’re having at site with our houses, counterpart, work, etc. I just said that I don’t always feel included with FGH because a lot of times they are in Macuse and don’t even tell me or try to have me come do stuff with them.

Monday, March 8th, 2010
A few ladies from the TCE group came to my house today and asked if I could help them get seeds for their fields. I spoke with FGH and am working on getting their supplies. The food grown would go towards helping HIV+ women, orphans, and other people in the community that are too ill to work. Next week I’m going to go out in the community with the ladies to meet some of the people that will benefit from their agriculture project and get all the information FGH needs from me.

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
I’ve been having some “issues” with my maid and her daughters! They’ve been borrowing things from me a lot lately and now that I have a cat and need to leave the house key with them when I am away so that they can come in and feed her, they’ve been just helping themselves to whatever they are in need of and is available in my kitchen and bathroom! It started out just being a bit of oil or some sugar, soap, Q-tips, etc. Of course I always said yes and gave them whatever they needed…but now it seems they are using my things more than I even use them! Just recently I left to go to Quelimane for the weekend and came back to find a large amount of my oil gone and chocolates missing from the freezer that a friend from home sent me..I didn’t say anything because it’s not like I had taken an inventory of the things in my house and wasn’t sure they had been used and so I didn’t want to wrongly accuse them, but then the next weekend I left and came back to find my whole jar of sugar gone. Later that day, the girls borrowed my bike and returned it without telling me they popped the tire! The next morning the mother came over claiming something outside of my house needed to be fixed and that if I just gave her 50 mets she would get it taken care of.. First of all, I don’t think the thing even needs to be repaired, and secondly, if it does than it’s something the landlord should pay for. I could tell she was a bit upset that I wouldn’t just hand over the money to her and finally it all boiled over when she came to ask for my oil. I finally confronted her on all my missing items and said that I don’t know or care who did it but that it needs to stop! I told her that I feel like they are using my stuff more than I even use it and that I’ve had to go and buy more sugar and oil because of them! And it’s not just sugar and oil, I’ve let them get away with multiple petty little things, it’s just finally built up so much over these past 3 months! They think that just because I’m white I have all this money to waste away. I don’t think they understand I’m a fricken V-O-L-U-N-T-E-E-R! It’s just so irritating!
My neighbor brought over a lock for the kitchen door, hopefully it gets put on soon so next time I leave I can just lock the doors to my bedroom, kitchen and bathroom!
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
I stopped up at the school today where I’m having my JOMA group and spoke with the director, I mentioned my library project idea and she seemed very interested. I told her I was still in the process of looking at all the schools in Macuse since there are many, she immediately said “we don’t have one but we need one!” like she wanted me to end my search and chose her school, which I’m definitely leaning towards.. I know some of the kids at that school and the building structure is pretty good, I think it would be a good place to house a library. There isn’t a specific location for one right now, but the director said they could make space-not sure if that means turning one of the pre-existing rooms into a library or building a new area, either way, I still have a lot of planning before this project gets started. I am discussing this with my Assistant Peace Corps Director in a couple s at our In-Service Training Conference.

Saturday, March 13th, 2010
I had a pretty epitomized Peace Corps moment…goat killing. A bunch of the Zambezia Volunteers had a little weekend extravaganza to celebrate one Volunteers birthday and just spend some time together. Saturday morning, myself and 3 or 4 other Volunteers went and picked out a goat, we took it back to the house we were hanging out at and the guard/maid there slaughtered it for us! It was pretty disgusting! One of the Volunteers helped hold it down, but none of us were actually experienced or brave enough to do the actual deed! It was pretty gross but just another TIA (this is Africa) moment to add to my list!
It was a fun weekend, we made pizza, goat meat of course, tacos, and sangrias and just lounged around all day. We were at an NGO workers house, he’s from England I believe and had satellite TV (caught up on some MTV-so strange to see!) and used his internet…ahhh, the life of luxury!

Tickets! Come get your tickets to the Magic Show!

After a few weeks of doing a whole lot of nothing, it seems my work is finally beginning. Now that the holidays have passed, organizations are finally starting to get going again and school has also begun here in Macuse. It felt good to actually have a schedule of activities and meetings to attend last week.

On Tuesday I met with some people at the health post, my counterpart, and the FGH doctor. We discussed a few project ideas, including a bike ambulance project. Wednesday I was able to stop up at the primary school at just the right moment to awkwardly walk in on the entire staff having their meeting. Lucky for me, I was invited to pull up a chair and sit at the head of the circle and be starred at by 20-or-so sets of eyes. I introduced myself and explained to them that I would like to work together on whatever projects or areas they need assistance in…after a few minutes of confused, blank stares, I arranged a one-on-one meeting with the director for a later date and let them get back to their staff meeting. The events of Thursday deserve their own paragraph, so let me just skip to Friday, I sat in on a TCE (Total Control of the Epidemic) meeting with about 40 field officers and again introduced myself to the sea of blank, confused stares. I’m not sure if I just need to talk slower, give a more detailed explanation, or if the blank, confused stares will always be pointed in my direction simply because I am this white foreigner female living in a rural African village, and this, to many people I feel, is incomprehensible.

The events of Thursday were much like that of a grand circus performance, or perhaps a magic show would be a better analogy…it certainly was unlike anything I’ve seen or been a part of thus far during my stay in Macuse. Perhaps I shouldn’t even be writing this, or maybe I’ll be asked to take this post down by Peace Corps or FGH eventually, but for now I’d like to share my thoughts and point of view and in no way am writing these things in a vicious or cruel manner because I imagine I was myself much like these women I am about to describe just a year ago on my trip to Uganda. So, some “high-ups” from the US that fund my organization (and shall remain nameless, although I realize it would not be hard to research the information if one feels so compelled) came to visit this far-away African land to see how their money is being spent and where improvements can be made. In an effort to impress these women, FGH sprang into action, recruiting the theatre group from a town away, having the Mobile Clinic pay a visit, and obtaining a guest speaker to do a presentation on breast cancer, all squeezed in to one afternoon presentation at the health post in my village while these ladies stopped in to observe the work being done. I imagine this was largely the reason why I was invited to be involved for the first time in the month I’ve been here, normally, I just randomly see an FGH vehicle pass through my town and no one has informed me that they will be here doing work or bother to invite me to tag along to try and learn about what they do. So on this occasion, I was there to witness it all, the play centered around condom use, the speech was on how to do a self-breast exam, and many people were waiting to be tested for HIV in the Mobile Clinic. As the women pulled up in their nice air-conditioned car, they filed out, all wearing similar khaki pants and white t-shirts to fight the heat, and were welcomed by 40 or so activists singing Mozambican songs of appreciation and gratitude. It reminded me of my trip to Uganda, such a tainted view, everyone puts on a performance everywhere you go and jumps to work in an effort to impress the donors. It’s not a true sense of daily life and activity. I think a surprise visit would be far more telling, but planning a surprise trip to Africa has its complications-it’s not really a place you can just show up to, unannounced and unnoticed. The women, with the help of a translator, introduced themselves and asked a few questions, the answers I heard given didn’t exactly coordinate with reality I didn’t think, but I kept my mouth shut-I’m just a Volunteer after all… “Oh, there were far more people here this morning, but a lot of them left already because of the rain.” “We have events like this a few times a month.” “There are field officers that go out and cover 50 different villages doing home visits.” These tidbits of information seemed to impress the ladies and evoke an “Obrigada” and “Muito prazer” out of them-the few words of Portuguese they perhaps learned for their big adventure. And with that, they were gone, headed back to their air-conditioned hotel with running water and satellite television, I imagine.

I just don’t think there’s any way a person can understand it unless they’ve lived here for an extended period of time-and I am in no way claiming to be an expert having been here a mere 4 months, but there’s definitely realizations that I’ve made from my time here-one being how ridiculous and incorrect my vision of Africa was after a short 2 week trip to Uganda one year ago. I stayed in a comfy hotel with running water, did a home-stay with a well-off family that lived in a 2 story home with running water and owned a car, and topped it off with a safari and boat ride down the Nile, how pleasant. The Africa I’m seeing and living in now is much, much different-for better or for worse. Donors I think are typically all about numbers, they want statistical data to prove their money is making a difference-but Africa doesn’t work that way. There’s too many beliefs and traditions, lack of education, and poverty to just throw our Western ideals on them and expect them to immediately adopt our theories and proven medicine, etc. It’s complicated…and like I’ve said, perhaps this will only make sense to those who have been in Africa, working, living, not just visiting.

I hope I haven’t sounded too dark and depressing in this post. I definitely think FGH needs to be here in Mozambique and they are improving many lives, there is just a different pace to life here and it can’t be understood or accepted by most do-gooders in America that are results-driven, so perhaps the magic show is necessary to keep foreign aid from vanishing from Mozambique all together…



It’s my birthday this weekend! I’ll be in Quelimane visiting some other Volunteers and co-workers! It will be nice to leave site and see some of the Moz 13 Volunteers that are back from Christmas break now too! I stayed at site last weekend and actually hung out with some Brazilian volunteers that are working at the school here and on Sunday I biked to the ocean! It was about an hour each way, a little draining in the heat, but well worth it! Very beautiful and peaceful, and the children that ran after me, yelling “olá!” as I biked away reminded me why I’m here. See their picture below! :) Tchau.

What happens when your mosquito net keeps things IN rather than OUT!!

I think all Peace Corps Volunteers wait for some pivital moment, a funny story, an embaressing moment, a confusion between cultures, something to take home with us and recite to friends and family to bring to life the adventures of living in a foreign country for two years. Well, the other night that story unfolded for me.

I was warned that I had a rat problem in my house and was a bit nervous since I hadnt been quite as lucky as others and experienced them during training, so this would be my first encounter with them, and Id be all alone! My interactions with the rats began slowly and non offensively. First, the rat poop appeared, signaling their arrival. Then they began appearing as I was drifting off to sleep, little glowing eyes in the corners of my bedroom. One night, one decided to try and join me as a dinner guest and came scampering through my kitchen. When I had another Volunteer stay over we woke up the next day to find her tooth brush missing, I found it a few days later on the floor behind a crate in my room, which is where the rats must have decided to leave it. Well, as of a few nights ago, the rats and I have reached a whole new level of intimacy....
A mosquito net is not only great for preventing malaria, Ive always viewed it as a total bug control device. I rely on it to protect me from any and all mosquitoes, cockroaches, spiders, rats, etc. Every night I make sure it is fully tucked in under my mattress and no corner is left untucked or loose. The one fear Ive had since arriving at my house is that a rat may get under the net and on my bed. I have two mattresses stacked on top of each other and the bottom one is a bit bigger than the top, so there is sort of a little shelf like area that sticks out between the two. Ive always worried that if a rat got under my net and on to the bed, that is where it would hide. During the day I usually make my bed but leave the mosquito net on one side untucked where I get in and out. Foolish, foolish me!
The other night I went around and made sure the net was tucked in well in all the spots other than where I enter, centered the top mattress a bit better, turned my fan on and positioned it just right, turned out my light, and used my cell phone as a flashlight to hop in to bed and under my net where I could be protected from the rats that I feel are sure to appear as soon as the lights are out. Once under the net, I tucked in the open end where I entered and as I went to the other side just to double check and tuck in even better, I put my hand down on a RAT that was resting right on that little shelf part I had feared so much! At this point I had secured the net so well under the mattress that even my flailing arms ripping at the net in an urgent attempt to get out and as far from whatever hairy, moving creature I had just touched, wasnt enough to set me free. After the first panicked attempt, I calmed myself slightly and ripped the net up from under the mattress. I jumped out of bed and turned on the light to see a rat running about my bed trapped under the net. As my heart was racing and sweat dripping from my moment of panick, I couldnt help but laugh out loud to myself standing there in my room with a rat in my bed. Eventually the rat found its way out and ran as fast as his little legs could carry himself out of my room. That night and last night, and Im sure every night from now on, Ive done about 7 or 8 checks around every inch and corner of the bed before turning out the lights and getting in to make sure it is rat free!
At least now I feel after that moment of intimacy I am fearless of the creatures. I always thought it was funny when Mozambicans bring up rats, they are always sure to note that they cant kill you! My host family would say ''Oh, we dont have rats in our house, but you know, they cant kill you.'' or ''oh, the province youre going to has a real rat problem, but dont worry, they cant kill you.'' I never found much comfort in that, but now I suppose I am greatful for at least that!

Mr. Kennedy said it would be difficult..he wasn't kidding.

The first few weeks at site were extremely diffrent from training! When I was in college I used to talk with a professor of mine about the Peace Corps, he is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and was always willing to take the time to answer my questions. When discssing if the Peace Corps was right for me, he would always ask, "Are you ok with being alone a lot? Going long periods of time with no one to talk to and feeling very secluded?" I never really understood exactly what he was talking about until my first week at site! I finally get it now! Those were pretty legitimate questions...It's a strange feeling, it's like I've never felt so alone and yet can never really be alone at my site all at the same time. I have no other Americans at my site, no family or friends to talk to, no on near by that really understands what Im going through and how much I've given up to be here, yet hardly a moment goes by that some neighbor or kid or shop owner doesn't come wandering over to borrow scissors or shampoo, drop off a plate of rice or fruit, get me water, or just stop by to chat. It gets VERY hot in my village, so whenever I'm at home I leave both my doors open to let the breeze in. There is a shop behind my house where people are always coming and going from with a perfect view in to my house, and then in the front of te house on the other side of the road is a bar with loud music always on and also the house where my maid lives so her children are always stopping over to chat, get water, borrow my things, or bringing me fruit. I feel SO alone but with no privacy, it's a srange thing!

We were delivered to site at a rather difficult time. My first week at site was right before Christmas and most businesses and organizations had closed for the holidays, the majority of Volunteers from last years group went home to visit family, and it was my first year away from home. It was definitly a challenge to say the least! I attempted to go out and meet the people at the Police Station, Hospital and other officials in town, but many had left already for holiday. The town is a lot smaller than I had expected but I am beginning to like it more now.

My first week at site I seriously considered ET-ing (Early Terminate) because it was such a shock being thrown in to such a small town with nothing to do, everything closed and people gone on vacation, nothing but potatoes, onions, and rice in the market, being homesick, dealing with 105 degree heat all day, no running water or fridge for a cold drink, flies and mosquito bites along with rashes from the water...the list goes on and on. I think the biggest thing is that I always pictured my time in the Peace Corps as a constant adventure filled with traveling and non-stop exploring and entertainment, but really I've found A LOT of time is spent learning the art of doing nothing at all. Just sitting, starring at the wall, waiting for something or someone that will never show up or happen, akwardly standing in neighbors yards with nothing to say to each other...activities such as these. I'm thankful I didn't leave because instead I forced myself to do some more exploring and have found some beautiful spots in my village. On the other side of the salt fields next to my house is a river with a gorgeous view of the sunset, and about a 20 minute walk away I did some exploring and snooped around the ADPP school and found some amazing views of the river there. It is right where the river flows in to the Ocean so it is salt water and I actually went on a canoe ride out in the water with my friend when she was visiting and we saw dolphins! I totally hadn't expected that! I was also able to go out to a little village right on the ocean about 10-15 minutes away (an hour by bike) to talk with a group of men starting a fishing business. It was so beautiful and the people living there were very friendly. I'm planning on doing some sort of activity or group with the children there and also going to try to get HIVtesting sites out there a few times a month since they don't currently have anywhere to get tested in town. I walked around on the shore and it is just endless miles of untouched shorline-it's so crazy, not a single house, hotel, restaurant, condo, nothing! It's sad though to think that the land probably will be developed in the next few years and it will most likely be by South Afican or Asian companies rather than Mozambicans.

The day after Christmas I went out to Macuba to visit another volunteer there. Five of us stayed with a girl living there, it was helpful to get away from site and have other volunteers to talk to about everything. This site is much bigger than mine and it was great to be able to buy a few things and even get ice cream! After a couple nights there another volunteer and I headed back to my site. Traveling to and from my site is an adventure I can not fairly describe in words... My town is so small that there aren't many vehicles coming and going from there, so the few trucks and semi's that are get pretty cramped to say the least. Amanda and I waited in the bac of a truck with about 30 other Mozambicans, 4 chickens, crying babies, random people in the street walking up trying to sell us shoes, peanuts and phone chargers, more and more people trying to cram in, it was about 100 degrees out-this went on for a good hour or so before we pulled out of town and got going! Then there's usually multiple stops along the way to let peopl in or out, fix flat tires, buy fruit from street sellers, etc. A trip that should take only an hour usually takes closer to 3! It's a painful process! It was really nice having Amanda come visit me though, we were able to cook spaghetti and watch movies on my laptop-and of course go on the canoe ride and see dolphins! After a couple nights at my site, and Amanda losing her toothbrush to the rats in my house, we left for Quelimane to meet up with the rest of the Moz 14ers that are in Zambezia. There's about 13 of us that met up and got a hotel to stay in over New Years. It was a lot of fun to see people I haven't seen in so long. We went to Zalala beach on New Years Eve for the day and laid out, did some swimming in the Ocean, and then had a restaurant cook us some huge fish. It was a great day! I'm still in Quelimane now an a little sad to be going back to site tomorrow, but I'm hoping now that the holiday's are over people will be back to work and there will be more for me to do.

I've talked to a lot of the volunteers that have been here for a year already and they've been helpful in making me realize that there will always be tough times and days when you just want to go home, but it gets easier and I just need to find a routine. I don't think it's necessarily getting easier just yet, I think I'm just beginning to accept the fact that this isn't always going to be a fun, crazy adventure full of traveling, I'm realizing there will be many times when I want to be done with all this and go home, because I'm homesick, bored, sick of the heat and the food and being culturally sensitive, being worried my things are going to be stollen, irritated that I don't get cell phone service in my house, or a variety of other things that make life here extremely difficult, but no one said it would be easy and I will appreciate the luxuries of home that much more in two years when I get back! Going out in to my community is usually helpful in curing my "poor me" attitude. I feel a bit ridiculous for feeling sorry for myself when I look around and see how difficult so many others have it! It seems so unfair that I for some reason was born in America and get to return in 2 years and the children in my village will likely spend their whole lives there. It really is a privelage for me to be here and I try to keep reminding myself it will get easier, I will be better, stronger person when I get back, I am accomplishing a huge life goal, and it's not like there's a job waiting back home for me! I am going to set up my house and decorate so it feels more home-y and start looking forward for family and friends that are coming to visit.

ok..this is getting lengthy and I feel it's a bit jumbled. Stay tuned, more to come!

Getting down to Business

I have officially entered the real land of Peace Corps...meaning, I've completed training and am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer now.
We had our swear in ceremony and had to repeat an official oath at the US embassy last week. Since then we've been pushed in to the deep end and scattered about throughout Mozambique.
It was a little sad leaving Namaacha and saying goodbye to my host family. They walked with me to the mercado where the chapa's were picking us up. My host mom and Sonia were so sad and when I got on the chapa and looked out the window I could see my mom crying. It's so strange to think I could never have imagined when I first arrived that I would become so close to them and really feel like they are family and actually be sad to leave them. I also think about what it must be like for them since they seem so upset and sad that I'm going. Sonia kept telling me she was going to cry and wasn't eating because she said she had no appetite. I don't blame them, their lives just go back to normal, cleaning everyday, every meal taking hours to prepare, and a huge source of income they were getting from the Peace Corps is now gone. I'm really going to be excited to visit them in a year at mid-service!
I had a supervisor conference in Nampula on Thursday. Me and the rest of the PCVs living in the North flew in to Nampula on Wednesday and were pleasently surprised by our hotel accomidations. Running HOT water, air conditioning (although the unit in my room didn't work), good food, and comfortable beds! I met my bosses and counterparts and we all went to meetings to inform our organizations on what we did during training and go over possible problems we may run into while working together. I really like the people I'll be working with, they all seem really nice and excited to work on the projects I'm interested in. My counterpart lives in the same district as me and seems to be eager to listen to my ideas and help me integrate in to my community as much as possible. He speaks really good english so he said if I ever don't understand anything to be sure and tell him so he can clarify but that he would try to talk mostly in Portuguese in order to help me learn. The day after the conference, the five new PCVs that will be working for FGH and our bosses drove up to Quelimane to stay in another hotel-more of a bed and breakfast-where we have the weekend to rest and make purchases for our houses, then on Monday we are having work meetings to introduce ourselves to everyone and the organization. They are driving us to our sites on Wednesday. I'm really excited to get there and see my house! Most other volunteers have arrived at their houses already and it's cool to hear what their houses are like. I am greatful that my house is mostly set up and ready to go since I'm replacing a volunteer because a handful of Volunteers are kind of in limbo because their homes aren't ready-they are either still needing repairs or trying to sort out payment issues.
Quelimane is the capital of my province, Zambezia, and there is definitly a lot of poverty here. It's sad to see so many people walking around with no shoes and begging for money for food.
It's nice being in such a big city where they have a wide selection of goods and such, but I'm really happy that I'll be going to a smaller community where I'll be able to get to know everyone.
Us new PCVs can only leave our sites for either Christmas or New Years so we are planning a little get together over New Years at one of the Moz 13ers house. It will be fun to get together and talk about how our first week or two at site went. Not sure yet what I'll do for Christmas then. I'm thinking I'll either do a day trip to Quelimane to have lunch with friends or maybe once I get to my site I'll get an invite to spend the holiday with a neighbor. Either way, I downloaded plenty of Christmas music on to my ipod and have a mini Christmas tree coming my way-so I'll be celebrating one way or another :)
I'm already thinking ahead trying to plan for visitors and just want people to keep in mind the World Cup in South Africa is June and July 2010 so everything is going to be WAAAAY more expensive around that time-and probably at least a month or two before and after also. Just something to keep in mind! I will free, glorious wifi internet access for the next couple days, so I'll try to post another update soon!

Happy Thanksgiving and Site Placements!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I´m a bit sad I won´t be there to celebrate, but I have plenty to be thankful for!

Yesterday we had a Thanksgiving celebration a bit early. Everyone cooked something to bring and Peace Corps made turkeys. There was SO much food, we ate like Kings! It was soooo good after 8 weeks of rice and xima! It was really nice to be all together and be able to have our own little celebration, it almost felt like home :) We also got to find out our site placements yesterday! I was so nervous, we all were!....so, my new home for the next 2 years is.... Macuse, it´s a small fishing village in Zambezia district. I am beyond happy about this! I will be working with an International Non-Governmental Organization called Friends in Global Health, it is connected to Vanderbilt University. I am replacing a PC Volunteer that has finished her two years so I was lucky enough to talk with her on the phone yesterday and she also wrote me a long letter about the house, job, and town. One of the trainees here actually visited this site for her site visit so I also got to see photos of the area. I will be the only Peace Corps Volunteer in the village, but there are a large number of PCV that will be in the province and we´ll be able to get together often. It sounds like the perfect location because it´s a small enough town where I´ll get to know everyone but also located close to a bigger city which I can travel to a few times a month as needed. I´ve also been told that the ocean is only steps away from my house :) I´m looking forward to that!

To give everyone a better idea of the description I´ve received, I´m going to sum up the details I was given from the previous volunteer.
While Macuse is a rural fishing village, it is in good proximity to Namacurra and Quelimane which makes it feel a bit less remote. There are two ways of arriving and leaving the village. The first is by land from Namacurra, the second way is by boat and chapa (like a mini-van/bus), from Mause you go to the boat landing at the school and they row you across to Supinho where you then get in the chapa to Quelimane. Going by boat is generally faster and less painful, but I wouldn´t go by boat November-January because the water is a lot rougher and the road to Quelimane that way becomes almost impassable because of the sand.
Dress code in the village is extremely relaxed. You will spend a lot of time sweating on your bike, so keep it conservative, clean and comfortable.
One of the organizations I worked with, TCE, will only be here until next July, so I don´t know how involved you want to be with them. I suggest accompanying a few field officers, they do community HIV awareness in the village. This will mean a lot of sweating on your bicycle, but it is a great way to get to know your way around the thousands of sand paths that make up this community and get you a good glimpse into daily life here. A few of the fields are far, taking nearly 3-6 hours to reach by bike, so be sure to bring lots of water and rehydration salts. Another organization doing work here with various women´s groups on micro credit projects is International Relief and Development, also at the ADPP school there is also a famer´s club that does agricultural work in the community if you are interested in doing permaculture garden projects.
The ADPP future professor´s school is the center of Macuse. They have a volunteer house near the school and usually have volunteers there who serve 6 month contracts as teachers in the school. They come from all over the world and there have been Japanese, Brazilian, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Mexican and all sorts of other volunteers. In the past I´ve had some success collaborating on projects with them.
The obvious way to pass weekends here is to head to the beach. It´s about an 8km bike ride through the shortcuts, though sometimes I pay a canoe to just paddle me up to Macumbine to save me the work. You can buy huge fresh fish there and sometimes the ADPP organizes volleyball games there as well. On Saturday nights the ADP almost always has dance/cultural programs up at the school which can be pretty fun. On weekends and some weeknights there are often soccer games going on somewhere in the community if you want to watch or even play. There is a soccer field near the house and salt fields that I usually go jogging at in the evenings.
As far as your house is concerned, while you are located in front of a bar and near the market, I have never had any safety concerns the whole time I´ve been here. The loja (store) behind the house has a guard and he also keeps an eye out for the house and the neighbors in general are very good about watching the house. It is a predominantly Muslim neighborhood and the mosque is close by. There is a Madrassa (religious school for boys) located on the other side of the loja which is run by the Mulana from India. The Mulana´s wife is kind of shy but also very sweet and a great cook if you ever want lessons on cooking amazing Indian food. Your Mozambican neighbor directly across from you was my empregada (maid) and I recomend her to you. She gets the work done and I figure since she is your neighbor, she is least likely to steal from you and easy to find if you need something done at the house. She is a single woman with 6 girls, 3 of who still live at home. She brought my water every day, washed clothes once a week, swept the yard and whatever else I might want done like going to the market or watching my dog/house while I´m away.
At the market you can usually get tomatoes, onions, rice, coconut, and beans. Depending on the time of year, you can also find bananas, oranges, couve, potatoes, and garlic. Other vegetables like pumpkin, lettuce, cucumber, and stuff, there are a lot of local groups in the area including the Farmers Club who grow vegetables to sell but don´t necessarily end up in the market so you have to seek thm out and let them know what you want to buy and when/if they have it, they will bring it to you. Someone usually stops by the house once every week or two to sell eggs. If you go down to the boats near the mosque and salt storage place by your house at around 3 or 4pm you can usually find the fisherman bringing in their catch for the day and can buy giant fish and crabs for cheap. You can also find fish on the beach or down byt the ADPP boats sometimes too. Chickens of course you can always find to buy.
As far as water, I won´t lie, your water supply in the well in front of your house can sometimes get kind of gross, especially during dry season. Occasionally it goes completely dry and then the empregada has to bring it from quite far. Macuse got hit by cholera really hard last year and you share your water supply with lots of people and it is not a protected well, so always boil, filter and bleach your water. Sometimes when the water gets really bad, you may also want to filter your bath water through a capulana (cloth material) but that only usually happens at the very end of dry season. About once a year you will probably get an itchy rash because of the crazy bean patch behind your house bit it only lasts a week or so, just don´t be surprised. Unfortunately you also have a rat problem in the house. I highly recommend getting a cat because the only time I did not have rats was when I had a cat. If you wear sandals a lot, you will most likely at some point get a matakenia in your foot. It´s a small worm that lays eggs in your feet. You will first notice it as a small, somewhat painful hard bump on the bottom of your foot or around your toes that sometimes itches. They aren´t particularly dangerous, just very gross. The best thing to do is ask one of the neighbors to dig it out for you since they will know how to make sure the entire worm and its eggs are indeed out. Then you will want to put bleach on the spot you pull the worm from to make sure you kill it all.
In the last few weeks I have hounded the landlord to get the house in better shape for you. We have painted the entire inside of the house and put up curtains. There are also now doors on your room, kitchen and bathroom and I had new light bulbs put in. They sealed up the major openings in 2 sides of the house near the ceiling line and new locks were put on the front and back doors. I also put up a shower curtain for you in the bathroom. I never got a refrigerator because I didn´t initially have electricity but since you have it now you might want to think about getting one it fyou want.

That´s is the summary I received from the previous volunteer! I hope you found it as interesting and exciting as I did! Here is a brief description of my job working with Friends in Global Health:
They provide support to the Ministry of Health and the national health services in the incorporation and reinforcement of clinical HIV/AIDS services, including the rehabilitation of health infrastructure, assuring human resources to provide services in the focus areas covered by the I-NGO, and continual monitoring and training of personnel in health facilities. The organization implements a community intervention strategy which has a social component in order to ensure that clinical services have the greatest possibility of being used by the population at the lowest levels of the system. Components of teh community intervention strategy include a communication strategy, support to groups of PLWHA (people living with HIV/AIDS) and other community-based support groups, adherence promotion program, development of nutritional support strategies for patients on Anti-retrovirals, foster better coordination at the district and provincial levels.
There will be 5 Volunteers placed with this care and treatment organization to assist specifically with strengthening their community outreach activities. Trainees with a background in communication and media (radio, video, editing, etc) and experience with theatre will be especially competitive for these positions.
In collaboration with the persons working in the organization´s newly-created staff roles of Community Intervention Assistans, Volunteers will:
Support the local coordination of community activities
Support the development of small support frojects for PLWHA
Support the development of gardens fr the nutritional support of patients living with HIV/AIDS

The only hard part will be sitting through 2 more weeks of training! I can´t wait to get to my new community and get started!

Today I did my practicum! It´s basically a practice run, doing a little lesson or activity with a group of your choice in the community. I did a lesson on hand washing with a group of older women in the community, many of whom are HIV positive. I did a little demonstation using cool-aid and dyed all their hands red to represent germs and how ineffective using water only is, then had them re-wash using soap. I was quite nervous when I began. It´s a bit intimidating teaching people that are much older than me, but it went realy well. The majority of community members there only spoke Changana (a local language) so I had to speak in Portugues and then have a translator translate into Changana. The message was conveyed and the group seemed to be generally interested and got a lot out of the lesson. I´m happy to have it done with and relax through the rest of training and just wait to get to site!! It felt really good to put everything we´ve been learning to use and finally feel like I am doing some good in the community here. I was also surprised at my ability to speak in Portugues, while it wasn´t perfect by any means, I was still able to talk relatively easily during my 20 minute presentation. I thought about my last semester of college and after 6 years of Spanish I was still nervous to do a 10 minute speech in Spanish and needed note cards, so I am impressed at how quickly I´ve progressed. All in all, it´s been a great week so far! And I am looking forward to talking with my family tonight!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I´ll be thinking of you all :) Love and miss you!!!

Site Visit to Vilankulos!

Site visit was amazing! It was really great to get out of Namaacha and see more of the country! We took a 12 hour bus ride up to Vilankulos, so I was able to see quite a bit. We also spent one night in Tofo-which has a really beautiful beach and a little hostel along the beach that we stayed at. I´ll back up and fill you in on the last few weeks though first before I get on a rant about how beautiful these sea side towns are!

The Halloween party was pretty successful-it was a lot of fun to hang out with all the Trainees outside of PC sessions. There were some very creative costumes with such little resources here. There were vampires, a fairy, mummys, a giant flower, Fred and Willma Flinstone, the world cup-my siblings were a soldier, a nurse, and a soccer player and I was a cave woman! The kids ate a bunch of candy and danced, there was a pretty big turn out. In the later part of the night we went to Palucia´s, a local restaurant/bar and got to hang out with all the Trainees.

The next week we were all really excited for hub day to find out where we would be going for our site visits! Peace Corps sends all the Trainees out to stay with current Volunteers throughout the country to get a feel for what life as a Volunteer is really like and to go to work with them and see the school or organization where they work. I was really hoping to visit a Volunteer living near the ocean, but had totally prepared myself to be placed somewhere in-land, either way, it was the perfect time for a break from training. Everyone really needed to get away and have some independence back-even if it was only for a little bit, and to get a break from each other. It´s tough being in such a new culture and learning so much every day and being around each other 24/7 with such big, out-going personalities...it was just perfect timing to have some time away!

I was SOOO excited to find out I would be visiting Vilankulos. It is a very touristy town in Inhambane province along the Indian Ocean. I had seen some pictures on facebook of the volunteers that lived there and was hoping I would have a chance to visit at some point, so this was perfect! Sarah and Courtney are the Volunteers living there, they´ve been here a year. I had 2 other trainees staying at their house with me, and 3 other education trainees also went to Vilankulos and stayed with an education Volunteer close by. We left Saturday morning at 4am and it was around 12 hours to drive all the way there. It was not exactly desirable circumstances, but I knew it was going to be worth the trip! The commom transportation here is called chapa´s, they are basically big vans that fit about 16 people, but generally you can expect to squish 20+ people in!

Once we arrived in Vilankulos and got to the Volunteers house it was all worth it! Their backyard is the Ocean! I felt completely stress free as soon as we arrived! We were also really excited about dinner and getting a chance to cook some American meals. Sarah and Courtney had made us tacos and even brownies for dessert, it was amazing! There house is really nice, they have running water and an indoor shower, a stove and oven, electricity...it´s very nice. We went out Saturday night for a bit and met some of the other Volunteers that live in the province, it was fun to meet people that have been at site for a while now and understand what we´re going through with training. Sunday was very relaxing, we layed out by the Ocean and swam a bit. It was really hot and I had to reapply my sunscreen about every 15 minutes because the sun is so powerful here. We watched a couple movies and even ordered pizza which was very exciting! ....oh the simple pleasures! On Monday we went to work with Sarah and Courtney to see what the organization they work for is like. They work for CARE, which is an NGO educationg people on HIV/AIDS and they plan different events in the community. The organization is pretty large and their work is very structured which isn´t usually the case for health volunteers. This years Volunteers won´t be assigned to positions like this because PC is trying to give health Volunteers more time for secondary projects and have less structure in their jobs so they can have more of an opportunity to define their own job and tasks. We attended a meeting with the girls and met some co-workers, then hit the beach :) It was good to see their office and find out what they do, but there wasn´t much more we could do, so we went into town and bought some things to make dinner and then swam and laid out for a while. The next morning we left early to travel to Tofo, which is another touristy-beach town about 3 hours south. A lot of other trainees that had site visits in surrounding areas also came down to spend the last night in Tofo, so there were about 250-25 of us Peace Corps people there. I really loved the town, the only down-fall was that we were all looked at as tourists and people didn´t realize taht we actually are living in the country, so it´s a little irritating to be treated this way. The same can be said for Vilankulos. People living in these towns just assume you are a tourist and try to sell you merchandise and talked to us in english which I did´t really like. We all stayed up pretty late the last night and hung out at Fatima´s, which is a little hostel on the beach with a bar and music. It was a lot of fun!

The trip back the next day was a bit grueling with the lack of sleep and having to say goodbye to my ocean gettaway! I feel completely refreshed though now and have been in a great mood since returning. It´s all downhill from here with only 3 1/2 weeks of training left! We´ll find out where our actual site placements are on Thanksgiving, so I have that to look forward to! After staying with Volunteers I´m sooo ready to be out on my own and start making a life for myself here! I feel re-energized and ready to really focus on my Portuguese these last few weeks and get the most out of training, along with really making an effort to spend more time with my host family and to try to not be so irritable with them :/

I´ve had some really great conversations with them the last couple nights. Yesterday I was able to talk with my mom about her Labolo (bride price) and found what my dad paid her family in order to marry her-money, clothing, and animals is the norm. I also asked if she was going to have Labolos for her daughters and was incredably happy to find out she´s not! She said she wants her daughters to go to school, get jobs, buy a house and car, and THEN get married and just have a wedding. I was so happy and proud to hear her say that! I´ve been teaching my host family a lot about my family and life back in America and feel like it´s much easier to deal with the homesickness when I can talk about home to my family here. The other night I had them draw pictures for me to send with my letter home to my parents and then they decided they wanted to have me write letters from them in english, so they told me in Portuguese what they wanted to say and I wrote it in english to my parents. It was the sweetest thing about how they want to come visit me and my parents in America and that they are going to be so sad when I leave in December and want to visit at my site. The family is really starting to grow on me and I feel much more comfortable in the home now that I´m able to communicate a bit more with them.

I´m off to have lunch and then meet with my APCD (assistant Peace Corps director) about where I would like my site placement to be and with what type of organization I want to work for! Tchau!