Merry Christmas!!!

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the long time between posts but between the end of training and moving to site its been pretty hectic and I really haven’t had access to the internet. I arrived at site on Friday the 18th and I was in for a surprise…I really did get a hut! My house is a kanisu house (which means it’s made out of straw and it has had many problems. There are a ton of rats living with me…so much for living alone! And I have a ton of bugs and ants which are living inside the straw. Being a straw house I can hear everything outside and can never tell exactly where it is coming from. The house has three rooms and a ton of furniture which I really don’t want or need…I also think some of the pieces are what the rats are calling home. The house does have electricity but no water so I have to have someone bring me water often. Because of the state of my current house I am going to be switching houses soon (hopefully!) and am actually going to look at them tomorrow!

I live in a new house (no one from Peace Corps has lived there before) so I am constantly going to Maxixe or Inhambane (the two major cities an hour north of me) to buy things. It’s great because I go with my site mate Scooter often and then we can bolea(hitchhike) and it takes less time and money. It’s also great because the big cities have a South African grocery store, where I can buy cheese, yogurt, diet coke, and many other things that are hard to find, a store owned by Chinese men where I can practice, some really good places to get amazing (well know I think so) food and other places. The two cities are about 10-15 minutes apart by boat because Inhambane is located on the peninsula and Maxixe on the mainland and by car they’re about 40 minutes.

My town is a great place because it is located on the EN1which is the main road going up the coast of Mozambique which means a great market area. But it also means that I am constantly being called Maloongo (white person) and am being given the higher prices. It’s especially bad right now because all the South Africans are traveling up for the holidays…I hope that it will get better once everyone realizes that I’m actually living there!

My job as of right now is still not defined but I know that I will be giving talks on all things health here in Mozambique. I’m excited because my organization International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Program (ICAP) has the main office area in a youth health building (Servicos Amigos para Adolecents e Jovens SAAJ) and so I hope I can work a lot with the ‘at risk’ age group here! I am really going to start work after the new year, it’s been hard coming in right around Christmas time because everyone is just trying to finish up for the year.

I still cannot believe that it’s Christmas! Its been so hot here and there is no snow or really any Christmas decorations that it just doesn’t seem time. Every time I comment about the weather I have to explain how cold Chicago is with snow and they still don’t understand…they think 20C is the end of the world and now I do to! I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year if I don’t get to a computer before then!!

I’m trying to put up pictures but I think you can see them on my picture site: http://gallery.me.com/aedavis

Love you and miss you all!!!

Ann

Site placement/Thanksgiving

So I found out where I'll be living for the next 2 years and I'll be living in inharrime, inhambane. It's in the south and it's only about 5 or 6 hours from Maputo and only 45 minutes to 3 hours (depending on transportation) to the big beach!!! There is a beach near my town which is only around 10 minutes to half an hour away. So everyone start saving up your money to come and visit me!!!
Today we also had thanksgiving and it was amazing!!! We had everything that I love and then some fun mozambiquan treats! I'll write more later but will update more later!!!!
Love,
ana

It’s long enough for a lunchie and a beer…

So last week I went on a site visit to Zambezia. It is a province in the northern part of the country and it was a well needed break from training. First and foremost I only had a school backpack to pack in and I am a huge over packer…but I did it and still had too much stuff for the 5 day trip! Because Zambezia is in the north of the country we got to fly from Maputo to Quilimane, the capital of the province. One rule of the Peace Corps is that you cannot travel at night, so because my site was 4 hours and 2 chappa rides away I stayed the night in Quilimane. I had a great time just hanging out and eating pizza…I’ve missed it so much!!!
The next day I was up at 5:30 to catch my first chappa from Quilimane to Namacurra. There are no scheduled times for any type of chappa…they go once they’re full. I got to the chappa stop and had to wait around for and hour and a half in order for my chappa to fill up. (a chappa is a small van/bus thing that is meant to hold 3 people across it’s 4 rows but in Mozambique you have to have at least 4). I was lucky enough to get the front seat next to the driver. The ride to Namacurra was beautiful. It is just starting pineapple season here and the fields were what I remembered from being little and in Hawaii. Once in Namacurra I took a big truck (flat bed) to Macuse. We ended up driving around surrouding villages and it took 3 hours but it was awesome to see all the traditional mud and stick huts. This region also was the biggest exporter of coconuts while the Portuguese were in control so there are tons of trees.
I stayed in Macuse for 2 nights and had a great time just relaxing and eating Indian food (the volunteer’s neighbor is from India and constantly brings food over!) It is a very small town but is situated on the inlet and it used to be an old port. There is a beach but it is an hour away by bike. Macuse had a ‘hospital’ but it only had 2 nurses. Mozambique is in a huge need for doctors and nurses considering they only have 900 doctors for 20+ million people.
To ensure I’d be back to catch my flight I had to leave Macuse early morning of the 4th day of the trip. After doing my 2 chappa rides back to Quilimane I met up with two other trainees and we went to Zalala beach which is about an hour from Quilimane. It was so nice to be at the beach and I swam in the Indian Ocean for the first time! The water was so warm and the waves were big enough to body surf. We shared our chappa ride back with all the seafood that was just caught, including a small hammerhead shark. We had hamburgers and ice cream which was so good! My first of both since getting to Mozambique!!
Once home we had our normal classes resume but I am so re-energized and excited to finish training and get to site that I don’t mind it! It was just the same thing for so long but now I can see the finish line and it is pretty sweet! We are also allowed to go to Maputo by ourselves and have a later curfew which is so nice! I went to Maputo yesterday and had a great time buying capulnas (like a sarong that you can make things out of) and jewelry. The Mozambique soccer team, the mambabas, won a world cup qualifying game yesterday against Tunisia and it was so cool to be in the capital for the win!!! Wish I had gone to the game but hopefully I’ll bee able to see them in the world cup!
I find out my site on Thanksgiving and am so excited!!! I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on where I end up! Hope everyone is well and is gearing up for the holiday season! I did get Elf on my computer and am so excited to watch it (not to mention it will be the closest I can get to snow!).
Love,
Ana

Living in Namaacha is like Camping...

So after a month of living in namaacha i've finally realized that it can be considered camping with a bed. i brush my teeth outside with a glass of water, feel invinicible while sleeping under a mosquito net, cook over an open fire, have a latrina and take bucket baths. it's been a great time and i really do enjoy it but i would like to take a real shower sometime soon...

i've completed a month of training and really only have 5 more weeks!!! this coming weekend we leave for site visits which will give us a glimpse of what the next 2 years will look like. i'm so excited to leave namaacha since we really haven't been able to for this first month.

this past weekend we had a halloween party and it was so much fun!!! i realized that i do like halloween but i like it a lot more in different countries. the costumes were so great considering everything was bought from our local market. i'll try to put pictures up at some point but it proves to be really hard here. Not much else has changed in my life recently but i love being updated on all of yours!!! i also do have internet on my phone and check my emial more than anything else so that is the best way to get a hold of me!!! miss you all!!!!!
love,
ana

Week 3

So I’ve been in Namaacha for about three weeks now. Training has been good but hard. As I write this I am watching one of my new favorite novellas called Poder Paralelo. This week has flown by with good times and bad but that’s to be expected when training. Today has been one of the coldest days yet and it feels cold! It’s only around 19C but it feels like its 0. Not only was it freezing (it’s all relative!!!) but it also rained all day. We’ve had rain but it hasn’t been all day or very hard. All the roads that I walk on are dirt with many rocks so needless to say my feet were covered in mud. Because the roads are pretty much mountains and dirt it makes it very hard to climb up and down and I almost fell every step…especially going down the mountain.
We found out on Wednesday that we are going to have a Halloween party so Mrs. Howell may be an option (If I can find a costume at the market!). Since everyday is pretty much the same because of classes, it’s nice to have different things to look forward to.

I also took to naming all the animals in my house since they didn't have names. The cat is chocolate, the dogs are buster and bentley, and there is a gecko that comes out at night who i named bob. it's great because the kids in my house have taken to calling the animals by the names i gave them!!

Would love to write more but I have to clean my shoes…such fun!!! Miss everyone!!!
Love,
Ana

From namaacha

Hey everyone!!

I've been in namaacha for the past two weeks and I can't believe it! It feels like yesterday that I was getting on the plane to go to Philly. Life in Africa has been great so far even with the few hicups I've had. When I arrived in mozambique I spent the first 2 nights at a hotel in Maputo living the last of the good life. From there we came to namaacha which is where we're training. I originally was in a house with a grandma and many of her grandchildren. It was a lot of fun and everyday I woke up to Swaziland. I got moved a week ago but I can still see Swaziland (it's a big topic of conversation here). I know live in a family wig a mother, father, many sons and one daughter. My schedule here mainly consists of eating and bathing. They have 5 meals here and have told me that I have to get fat. I have at least two baths a day which consists of a bucket and a cup. It's not as bad as I thought a bucket bath would be. My days here consist of portuguse class and health classes all day long. My classes start at 7:30 and end at 17:30 on a good day!

I've seen quite the interesting things here. I've seen:
-a chicken get killed and defeathered (my first night here which ended up being my dinner)
-a snake which my vovo (grandma) killed with a stick!
-a goat come by my classroom
-random pigs in my yard
-Swaziland
-a ton of Brazilian novelas and game shows
-kids dancing Michael Jackson better than Michael Jackson
-my hair look like coolio
-big cockroaches and spiders

all in all Mozambique is great!!! I miss you all and hope to stay updated on your lives!
Love,
ana