so the past couple of weeks have been filled with visits dealing with the problems of my house. the conclusion is that peace corps wants me to stay in my house and just make a ton of upgrades. this past friday is when the work began and hopefully it will be done soon so i can finally have a house and really move in (i'm still living out of suitcases and on bread). on monday, the real work is going to start (hopefully!) and i hope all will be done by the end of the week...although with african time i'm not sure that's possible. at least once this is all said and done i can add house flipper to my resume...
my job has been confusing because right after ICAP spent the week here helping me define my job my counterpart Olga had her baby (a girl) and will be on maternity leave for the next 3 months. after talking with my supervisor and another woman in ICAP i decided to go out into the community to try and make things happen. I have 2 meetings next week with 2 different organizations that are working to fight HIV/aids and also helping people living with or who are effected by the disease. I'm excited because my job is more of being a community volunteer working on health issues.
other than house flipping and working i've been making sure to walk around the community to start to get to know people. i really like my town and have even made friends with store owners and women at the market. it's great that i am starting to be called ana instead of teacher emma...the only things we have in common are that we are white and blond! this weekend i went to the pontinha with scooter and it was really nice to know that only 10 minutes from town is a great little beach. don't think i can swim in the water because it's fresh water but it will be a great place to hang out once it's a little cooler!
love,
ana
p.s. if you ever want to call me (since i can't really use skype because the internet is too slow) you can go to greatminutes.com to get really cheap rates!!!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
From the office...
I had a great and relaxing 24th birthday. I spent the day hanging out at scooter's and it was so great! We took the straw mat and sat on her front porch because it was actually cool and cloudy...pretty much a first. At lunch we had the pineapple upside down cake that scooter had made and the sisters put candles in it and sang! The cake was amazing and I got to make a wish! All in all it was a great birthday completed with a few episodes of 30 rock. It was a little weird to spend it in the heat sweating rather than in the freezing cold...
Today i started up work again with a thing called posithive teas. They are on the 1st Tuesday of every month and are a forum for people living with HIV and aids to come together and talk about their problems and their questions. One question today was if Mosquitos could transmit HIV and I actually added to the conversation! It was amazing to be in a space with so many positive people because in all reality I don't think I ever personally knew some one with HIV. They all had so much spirit and wanted to learn and were so full of life! This tea made me so excited to really start working! I'm excited at the prospect of making a difference even if it's only for one person. Tomorrow I will be meeting with a supervisor from ICAP to discuss what my exact role will be here.
I've returned to living in my house because of work. I think I killed all the rats because I've had food in my house and it's still here! Thank you rattex! Even though I think the house is rodent free or at least less I still am eating dinner really early and going to my office aroud 7. My office is my bed because it has the fortress of my mosquito net. I can't wait until I can eat late at night and do work at a table. If anyone wants to send me sudoku or people crosswords I've been really going through the stash I brought since I'm in bed for a good 2 hours before I go yo sleep! Hopefully I'll find a new house soon and will really be able to settle in!
Love,
ann
Today i started up work again with a thing called posithive teas. They are on the 1st Tuesday of every month and are a forum for people living with HIV and aids to come together and talk about their problems and their questions. One question today was if Mosquitos could transmit HIV and I actually added to the conversation! It was amazing to be in a space with so many positive people because in all reality I don't think I ever personally knew some one with HIV. They all had so much spirit and wanted to learn and were so full of life! This tea made me so excited to really start working! I'm excited at the prospect of making a difference even if it's only for one person. Tomorrow I will be meeting with a supervisor from ICAP to discuss what my exact role will be here.
I've returned to living in my house because of work. I think I killed all the rats because I've had food in my house and it's still here! Thank you rattex! Even though I think the house is rodent free or at least less I still am eating dinner really early and going to my office aroud 7. My office is my bed because it has the fortress of my mosquito net. I can't wait until I can eat late at night and do work at a table. If anyone wants to send me sudoku or people crosswords I've been really going through the stash I brought since I'm in bed for a good 2 hours before I go yo sleep! Hopefully I'll find a new house soon and will really be able to settle in!
Love,
ann
Sunday, January 3, 2010
wowah
I have been at my site for about 3 weeks now and it feels like i've been here a lot longer. I am currently staying at my site mates house because mine is not ready... My site is really pretty and has access to both the beach and two main cities in my province. my town is on the main highway and it is really easy to hitchhike up to the cities which makes it easier cheaper! I got a dog as my christmas present to myself as a friend and for protection...for some reason mozambicans are afraid of dogs! I named him amendoim (peanut in portugese) because he's tan and needed a good mozambican name. He's up at my friends house in the city because i don't have a house yet...
Before Christmas I brought my stove to Scooter's house because we decided that we wanted to cook a holiday meal and watch christmas movies. We decided to make hash browns, french toast and no bake cookies...not a typical christmas meal for me but i guess french toast is a main item at christmas here! I bought an electric stove and once we were finished cutting everything we were cooking. we started the hash browns first because they would take the longest. once they were well on the way i turned on the second burner to start cooking the french toast and it started a fire. i turned off the second burner right away but that didn't help. The fire burned through the surge protector and was burning on the wall (picture of the aftermath on facebook). I proceded to run out the door looking for a fire extinguisher...doesn't really help when there arn't any. good thing that the girl from across the hall heard us because she came in and told us to through water on it! i remember from fire safety not to use water on electrical fires but scooter grabed some water and through it on th wall finally putting out the fire...i think at that point the wall was on fire and it was not electrical. I guess my south african stove was just too much for the current here!
For new years i went to a place called Vilankulos which is a tourist town on the beach. Scooter and I bolea'd all the way up there...it took 6 cars but they all had a/c!!! It was so nice to get away from my site and to hang out with the other volunteers from my province. i had pizza twice on my 4 day vacation and spent a few days just relaxing at the beach! it's definitely been weird not having any snow or cold being january although the beach is a nice trade off! For the next few months i have to stay in my province so besides weekend trips to the beach i'm going to be working a lot! i'm excited to get working and to settle into life here!
I hope everyone had a great christmas and new years!!!
love,
ann
Before Christmas I brought my stove to Scooter's house because we decided that we wanted to cook a holiday meal and watch christmas movies. We decided to make hash browns, french toast and no bake cookies...not a typical christmas meal for me but i guess french toast is a main item at christmas here! I bought an electric stove and once we were finished cutting everything we were cooking. we started the hash browns first because they would take the longest. once they were well on the way i turned on the second burner to start cooking the french toast and it started a fire. i turned off the second burner right away but that didn't help. The fire burned through the surge protector and was burning on the wall (picture of the aftermath on facebook). I proceded to run out the door looking for a fire extinguisher...doesn't really help when there arn't any. good thing that the girl from across the hall heard us because she came in and told us to through water on it! i remember from fire safety not to use water on electrical fires but scooter grabed some water and through it on th wall finally putting out the fire...i think at that point the wall was on fire and it was not electrical. I guess my south african stove was just too much for the current here!
For new years i went to a place called Vilankulos which is a tourist town on the beach. Scooter and I bolea'd all the way up there...it took 6 cars but they all had a/c!!! It was so nice to get away from my site and to hang out with the other volunteers from my province. i had pizza twice on my 4 day vacation and spent a few days just relaxing at the beach! it's definitely been weird not having any snow or cold being january although the beach is a nice trade off! For the next few months i have to stay in my province so besides weekend trips to the beach i'm going to be working a lot! i'm excited to get working and to settle into life here!
I hope everyone had a great christmas and new years!!!
love,
ann
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