let the house flipping begin...

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!!!