This past weekend a bunch of volunteers got together in vilankulos for beach olympics. the teams were central/north vs. south. it was so great to go and hang out with some people that i hadn't seen in forever and just to be a big group. i bolea'd up to vil with 2 friends. we got a ride right away and the car was going farther north so we had a ride all the way...turns out it took us 8+ hours because our average speed was 30k per hour...Finally once we got there we had delivery pizza and went to bed.
The festivities were held on saturday and were so much fun. there was a trophy, a torch and team cheers. the only bad thing about the weekend was the mosquitios...i have so many bites! sunday we bolea'd back to site and made it in much better time then the way up.
this week has been filled with a lot of work and getting things ready. i already feel accomplished at work because one of my suporvisors really liked my ideas for our health center. it was great to see my ideas starting to become real. this week has made me really excited for all the work to come gave me confidence to bring up more ideas that i have. also i finally have had some time to really get my house together. it has been in a state of controled chaos for about a month and a half but because i've had time at site i can actually tackle the projects. one big project on the list is to build 2 shelfs...we'll see if it happens!
i also finished planning for 2 trips i have coming up a music festival in swaziland and the world cup! all in all it was a great week with getting a lot done!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
inharrime
it has been a crazy past few weeks. i created a training with the other ICAP volunteers in inhambane and we had the training for this group of actavistas from april 8-10. it was a great chance to really put all i've learned to work. we had a group of 15 activistas from an organization called ceLim that works mainly in nutrition. They are working in the communities and needed more HIV/Aids training. it was so great to be able to be part of the training. we had a few activities that we lead which was great and we helped out whenever needed.
A week after the training I took 2 girls from my area to the Raparigas Em Desenvolvimento, Educacåo e Saude (REDES) (Girls in development, education and health). the conference was in Xai Xai and was so much fun. i really got to know the 2 girls i brought a lot better and i was a leader of the youngest group of girls. it was great to see how much they knew and their perspective on things. my friend and i lead 2 activities with the entire group and it was great. i am getting a lot better of speaking in front of groups and actually am starting to like it! The girls would learn about everything from nutrition, to how to start a business, to study skills etc. one thing i really thought was cool was each group had to create a song about a certain topic (my group's was i am me) and then they were recorded. the coolest part about it is that the girls are supposed to give the cd's to chappa drivers to play. It was amazing to see how a week at this conference changed so many of the girls that were there. there was this girl Melfina in my group who did not speak very good portugese but by the end her confidence was so high we couldn't get her to stop speaking! The 2 girls i brought had so much fun and it seemed like they were different people when we left. I am so excited to get the group started and next week i am going to try and talk to the school director to get more girls involved.
I have really started to learn the local language xiope and it is going really well. i have a few key phrases down and am trying to speak it whenever possible. my site mate emma has been taking lessons with me and it has helped so much and has been so much fun. the best thing about learning the local language is the reactions from the mozambicans. most of the time i get a huge smile and a laugh and every so often i get an uh oh look (because they were talking about me in xiope and i responded to them in xiope). everyone has been so helpful and wants me to learn! i can't wait until i can really speak and understand the language!
A week after the training I took 2 girls from my area to the Raparigas Em Desenvolvimento, Educacåo e Saude (REDES) (Girls in development, education and health). the conference was in Xai Xai and was so much fun. i really got to know the 2 girls i brought a lot better and i was a leader of the youngest group of girls. it was great to see how much they knew and their perspective on things. my friend and i lead 2 activities with the entire group and it was great. i am getting a lot better of speaking in front of groups and actually am starting to like it! The girls would learn about everything from nutrition, to how to start a business, to study skills etc. one thing i really thought was cool was each group had to create a song about a certain topic (my group's was i am me) and then they were recorded. the coolest part about it is that the girls are supposed to give the cd's to chappa drivers to play. It was amazing to see how a week at this conference changed so many of the girls that were there. there was this girl Melfina in my group who did not speak very good portugese but by the end her confidence was so high we couldn't get her to stop speaking! The 2 girls i brought had so much fun and it seemed like they were different people when we left. I am so excited to get the group started and next week i am going to try and talk to the school director to get more girls involved.
I have really started to learn the local language xiope and it is going really well. i have a few key phrases down and am trying to speak it whenever possible. my site mate emma has been taking lessons with me and it has helped so much and has been so much fun. the best thing about learning the local language is the reactions from the mozambicans. most of the time i get a huge smile and a laugh and every so often i get an uh oh look (because they were talking about me in xiope and i responded to them in xiope). everyone has been so helpful and wants me to learn! i can't wait until i can really speak and understand the language!
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