Thanksgiving

Last week I gave 3 trainings on malaria. They were great in every place and it’s interesting to see the different groups of peer educators. I’m so used to working with my group that it’s nice to work with other groups that do not have a volunteer to work with all the time. Now if you have any questions on malaria I’m kind of an expert!!! I like being able to enable these peer educators to take this information to their zones and explain all about malaria. The best way and really only way to fix this problem is to educate the people. It still amazes me so many people don’t know the specifics of malaria considering it is a major disease. The problem here is that there is such a push for HIV/AIDS education that the rest of the major diseases don’t get as stressed and then people start lumping all the diseases with HIV. It’s been a great experience for me to give these trainings and I’ve loved doing them!

Last weekend I went to a beach called Bilene and met a lot of the new trainees including the girl that is coming to live in Inharrime! Her name is Erin and is so nice. I’m excited for her to come! The beach was at a lagoon, which was a nice change from the ocean. That was the first beach trip in awhile so it was nice to get away.

I spent Thanksgiving in Inharrime with my 2 site mates Emma and Scooter. We made a huge feast Mozambican style! We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, ratatouille, ramen (which we made from scratch), a salad, cinnamon bread and apple crisp. Everything was so good and it was really nice to have people to spend the holiday with. We watched Blind Side so we even got our football fix! All in all it was a great day! We ate so much that I’m still full!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!!
love,
ann

the bush

so yesterday i decided to go with some co-workers into the bush. this week is national week of health (for the bush) where techs, nurses and volunteers go to places to give vaccines to people that would otherwise not be able to get them. They do this throughout the year for different populations (pregnant women, children, etc) and yesterday we worked with children. we had 3 different teams that worked in different areas. I worked with one of my favorite co-workers Emidillo who is in charge of preventative medicine.

After we dropped the other teams off we set up at a site at a local primary school. We first gave a "lecture" about different health issues and what medicines we would be giving them. we talked a fair amount about safe sex and what can happen when you don't use a condom...pregnancy, hiv/aids, std's, etc. after that i introduced myself in the local language which they loved! it seems my few phrases are paying off! after my introduction we asked if any of the kids had any questions. one little boy asked how old i was and i told him to guess...he guessed 40! i'm closer to 10 than i am to 40! most times here people guess i'm older because of my height. when i told them i was only 24 they didn't believe it and they all laughed! Emidillo then used me as an example saying that i am a 24 year old woman who has a university degree and no children. He said that you can make the choice and maybe someday have the chance go and travel and learn. It was nice to hear the same message i've been saying from a Mozambican.

After the primary school we went to many of the other villages in the area to check on the different health centers and posts. It turns out that one of my co-workers was transfered to one of the one's we visited. It was really nice to see him again and it was nice to see how excited he was to show me around the new health center. It was really cool to visit all of these places that i talk about everyday but had no real idea where they were and how far away. I pretty much went around my entire district yesterday which was really cool to see. I had a great time with my co-workers and cannot wait to go out to the "mato" again!
love,
ann