wow I can't believe that it is already the middle of february! it feels like i just got back from my vacation with my family. Last weekend was a very fun weekend!
It started with an intergroup exchange between my and Erin's (my new site mate) group and scooter's group. We had about 20 girls at my house for the entire day and even had 7 sleepover. It was so much fun to have a group of Mozambican girls just hanging out and having fun for the entire day. Normally they have so many chores that i think it was a nice change for them. We started the day with a brainstorming session of questions to ask my counterpart (who never showed up). She was going to come and talk about her life as she is a great role model. she is 27 only has 2 children (2 girls) and doesn't want more, a nurse in the hospital, and she just returned to night school for 11th grade. I thought she would be a great woman to come and explain why she has chosen the path in life that she has. It also would have been great because she has returned to school after so many years out of it because she wanted to further her education and possibly become a doctor. it was disappointing that she didn't show up for both me and the girls.
we played a lot of fun games including:
-frisbee
-my neighbors (where you say something true about yourself and then everyone who it applies to has to switch spots and the last person standing has to come up with the new fact)
-American football
-my best qualities bracelets (say a quality and choose a bead and end up making a bracelet comprised of all the girls best qualities)
-They learned to make earrings which we will sell and teach the girls income generation

Scooter, Erin and I made them Chicken Parmesan for lunch with a cabbage salad and made them cheeseburgers for dinner. it was fun to be able to have the girls try foods that we talk about to really have them learn a little bit more about america. Throughout the day the girls also just hung out at my house and looked through all of the magazines i have acquired since being here. to end the night we showed the girls harry potter in Portuguese and for the girls that spent the night the little mermaid. All in all the day was so much fun even with the things that did not go exactly as planed.

On Sunday I went up to Massinga and met up with a lot of PCV's to watch the superbowl. It started at 1am and ended aroun 5-5:30. It was such a fun night to do something very American and to be able to watch the game. The game was shown at a gas station so that was also quite an experience for them to have the store taken over by maybe 20+ americans. I was so
exhausted from our exchange that during the game I actually ended up taking a nap on the floor...all in all it was quite an amazing experience!

Family Visit

My trip with my family was amazing! They came to Mozambique and I met them in Maputo. It was so nice to have the entire family come to see Mozambique. Now when I talk to them they know who and what I’m talking about. We only had 4 days in Mozambique so it was a quick trip but it was so much fun. They got to meet all of my colleagues at the hospital as well as the peer educators I work with. I spent my birthday at my favorite beach (Tsene) and it was a nice relaxing day.

After Mozambique we flew to South Africa and did a safari for 3 days. It was amazing! We saw 4 out of the big 5 which included seeing lions and leopards every game drive. We didn’t see the water buffalo because there are none in the area where we were. We finished our trip in Cape Town and it was amazing! Cape Town is such a beautiful city and had so much to do. We also went to the cape of Good Hope so now I only need to go to the Cape of Horn. I can’t wait to plan a trip back! I put pictures up on facebook of our trip if you would like to see any of the places.

I got back to site on the 13th and have just been trying to make a plan for this year. As I was planning it was crazy to think that I only have a year left…not even. I think I’ll finish my service in November and then travel around and be home before Christmas. I’m starting to think of a big trip home…maybe even circumnavigating the globe which will be fun to plan.