“Wait they have hail here?”

So this weekend when I was hanging out with my site mates Emma and Scooter I noticed these red bumps on my body that started itching. At first I just thought that they were just bug bites but they kept popping up and then we noticed that Scooter had the same bumps. When we called the Peace Corps Medical Office (PCMO) they said that we needed to come to Maputo so they could figure out what we have. It kind of looked like chicken pox but we both have had them. We got into Maputo on Sunday and went straight to the clinic to get blood drawn.
On Monday we found out that we have tick fever. We think we got it from the cutest puppies when we were at the beach a few weekends ago. We’re fine just having some fevers and the bumps are starting to go away. We’re happy that it’s not contagious because we can go out in Maputo and enjoy all the perks of being here such as great restaurants and shopping.
While we were sitting at the Peace Corps office using internet and just getting things done that we can’t do at site it started hailing. The hail was the size of nickels. We didn’t know that it could hail here so we were quite confused. It was an interesting end to the day.

Miami!

So today I was walking through town and I saw a younger boy wearing a Miami t-shirt! I was so excited to see that Miami has made it to Inharrime! Now every time I passed a second hand clothes both I will look especially hard at the t-shirts!
After not having the best weekend and week I decided to spend the night at Scooter’s last night. I have to go to Inambane and it’s always easier to hitchike the further you are from town. I always love going to Scooter’s because you feel so loved! The girls that live in the orphanage always come running up and yelling mana ana, mana ana! And give you a huge hug! They are so wonderful they can turn any bad day (or week) into a good one!
For the past couple of weeks I have been helping to give a permaculture training to a local organization called TIVIKELI. They were all really excited about this new type of garden and wanted the entire organization to learn how to do it. We had 3 different days of trainings over 2 weeks and we just finished. It was such an accomplishment for me because one of the women who was at the original training I did pretty much ran the entire training! It was so great to see first hand that people are learning about these new techniques and are really excited about them!
After this training it made me really excited to start new programs and just in general to work. I’m excited for the next few months and to see what I can accomplish!
Love,
Ann

one year!

I can’t believe it’s already been a year…it does not feel that long.
I just got back from a trip to the 2 central provinces of Mozambique, Manica and Sofala. In Manica I got to see Catindica where my friend Kendra lives as well as the capital of Chimoio. It was so interesting to see a site so completely different from mine. The entire central area that I visited was mountainous and the “Africa idea” (what I thought Africa would look like before coming). I was also able to go to Gorongoza.
Before my trip I had given permaculture training. Permaculture is a type of a garden that uses specific techniques that anyone can do to increase the yield. It is especially helpful for people living with HIV/AIDS because it is close to the house and after the initial work is very minimal. I had created a permagarden in my yard to test it out and I now have tomatoes, lettuce and squash growing as well as just having planted watermelon, zucchini, cucumber and lemon grass.
After getting back I had a lot of work. In the past few weeks I’ve been making better connections with local organizations and have even set up permaculture trainings with them. In addition to that I have been trying to visit all of the peer educators that I work with. Emilia lives close to the turn off for one of my favorite beaches. It was great to see her everyday life as well as the permagarden she had created. One of my greatest succeses as a Peace Corps Volunteer is that after she had created her own permagarden her brother and sister liked the idea so much that they created their own.
After the initial tour she took me to meet the rest of her family. I met her brother, sister, neices, nephews and aunts. They were all making tapioca to sell later that week in Inharrime. To make tapioca you take the cassava root shave it and then in a big pan sauté it (without butter or oil or anything). They were such interesting people who had great stories to tell. I was so lucky to meet them. I can’t wait to see the rest of my peer educators home lives!
It’s starting to get hot again which means more beach time! I have decided that in the coming year my sitemate Scooter and I are going to try and go to all of the beaches. (not all but quite a few!) we have made a list and are doing pretty well so far!
Love,
Ann

"Waka Waka"

I just got back from the World Cup in Johannesburg and it was amazing! I spent about a week there and it was a great vacation besides the freezing cold. I left Inharrime on Monday the 14 to head down to Maputo. I stayed the night and it was nice to go out to a restaurant to watch some of the games. The next morning I was up early and got on the bus to South Africa. The bus ride was really easy compared to travel in Mozambique. They had movies and I think I saw more on the 2 bus rides than I have seen in my entire time in Mozambique. The bus ride took about 8 hours. There was a stop in Nelispruit and we could see the brand new stadium. It was really cool because the beams were giraffes.

We got into Johannesburg around 4 and then headed straight to the hostel. It was freezing, actually the coldest day they had had this winter and I was still in flip-flops from Mozambique. Our fist night it got down to -10 C. It was the coldest I’ve felt in over a year. The hostel we stayed at was an interesting place. It was a house with 2 smaller ‘sheds’ out back with more beds. I was in one of the sheds, about the size of my house, and it was interesting…I missed my kanisu. The hardest thing about sleeping out there was the cold. I had 3 big blankets on me and was still cold…I do not have that many cold weather clothes here and I was using all of them.

Johannesburg is a very interesting city. It is very sprawled out with many suburbs being considered the city and it really doesn’t have good public transportation. We had to take cabs everywhere and they were really expensive (the cheapest started at $10). It is also a pretty dangerous city so we couldn’t walk anywhere.

My first day in Joburg I went to a mall. Since it is a more dangerous of a city everything is in malls. It was great to just walk around and see everything, I felt like I was back in America. It was great but also kind of overwhelming. I ended up hanging out with 3 other PCV’s from Mozambique and it was so much fun. That night for the South Africa game in Pretoria we went to a fan park. They put fan parks throughout all the cities in different areas where fans could go and watch the game on a big screen. It was so much fun but so cold. For some reason we were standing right in front of the vuvuzela section…it was loud but really fun.

Thursday was just a nice and relaxing day. Pretty much everyone in our hostel had tickets to the South Korea vs. Argentina game so it was nice that the hostel was quiet. I had tried to get tickets but it was sold out but it was nice to watch it in the warm.

Friday was the big game, USA vs. Slovenia. The game was at 4 so beforehand we went to this bar called radium where the Outlaws (US official soccer fans) had rented out. It was like any bar in America and was amazing. There was so much red, white and blue and so much heart. One of my favorite things from the bar was all the songs they would sing! It was great! The game was at Ellis Park Stadium in the city so it wasn’t too far. I had a great seat! I was on the same side as the benches, in the first tier, in between the goal and the benches. My seat had a great view and there were many Americans around. After the game, 2-2 tie, I went out with the other PCV’s to watch the 8:00 game. At midnight it was Mike’s birthday so we did a little mini pub-crawl in Melville. Towards the end it was exhausting…I almost fell asleep at the bar.

On Sunday I met up with 2 friends that I had studied in Beijing with, Win and Spencer. It was so much fun to see them and hang out and to catch up. I can’t believe that I hadn’t seen them since I left China. I went to the Brazil vs. Ivory Coast game that night at Soccer City and it was so much fun! I was really happy because I had tried buying a ticket earlier in the week but they were sold out. I ended up getting a ticket and it was amazing! I was seated in the Brazil section and was sitting next to some people from Portugal. It was fun to practice my Portuguese with Brazilians and Portuguese and to try and understand the different accents…pretty hard with the Brazilians.

All in all it was an amazing trip and I’m so happy I got to go! By the time I got back into Mozambique it was time and I really did miss it here. I never thought I would miss my house so much but it turns out I did! I can’t wait for my next big adventure but for now I’m happy to be staying in Mozambique.

love,
ann

“What kind of country is this?”

This past weekend I went to Swaziland for bushfire, a concert that takes place in the Manzini valley. I went with my two site mates Emma and Scooter and we meet our friend Anna in Maputo. On Thursday night we stayed in Namaacha with our home stay families. It was just like old times but so much nicer because I could actually speak Portuguese (that was one of their first comments!) I could also speak a little of the local language with them too which was great. The house had changed so much! I really enjoyed just hanging out with my family and being able to talk about more than just the weather…

On Friday we got up early and walked across the border into Swaziland. It was really fun to walk the border although they could have used better signs… once in swazi it was so different! There were signs everywhere, paved roads, trash cans along the side of the road, pretty much anything you wouldn’t look twice at we were amazed by! It was interesting talking with the locals because even though English is the national language there was still a language barrier. The concert was outside (which was a little cold) but it was fun for the time I was there.

One thing I really enjoyed was the hostel. Everyone was really nice and just cool to hang out with. Much different than my hostel experience in Europe. Even though it was a great trip it was really nice to come home! I can’t believe that in a week and a half I’ll be in South Africa for the World Cup!!! Miss everyone and hope you’re having a great start to summer!

Love,
Ann

Vilankulos

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!

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!