So this past weekend we had a whole bunch of friends come to Inharrime to celebrate July 4th. It ended up being a great group of people and a wonderful weekend. Some people arrived on Friday and we just hung out and ate at the hotel that night. The hotel seemed overwhelmed by all the Americans but we all got our food without too much trouble.

On Saturday we did our shopping in the village and then just hung out at my house and cooked all day. We were not abstemious with our food and pretty much ate the entire day. We ended up taking all of my movable furniture outside because it was a beautiful day. My yard (which normally looks like a white trash yard) was transformed into a Frat front yard on the first nice days of the year...couches and chairs outside with cooking and football. Also Scooter had the great idea to have everyone buy a ridiculous American shirt from the many second hand clothing booths in Mozambique. It was so funny to see all the different shirts and hear all the stories of where they got them. Scooter even bought a shirt off a kid's back at the border crossing!

We also made a bonfire at night which was so much fun. I really enjoyed having everyone over and it was a great group. No one left before helping clean up or paying (which is pretty normal at Peace Corps gatherings). The weekend was a huge success and I'm so happy we were able to celebrate the 4th!

The last week in June has been an amazing one. It started with Mozambican Independence Day, June 25. One of the girls in my REDES group came over and we went to the praza to watch the activities. Since Independence Day was a Saturday many people left town to celebrate so there were not many people at the praza. They had a dance group perform and in the group was a girl who was about 2 years old. It was really cute to see the little girl doing as much of the dance that she could.

Other than that the weekend was just spent hanging out with my Mozambican friends and studying for the GMAT.

This week was an amazing one because of so many different reasons. First I started taking Portuguese lessons with one of Scooter’s colleagues. He has already helped my Portuguese so much and is teaching me grammatically correct language. Since many people here speak the local language first and don’t really learn Portuguese until they go to school the Portuguese spoken tends to not be grammatically correct. Since I have pretty much just been learning Portuguese from working I was not speaking 100% correctly. I’m happy to have the chance to learn the language and potentially be perfectly fluent by the time I leave.

My REDES girls had a big part in making this week so great. The lesson we did this was about sex vs. gender. It’s a very complicated topic for most people but the girls tried to learn and participate. Last week we discussed our futures and I wanted tie in the fact that just because women here do most of the work doesn’t mean they are the only one’s that CAN.

The girls also got really into a competition to design the T-shirt for the REDES conference that is in August. A lot of the girls came to my house and just hung out while drawing. They are so funny and asked so many questions. It was nice to be able to just hang out with them. Because there are so many (I have about 80) it just makes it too hard to try and have them all over to my house. I hope the girls will continue to come over and we’ll be able to have more of an exchange as I get to know them better.

This weekend Inharrime is hosting a 4th party. So far we have about 25 people coming so it should be a lot of fun! Happy 4th!

I can’t believe that it has already been 2 months since I last wrote. I feel like the time has flown by as it normally does. The days are short and the electricity has been going in and out so my days have been packed trying to use the light.

I started a REDES group at the primary school with 7th grade girls, and the turnout was amazing. I had 80 girls interested so I had to split them into 4 different groups. It’s quite overwhelming to have so many girls but it is also quite rewarding. This week we have been playing Frisbee and the girls love it. They haven’t quite gotten down the rules to ultimate Frisbee so it turns into a game of running with the Frisbee. A lot of the girls are shy but after the few meetings we’ve had I can see some of them starting to come out of their shells. I think it also helps that I make them do crazy stuff like dance without music (more like jumping dancing). It’s so much fun to be able to see all of these around town and see the changes that are happening.

This weekend I will be going with 8 kids from the theater group I’m helping out with to a workshop in Chicuque, a town about an hour away from Inharrime. The theater group has taken a while to get started but I’m hoping after this weekend the 8 kids will be so excited that everything will start to run smoothly. We were thinking about doing a play for Mozambican Independence Day (June 25) but considering it’s so close I don’t think it will happen. It’s also interesting to have a group with both boys and girls and to see the dynamic.

My job is going well but I’m feeling a little overwhelmed. Because I’ll be getting replaced 3 months before I end my service (which is November 18) I feel as of right now that I need to try and get done the things I want to by mid July. I’ve been working with my Peer Educators on creating income generation projects. We are still in the beginning stages of it but they are starting to think “outside the box” which I view as a success! We’ve also started doing reviews of all things health. This month and a half (since I’ll be leaving mid July) is about HIV/AIDS. I am also doing these reviews with a local organization.

As of now I’m also counting down the days until I’ll be in Cape Town! (but that also means taking the GMAT) I can’t believe that the test is less than a month away now! I’m excited for the trip and to get away for a little bit however I’ll be much more relaxed once the GMAT is over!

As I’m sitting here with my luke-warm hot chocolate, the cold weather has finally come to Mozambique. The wind has been blowing for a few days now and I think that my fence is not going to with stand it. Around this time last year is when my fence and papaya tree were ripped out of the ground. The energy is out due to the weather so I’m sitting outside trying to use the last light of the day.

My job has been going very well recently. I finally have work to do!..although it might be too much! My work with my big NGO has slowed down a little due to a problem in New York but hopefully that will be taken care of soon as I had a lot planned. I’ve been working with associations in my community and I’m really excited to be starting these partnerships. They have so many ideas and really like having me there. I’ve also started income generation projects with all the organizations I work with (or have at least talked about it) so they will be ok after all the aid money has left. I was also just accepted to do an activista exchange and medicinal plant training at the end of May. I’m really excited to learn about the medicinal plants of Mozambique and I think that this training will really help the organizations that I work with.

I started working with a theater group of about 10 kids who are really excited to be a part of it. I have a counterpart who is really excited to start work and is constantly coming to me with all of his ideas. I actually need to tell him to slow down…

My all girls group is in the process of reorganizing right now because of many different reasons but hopefully soon the group will be meeting every week. At least this year I have a Mozambican counterpart that is so excited for the group so I won’t be the only driving force with it! We actually had a big event on April 7 (Mozambican Women’s day) to celebrate being a woman. We had the 2 groups from Inharrime present (mine had 12 so we’re getting there) and had invited strong women from the community as well as welcomed all the women that had wanted to come. In Inharrime we have a woman Police chief, a woman Doctor and a woman Prosecutor which is unheard of. All three women came prepared and gave wonderful speeches (I was even surprised by the things I learned). The girls were animated and asked some great questions and you could tell everyone had a great time. I even had 4 colleagues come and participate.

For the weekend of April 1st, we went to tsene to celebrate Erin’s birthday. On Friday we pulled a prank on her (her first ever) by making a wall of duct tape and adding fishing line so she really couldn’t get out. The beach was a well needed break and even included a mud bath! It was a wonderful weekend with great company.

It feels like time is flying by and I can’t believe that I’ve been here for 18 months.

Love,

Ann

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!

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.

On Saturday November 27, Emma had her despidida party. She invited all of her colleagues to her house for the occasion. On Saturday Scooter and I went and helped out from bringing the tables and chairs from the school to getting water (and getting into a water fight) to cutting all the potatoes for the fries. We cut them quite small so they would cook like American fries. (Here they have fries all the time however they are cut so thick and are not crispy at all…). There were PCV’s from the area that came as well as our big surprise of two of our good friends from Gaza and Maputo provinces. Scooter and I actually kept it a secret the entire time and it was so much fun to see Emma’s reaction when she saw them!

The party was a mix between Mozambican and American styles. Emma’s colleagues gave her capulanas and put them around her then lifted her in a chair. It was really nice to see and they all sang while this was happening. The food was amazing! Everyone stayed and danced for the night. It was a great way to send off Emma after 2 great years of service!

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

i've had a pretty busy past couple of weeks. everything with my job is really taking off which is awesome but it just about started when i was going to be traveling. my mom came to my site and stayed in my hut which was a lot of fun! it is getting to the place i want it to be slowly but surely! it was so much fun to have her in inharrime! she was able to see first hand what i do and to see my everyday life. i was able to take her to the beach (zavora-my personal favorite) and we even brought amendoim! i tried to have him swim but i don't think he really liked it! she was up in inharrime for 3 days and then we traveled to Maputo to meet my dad. we stayed in the polana hotel (amazing to have a real bathroom, big bed, and ac all to myself!). it was a great break from everything and it was so great to see them!!!

i came back to inharrime for a day and then left again for my in service training up in nampula city. the conference was good and i got to see pretty much everyone in my group again! it was so much fun just to hang out and be in a different setting....also with ac! after the conference i extended my stay to go to ilha de moçambique and carushca. carushca is a beautiful beach where we rented a house and just relaxed! it was so much fun to hang out with a lot of my good friends that i don't get to see often!

ilha de moçambique is beautiful! we spent our last day there and did everything the island had to offer! there is a museum of the old governer's house along with museums of scared art, a maritime museum (that has tons of things from a boat that sunk off the coast) and a fort. we had a guided tour for everything and i learned a lot about the old capital of mozambique. the island is only 3km long and 500m wide so it is not too big so we were able to do the entire island in one day. of course my camera died within the first few pictures i took so i'll be trying to get all the photos from friends cameras that i used and put them up soon!!

i'll try to write more often! i've been pretty busy and haven't had much credit but i hope all is well and the weather is getting nicer!!!

love,

ann

These past couple of weeks have been filled with upgrading my house and work. Everything with my house is done and I've even added some things. My yard has no shade besides my lone papaya tree so I had a roof built with palm branches to finally have a place in the shade. My yard gets a good breeeze normally which helps a lot. Slowly my house is coming together and I'm actually getting excited to live here. I still have occasional visitors of different big bugs but I have not seen or heard a rat since they found the dead one and chased the 3 living ones out.

Since everything was pretty much done with my house (besides my dona de casa taking her things) I went to maxixe this weekend to buy a stove, fridge and other things so I can actually cook. I did get everything (for the most part) bit I also went to bring amendoin home. He has grown so mich since I last saw him! To bring him back I put him in a straw basket and felt like Paris Hilton...never again. Not only was I getting stared at like normal but people were actually stopping and staring. That hasn't happened in awhile. The 2 hour ride back was uneventful with amendoin sleeping pretty much the entire way. Once back home I put him on the ground because I had fashioned a leash and collar from a luggage strap and that got even more stares. Normally you see goats on leashes being draged so everyone was intrigued that I had a dog on a leash. Since I don't have a gate he's tied to my papaya tree. He has a lot of room and shade and can still come on to my porch. He's a bit of a cryer but I'm hoping he'll grow out of that. He's still very much a puppy and has been a lot of fun to have around.

I hope everyone is well and I really enjoy all the mail I've been getting!!!

Love,

ann

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!!!

I had a great and relaxing 24th birthday. I spent the day hanging out at scooter's and it was so great! We took the straw mat and sat on her front porch because it was actually cool and cloudy...pretty much a first. At lunch we had the pineapple upside down cake that scooter had made and the sisters put candles in it and sang! The cake was amazing and I got to make a wish! All in all it was a great birthday completed with a few episodes of 30 rock. It was a little weird to spend it in the heat sweating rather than in the freezing cold...

Today i started up work again with a thing called posithive teas. They are on the 1st Tuesday of every month and are a forum for people living with HIV and aids to come together and talk about their problems and their questions. One question today was if Mosquitos could transmit HIV and I actually added to the conversation! It was amazing to be in a space with so many positive people because in all reality I don't think I ever personally knew some one with HIV. They all had so much spirit and wanted to learn and were so full of life! This tea made me so excited to really start working! I'm excited at the prospect of making a difference even if it's only for one person. Tomorrow I will be meeting with a supervisor from ICAP to discuss what my exact role will be here.

I've returned to living in my house because of work. I think I killed all the rats because I've had food in my house and it's still here! Thank you rattex! Even though I think the house is rodent free or at least less I still am eating dinner really early and going to my office aroud 7. My office is my bed because it has the fortress of my mosquito net. I can't wait until I can eat late at night and do work at a table. If anyone wants to send me sudoku or people crosswords I've been really going through the stash I brought since I'm in bed for a good 2 hours before I go yo sleep! Hopefully I'll find a new house soon and will really be able to settle in!

Love,

ann

I have been at my site for about 3 weeks now and it feels like i've been here a lot longer. I am currently staying at my site mates house because mine is not ready... My site is really pretty and has access to both the beach and two main cities in my province. my town is on the main highway and it is really easy to hitchhike up to the cities which makes it easier cheaper! I got a dog as my christmas present to myself as a friend and for protection...for some reason mozambicans are afraid of dogs! I named him amendoim (peanut in portugese) because he's tan and needed a good mozambican name. He's up at my friends house in the city because i don't have a house yet...

Before Christmas I brought my stove to Scooter's house because we decided that we wanted to cook a holiday meal and watch christmas movies. We decided to make hash browns, french toast and no bake cookies...not a typical christmas meal for me but i guess french toast is a main item at christmas here! I bought an electric stove and once we were finished cutting everything we were cooking. we started the hash browns first because they would take the longest. once they were well on the way i turned on the second burner to start cooking the french toast and it started a fire. i turned off the second burner right away but that didn't help. The fire burned through the surge protector and was burning on the wall (picture of the aftermath on facebook). I proceded to run out the door looking for a fire extinguisher...doesn't really help when there arn't any. good thing that the girl from across the hall heard us because she came in and told us to through water on it! i remember from fire safety not to use water on electrical fires but scooter grabed some water and through it on th wall finally putting out the fire...i think at that point the wall was on fire and it was not electrical. I guess my south african stove was just too much for the current here!

For new years i went to a place called Vilankulos which is a tourist town on the beach. Scooter and I bolea'd all the way up there...it took 6 cars but they all had a/c!!! It was so nice to get away from my site and to hang out with the other volunteers from my province. i had pizza twice on my 4 day vacation and spent a few days just relaxing at the beach! it's definitely been weird not having any snow or cold being january although the beach is a nice trade off! For the next few months i have to stay in my province so besides weekend trips to the beach i'm going to be working a lot! i'm excited to get working and to settle into life here!

I hope everyone had a great christmas and new years!!!

love,

ann

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the long time between posts but between the end of training and moving to site its been pretty hectic and I really haven’t had access to the internet. I arrived at site on Friday the 18th and I was in for a surprise…I really did get a hut! My house is a kanisu house (which means it’s made out of straw and it has had many problems. There are a ton of rats living with me…so much for living alone! And I have a ton of bugs and ants which are living inside the straw. Being a straw house I can hear everything outside and can never tell exactly where it is coming from. The house has three rooms and a ton of furniture which I really don’t want or need…I also think some of the pieces are what the rats are calling home. The house does have electricity but no water so I have to have someone bring me water often. Because of the state of my current house I am going to be switching houses soon (hopefully!) and am actually going to look at them tomorrow!

I live in a new house (no one from Peace Corps has lived there before) so I am constantly going to Maxixe or Inhambane (the two major cities an hour north of me) to buy things. It’s great because I go with my site mate Scooter often and then we can bolea(hitchhike) and it takes less time and money. It’s also great because the big cities have a South African grocery store, where I can buy cheese, yogurt, diet coke, and many other things that are hard to find, a store owned by Chinese men where I can practice, some really good places to get amazing (well know I think so) food and other places. The two cities are about 10-15 minutes apart by boat because Inhambane is located on the peninsula and Maxixe on the mainland and by car they’re about 40 minutes.

My town is a great place because it is located on the EN1which is the main road going up the coast of Mozambique which means a great market area. But it also means that I am constantly being called Maloongo (white person) and am being given the higher prices. It’s especially bad right now because all the South Africans are traveling up for the holidays…I hope that it will get better once everyone realizes that I’m actually living there!

My job as of right now is still not defined but I know that I will be giving talks on all things health here in Mozambique. I’m excited because my organization International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Program (ICAP) has the main office area in a youth health building (Servicos Amigos para Adolecents e Jovens SAAJ) and so I hope I can work a lot with the ‘at risk’ age group here! I am really going to start work after the new year, it’s been hard coming in right around Christmas time because everyone is just trying to finish up for the year.

I still cannot believe that it’s Christmas! Its been so hot here and there is no snow or really any Christmas decorations that it just doesn’t seem time. Every time I comment about the weather I have to explain how cold Chicago is with snow and they still don’t understand…they think 20C is the end of the world and now I do to! I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year if I don’t get to a computer before then!!

I’m trying to put up pictures but I think you can see them on my picture site: http://gallery.me.com/aedavis

Love you and miss you all!!!

Ann

So I found out where I'll be living for the next 2 years and I'll be living in inharrime, inhambane. It's in the south and it's only about 5 or 6 hours from Maputo and only 45 minutes to 3 hours (depending on transportation) to the big beach!!! There is a beach near my town which is only around 10 minutes to half an hour away. So everyone start saving up your money to come and visit me!!!

Today we also had thanksgiving and it was amazing!!! We had everything that I love and then some fun mozambiquan treats! I'll write more later but will update more later!!!!

Love,

ana

So last week I went on a site visit to Zambezia. It is a province in the northern part of the country and it was a well needed break from training. First and foremost I only had a school backpack to pack in and I am a huge over packer…but I did it and still had too much stuff for the 5 day trip! Because Zambezia is in the north of the country we got to fly from Maputo to Quilimane, the capital of the province. One rule of the Peace Corps is that you cannot travel at night, so because my site was 4 hours and 2 chappa rides away I stayed the night in Quilimane. I had a great time just hanging out and eating pizza…I’ve missed it so much!!!

The next day I was up at 5:30 to catch my first chappa from Quilimane to Namacurra. There are no scheduled times for any type of chappa…they go once they’re full. I got to the chappa stop and had to wait around for and hour and a half in order for my chappa to fill up. (a chappa is a small van/bus thing that is meant to hold 3 people across it’s 4 rows but in Mozambique you have to have at least 4). I was lucky enough to get the front seat next to the driver. The ride to Namacurra was beautiful. It is just starting pineapple season here and the fields were what I remembered from being little and in Hawaii. Once in Namacurra I took a big truck (flat bed) to Macuse. We ended up driving around surrouding villages and it took 3 hours but it was awesome to see all the traditional mud and stick huts. This region also was the biggest exporter of coconuts while the Portuguese were in control so there are tons of trees.

I stayed in Macuse for 2 nights and had a great time just relaxing and eating Indian food (the volunteer’s neighbor is from India and constantly brings food over!) It is a very small town but is situated on the inlet and it used to be an old port. There is a beach but it is an hour away by bike. Macuse had a ‘hospital’ but it only had 2 nurses. Mozambique is in a huge need for doctors and nurses considering they only have 900 doctors for 20+ million people.

To ensure I’d be back to catch my flight I had to leave Macuse early morning of the 4th day of the trip. After doing my 2 chappa rides back to Quilimane I met up with two other trainees and we went to Zalala beach which is about an hour from Quilimane. It was so nice to be at the beach and I swam in the Indian Ocean for the first time! The water was so warm and the waves were big enough to body surf. We shared our chappa ride back with all the seafood that was just caught, including a small hammerhead shark. We had hamburgers and ice cream which was so good! My first of both since getting to Mozambique!!

Once home we had our normal classes resume but I am so re-energized and excited to finish training and get to site that I don’t mind it! It was just the same thing for so long but now I can see the finish line and it is pretty sweet! We are also allowed to go to Maputo by ourselves and have a later curfew which is so nice! I went to Maputo yesterday and had a great time buying capulnas (like a sarong that you can make things out of) and jewelry. The Mozambique soccer team, the mambabas, won a world cup qualifying game yesterday against Tunisia and it was so cool to be in the capital for the win!!! Wish I had gone to the game but hopefully I’ll bee able to see them in the world cup!

I find out my site on Thanksgiving and am so excited!!! I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on where I end up! Hope everyone is well and is gearing up for the holiday season! I did get Elf on my computer and am so excited to watch it (not to mention it will be the closest I can get to snow!).

Love,

Ana

So after a month of living in namaacha i've finally realized that it can be considered camping with a bed. i brush my teeth outside with a glass of water, feel invinicible while sleeping under a mosquito net, cook over an open fire, have a latrina and take bucket baths. it's been a great time and i really do enjoy it but i would like to take a real shower sometime soon...

i've completed a month of training and really only have 5 more weeks!!! this coming weekend we leave for site visits which will give us a glimpse of what the next 2 years will look like. i'm so excited to leave namaacha since we really haven't been able to for this first month.

this past weekend we had a halloween party and it was so much fun!!! i realized that i do like halloween but i like it a lot more in different countries. the costumes were so great considering everything was bought from our local market. i'll try to put pictures up at some point but it proves to be really hard here. Not much else has changed in my life recently but i love being updated on all of yours!!! i also do have internet on my phone and check my emial more than anything else so that is the best way to get a hold of me!!! miss you all!!!!!

love,

ana

So I’ve been in Namaacha for about three weeks now. Training has been good but hard. As I write this I am watching one of my new favorite novellas called Poder Paralelo. This week has flown by with good times and bad but that’s to be expected when training. Today has been one of the coldest days yet and it feels cold! It’s only around 19C but it feels like its 0. Not only was it freezing (it’s all relative!!!) but it also rained all day. We’ve had rain but it hasn’t been all day or very hard. All the roads that I walk on are dirt with many rocks so needless to say my feet were covered in mud. Because the roads are pretty much mountains and dirt it makes it very hard to climb up and down and I almost fell every step…especially going down the mountain.

We found out on Wednesday that we are going to have a Halloween party so Mrs. Howell may be an option (If I can find a costume at the market!). Since everyday is pretty much the same because of classes, it’s nice to have different things to look forward to.

I also took to naming all the animals in my house since they didn't have names. The cat is chocolate, the dogs are buster and bentley, and there is a gecko that comes out at night who i named bob. it's great because the kids in my house have taken to calling the animals by the names i gave them!!

Would love to write more but I have to clean my shoes…such fun!!! Miss everyone!!!

Love,

Ana

Hey everyone!!

I've been in namaacha for the past two weeks and I can't believe it! It feels like yesterday that I was getting on the plane to go to Philly. Life in Africa has been great so far even with the few hicups I've had. When I arrived in mozambique I spent the first 2 nights at a hotel in Maputo living the last of the good life. From there we came to namaacha which is where we're training. I originally was in a house with a grandma and many of her grandchildren. It was a lot of fun and everyday I woke up to Swaziland. I got moved a week ago but I can still see Swaziland (it's a big topic of conversation here). I know live in a family wig a mother, father, many sons and one daughter. My schedule here mainly consists of eating and bathing. They have 5 meals here and have told me that I have to get fat. I have at least two baths a day which consists of a bucket and a cup. It's not as bad as I thought a bucket bath would be. My days here consist of portuguse class and health classes all day long. My classes start at 7:30 and end at 17:30 on a good day!

I've seen quite the interesting things here. I've seen:

-a chicken get killed and defeathered (my first night here which ended up being my dinner)

-a snake which my vovo (grandma) killed with a stick!

-a goat come by my classroom

-random pigs in my yard

-Swaziland

-a ton of Brazilian novelas and game shows

-kids dancing Michael Jackson better than Michael Jackson

-my hair look like coolio

-big cockroaches and spiders

all in all Mozambique is great!!! I miss you all and hope to stay updated on your lives!

Love,

ana