The morning after site placement most of us PCTs were off on our way to Bilene, a beach town about six hours away. The awesome PCVs in the area planned everything for us and rented two houses for all of us. This was a much needed break! PST is very busy with classes six days [...]
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One of the best holidays every year is Thanksgiving, the family gets together, football all day, and great food. Well Thanksgiving in Mozambique didn’t disappoint. All the PCTs had a nice big festa at Casa Grande. We had four turkeys, tons of mashed potatoes, cakes, cookies, different kinds of rice dishes and more. I have [...]
As the last few days of PST ticked away everything seemed so busy. There was lots of administrative things to do, packing up most of our things in order to make it easier to get things to site and of course the excitement and nervousness of going to site. It was extremely bittersweet knowing that [...]
Despite popular belief I am in fact still alive. I would like to debunk the following myths of my whereabouts: I was not eaten by a lion I was not attacked by a group of ravenous monkeys I was not bitten by a Black Mamba, although I do hope to get the chance to see [...]
As I sat in the back of the PC truck, my bags, boxes and wonderful water filter sitting a on floor next to me, curiosity was getting to me. Where exactly was my new home going to be? What is the house going to be like? What is my new host family going to be [...]
The morning began with the fun of laundry day. This usually consists of hours of washing clothes by hand, scrubbing, rinsing, wringing and finally hanging. By the end of it my knuckles are raw, as PCTs we have strawberried knuckles as our badge of honor. After hanging up everything it was time for me to [...]
As Americans we love Halloween, we get to dress up, act strange (in some cases just stranger than normal), and of course free candy! This is a holiday that is not celebrated in Mozambique, but that was not going to stop us PCTs. I tried to describe the holiday to my family but they were [...]
So pretty much the biggest part of PST, aside from Swearing In, is site placement. This is the time where all PCTs find out where they will be going to live for the next two years. The sites are decided by PC staff and it doesn’t appear to have any known system of how they [...]
Every Wednesday and Saturday in Namaacha is “shoprite” day. Now there are stores called ShopRite in bigger towns that are similar to a Mozambican Kroger. They are large, air conditioned, and have all the great foods you could want, like Doritos, Fritos, and everything to make burritos. Unfortunately, this is not the same as Namaacha [...]
A major part of PST is to learn about the culture here. I think we can all agree that food is an integral and unique part of every culture. (Especially in my family, oh how I miss the food) So we had a night where together in our language groups with our Mães, we learned [...]
Every morning I brush my teeth next to the casa de banho(bathroom), along a small stone boarder that is about ankle high and divides our property from the neighbor’s. When I brush my teeth I’m facing the neighbor’s house but usually it’s early and not many people are out and about so I’m not just [...]
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holidays. I’m enjoying Christmas in Tete City with other Teters (PCVs that live in Tete Province), only the hottest place in all of Mozambique and probably one of the hottest in the world. I think it’s safe to say this will be the hottest Christmas I [...]
I’m going to finally work on catching up with my blog posts. They may seem really out dated now but they were written at the time of the events so it will remain in chronological order. I had been so busy during training and a lack of easy interwebs access that I have not posted [...]
Gotta love this malaria medication, it provides great entertainment at night. I had a dream that was pretty vivid but disturbing, which is not uncommon for being on the medication. It took place back in Columbus but I’m not going into details with it since it’s quite gruesome. Another dream I had was pretty strange [...]
After the first full week in Namaacha I was able to go back to Maputo and buy things like a cell phone. We all met at the frontiera (boarder) around 6:30 am, only for the chapas to not pick us up until 7:15 am. Chapas are the most common means of transportation in Mozambique. They [...]
After about a week here I was finally picking up the basics of the language. My language teacher, Ilidio, even told me that he noticed I was able to follow some of the conversations. Language will be my small uphill battle for all of training and probably beyond, but baby steps will suffice for now. [...]
Most of the time we are divided based on what our jobs will be here in Mozambique, Education or Health. Once a week we have what are called HUB days, where we are all together and go over important stuff like medical and safety as well as other things. For our first HUB day the [...]
Finally the crazy weekend has ended, now the crazy PST really starts. It’s a big holiday here in Mozambique, people don’t go to work and there isn’t any school. Everyone just parties and it seems to be their Independence Day. Home stay debriefing was a good time, we heard the stories of other PCTs about [...]
The roosters here will cock-a-doodle-do any time of the day, but usually get quiet at night. Starting around 3 am they begin to wake up and figure everyone else should, but only a few of them at this time. By 5:30 am there is an orchestra of roosters and they can be really loud if [...]
Standing on the the border where Mozambique, Swaziland, and South Africa meet.
Due to my lack of being able to get online with my computer on a consistent basis I will be writing multiple blog posts in a word document and my extremely nice brother has agreed to load them for me from time to time. This way there aren’t 10 posts all at once and nothing [...]
Bucket baths seem total normal, I’m not sure if I even remember how to take a shower My alarm clock is now a rooster (which likes to start around 3 am sometimes) Directions are given based on landmarks such as the water hole or the pink casa Peanut butter is now a luxury item (I [...]
We all left Maputo three hours before we were supposed to be in Namaacha, our training site. I was saying goodbye to running water, electricity, and possible cement housing. As we approached Namaacha, it was noticeably different from the city. The vast country sides of green trees and straw yellow colored fields. It turns into [...]
After a 15 hour flight to Jo’burg, a 5 hour lay over, then 1 hour flight to Maputo, I finally arrived. It was a frantic grabbing luggage, skipping security, declaring arrival in Mozambique and then finally stepping outside. I don’t think there are words to describe an experience like this. The air smells somewhat of [...]
I sit in my hotel bed with less than 12 hours before I leave America. The only song playing in my head is John Denver’s Leaving On A Jet Plane. It’s hard to believe this day has actually come. It seems like just yesterday I was hoping that I would be able to get into [...]
Hokay, so, I now have a different blog. It is www.wanderingbuckeye.com, thanks to my brother, he has helped me set up a more personalized blog. I will be updating there from now on. Along the right side there is a place to sign up for RSS feed or you can just do the email subscription to get notified whenever I update. It still has a couple little things that need to be worked out but it
I can’t believe I only have six weeks until I’m leaving. I have so much to do and so little time. I’m still going to be working for the next three weeks so that doesn’t give me a lot of time to just focus on getting ready. I’m starting to get the things I need, [...]
My Invitation is finally here!!!!! I’m going to Mozambique! (more info here: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mz.html and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique) I’m going to be a biology teacher! Good thing I watch Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. The bad part for the students is that I have to teach in Portuguese, ahhhhhhh!!! I am supposed to leave on September 29th-ish, [...]
And so it begins…or many things begin. Please excuse the blog in the beginning, I’m new to the blogging and it may take some time until I get things streamlined and going the way I want them to. I’m starting this blog to help keep everyone updated with my ventures. I had been cleared for [...]
I can't believe I only have six weeks until I'm leaving. I have so much to do and so little time. I'm still going to be working for the next three weeks so that doesn't give me a lot of time to just focus on getting ready. I'm starting to get the things I need, slowly but surely. Originally in my head I figured that I would be relaxing and catching my breath before the great adventure, which
My Invitation is finally here!!!!!I'm going to Mozambique! (more info here: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mz.html and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique)I'm going to be a biology teacher! Good thing I watch Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. The bad part for the students is that I have to teach in Portuguese, ahhhhhhh!!!I am supposed to leave on
And so it begins...or many things begin. Please excuse the blog in the beginning, I'm new to the blogging and it may take some time until I get things streamlined and going the way I want them to. I'm starting this blog to help keep everyone updated with my ventures.I had been cleared for placement in December 2009 but was nominated to leave in September 2010 to go to Sub-Saharan Africa, so I
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