Written Friday, September 28, 2012

Hello hello – another day in moz! All is well here, contrary to that last semi-depressing blog post.

My week improved greatly, on Wed I had a meeting with my one organization, we talked about the difference between stigma and discrimination (a lot of it dealing with those who have HIV/AIDS) how we can combat both, and things to do on the home visits. We also talked about future projects for the organization, specifically income-generation projects. I think they are going to try and use the blenders that we had from the festival, and make the smoothie/juice that we made there. It’ll bring in some money from the sales, and help encourage healthy living with information about moringa. Stay tuned to see how that goes. Next week, we will be having a brainstorm to discuss possible new projects as well . . I’m trying to think of some, but I don’t think I’ve been here long enough to really know what the community needs.

After the meeting on wed, we went down to the lagoon – it was perfect. Sunny sky, a slight breeze, and not a person in sight. The water was decently warm too, so I went for a swim, life was pretty darn good if you ask me. Luckily we caught a ride back up the hill – usually about an hour walk up a steep hill in loose sand – so that was just the icing on the already good cake haha. The ride was half the fun too, we were sitting on top of a mountain of coconuts in the back of a truck, having to duck every time we passed under some branches haha. It was an adventure in itself.

Yesterday, Angela and I went to our other organization, where we gave a palestra (informational speech/talk) about some medicinal plants and remedies. It was really interesting stuff. . .next month I will be doing a solo presentation about how to purify/filter water. So I’ll be doing some research about that soon. I know of two ways to do it without boiling/using a filter right now, and hope to find out more. I’m a bit nervous about flying solo, because although I feel comfortable talking in conversational settings, getting up in front of people and talking in Portuguese is a bit daunting at the moment. Hopefully in a month’s time I’ll feel a bit more comfortable.

After that palestra, we went to Angela’s house and began doing a big clean out. . .the amount of stuff she has amassed over 2 years is truly astounding to me. But in all fairness, I came to Africa with two bags, and now have two bags and two boxes of things – most of the stuff is books given to me by PC, but I have collected some things on my own time as well. I am inheriting a lot of things, which is incredibly helpful – and have started of thinking about ideas for special arrangement in the house. For example, I know I want more shelving units – I just need to figure out cost, and then ask my one org to help me build it – they have a small carpentry business there.

Today I don’t have too much going on – I’m going to help Sota get some things together for the part tomorrow (Angela’s going-away party). . . and maybe look into some good new recipes to try in the coming weeks.

Ankle is doing ok, still a bit sore, but I figure that’s normal for a sprain right?

Next weekend is the big move for me – then the weekend after that I’m going to have a visit from Peace Corps to see how everything is going, they check in about our housing situation, and the organizations during the first three months. And then two weekends after that is Reconnect. . the time seems to be flying. I was on the phone with a friend last night, and he asked how my week had gone – I stopped and realized that it was almost Friday already . . .and just laughed.

Anyway – all is well here, the sun is out, there is a nice breeze blowing through the palm trees, and I have clean hair (took a nice bucket bath this morning). . . life is pretty good today.

Have a great weekend –

t