Written September 6, 2012

Posted soon!

Good morning all! Its about 7am here on this lovely Thursday morning – actually its not so lovely here today. For the past week its been a bit overcast, very windy, and occasionally rainy. . . think a colder rainy day at the beach. Its not unpleasant. . .its just not really great.

Needless to say, with the wind and whatnot, energy here has been a hit or miss this week. Sometimes its here, sometimes it isn’t. Even the hospital on Tuesday went without electricity. . .on days like that, there honestly isn’t much to do.

On Monday, I went to Inharrime, the next big city along the EN1 – its about an hour’s drive (depending on the chapa) and should cost about 38Mtz one way. I was fortunate enough to catch a bollea (free ride) both ways. Its just like hitchhiking – you stick your thumb out and hope for the best. Its interesting to see the type of people that stop. White south african’s are the least likely to stop, even though they have an entirely empty car – couldn’t tell ya why. And the overcrowded chapa’s are the most likely to stop, hoping to squeeze in one more person. The art of the bollea is something I am still trying to learn, there are hand signals that the driver will give, telling you that they aren’t traveling far, that the car is full, etc. Hopefully I’ll get the hang of it soon.

Anyway, I digress. Went up to Inharrime to meet the modista – seamstress – that Angela frequents, and to check out the post office. I introduced myself to the man behind the counter, and told him that I would be taking over for Angela. There was no formal documentation I needed to sign or anything. It surprised me at first, and then I remembered where I was haha. No packages had arrived yet, but I will check again either next week or the week after. Some people have had great luck with packages, my friend Jason has received all of the ones sent to him, Angela has received all but 3. Letters are super tricky to get through – no one is really sure why, and everything takes about a month to get here. Even if the US says 10-14 business days. . .that usually means 25-30 on Moz time. The post office in Inharrime is as good as any, so that’s still my best bet.

Tuesday like I said, there was no energy, and my organizations already had things going on, one was going to Maxixe for a conference, and the other no one was there. The hospital didn’t have power, and it was rainy. . . can you all guess what I did? Yep – spent the entire day in bed/around my little house. It actually kind of worked out, because I was having some stomach problems that day, so the rest was greatly appreciated. I finished another book, having now read about 20 since arriving in Moz, and started another. “The Dressmaker of Khair Khana” by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. Its very interesting. I’m about halfway through, and recommend it to anyone looking for a good story.

So that was my Tuesday relaxing and reading. Yesterday I had our weekly meeting with my one organization – the attendance was very low for a number of reasons; the weather was still a bit crappy, there is a huge week-long event going on at one of the churches, and the weather was crappy. Haha, but some things were accomplished during the meeting, so that’s good. Next week, we are going to map out some things for me to do during Sept, and Oct and I am scheduled to go on some home visits with the volunteers. Looking forward to it! Afterwards I headed into the town to buy some stuff for lunch – I made brushetta again, its simple, cheap and quick to make.

Found a new development! They have just opened a new “internet spot” here in Quissico! For 45Mtz I can have about a ½ hour of internet – not sure how quick or how good, but I may check it out one day. I had walked into the building hoping to use their fax machine, unfortunately with the power issues we have been having, the machine was down and I was unable to send some documents into the PC office. Oh well, I’ll try again tomorrow or next week.

Today I’m heading down to my other organization to talk with some people about my month’s schedule, and just to say hi. We have set up a year calendar with them, and I’ll be interested to see how on-track we stay. This organization meets only once a month, something I really want to work on them about changing. Its hard to get a lot done, or make considerable progress when you meet one day out of the month for 4/5 hours. Stay tuned to see how that goes.

In other news – I have water today!! Yayy!! In addition to the energy issues, we have also had a lack of water here in Quissico, but today we finally got it! Looks like I get to take a bath tonight! And by “bath” I mean bucket bath – don’t be getting any fancy ideas over there haha.

Its kind of another gloomy day here – I’m hoping some of the clouds will burn off – its been chilly too! Not as cold as it was in Namaacha, but I was finally getting accustomed to the heat (even though its just going to get hotter) and now this chillyness? My oh my.

Well now that I’ve spent most of my blog talking about the weather (I really am becoming part of Moz) which is what I do with a lot of people here – I will bid you all a good day.

Hope everything is well, I’m being kept updated on the current political climate –interesting stuff, and would love updates about everyone’s personal life and families!

Miss and love ya all!

t