what a small world.

It has been a busy busy few weeks here in Mozambique. Where I last left off was just getting back from my trans-Atlantic travels to Americaland. Re-assimilating back into life here in Moz etc. . . I had the pleasure of hosting two lovely women from the Peace Corps Zambia program, who had just finished their two years of service. I met the one woman when I was traveling in Zambia with my dad, back in June, her and I exchanged emails, and it all worked out that her and her friend were able to come play in Quissico! How great right? It was a lovely few days spent with them, I have such a fantastic site, and such lovely people live here – every chance I have to show it off I do! We cooked some great food, had some drinks, and really fantastic conversation. Its very interesting to hear about different peace corps experiences- while we all have similar/a consistent underlying theme of pit latrines, local housing etc, the programs are drastically different. So the time spent with them provided great insight into life in Zambia.

This past weekend, I traveled up to Tofo beach, for a Halloween/going away party for the 17er’s (the education group that is leaving country) which was very fun, I camped out on the beach, had lots of fun with people I hadn’t seen in months and just enjoyed the beach. Want to hear something totally crazy? The two ladies that stayed with me the week prior went to Maputo where they met some Peace Corps from Botswana who were staying in the same hostel there – they told them about the party in Tofo beach, so PC Botswana traveled up to the beach to see what we, as PC Moz have to offer by the way of fun. Wouldn't ya know it- one of the volunteers is actually from Pittsburgh, PA, and went to Keystone Oaks High School… graduate a year ahead of me. WHAT ARE THE ODDS? Totally wild and crazy that I would run into someone from high school, on a beach, in Mozambique, while we are both serving in Peace Corps. WILD. Sometimes you just have to smile at the silliness that life throws at you.

Sunday morning at 4am, some vol’s and I hopped a bus heading south, I stopped in Chidenguele (Yuri’s site) to drop my stuff, bathe, and prep for our incoming site visitors. He and I then traveled to Xai Xai to meet the new Trainee’s, had lunch in town, and then popped back up to Chidenguele. 

Remember back in July how I hosted two visitors- during pre-service training we all go to see a current PCV’s site, to see how life is, what work is like etc. .  this time around, I am hosting volunteers that will be in the education sector, so I thought that it would be more advantageous for them to see Yuri’s site, considering that he is a professor. We stayed the night at his home, so they could see how a professor lives, and in the morning we walked around his school, giving the trainees an opportunity to ask questions and see what sort of work environment they are in store for.

That afternoon I traveled back to Quissico with my two trainees, lovely ladies who I have truly enjoyed having stay with me. That afternoon we didn’t do too much, just kind of relaxed a bit, went and saw the town/the overlook of the lagoons and had some beers with the setting sun. Not a bad way to unwind from what has been a crazy few days. Yesterday I took them around town, to the hospital, to my one community based organization, and back through town. It is starting to get veryyyyy hot here, so the hot hours were spent here at home on the porch/in my house trying to ‘beat the heat’. In the afternoon we went to check out my local school here, chatted with the director a bit, and saw the mural that we painted with my REDES group. Ended the day with a beer in the local bar, and a great big stir fry dinner.

Oh yes! Some of the good things we have had to eat in the past few days- lunch in xai xai was Indian food, that evening we made fajitas at Yuri’s house, then an egg scramble for breakfast the next morning, fresh fruit smoothies for lunch, a great lentil mixture for dinner, french toast for breakfast, smoothies again, last night I made a great stir fry, somewhere in there we also made some hummus for later today, and some banana bread. Today we started our day with banana cinnamon pancakes, and have a full day planned of visiting my other community organization, and maybe heading down to the lagoon. Yuri and his trainees are going to come up to Quissico this morning, so that way they can see how a health volunteer lives, and see the health system.

So all in all, it has been a veryyyy busy few weeks, lots of people in and out of my little hut here. I take the GRE this Saturday, so I am heading down to Maputo on Thursday morning, to spend the day Friday at the office doing a final review/prep. This will also give me an opportunity to see some 17ers that are getting on a plane home this coming weekend. Officially making Moz 18, my group, the crusty old PCV’s in country. Wild. I feel like I was just in training. And now here I am, showing the newbie’s the ropes of life here in moz. Wildddddd.

On a very sad note, my counterpart with CCS (the organization at the hospital) was killed in a car accident on Monday morning. He was returning from Maputo, after spending the weekend there with his girlfriend and family. He traveled down there last Thursday to buy a car that he had been saving up for, for months – and on his return trip, a sleepy semi-truck driver, drove him off the road, killing him instantly. I’m very saddened by this news, he was such a fantastic person, very motivated and driven, a real ‘go-getter’ – which is kind of rare to find here in Moz (sad to say)… so this is a very hard thing to deal with. In addition to the fact that I finally had a counterpart who I was getting work done with. You all remember all the issues I had when ICAP was here- and how many times my role at the hospital has changed… I thought that with Nelson my work was set, and I had found a great project. Now it’s going to change again, and with only 7 months to go, its just frustrating. Transportation in this country is so dangerous. And when it hits so close to home like this, makes it even scarier.

Sorry to leave off on such a sad note. . . but it happens here in Moz. Life is fragile. We all kind of just do our best to get by.  On the plus side, it is absolutely beautiful here today, and I have finally found some time to write out a blog post for “yinz guys”.

Big x and o always

tay