Happy Valentines Day from Mozambique!
This lovely Friday finds me back at the hospital, going over
the plan for next week, exploring Pintrest (a guilty indulgence of mine) and
just chatting with my supervisor and colleagues. It was a very slow workweek, compared to last week -the
highlight of it probably being my REDES meeting on Wednesday. Aside from that,
I haven’t done much.
It is really interesting how busy I can be one week, and how
bored I can be the next. Once I got most of the REDES stuff organized for the
regional planning meeting (to be held next Saturday) I didn't have much else to
do. CCS is working on their budget for the new fiscal year, I don't play a part
in that, and everything is running smoothly. I guess I should be happy that I
don't have work; it means that everyone is pulling their own weight and things
are getting done. But it still frustrates me…
This week’s REDES meeting was focused on the future, what
the girls want to be when they get older, and how they can achieve it. We made
‘dream boards’ of magazine cutouts glued onto some plain white paper. They
loved looking through the various magazines I had, and each had a great vision
board with a different story for what each photo represents.
hard at work on the vision boards
One of the girls had a cutout of doctors on it, the other a
car and a woman in a nice dress, and another had a girl working out combined
with a delicious looking photo of a salad. We talked about how important it was
to stay in school to reach these dreams of being a doctor/nurse, why acting and
looking professional is important for job interviews and workplace attitude,
and why it is even more important to workout and eat healthy – caring for one’s
body is the most important thing that these girls can do. We also talked a bit
about things that would hinder these dreams; like an unexpected pregnancy,
quitting school, getting sick etc. The meeting started off rather slow, with
the girls being resistant to really dive into a discussion, but I put on some
music, we looked through the magazines and slowly the conversation came to be.
finished product!
Nothing really new to report here in Mozambique…. I turned
in my COS (close of service) date preferences to my Peace Corps supervisor,
asking to leave on July 24th. That is the earliest date for our
group to leave, and I am sure that many have applied for that date, so I am
doubtful that I will get it. The next options are the 25th, 31st
and 1st of August. . . The sooner I can get out, the longer of a
trip I can take to come home -I’d like to try to get to India, or someplace
east of Africa, to circumnavigate the globe in my return.
Also, I have formally accepted my admissions to the
University of Pittsburgh for the MPH program! School starts around the 20th
of August, so that doesn't really leave me with much time between COS and
classes. I’d like to get at least a week or two of travel in, giving myself a
week or two to settle back into life stateside, and start school. I think that
this is the best thing for me- coming home and immediately having something to
do. If I didn't have school to look forward to, I don't know if I would be as
excited to come home as I am now.
T-minus two weeks until my Aunt Sarah is here for her visit,
I am very excited for this!
Coming up for me; this weekend I will probably wander up to
Inhambane City to celebrate a friends birthday on Saturday. . . next week I
have a few work meetings, and Cha Positivo at the hospital. We are preparing a
workshop to give about the Moringa plant –so that is something to look forward
to. And then on Saturday the 22nd, I have the REDES regional
planning meeting. So again, I will be busy.
That's the beauty of the beast here- one week you watch an
entire season of a tv series, and the next you are so busy the time just passes
oh so quickly.
That's all for now.
Happy Valentines Day to all of my loves.
Xo
t
"A teacher, a healer, a writer of blogs
half way round the world in Mozambique
we can't fathom the lifestyle you volunteer for
how you bathe, wash your clothes, (take a leak!)
But the one thing we know whether here or afar or
throughout your whole working day
is that Pittsburgh and 'Zambique people alike
wish you a Happy Valentines Day
Much love from 6,370 miles away!"
(from my eat 'n park family, love you guys!)
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Mozambique? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Mozambique in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez