accomplishments

Good morning everyone!

This blog is coming to you from under a mango tree at Acomuza, during one of our meetings. Its wonderful and breezy here, and the sun filters through the branches in small circles that dance across the sand. It's a beautiful place, with beautiful people surrounding me. I couldn't be happier.

Apologies for my lack of blogging as of late, its not that there aren’t things to say about what’s happening; I’m just busy living and experiencing these things.

So let’s start with what’s been going on at work! Something that I am very very proud of, a project that has finally started, and been running well, and hopefully will help the community in a BIG way!!

In town, we have this small HIV testing center, which is really just a small room that has space enough for 3 people and a table. The best thing about this center is that it is right in the center of town, accessible to everyone, passerby and locals. People don't have to go to the hospital to get tested, they can just stop in, wait 5 minutes, and -bam- know their HIV status, and receive a consult right then and there (as well as condoms and such). Sounds like a great thing you say? I agree!

The problems with this have been numerous- not enough man power to keep the center open mon-fri from 8am-3pm, lack of the HIV rapid tests, etc. So, seeing all this happening I spoke with my counterpart at CCS, and suggested that we select 5-7 people from Acomuza (my community based organization that is now partnered with CCS) train them to do HIV tests, and then have one person a day work in the center. After talking with both CCS, Acomuza, the hospital staff/director, and waiting 3+ months to get this training approved, it has started!

We have selected 6 volunteers from Acomuza to be trained (one for each day of the week, plus a substitute if someone is sick/cant make it to work). Training two people at a time at the hospital, for 3 days each (mon-wed) will let us have all 6 people trained in 3 weeks. Once this is completed, we are going to have a meeting to discuss and create the calendar/schedule for the center.

The best part about all of this?? The first two people to be trained actually showed up on time on Monday, yesterday, and today! The first two will be trained!! First step to success! Hopefully it will be the same next Monday when we all show up to work. Each person receives a certificate of completion once the training is over, which may not seem like a big thing for us Americans, but here in Mozambique – certificates are the thing to get. Seriously.

So that is my small victory and success story for the week! In addition to this, I have been busy planning/helping to program training for REDES facilitators.

THIS is the type of work that I love doing here, the transferable skills, the empowering of workers here in Mozambique. This is sustainable work. When I leave site, the volunteers will still have the training/abilities to do HIV tests, to run REDES groups etc.

This makes me feel accomplished. The world is not changing, I am not curing AIDS, but 6 peoples lives will be slightly more enhanced, and hopefully with this, we can reach out to so many more people here in Quissico to encourage them to be tested.

Delicious things that I have made this week – a delicious homemade granola with raisins and peanuts, a coconut banana parfait/smoothie type thing for breakfast, and moringa hummus to put on toasted veggie sandwiches for lunch. YUM.

Lua is doing well, she has a new play-buddy, a puppy from a few houses over. This puppy is hilarious and adorable. Of course I’ve taken him under my wing a bit, giving him flea medicine, and deworming meds. . . I hate to see mistreated dogs here. Best part of this little guy? He’s only a few months old, and already about as big as Lua. Hilarious.

I’ve also recently created one of the greatest inventions in my house, and could KICK MYSELF for not doing this sooner - A hand washing station that is located off the corner of my porch. I punched some holes in the cap of an empty plastic bottle, cut the bottom off, flipped it upside down, and strung a rope through slits in the side. I fill it up with water, and it streams out like a faucet, allowing me to wash my hands, face etc without pausing.

            -why it took me so long to create this…. I’m not really sure.

I have a busy month coming up, on the 10^th I head back to Maptuo for two things; the REDES training (11^th-13^th), and a meeting with my Peace Corps boss about my extension. 

--Welp… there it is. Cat’s out of the bag. I am extending my contract with Peace Corps, moving to Quelimane in the Zambezia Province in the northern part of the country. Details about logistics to follow. I wasn't even going to write about it in this blog until I had more information, but then I decided that you all should know my decision.

April 21-25^th I have another meeting for REDES in Maputo, but this time it is about the legalization of the project into an actual NGO. Exciting stuff! And then following that, I have my COS conference, where we go to all the doctors, and get all of our information for our leave dates/the last 90 days of our service.

And there goes the month of April! Wild.

Miss you all, and love you more.

tx