Sorry I have been out of touch for almost a month! After my
rant about Ebola, I felt you all deserved a break from my soapbox nonsense.
Plus, work here in Quelimane continued to go at a snails pace, so there really
wasn't much to report.
On the 2nd of November I traveled to Maputo with
to help facilitate the Reconnect conference for group Moz 22 – it was both
interesting and eerily strange to hear all about their first three months in
country at their sites, doing their presentations about their community needs
assessments etc However, this was the group that replaced Moz 18, my friends
and family at our various sites. . . hence the strangeness. Hearing their
stories about their daily life, funny events, and awkward situations with
people in their communities and thinking back to my friends continuous life
events that, were at times spot on with the new volunteers (sometimes even with
the same people!). My days were pretty full with the sessions, and then the
evenings were either filled with a Bootcamp workout that I did with my fellow
18 extendee Colleen (who lives in Maputo) or dinners at various friends houses,
or work that continued into the evening . . . I didn't really have much time to
really enjoy being in Maputo.
Until . . . .Saturday rolled around! We had some close
southern friends roll into the capital city to attend a wine festival that
night in the big city. It was so fun to get a little dressed up, go and sip
some fancy wines (read, we attempted
to be classy) and enjoy the jazz band that was playing. In reality we all got a
bit drunk, did our best to maintain our composure, while constantly on the
lookout for snacks haha. A wine festival with NO CHEESE???? What kind of
malarkey is that?!
colleen and i at the wine fest
Sunday morning, bright and early, I boleia-ed (read, hitchhiked)
north to my old site, Quissico, where I stayed with the boys until my return to
Maputo on Tuesday. My time there was spent talking with old friends at the
hospital and ACOMUZA, spending a good amount of time with Tia Julia at her
shop, going to the lagoon with the boys, and drinking ice cold beers at the
overlook. I really could not have asked for a better trip. . . except to maybe
have been able to stay longer.
family
i missed this view so much
on the way south, a friend and i stopped at the worlds greatest take-away place. renowned through the volunteer community
Wednesday I had a meeting scheduled with ICAP at the Maputo
office to work on changing up my job description here in Quelimane. . .while it
seemed productive at the time, looking back now it seems just like a lot of
‘yes men’. Just like every visit by any superior or outside visitor is… sigh.
Thursday was a bit PAC , Project Advisory Committee, meeting
in Maputo with some of the higher-ups at the CDC, the Ministry of Health, USAID
and some implementing partners. We were a group of 4 volunteers who presented
to the panel, two of us 3rd year volunteers, and the other two in
their second year. We gave an overarching look at what volunteers are doing,
what some of our national programs are, our secondary projects, and just basic
life in the communities. Its pretty interesting to present this to people who
have been born and raised in a city, never lived without energy or running
water.
This
kind of reaffirms a thought I’ve been pondering as of late; do outsiders, like
Peace Corps volunteers have a better read on what life can really be like in
the communities, and on a day to day? We see first hand the suffering, the
frustrations, the needs of the people. . . a majority of those in the ‘big
city’, while they may work in the health sector, really have no idea what the
patients go through on a daily basis.
Anyway. Just a thought.
This week has started off well, I’m heading to Mocuba
tomorrow (about 3 hours north of Quelimane) to help with a fellow volunteer’s
sports camp for children – and attend a training for the focal points at the
hospitals in the city for the GAAC program. Hoping for a fun, and productive
week.
21 days until
americaland.
There is a tunnel on the PA turnpike that has a section in
the middle of it where the hills it cuts through dip into a valley, creating a
brief moment of ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ before plunging back into the
other half of it. That's kind of how I am looking at this upcoming break home to
the states, it’s not an end to my time here in Mozambique which (despite my
grumbling) I am thankful for, but it is a much-needed gap in my service where I
can be around family, and friends during the holiday season.
I depart Quelimane on the 8th of December for
Maputo where I will stay for one full day before departing on the 10th
for Pitsburgh, PA. So, if anyone wants anything from Mozambique, place your
orders now! I’ll be arriving around 11am on the 11th, less than one
month until I’m freezing my butt off in negative temperatures, compared to the
sweltering, sweat-inducing nonsense that I’m dealing with over here.
xo
-t
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