This year’s Halloween was very different than last years. There was no pumpkin carving, apple cider, pumpkin pudding, trick-or-treating or Reese’s pumpkins. Instead I celebrated by wearing a ton of Halloween jewelry, Halloween socks and watched some volunteers bob for apples and play Halloween charades. I treated myself that night to no studying and instead watching a movie and eating some peanut butter m&m’s sent from home. (So I still did get some candy!)
On Halloween we found out what site we were all visiting so it was a very exciting day! I’m visiting Homoine in Inhambane province…it’s considered to be in the Southern region of Mozambique and is about a 9hour chapa ride from Namaacha. Our group is leaving bright and early at 3:30am on Saturday (tomorrow) to catch our bus. I’m really excited because we’re visiting 2 volunteers that are Teacher Trainers living at an IFP! I’ll actually be able to get a feel for what I’ll be doing and what the living situation will be like. I think they have running water, electricity and an indoor bathroom so I’m pretty excited! :)
Today we had our LPI and Round Robin mid-training tests. The LPI is a 10-min oral test with one of the language teachers about our daily life in Moz, family, giving directions and other day-to-day language lessons. Depending on how we do on the test (at the end of training we need to pass intermediate-mid level) we either get more language classes or cut back and do more teaching practice/model school. My Portuguese isn’t the greatest right now so I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting lots more language classes but that’s alright. The round robin test has questions from all of our other sessions…including medical, safety & security, technical training and core/cultural. Overall it only lasts an hour total between the LPI and Round Robin…I’m hoping we find out our results soon!
Wanted to post a little earlier this week because I’ll be gone on Sunday and probably won’t get to post again until after site visits. Then hopefully I’ll have more info to share on my site visit! :)
Happy 55th Birthday Mom! I’m sorry I can’t be there to help you celebrate on Sunday but know that I’m thinking about you everyday and sending lots of love! Thank you for being such a great friend and mom—I wouldn’t have made it here to Africa without your support and motivation. I’m so grateful to call you my mom and best friend! Love you!
Updates:
-This week for lunch one day I literally had French fries and bread…it’s safe to say I’m not getting a balanced diet but I’m kind of over it. (I made up for it by buying my own bananas and eating them with peanut butter in my room) lol
-Going to visit Homoine tomorrow (or as my uncle said…Hermoine/the Deathly Hollows)
-Ate literally everything out of my care packages in a little over a week…I really missed American junk food :)
-Actually wished for gloves and a hat this week because it was that cold…it’s Africa it should not be this windy and cold but I guess we are in the mountains.
-Today I had a huge salad with my lunch and I have never been so excited to see lettuce :)
Your comments about food make me laugh and remind me of my trip to France back in high school. It only took two weeks and I was already craving american food. Although I've never had food from Mosambique, I'm guessing it's much farther from american food than french food is. It's funny you mentioned how your dad pronounced Homoine. I read it as Hermoine, too, and didn't even realize what I was doing till you mentioned deathly hallows. LOL Looking forward to reading about your site visit.
ReplyDeleteoops guess it was your uncle who said it
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