4 months down

I can’t believe I have already been in Mozambique for four months! I still miss my family and friends back home but I’m adjusting to life over here pretty well (at least I think so). It’s been nice to get all settled in my house at site and meet all the people in Nacuxa. I’m feeling more and more integrated everyday.

I started a garden this week in our backyard! I brought Broccoli, Pumpkin, and Corn seeds with me from the States—and the nuns gave me amendoim (peanuts) and mandioca (a type of vegetable that looks like a stick). Sister Sandra found a woman to help us clean up the weeds and other junk in our backyard. She then proceeded to plant all the peanuts she gave me (which was a LOT!) and wanted to go get more from her house. I told her I didn’t know what I would do with all those peanuts if she got me more. She then told me that since I love peanut butter I could make my own. That’s a good thought but we’ll see if that happens. However, today I did make my own hummus—I was proud it turned out pretty nicely…just a little too much garlic (oops).

School should be starting next week (At least I hope so!) and I’m still not sure of my schedule. This last week the priest asked me if I could teach an introductory French class if they didn’t find a French teacher in time. I told him maybe but then tried to rack my brain for all the French that I have studied and couldn’t remember much at all. Studying Portuguese for the past 4 months everyday has made me forget all the French I know. Thankfully at church Sunday two new professors were introduced and I’m pretty positive one of them is teaching French, whew! I’m anxious to start teaching and forming a club or group outside of school as well! I’ll be sure to post next week after my first week of classes J

Last week it rained a lot, which was really nice because we were able to collect it since we haven’t had water coming out of the faucet for over a week. I can definitely understand the meaning of the rainy season now. The storms come up out of nowhere and just downpour for an hour or so then just stop and the hot, humid sun comes out again. It surprised me how fast the sand can absorb all the big pools of water.

We have been really lucky at site because we haven’t had any flooding or problems with the rain. However, the rest of Mozambique hasn’t faired so well. Many PCVs in Gaza province (which is in Southern Mozambique) have had to be evacuated to Maputo due to the flooding of the Limpopo River. Over 100,000 people have been displaced. The water in some towns is as high as the roofs and the roads are getting washed out and many people are stranded without fresh food and clean water. With the rainy season not even halfway through there is bound to be more flooding and problems for those along the Limpopo River.  Many prayers are needed for the PCVs in the south as well as the many Mozambicans who have lost their homes and are without food and clean water.

Today was a success!

Finally I had a day where I felt like a productive PCV. Here’s a little glimpse into what I did today…

-Skyped with my mom back home! 

-Cut my hair for the first time since leaving home (yes you are reading this right—I cut my own hair with sewing scissors my mom sent with me. I’ll admit I don’t I cut it straight…probably because I did it outside with no mirror…oops.) :)

-Talked to Irmå Tassy about the English and Computer Curriculum. She then told me that she wants me to do more projects outside of the classroom so I’ll only be teaching 11^th grade English and probably not Computers anymore (which is fine with me!)

-We started talking about how Bryson (5yrs old) and Ano  (4yrs old) don’t go to the Primary school yet but have a lot to learn (they don’t even know their colors or how to count to 10). She mentioned that she wants to teach them or do things educational things with all the little kids living at the school. I jumped at that idea and told her I would love to teach them and even had some books for kids in English. She asked if I really wanted to do that with them everyday and of course I said yes (finally something to do! And teaching little kids!). I think she’s getting an idea of the Professors’ kids that would come and going to tell me more about it tomorrow. She even said she has little chairs I could borrow for the kids to sit in while I teach them in my “Quintal” (backyard)

-Made an Omelet that actually looked like an Omelet-success!

-Wrote more lesson plans for my 11^th grade English class

-Made no bake cookies :) 

-Helped a nun (Irmå Lucia) set up her very own email account! It wasn’t until after we set up the account did I find out that she doesn’t know how to use a computer. Probably should have taught her a little bit about that first before introducing her to the email world. You wouldn’t believe how long it takes to teach how to double click and type all the weird accents on Portuguese words. Today we just learned how to send and check email and write in a Word document. Tomorrow we’ll practice again

-Today is one of the seminarian’s birthday and I think my roommate and I got invited to a mass/party for him…I’m not quite sure though. I guess I’ll find out in an hour if someone knocks on my door wanting me to go to this mass.

I’d say overall this has been the best day of 2013. I’m glad I finally have things to do and a purpose to my life in Nacuxa! More to come later once I start teaching the little “crianças” (kids) :)

Funny Stories from the week:

-On Sunday at church I somehow got pulled into dancing with the girls who were dancing in front of church to the songs. (Let me just tell you…I’m not a good dancer in America or Mozambique…so it was slightly embarrassing but I had fun dancing with the students and looking like a fool) :)

-One night this week my counterpart, Irmå Tassy, came over and sat by me on my porch and we started talking about school, Nacuxa and cooking. She then asked what I had been cooking…well we really don’t have much access to meat or vegetables or fruit (besides mangos) so I’ve been eating a lot of eggs and peanut butter sandwiches. After I told her this she laughed and told me she’s going to help me learn how to cook. She even brought me over to their house that same night and cooked an egg for me and gave me a huge plate of rice. I tried to explain that back in America I cooked every night at home—I don’t think she believed me. She then told me she would take me to Nacala to the stores that sell vegetables and meat (that you don’t have to kill). After we do that she wants me to come over to her house for a little bit everyday to learn how to cook. They must think I am an idiot in the kitchen. I need to explain to her that I like to bake more than I cook. Since I’ve been here I have made coffee cakes, sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, French toast, pancakes, and no bake cookies! I just didn’t no how to say all of that in Portuguese so she thinks I’ve just been eating bread, peanut butter and eggs. Oh boy. I have a long way to go to reassuring them I can cook!

Here are some quotes that I wanted to share this week:

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  ~Jeremiah 29:11

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you may go.”  ~Joshua 1:9

“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.” ~Walter Bagehot 

(However, for me it’s doing the things I thought I could never do…like living on a different continent, speaking a different language, killing scorpions in my room and not thinking twice seeing lizards in my house) :)

New Year, New Resolutions

It’s hard to believe it’s 2013 already! I am happy to say that I accomplished half of my New Year’s resolutions from last year! I’m hoping to go for all of them this year so we’ll see how it goes. This year already has been different than 2012…I’m in Africa killing unknown bugs every night in my house. I never thought I would be happy to just have a normal looking spider in the bathroom to kill rather than some freaky mutant insect. I’ve been trying to get better with my fear of insects, bugs and anything “creepy crawly”…I like to think I’ve made some improvements but when I feel a bug crawling on me I still freak out a tad bit.

**On the plus side the past 3 nights in a row we haven’t had our nightly part spider/part scorpion/part very weird looking insect in our house. We had been having these things running around our house every night and it took an extreme amount of bug spray to finally slow them enough to sweep them out of the house. Knock on wood that they stay out of our house for the time being!

I wish I could tell you how productive I have been during the New Year or all the new projects I’ve started but I can’t. Everyday I go over to the school’s office and ask the same questions—“when do classes start? Do you know the class schedule?” Unfortunately I have yet to truly get an answer to this. I think I have the school start date down to sometime in early February (so at least there is some time to plan lessons). I still don’t know what grades I’m teaching or the curriculum for the English and Computer classes. I’m hoping to get that sometime this week so I can be productive and start planning lessons.

The most productive things I’ve done so far are make new resolutions for 2013, bake oatmeal & sugar cookies (the oatmeal one’s actually tasted like cookies whereas the sugar cookies tasted a little odd), and have been reading a lot to fill my days. Usually the most exciting part of my day is sitting on my front porch coloring and talking with the 4 year old living a few houses down. I wish I had more exciting things to share with you about life in Nacuxa but the school is eerily quiet with all the students gone. (It reminds me of Jewell on the weekends. But Liberty at least had a 24 hour Wal-Mart and sonic) :) Hopefully in my next post I’ll have more exciting news to share!

My goals for this week (so I can be more productive!):

•  Figure out the curriculum for English & Computer class and write the first few lessons
• Sit outside once a day and talk in Portuguese to my neighbors
• Start reading the one book I have that’s in Portuguese (The Princess Diaries…yes I know how lame that sounds but the sad fact is that book will probably still be a little challenging since it’s in Portuguese)
• Figure out a way to make a closet so bugs don’t get in my clothes
• Make cinnamon toast and more coffee cake!

As I was looking through my quotes to find one to share with you I came across this quote. I remember reading it in high school and thinking how truly blessed I was for everything.

As I read it now it could not be truer and make me feel even more blessed than the first time I read it. I’ll admit there are days when I stop and think about how hard it is being away from my friends and family back home and how easy it would be to go home and live with all the luxuries of life in the U.S. (washing clothes in a machine, gong out to eat, driving a car, having running water (that is clean) and electricity 24/7). But then I’m reminded of why I chose to join the Peace Corps. I’m blessed by having some amazing nuns who want to just sit on my porch and talk, students who are eager to learn, kids who would be happy just coloring with me all day (and who don’t laugh at my terrible Portuguese)…and that in itself makes up for the days when I feel homesick and like I’m not doing enough. I know I can’t change the world in 2 years…but I hope I can at least inspire students to “dream big” (as Mr. Young would say) :) and work hard for what they want.

Christmas in Africa

This Christmas was very different…not just because I was away from family, friends and snow but I spent it on the beach and it truly felt just like any other day. I was able to go to mass on Christmas morning so that was nice (I didn’t understand a majority of it since it was in the local language) and they sang the “Gloria” song from back home at the end of mass. I missed the Christmas season back home—seeing the Bell ringers outside Hy-Vee, making hot cider and watching the Grinch, making those peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses on top and mostly being with family. It was really nice to be reunited with all the Moz 19ers in Nampula and get to catch up and hear about everyone’s sites though.

We did celebrate with very good food though (chicken, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, French toast, banana pancakes with mango syrup, cookies, garlic bread and shrimp pasta—which I actually liked, shocking that I would say that about seafood I know!) and listened to Christmas carols and watched Home Alone! I even learned how to bake in a makeshift Dutch oven using pots and sand. Today I tested out my skills and made a coffee cake—it turned out great! I was so proud of myself for making a Dutch oven and baking for the first time by myself in Africa J

Traveling to Angoche for Christmas was interesting…I left my site and caught a semi chapa to take me to Nampula city. In the city I met another Moz 19 PCV at a coffee shop (I honestly would still be wandering around the streets of Nampula if not for a VERY nice mother and daughter who showed me exactly how to get to the café—thank goodness for nice people!). We then tried to catch a chapa to Angoche but the only thing leaving was an open back truck full of cargo and they weren’t planning on leaving for another few hours. So of course we decide to just walk along the highway (I know, smart right?) and hope to catch a boleia. Only a few cars passed us by but no one was going that way. Then out of nowhere a car speeds past us and we didn’t even have time to flag them down. The car turned around and started driving back towards us—it ended up being 2 nice South Africans traveling in an air conditioned car. They even had a cooler in the car and offered us cookies, pop, ham & cheese sandwiches, hot dogs and chocolate. They were so nice they even drove us right to our stop in Angoche and let us take some food with us! It definitely made up for the semi and craziness of Nampula.

When we were trying to leave Angoche we had better luck catching a chapa to Nampula at 4am. However, I did get my first marriage proposal on that chapa. I had no idea what to say to that so I just kept telling him no…then of course he had to ask why I didn’t want to be with him, etc. It was all I could do to keep a straight face and not laugh. I mean seriously—he didn’t even know me, he just met me on this truck and asked to be my husband. It was an interesting day to say the least! I was able to shop for food in Nampula and get syrup, veggies and other tasty things I can’t get at site. While I was in Nampula city I saw someone wearing an Omaha/Council Bluffs YMCA shirt! I literally stopped in my tracks because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I knew he probably didn’t know where Omaha was but the fact that I got a reminder of home made my day! And on the chapa back to Nacuxa I saw a man wearing a Whistler, Canada sweatshirt and it reminded me of when I went there with my family! Overall, even though traveling back to site was very stressful it made me smile when I had these little reminders of home and fun times with my family J

Ringing in the New Year in Africa will definitely be a bit different as well. I’ll still make my list of resolutions but I won’t be watching the ball drop on TV. I’m going to Nacala (the closest big city about 30 minutes away) with my roommate to stay on the beach and watch some fireworks!

Finishing my laundry has never made me feel so accomplished. I can’t believe how easy it is in the States to just put your clothes in a machine and add soap then go watch tv or do something else while your laundry is being cleaned. Here that is not the case…It entails a little bit more labor than that but once you have it all done you feel like you’ve really accomplished something J

School will be starting soon and I’ll be busy teaching English and computers—I’m excited and anxious to teach at the secondary school. It will definitely be different than the 3^rd graders I’m used to but it will be a great learning experience. I’m still not quite sure when school starts. I’ve asked a few times and each time I get a different answer. It’s either starting Jan 7^th, the middle of January or early February. Hopefully, I’ll be finding out soon so I can be prepared! For now I’m cleaning the house, making curtains and catching up on my reading—I’ll be glad to have lessons to write and tests to grade to keep me busy soon!

Happy New Year!! Thanks to one of my college professors I have a quote to start the New Year with that I hope is as inspiring to you as it has been to me…

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bugs, Peanut Butter M&Ms & Christmas lights

I wanted to share with you some statistics I got on the education system during my PST…I was really shocked by some of them and thought it was important for people back home to see the differences between our education system in America and those of other countries.

Statistics on Education in Moz

o      Adult literacy rate is 47%

o      Female literacy rate is 32%

o      52% of children attend school in a mud or stick structure or under a tree

o      26% of primary school teachers have not received any training

o      Based on a USAID study in Mozambique of 50 schools, on average a school had 30 days of effective instructional time per 183-day school year

o      59% of 3^rd grade students in the Cabo Delgado province could NOT read a single word

Random Happenings in Nacuxa

-This last week I was wondering why my bread was crunchy…I then looked and saw some black specks and figured it was mold. I then decided to look closer and pull that piece out and realized their was a bug in the bread. I had been eating bread with bugs in it—I felt kind of gross but I kept eating the bread since it was dinner, (haha—not something I thought I would ever say)

-Went to the hospital with my roommate, Anna, and was able to see her weigh babies and what it is like to go to the hospital in Nacuxa. In order to weigh the babies they put them in this fabric swing that hangs off a scale. Most of the babies don’t weigh as much as they need to and look pretty malnourished. It’s also so weird to me to see women breast-feeding in public and not covering themselves up. It just is odd that women cannot show their knees in public or even at home in front of men but they can walk around feeding their babies uncovered. It’s perfectly normal to everyone here and I’m sure soon I’ll be accustomed to it as well.

-Finally got my 2 year bag and other boxes! It was so happy seeing what all I had in there. It was like I got a whole new wardrobe with all my other clothes I forgot I had. (Still can’t find my camera cord….so no pictures until my mom sends me the cord, sorry!)

-Buying a fan was the BEST purchase I think I have ever made! I absolutely love it and was even able to sleep using my quilt from home for the first time this week (Without sweating!)

-I now have a USB internet modem that lets me skype (yay!) but not check gmail or go to my blog…so it’s working but only for certain things

-Killing cockroaches and other weird bugs in our house has become a daily occurrence—at least so far I’ve only had one in my room and none in my bed!

-Last night I walked into my room to find 1 of the biggest spiders I have ever seen…I didn’t want to step on it so I instead went and got our bug spray. When I sprayed it lots of mini little bugs/spiders came out of it and it ended up getting away! I then saw 2 more huge spiders in my room—I only successfully killed one (and the babies) but the others are somewhere hiding under my clothes/suitcase. I’m just hoping the fumes from the spray killed them slowly. For the rest of the night I sat on my bed with my laptop, kindle, water bottle, hard drive and ipod securely tucked under my mosquito net for fear the spiders would come get me...I haven’t gotten over my spider fear yet but I’m working on it J  

-I hate to admit this but I got a little too excited to have peanut butter m&ms from my care package….I ended up eating both bags (not the mini ones either) in just 3 days...let’s just say I haven’t been eating the most healthy lunches when it consists of pb m&ms and fruit! But I ate them all so now hopefully I can start cooking and stop being lazy with my meals. My roommate and I are going to try and go into the city sometime soon and buy an oven so we can start baking!

-Thanks to my family back home our house is now decorated with a Christmas tree, nativity scene and wreath! It feels so homey now J Anna and I are going to have one night where we make the snow in a can (thanks mom!), drink hot chocolate and make cinnamon toast—I’m so excited! I’m hoping it’ll cool down some before we do this or else I’ll be sweating as I drink the hot chocolate.

-I finally put up all my pictures on quotes on the wall—so now with our Christmas decorations and pictures on the wall my house is starting to feel like home J

-This weekend the neighbor kids came over to color and I brought out my 2 big English picture books (thanks Katie!) and the kids absolutely loved it! They asked me to tell them what every word was because they really wanted to learn English and then they would tell me in Portuguese. I even had one little boy come back over to our house this morning asking for the books so he could read it on our porch! They are super cute kids—I took lots of pictures this weekend of them playing and acting crazy and I’ll be sure to put them up soon

Hope you all are enjoying the Holiday season! Make some Christmas cookies and drink some hot apple cider for me J

Home Sweet Home

Sorry I’ve been slow at updating these last few weeks…life has been crazy between Model School,‭ ‬our final LPI‭ (‬which I passed‭!)‬,‭ ‬packing,‭ ‬swearing-in and moving to site‭!

Nacucha‭ (‬Nacuxa…I can’t figure out which way to spell it because it’s spelled both ways‭) ‬has so far been a beautiful site and the people are all really nice.‭ ‬The town really wouldn’t exist without the secondary school,‭ ‬where I’m living.‭ ‬The school has‭ “‬machambas‭” (‬farms‭)‬,‭ ‬animals,‭ ‬big field for‭ ‬“futebol‭”‬,‭ ‬houses for the professors and dorms for the‭ ‬students.‭ ‬The only other parts of Nacucha that are outside the school are the market about‭ ‬5‭ ‬minutes down the road,‭ ‬the Hospital‭ (‬where my roommate,‭ ‬a Moz‭ ‬18‭ ‬Health volunteer works‭) ‬and‭ ‬2‭ “‬barracas‭” (‬bars—where you can buy water,‭ ‬pop,‭ ‬cookies,‭ ‬and some other staple foods‭)‬.‭

Nacucha is only about‭ ‬2‭ ‬hours away from Nampula city‭ (‬the Province capital/Peace Corps office‭) ‬but getting transportation to and from Nacucha can be a challenge.‭ ‬The nearest big city is Nacala,‭ ‬about‭ ‬15K away so it shouldn’t take long to get to but no‭ ‬“chapas‭”‬ or cars really come on the road by the school so it makes getting off campus a little difficult.‭ ‬The nuns and priest do have cars and thankfully go to Nacala a few times a week and let us come with them so that will be nice‭! ‬But otherwise traveling out of site will probably be a little bit difficult.‭

A priest and‭ ‬3‭ ‬nuns run the school,‭ ‬just met the Priest‭ ‬and some professors‭ ‬this morning and‭ ‬they are very nice.‭ ‬They have all been really welcoming and have put up with my low level of Portuguese‭ ‬ My house is really well furnished—Anna and I both have our own rooms with a bed and‭ ‬2‭ ‬side tables,‭ ‬an indoor bathroom,‭ ‬desk and round table in our living room,‭ ‬a fridge/freezer,‭ ‬electric stovetop and a pantry.‭ ‬We also have electricity‭! ‬We have running water that supposedly comes on twice a day for about‭ ‬30‭ ‬minutes each but since I’ve been here it hasn’t‭ ‬come on much.

The weather here is VERY hot right now since it’s summer…and especially hot in our house since we don’t have fans.‭ ‬I really haven’t stopped sweating since getting here on Friday…gross I know.‭ ‬Today we‭ ‬made‭ ‬a trip to Nacala‭ (‬about‭ ‬20‭ ‬minutes away‭) ‬to buy fans,‭ ‬stuff for our house and food‭! ‬Nacala is the closest big city that has a bank and all the food we can‭’‬t get in Nacucha—it also is where they have beautiful beaches‭! ‬Our house is starting to look more and more like a home‭! ‬We just hung up rope for our laundry,‭ ‬put together our fans,‭ ‬got an organizer for the bathroom and the water came on this afternoon so I was even able to do laundry‭! ‬Having a fan has changed my life‭ ‬ I now will be able to sleep all the way through the night and hopefully not sweat too much.‭

The school here is still in session,‭ ‬which is really unheard of in Mozambique…they go until December‭ ‬22nd and then come back January‭ ‬7/8th.‭ ‬Most schools here have already taken their annual exams and are out for the summer break.‭ ‬I will start teaching in January‭ ‬English and Informatica‭ (‬Computer class‭)‬.‭ ‬The good news is that my school has computers‭! ‬I was really worried I would have to teach a computer class without computers.‭ ‬ Also I found out that the maximum number of students in my classes will be‭ ‬30‭! ‬I’m really happy about that because a lot of other volunteers will be having‭ ‬70-100‭ ‬students in every class.‭

As soon as I get my other bags from PC and find my camera cord I’ll post pictures of my house and the school where I’ll be working.‭ ‬More posts to come soon‭! ‬I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas…it really doesn’t feel the same without snow,‭ ‬bell ringers and Christmas cookies‭ (‬but I have been listening to Christmas music so that helps‭)! ‬

Destination: Nacuxa, Nampula

Found out my site placement for the rest of my 2 years of service…I will be heading up north to the province of Nampula. My site is in Nacuxa (pronounced Na-cush-a) and is pretty close to some beautiful beaches! I’m opening up this new education site but thankfully there is already a Moz 18 health volunteer, Anna, there that I will be living with. We will be living on the school grounds in a cement house that has an indoor bathroom and running water occasionally. The secondary school is run by a Priest and a few nuns that also live there—it will be nice to not have to walk very far to go to church on Sundays since I’ll be living right across from the chapel!

I will be teaching English and ITC (a computer/technology class)—I’m glad I have some practice helping my grandma "sittee" with her computer  I’m really excited and anxious to be teaching at a secondary school…I think it will be really good experience but I’m used to 3^{rd graders so there will definitely be some things I need to adjust. The school I will be teaching at is an agricultural/technical school and only has about 300 students. Since it’s a smaller school I think the class sizes will be smaller—hopefully not more than 50! I am nervous for teaching ITC because that will all be in Portuguese! I don’t yet feel confident in my Portuguese knowledge to teach a class about computers…I’m going to try and learn a lot of the computer/technology vocab before I leave PST! (I’m also really hoping my school has computers…it would be very difficult to teach an ITC class without computers to look at and practice on but it is very possible that could happen). Hopefully by the time school starts in late January I’ll be able to talk about computers in Portuguese!}

From what I have heard about the site it is really beautiful and also rural. Anna, the volunteer already living there, did give me a heads up and told me that you cannot buy toilet paper anywhere in our town. I’m definitely going to stock up before I leave for site on that! There is a bigger city about 45 minutes away from Nacuxa that has real supermarkets where you can buy toilet paper and all the other fruits and vegetables you can’t get at site. It will definitely be nice to be so close to a bigger city where I can buy some staple items for my house and for meals. I did find out that our school has a giant mango tree in the middle of the grounds—I’m so excited to be able to go outside and pick a mango to eat for breakfast!

Next week we are celebrating Thanksgiving on Friday with all the volunteers, PC staff and LCFS (language teachers). We were even able to get 10 turkeys for all of us and are making tons of other good American comfort foods! I’m really excited to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving here with all the other volunteers before we leave for sites.

This week we have model school at the secondary school in the mornings. I’m teaching a 9th grade English class, thankfully it won’t be bad since I can talk all in English!Sunday I went to Mass in the morning then walked to the waterfalls with some friends. The waterfalls were beautiful—I took lots of pictures and once I find my camera cord I will definitely upload them!

"We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something." ~Mother Teresa

My friend Anna, another PCV, let me borrow an interesting book on Mozambique and this quote was on one of the pages. I loved it and wanted to share it with you all-- Enjoy this week!

Updates:
-New address for when I move to site in December:
Corpo da Paz (Peace Corps)
Rua Dar-Es Salam No. 14,
P.O. Box 526
Nampula, Mozambique

-I love to eat chicken…even after I have killed it but I just cannot get down with eating the chicken’s foot…there’s just something about it that I can’t make myself eat it. My host mom got a good laugh at that when I was trying to explain why I hadn’t eaten the foot for lunch!

-Voluntarily took a bath in the middle of the day with cold water just so I would stop sweating and cool down for a few minutes. I’m worried about going to site because right now I’m in the mountains where it is much cooler…Nacuxa is VERY hot! I think my first purchase when I get to site will be a fan (and toilet paper)!

-Love running in the mornings here! Usually not too many people are awake/out yet…and therefore do not get stared at or called malungu ("white person") by everyone. Somehow I could never wake up early in the United States to work out but here I get up everyday without an alarm clock at 5am or earlier…I guess it could have something to do with me going to bed at 9pm all the time!

-Have had to sneak bananas into my house too many times to count since I’ve been at my new home stay. The first time I bought some my sister made us hide them at the back door and then walk through the front door and sneakily get them through the other door later. I still can’t figure out why I’m hiding the bananas I just know that I can’t show them to my host mom or throw the trash away at my house. (Yes I know how weird it sounds to say I’m hiding my bananas and taking my trash to a friend’s house…)

-During language class this week a woman selling ice cream walked past our class and our amazing LCF let us take a break and go buy an ice cream cone for 10mets (which isn’t even 50 cents in America—pretty dang cheap ice cream!)

-Only 2 weeks left in Namaacha then I’ll be flying north to Nacuxa! Time has flown by so far…