May travels

The last few weeks have been very full.  I finished up my first trimester of teaching, visited volunteers in Angonia and Kaunda, and travelled to Maputo for a Peace Corps conference.  I am now back in Zobue and reflecting on the past few weeks.

We had a surprise visitor for a few days in the form on Lucas Arribas Layton, who was a volunteer in Zobue with his wife Janet in 2010-2011.  Lucas was in Mozambique doing work for the World Bank and was able to visit Zobue while doing field work in Tete.  It was great to meet him and hear all his stories and wisdom of Zobue.  He was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras in 2001-2002 and is about to start a job with Peace Corps headquarters in Washington DC.  Peace Corps is lucky to have him back!

Lucas with Seni and Romao on our porch.

Hiking up Turtle Rock with Lucas and Piro.  I learned to say "we are out walking" in ChiChewa.  Tikuyenda yenda.

 Before heading to Maputo for the conference I visited Matt for a few days in Kaunda.  Kaunda is about an hour from Tete City along the road to Zambia.  It is a very small town, but has some lovely mountains nearby and gorgeous sunsets.  I always like visiting other volunteer's sites because they are all unique.

When I was visiting Matt in Kaunda we met a guy with a Skagway, Alaska shirt.  Of course, I asked to take a picture with him.

 After Kaunda, we all flew down to Maputo for the Peace Corps reconnect conference.  The conference was a chance for us to get some more training, meet the new Peace Corps director, eat lots of delicious food, and see our fellow volunteers in the southern region whom we hadn't seen in 5 months.  Though we missed the volunteers from the northern region (they had their own conference in Nampula), it was great to see friends after such a long time apart.  The new country director had us all over to his house one afternoon for samosas, chai tea, and other finger foods.  The big excitement for me was broccoli and cauliflower, two vegetables I hadn't seen in 8 months and missed dearly.  I had actually had a dream about broccoli just two nights before so I was very excited to see it!

I don't have any pictures of our time in Maputo (whoops), but I'd say my highlight was eating a real croissant just out of the oven from a lovely French bakery.  I'm still dreaming about it.  Before my flight back to Tete on Saturday I was able to chapa out to Namaacha to visit my host family from training.  It was great to see them (the kids have grown so much!) and they were very touched that I made the effort to visit them.  Hopefully I will see them again soon, though I don't know when I'll next be in Maputo.

My two host sisters Laiza and Lele.

My host cousin Ninho.

Host brother Pai.  He is almost as tall as me now!

Mae Gloria.  So chique.

While I was in Namaacha we went to a cultural dance competition.  This group was my favorite.  I wish I could upload the video--their dancing was amazing!

Though the past few weeks have been full, I have to admit I've been struggling with feeling happy in Zobue.  I'm having a hard time adjusting to the pace of life here and being less busy than I'm used to being in the States.  Living in a different culture 24/7 is exhausting.  I miss having people to talk to who share a common upbringing and worldview.  Teaching sometimes seems futile.  Other projects are incredibly hard to get going because it involves mobilizing people who have little experience in organized projects and different ways of communicating.  So, though I feel incredibly lucky to be living here, it isn't easy.  Moving to an entirely new place is never easy and trying to make a life in rural Mozambique is even harder.  

That being said, I'm hopeful for the next few months. I'm starting to work with the primary school near my school to develop a reading program to improve literacy.  I'm thinking about asking for more classes to teach and I registered for a computer science class online through EdX (just for fun and for something to do in the evenings).  So, pouco a pouco, little by little, the months are sliding by.  It is almost 8 months since I arrived in Mozambique.  Before I know it, it will be September again.