Amizade

Amizade, friendship in Portuguese.

Throughout my Peace Corps service, whether it be when talking to people in the community, colleagues at work or just random people who gave me rides when I hitch-hiked, I was constantly asked..."You spend two years away from home, don't you miss your family?" And although my answer was always yes, that I do indeed miss my friends and family back home every single day, that I have also been so fortunate to make great friends here.  My neighbors and colleagues constantly remind me that I am never actually alone and that I now have two families, one in America and one here in Mozambique.  So I wanted to take the time to introduce you all to the people who have taken care of me, and made my time in Mozambique so enjoyable.  Here is my Mozambican and Peace Corps family:

My host family who I lived with during Pre-Service Training.  My host mom, Graca, is an incredibly strong, independent and also warm and welcoming woman.  Although my Portuguese was terrible and she probably thought I was such a weirdo for not eating meat, she loved me all the same and took such great care of me my first 3 months of training.  And, although I don't keep in touch with her much, whenever I am planning to travel to the southern part of the country, I always include a visit to see her and her children and she ALWAYS welcomes me with open arms...and a fresh plate of matapa :)

Elisabetta! So, Elisabetta was my sitemate in Guija but we really only shared a town for a week before the floods happened, and aside from spending a month in Maputo together while awaiting new site placements, we spent the next 2 years hundreds of kilometres apart but Elisabetta became my big sister and best friend here, she inspired me to try my absolute best to create sustainable projects in my community and to integrate and make friends in Vanduzi.  Even though she's a west-coaster I know we will continue to stay great friends once we are both back in the states together.

Bea and Sofia.  When I first arrived in Vanduzi these two were sitting at my house waiting to greet me, I'm sure my director asked them to be there to welcome me because they both speak English and were to become my neighbors but after that first day at site they became my constant family in Vanduzi.  My first year at site I ate meals with them at least once a week and if I went more than two days without stopping by to visit them and chat they came to my  house to make sure I wasn't sick or missing home.  These women were easily the nicest, most hard-working, and hospitable people I met and I am so grateful for their friendship.  

I also was able to visit both of them at their actual homes (where their families live) as opposed to the school houses they rent during the school year and that was a really special treat.  On the left is Bea (with her daughter Eva) in Manica, and on the right is Sofia with her husband Belimo and their daughter Shanasia, at their home outside Beira.

Wendel and Shane!  Although these two have both finished their service and returned to the states they were such good friends to me my first year.  When I moved to Vanduzi I was pretty sad.  I was 3 months behind on work, my Portuguese was terrible and I was also just frustrated and jaded by my whole experience with the flooding but these two showed me how to have a good time and how to jump back into my Peace Corps service.  We spent countless weekends out in Chimoio, traveled together (Wendel our friendship clearly started in that openback to Maputo lol) and celebrated a COESAO victory at beer olympics.  May the Boggle drinking game live on...

Causha (on the  left) and Laete (on the right) are both very good friends and colleagues of mine.  Causha is our neighbor and basically big brother...he has our spare key and calls us when we forgot to leave a light on a night, he helped us start our JUNTOS club at school and also let us come watch world cup games at midnight at his house.  Laete was my counterpart for Science fair and the two of us used to get beers and discuss politics and mozambican culture and argue over everything. It was fun.  In this picture Thelma and I had spent the day hanging out and chatting and teaching them how to play beer pong :)

Mindy and her adorable little son Sebastian! I stayed with Mindy in Maputo for a few weeks while Peace Corps looked for a new site for me after the Gaza floods, and her, Elisabetta and I became good friends.   Every time after that, when I needed to come to Maputo she opened her house to me and really made me feel at home.  Having a place like this to escape to, and a good friend to hangout with when I'm in the capital is so nice, and makes trips to a "big city" much less overwhelming.  In the above picture Mindy and her son are helping to paint the mural Elisabetta organized in Guija last January.

This is Labson. I met him one day in the market selling fish and he greeted me in broken English and told me he wanted to be my friend.  I was impressed by his love of science and English and his desire to work in order to save up money for college and support his family.  A few months later I saw Labson nervously following a teacher around at school, and being shown how to work the little cantina (snack bar/shop) in front of our house.  Well Labson started working at the shop and basically become Thelma and my little brother.  He is constantly asking to borrow things and for us to boil him water..etc and this would be annoying if he wasn't one of the  nicest people I've met here.  We often eat meals together or swap a little of what we cooked and sit together on our front porch chatting and sharing food.  He also likes to cook and eat with Amendoim aka Amendoim sits very alert in front of him watching him and he randomly says "servido" and throws him some xima.  He is a very good friend and I will miss him a lot when I am back in America.  His dream is to be a Biology teacher and he's been studying Thelma's books all year so hopefully he will pass the entrance exam for university in December!

Dorca and Paulo.  So Paulo is just really nice and he greets me everyday in the market and is very sweet but Dorca is like my Mozambican mother.  I spent countless afternoons sitting with her in the market, helping her wrap vegetables and chatting away in Portuguese.  She spoils me with way too much free produce and whenever I see her in the market she always greets me by yelling "Haleigh como esta amiga!!" and then she proceeds to ask me how Amendoim is too.  

Derreck and Simao, my English teacher colleagues/best friends.  These two are different than anyone else I've met here in that they want to study abroad and see the world and will actually do the work to get there.  Simao told me he will sit in a chair with a bucket of cold water under his feet while he studies that way if he falls asleep the water will wake him up and he can continue reading.  I'm pretty sure Derreck does the same thing.  I don't think either of them sleep much and they use all their free time to study and read books and they are both incredibly intelligent but also social and friendly.  Simao is currently studying in Europe and Derreck is hoping to go to America next year.  These two kept me motivated to do my job well even on the days when I truly hated teaching and Derreck was such a champ working with me on a number of projects, he will take over the English library next year.  

Ari, my best buddy from Moz 19.  We sat next to each other on the plane from NY to Johanassburg and because neither of us could sleep very much we shared wine and told stories instead.  He came to visit me in Vanuduzi and instead of having everyone ask if he was my husband (which happens when any other male visits), they asked if he was my brother...even my village knew we were friend and although our villages were really far apart we kept and touch and traveled together on the breaks, exploring Malawi and relaxing on Tofo beach with some of our other friends.  Ari and I also studied somiliar things in college so it was always refreshing to see him, catch up and then discuss development theories and our work, or politics and corruption here in Moz. Basically Ari is awesome and I know we'll continue to stay friends in America when we both get great jobs in DC!

Thelma! My rooommate, my good friend and basically my little sister here.  I was nervous to get a roommate after living alone for a year but living with Thelma and having her to travel with and go to community events with has been so fun.  We also have joked many times that we're grateful we like the same food and spend almost every evening in Vanduzi eating dinner together on our porch, swapping stories about our crazy students and talking about college, our families and our hopes for life after PC.  She's a great volunteer to be around and she's going to continue to do great work in Vanduzi her second year!

My number one man in Mozambique.  Yes it's silly to love your dog so much and my community definitely thinks I am crazy but you know what I don't care and by the end of my service I am pretty sure Amendoim has made more friends and is more integrated than I am.  We moved to Guija and spent a lonely two months together, we escaped the floods together and we moved to Vanduzi together.  That dog has been my constant companion and buddy when times are rough or I was lonely and he also kept me safe at site when many of my neighbors houses were broken into. I only hope that when I get to America, I find a decent enough job that I can actually start saving money to have Thelma send him to America at the end of her service but if he stays in Vanduzi I also know that my neighbors will keep him fat and happy because they've learned to love him just as much as I do. 

Elections

Yesterday Mozambique had presidential elections and although my feelings about elections were incredibly negative (I'll explain that at the end) I have to admit all-day yesterday I was anxious.  I didn't want there to be any violence and recent international news coverage (rare in and of itself) was predicting a close election race and this was so exciting! Along with the chance of a run-off election, many of my friends and colleagues thought that if elections didn't go as people hoped they would, there would be violence.  So I spent all day today frantically checking my phone, scanning news websites in English and Portuguese trying to find anything about the election results and of course what I could find was predictable and depressing.

Yesterday's elections, although peaceful for the most part, were still full of ballot stuffing, fraud and intimidation towards minority parties.  One minority party supporter was reportedly shot in the foot when he tried to stop an incident of ballot stuffing and there were multiple incidents of police firing tear gas and rubber/live bullets at crowds.  A friend here made a joke that election corruption is like cheating at school, it's barely disguised yet impossible to control, so you do what  you can to control some of it and hope for the best, and I think that's what so many Mozambicans did yesterday.  They went and stood in long lines for hours on end and cast their vote in the presidential elections, fully knowing that the Frelimo candidate would likely win, if not in this election, in a run-off but they still went and cast their vote.

The results haven't been announced yet but most sources are saying Frelimo will pull more than 50% of the vote, so a run-off election will not be necessary.  Even with this year's election problems it was really neat to witness a close election, and all of the campaigning that ran up to it.  Yesterday marked Mozambique's fifth presidential elections since 1994.  Prior to 1994, Moz fought a 20 year civil war after gaining independence from Portugal.  In those first elections, Frelimo took power, and Renamo, the loser of the civil war, was slowly pushed out of politics.

Aside from actually living in Mozambique for the election season, this specific election was anticipated by many because of recent events in Mozambique.  Just over a year ago the Renamo leader, Afonso Dhalakama, returned to a bush hideout/camp in the mountains and his soldiers started attacking civilians and stopping traffic along the national highway.  These attacks, although small-scale, upset traffic and trade along the sole national highway in the country, and forced the government to make some concessions to Dkalakama.  Last month, Dkalakama came out of the bush and finally signed the 1992 Peace Accords (for the civil war which ended 22 years ago) and announced he'd be running again in the recent elections.  Renamo supporters flocked to him, and suddenly I started seeing Renamo posters and flags in the streets alongside all the Frelimo paraphernalia.

Along with renewed excitement for Renamo, another, much newer political party, MDM, also gained a lot of attention for this election.  The party was formed in 2009 by a former Renamo supporter, Daviz Simango, who then became the mayor of Beira, Mozambique's second city, under his MDM party.  Most news sources are reporting that MDM picked up just a small percentage of the vote yesterday but the party has a lot of support among younger generations in the cities, and is predicted to only get more popular in time.

So although there were problems yesterday, and the run-off election is unlikely because Frelimo probably got more than half the votes, I really hope that this election scared the political cronies (or chefes as we say here in Mozambique) into starting to actually run a government that benefits its people.  Mozambique is a country that is immensely rich in resources yet it's one of the poorest nations in the world.  Corruption is so widespread and embedded into people's ways of life it's difficult to see how it could change but if the government started creating more opportunities for employment for youth, or opportunities for more people to further their education and get decent jobs it would be a good start...

Enough of my philosophizing though, I'm sure you're tired of my little history lesson, here are some pictures from election day and the campaigning...

People waiting in lines to vote in Vanduzi. 

My good friend Julio proudly posing with his ink-stained finger to show that he voted.

A Frelimo parade in Chimoio...literally traffic just stopped and then all you could hear were whistles and chanting and all you could see was RED.

Some proud Renamo supporters marching down the main road in Vanduzi, also notice the huge billboard in the background endorsing the Frelimo candidate, Nyusi.

This picture doesn't do justice to the campaign season because every store front, market stall, telephone pole and baraca in Vanduzi (and in cities, and along the road between cities) is covered in political posters, usually for Frelimo.  People drive cars and motorcycles covered in posters with huge flags waving out the back and EVERYONE has a shirt to support their party.

I will leave you with this last picture, which always makes me smile even though campaigning literally ruined the school trimester.  Students and teachers skipped class to campaign, on the weekends students were taught Frelimo songs and paraded through town encouraging people to vote and my colleagues who I greatly respect didn't take this semester seriously because they were focusing on the campaign.  Yet if they don't campaign their salary gets frozen, they get transferred to a school in the bush where no one wants to work or they get fired.  It's terrible and frustrating because all this work goes into campaigning for a party that essentially has an autocracy and doesn't not share power and it makes you so disgusted and then grateful for your own nation's government but then there's this picture: 

This is Erriscado, one of the pedagogical directors at the school where I teach and you know what, he loves Frelimo and he's very involved in the party so for teacher's day on Sunday he didn't wear the t-shirt that all the other male teachers wore, instead he wore this, which can only be described as a Frelimo costume (even his visor said Frelimo), and it was pretty great.  Side-note, Erriscado is a good friend and a very hard-worker at school, I respect him ALOT for the work he does for the students and because of that, I don't care what he wears to show who he supports as long as he still does his day job :)

Here's to hoping Mozambique's elections this year pave the way for more freedom and organization from minority parties in-country so that the nation can grow to fully encourage/support a multi-party, democratic government that works to support everyone regardless of where they live and who they want to vote for.

Trimester III: lots of traveling and lots of events!

So it has been a while and I apologize for that but since returning from South Africa things have been very busy here! Today marks the first Saturday I’ve been in Vanduzi for a weekend since the beginning of August and it sure is nice to finally have a relaxing weekend at home!  Let me re-cap the past month for you..

I went to Inhambane with two friends for a short trip before heading to Maputo for a Close of Service Conference.  Tofo beach in Inhambane is always a wonderful little escape from the Peace Corps life and this trip was no different.  I enjoyed a few relaxing days at the beach, ate lots of delicious and inexpensive seafood and just caught up with some good friends who I don’t get to see nearly enough.  It was an awesome trip.

A beautiful, old mosque in Inhambane City.

Pristine beaches = African paradise. 

These two live way too far away from me so it's always fun to travel together and catch up!

We made friends with some of the women cooking food in the market and aside from making us delicous shrimp curry they went out and bought us fresh fish one day and made a feast! Fish, shrimp, calamari, crab curry with salad, rice and fries....I'm pretty sure we didn't eat again that day after indulging in this feast.

And I got to see my good friend Mary, who lives and works in Tofo now that her contract with Peace Corps has ended.

In Maputo I had a conference with all the other volunteers who I arrived in country with.  We met with staff to discuss how to best close up or hand over our projects and also the best way to say goodbye to our friends we’ve made here.  I also had to do some medical stuff so that was important as well…found out I had a bacterial infection in my stomach and was put on some strong medicine to wipe that out.  Before I finish in Moz you can expect a blog about all the crazy medical problems I have had….

Moz 19, we still have a few weeks left and we're going strong!

Arguably the best part (for me) of being in Maputo at this time was that I was able to say goodbye to two of my very good friends here.  The first being Elisabetta, the volunteer who also lived in Guija and who organized the awesome mural painting I helped with last January.  Before finishing up her service Elisabetta set up a co-op with women in her community who sew capulana jewelry and bags for her to sell in the states.  You can check out their work here: 

http://www.kurandza.com/ 

I also had to say goodbye to one of my best friends here in Vanduzi, Simao.  I’ve written about him before and Simao was leaving Mozambique for the best of all reasons, to go study abroad!  After complications with his fullbright app he accepted an offer to pursue a one-year Master’s certificate in Brussels, Belgium where he will study the English language and community development. I was able to meet him for dinner and drinks in Maputo and then took him out to meet a number of other volunteers who were all hanging out in the feira.  We took SImao on the bumper cars and on the swings and he had so much fun!  And embarrassingly when the time came to say goodbye I sobbed like a child but I was (and still am) so incredibly proud of Simao. It is so difficult to do well here in Mozambique but if someone works hard enough, doesn’t give into corruption or get side-tracked by politics, they have a chance to break out of the cycle of poverty here and that’s exactly what Simao is doing and it’s so exciting!  Simao was also my first Mozambican friend here who I have had to say goodbye too, and that was difficult because I know it will be tough to stay in touch, but like I said I couldn’t be more proud of him.  He is still in the process of applying to the Fullbright so I hope that one day he will be able to come study in America and I can introduce him to some of you!

Bumper cars with Simao, Ari, Rich and a number of other (not pictured) volunteers!

So after returning from COS conference I had about 5 days to put the final plans together to finally run a provincial science fair! After months of waiting for funding to be approved it was, and I had to work quickly to make sure the fair would actually happen.  With the help of a number of PCVs, Manica had its provincial science fair and although I wasn’t very proud of the conference it was a miracle in itself that we were able to pull the fair off in such short notice and at the end of the day, the participants all had a good time and it was a great learning experience for everyone involved so that in itself is always a good thing.  Here are some pictures from the fair:

Adamo (on the left) was my counterpart for the Manica provincial fair, the other three individuals came to the fair to offer free HIV tests and counseling.

Manica Science Fair participants 

Thelma and I with our good friend Labson, who absolutely loves Science so I invited him along to help us with Science fair for the day and I'm pretty sure he had a great time because he still tells me how important it is for people to study and understand science and how important it is to participate in Science fair.  

3 judges didn't show up on the day of the fair so who filled in? PCVs of course, and a representative from the provincial office of science and technology.

Labson, Laete (a teacher at Vanduzi) Thelma, Osque  (the student from Vanduzi) and myself all proudly representing Vanduzi district.

Just a few days after finishing the provincial science fair I had to fly to Maputo with the science fair winners so they could compete in the National Science Fair.  Science Fair is the product of a lot of hard work from professors, students, government technical experts and volunteers, working in every district across the country.  The fair provides technical inspiration and scientific lessons for everyone involved and is an inspiration for all of the students who participate in local, district, provincial and national fairs.  Each province sent their two student winners (one from grades 8-10 and one from grades 11-12) to compete in the national science fair. A teacher and one or two government representatives were sent from each province as well.  In Maputo, two volunteers, along with help from the Ministry of Science and Technology and a lot of PEPFAR funding, had planned a 3-day workshop for all science fair participants.  The teachers had a day to show experiments, a day for an open expedition and a day of an actual science fair, where each provincial winner was given the opportunity to present their work in front of a jury and answer questions.  I wasn’t too excited for Science Fair simply because I was tired of traveling so much and just wanted to be in Vanduzi with Thelma and Amendoim, teaching my classes and doing my regular jobs, but science fair was awesome and I’m so glad I got to be a part of it!  For the participants to be flown to Maputo for such a big event, and meet important people, and simply given the time and opportunity to show off their hard work was pretty awesome, and the projects that they came up with were incredible.  Here are some pictures…

Taken from the second day, a public expositions with 50 students and professors showing their projects.  There were also local dance groups who performed traditional dances for a crowd of over 1000 spectators.  

On the third day, winners from each province presented their projects to a panel of judges and an audience of 800 people.  There were more cultural dances and theatre pieces as well as a Q&A discussion about HIV/AIDS by health experts who provided free testing and counseling.  It was a long day but it was pretty awesome.

This student made a security system for a house.

This winners proudly displaying their new bags, certificate and trophies.

This student made a balance for people to use in his rural community to weigh their produce to sell in the market.

This student made paint with home-made materials (such as vegetable dyes). She won first place at the competition for students in grade 8-10.

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The Minister of Science and Technology was quoted in a national newspaper, Jornal Noticias, saying "Queremos saudar os prefessores e voluntarios do Corpo da Paz pela dedicacao e imaginacao na forma como acompanham desde as zonas mais reconditas, guiam e apoiam odalunos naaprendizagem das ciencias experimentais atraves dos clubes espalhados pelo pais, adoptando formas de suportee aos conhecimento teoricos aprendidosnas escolas." 

Translation: "We want to recognize the professors and volunteers of Peace Corps for their dedication and imagination in the form of helping the hard to reach areas of Mozambqie; guiding and supporting the students in learning of experimental science through clubs spread through the country, adopting and offering forms of support to the theoretical knowledge learned in the school system."

I don't take much credit for my help with Science Fair, I don't teach science and couldn't explain physics or chemistry to you if you asked but organizing the event was fun and being a part of the national fair was a really neat experience. The students who participated were all just brilliant and they used the most basic resources to create their experiments and some of the teachers involved were just so dedicated to helping their students learn and grow, it was really cool.  It was also great to work with a team of motivated PCVs, who after months of waiting for funds, were so determined to make the fair a great experience for everyone who was involved.

After Science Fair, I returned to Vanduzi and jumped back into teaching and helped students putting together an English theatre piece put their final touches onto their production.  Last year, I took a group to participate in the English theatre competition and although it was a lot of fun for the students they weren’t well-prepared, spoke for way too long, and were simply overwhelmed.  Well this year they were determined to do better and that really showed.  They made props and costumes, really tried to act with emotion and were GREAT about sharing lines among all the participants, it was so much better!  They ended up placing third and you would have thought these kids won the lottery when it was announced that they had placed.  They all ran to the front of the stage and were hugging and high-fiving and after they got their trophy and certificates they came over to my to shake my hand and I was tearing up, they were just so happy!  I’m really gonna miss these kids, they work so hard and I really hope that somehow, they are all able to go to college next year.

The students from Vanduzi preforming their theatre piece.  

Very happily displaying their 3rd place certificates and trophy!

With English theatre and Science fair finished I was finally able to focus on teaching and my English Club and simply spending time with friends here.  I have 3 more weeks of teaching here and then exams will start again and then it will be almost time to leave, which is crazy!  I’m trying to balance continuing my job at school and spending time with good friends.  

Thelma and I spent a weekend visiting Sophia, her husband and their adorable daughter Shanazai.

It’s been exhausting explaining that I am in fact leaving at the end of the year, mainly because people ALWAYS say that I should simply stay.  Aside from work and saying goodbye I’ve started looking for jobs (to start in December/January) and that also is incredibly stressful…I’d rather sit on my porch and read Dr. Seuss with my neighbors.

Teacher's day is tomorrow and presidential elections are on Wednesday so you can expect another update soon!

Was I dreaming? A week in Cape Town.

Last month, after traveling around Zimbabwe, I went to Cape Town to meet up with a friend, Samantha, from college, who after a few days in Cape Town, came back with me to Mozambique to meet some of my friends and colleagues here.

I took 2 buses from Zimbabwe to get to Cape Town (a total of 38 hours on buses...so I looked really good when I rolled up in the mother city on a cold morning). I had 3 full days in Cape Town before Samantha arrived so I did what any "normal" Peace Corps Volunteer would do...I went to the waterfront and walked around the beautiful mall and looked at all the food in the grocery stores. I'm not even joking. There were two other PCV's in Cape Town and we were all staying at the same hostel, so together we went out and ate delicious food and just people-watched and walked around the city. I also got my hair chopped off at a salon (thanks ringworm, I never actually wanted short hair!), and I went shopping. It was all very exciting, and I was able to get all those weird culture-shock activities out of my system before Samantha arrived.

The V & A waterfront...where Mark, Michaela and I walked around eating delicious food and staring at all the beautiful people.

Cape Town has lots of street graffiti, this one's my favorite though and I was happy I was able to find it again! 

The Nobel Square at the waterfront, which is dedicated to South Africa's 4 Nobel Peace Price laureates: Albet Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, FW De Klerk and Nelson Mandela.

I met up with Anneka, a PCV in Mozambique, who lives way too far away from me to see her in country...we had a nice Mexican dinner and then went out with some other PCVs and travelers staying at our hostel.


Going back to Cape Town was really special for me because I had studied abroad there 4 1/2 years ago and absolutely loved it. On one of my free days I met up with an old professor and we drank tea and caught up, it was really nice.

Quinton, who is in charge of all CIEE study abroad programs in Cape Town.  Also a very good friend :)

Finally, after 3 luxorious days, Samantha arrived and the real fun began. Together we went wine tasting, climbed table mountain, explored Bo Kapp, the district 6 museum, old biscuit mill and drank lots of cappuccinos. It was absolutely wonderful. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Wine tasting :)

The best combo: cheese and wine!

What a view!

The group we went wine tasting with.  The tour itself was kinda lousy in my opinion but the people we went with were all pretty fun to hangout with so overall it was a great day!

Camps Bay Beach.

Iced Coffee from my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE coffee shop in all of Cape Town (in Old Biscuit Mill)

The district 6 museum, which commemorates families living in the district 6 of Cape Town who were forcibly removed from their homes under apartheid.  The museum also stands to commemorate all those who suffered forced removals under the horrendous apartheid government.

Colorful houses in Bo Kaap

And finally, a picture from the top of table mountain! 

One day, Samantha went to do a safari, which I was not planning to do, so while she did that I traveled around the Cape of Good Hope with some friends I had met when we did our wine tour. The Cape peninsula is absolutely beautiful, all along the peninsula are small beach towns (which reminded me of New England a bit) and each town has pristine beaches with blue-turquoise waters, and sometimes seals and penguins. It was really fun driving around with new friends and just enjoying these pretty towns.

Just some seals hanging out, getting some sun....

The Indian Ocean!!!

And a beautiful sunset over the ocean.

Samantha, Shivaun, Luke and myself.

We all went wine tasting together and then I spent the day exploring the cape with Shivaun and Luke while Samantha went on a safari.

The trip to Cape Town was exactly what I needed at the time because I really felt like I was on a vacation and could just relax. I had saved up for this trip (and had some help from my parents, thank you again so much you guys) and because of that I was able to relax for a few days and not stress about the idea of eating out two meals a day and just enjoying the place I was traveling to. Cape Town is also a pretty inexpensive city so even on nights when Samantha and I would go to a "nice" restaurant our meals were less than $10, which was great for me! The hostel we stayed at was cute and comfortable, and really clean. We met some other people traveling from all over the world, who then tagged along on our adventures each day and that was fun too.

The city itself was just such a nice break from Mozambique. Yes there were people begging on Long Street and asking us for money but you get that in any city. My biggest shock though was how clean and tourist-friendly the city was. It was also great to have reliable public transportation. Drivers actual yield to pedestrians! Even the minibuses in Cape Town were a lot nicer than they are in Mozambique (instead of being crammed into the bus like a pack of sardines everyone has a seat, and when the bus is full no one tries to pack more people in!) I studied in Cape Town right before the World Cup, and although the city was very nice then, it felt like an African city. Maybe it's just because I've been living in one of the poorest countries in the world (ranked 187th in development out of 190 countries) that Cape Town felt so luxurious, but it really did remind me more of Europe than Africa. It was also strange that every black African I met in the city seemed to be from Zimbabwe, not South Africa. The city is still very segregated, but that is more out of choice than anything. Black Africans lived in the Cape Flat Townships (such as Llanga and Khayletisha) for decades, and once apartheid ended, it was too expensive and likely very intimidating to move into the city. Today, most Black African families live in the townships because that's where all of their families live; that's where they shop, go to school and that's the life they know. I'm interested to see if this will change in the next 5 to 10 years as Cape Town becomes even more of a tourist destination, and continues to develop and participate in the international economy, and more jobs become available in the city.

Anyway, after a week in Cape Town, Samantha and I traveled back to Mozambique. We spent a night in Maputo with my friend Mindy and then went to Namaacha the next day so Samanatha could meet my host family from training. In Namaacha we just hung out with my host siblings and their neighbors and cooked delicious matapa with my host mom. It was really fun, and I was glad Samantha got to meet my host family, and see how a typical Mozambican family lives outside of the city. We also squeezed in a run to the waterfalls outside Namaacha and that was fun too!

So happy to be back "home".

Samantha learning how to scrape coconuts to make coconut milk (used in the matapa curry we made for dinner that night!)

My host mom adding boiling water to the coconut flakes to make milk...

I can not put into words how wonderful these people have been to me these past two years.  I can go months without speaking to them and just show up at their door and they always happily welcome me with open arms.  They really are my family here.

Samantha posing with Josara and Junior (our next door neighbors son).

Pessearing (Portuguese for walking around) with the host siblings and Samantha.

After hanging out in Namaacha, we had about a full day in Maputo to squeeze in the main tourist attractions...so this meant lunch at the fish market and then I took Samantha to the craft market so she could buy souvenirs...just look at this delicious, fresh seafood!

First we bought the prawns....

Then someone else cooked them...

And then we ate them...all of them!

After a day in the city, we went back to Mindy's house, where we ate Indian food together and did our laundry and just hung out. The next day, after some confusion with our airlines, we flew to Chimoio and traveled back to Vanduzi. We spent a day in Chimoio capulana shopping, and eating at Silvino's restaraunt, and then spent another whole day in Vanduzi just hanging out. Samantha met some of my closest friends here and also go to learn how to use a latrine (i.e. poop in a hole) and take bucket baths! We baked banana bread and walked around and it was really cool. I love when volunteers come to visit me at site because my friends here are always so excited to meet them, but having someone come all the way from America, just to visit me was really neat, and people were so flattered to meet her!

Samantha and I with Silvino, a very good friend and also very talented chef.  We ate lunch at his restaurant in Chimoio.

An authentic Mozambican/Portuguese meal at Silvinos: beans and rice with fried fish and cabbage salad.  In the background you can see a bit of the jar that has Silvino's famous peri peri in it (don't worry dad I'm bringing some home for you to try!)

Two of my favorite market ladies (the one on the left is Dorca and I often spend free mornings or lazy Sunday afternoons hanging out with her at her stall, wrapping vegetables and telling stories).  The ladies in the market were so excited about Samantha's fancy camera, they immediately tried to freshen up and then started singing and dancing for her to record. It was awesome and I was dying of laughter.

Overall, I had so much fun. It was great traveling around with someone from home and just being able to catch up and relax together. The entire time we were in Cape Town I kept telling Samantha being there was like a dream, and when I came back to Moz I wasn't even sure if the trip had happened or if I had been dreaming. The countries are just so different its incredible, but I'm grateful I was able to return to South Africa and really appreciate it again. It was also fun to watch Samatha here and see which things surprised her most, and which things she didn't seem to mind. Honestly though she was a champ and didn't complain about anything and was always anxious to try something new here! She even wanted to learn how to bolea...and picked up some of my most common expressions here in Portuguese. It was really fun and I am so thankful she came to visit; the company and conversations were great and it was so refreshing to spend time with someone from home!