Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Amendoim is not my name

Hey everyone 😊
Happy new year! Crazy 2014 has begun and I'm in Mozambique. Everything has been going really good at my site. I'm not really sure where to even begin because it's been over a month since I have updated you all on my life. I have been really busy as you can tell, many students like to visit me and my roommate Haleigh     . Mostly it has been her students but I finally have a student coming by to visit me which is awesome. That past two weeks I was helping a student study for his biology exam. It's been helpful for him but also me because I get to practice my Portuguese even though I would struggle on some words and he would help me out. Our neighbor really helps us out and takes care of us and the house when we are away. 
Haleigh and I started our own machamba (little farm) in our backyard 2 weeks ago. I'm really excited because we are starting to see sprouts 
We are planting so many vegetables but the veggie we are most excited about is our eggplant which is the picture above. 

Let's do some back tracking since I haven't written anything in a very long time. 
I celebrated Christmas at my friend's site (Carly and Fei) in dombe. It was so beautiful. Even though it was a hot Christmas we still played some Christmas tunes and had an awesome Christmas breakfast. 
Yes that is fresh fruit that came from their backyard and cinnamon rolls made by Fei! We celebrated Christmas with their neighbors and had an enormous feast, we had the food from lunch until dinner. Their neighbors treated us like family which was very sweet of them and we really enjoyed our time. 

(Me, Carly, Fei, Brian, in their backyard in dombe) 
(Their outdoor kitchen)
Their neighbor and her daughter 

Then I came back to site, it was nice visiting other people but I was happy to be home. Actually even our friends at site were happy that both Haleigh and I were home.  For New Years I got to watch fireworks fill the sky which was awesome.
I recently went to visit one of my colleagues from school. She lives in Manica. She was so happy to see us at her home visiting. She made us an awesome lunch and we all just sat and talked for ours. She also has the cutest kids,especially her daughter 
This is Eva colleague's daughter

I'm happy that I have been getting along with all my colleagues so far. Hopefully it stays this way when the school year starts. 
This is the view in Manica 

Sometimes being home we get watched by crianças(children). They are waiting for their moms at the water well. So many people are curious to see us and what see we do or how we do things. Some people think we don't eat enough cause "we don't know how to cook" and then we explain to them we know how to cook we just cook differently. They nod like they understand and sometimes give us tomatoes or bananas to make sure we eat ( since Haleigh is at mid service right now it's been happening to me a lot). Right now that Haleigh is in mid service many are concerned that I am home alone. They constantly invite me to go have conversations and come check in on me. It's really sweet of them 😄. 

Our dogs name is amendoim and many of these kids in the community think Haleigh's and my name is amendoim. So as we walk to the market to get veggies all you here is "AMENDOIM AMENDOIM OLÁ" lol it's kinda funny. Except now they know my roommates name.  Sooooo I think I need to teach them mine so they stop calling me amendoim, which means peanut haha. Even at the market to get my attention they call me amendoim. 
A picture of "peanut" in my chair lol 
He has a tough life guarding the house and being our friend. Our dog is well integrated too! Many Mozambicans are afraid of dogs so it's weird to know people come over to just visit the dog. We even have a friend that walks him because he wants to. If Haleigh and I leave for the night or two and he's by himself, all of amendoim friends are concerned that he is starving and come over to feed him. Talk about being spoiled. The funny things is that he buries his food, so he has tons of food in our yard. 

I also went to an awesome wedding here, where Haleigh and I were guests 
honor (talk about embaressing) but the ceremony was beautiful and full of music, happiness and love. Can't wait for the next wedding!

Alright this entry is long enough sorrrry I'll write another soon enough. Yet school does begin February 4th so hopefully I won't get busy. 

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