Tivemos Saudades!

 Guess who got the traveling bug again. Yes I traveled again after working so hard! I deserve a little vacation. When I got to Maputo I was able to see Wendy for an extra day before she was off to America Land. So we went to the fish market ate delicious shrimp and went to the art market. It was nice to actually see her one more time and say see you later, *tear*.  

 

 

Amigos

 

 

Central people (Ariel, Steven, Wendy, Aleesa)

 

Freshly made shrimp!

 

After that I was on my way to the beach. I did the same route again central Mozambique to south of Mozambique to north of Mozambique…. Except in the south I stayed in a beautiful site called Quissico. Two of my friends live on a beautiful lagoon that is 3 hours away or maybe less from tufo beach. I spent almost a week at their site literally relaxing and enjoying the view. The best part was traveling to their site. I took a 6 hour chapa to get to their site and of course got the princess seat (which means the front seat with leg space and no one smashing into you) but I was lucky enough to sit right next to the drunk man. Don’t worry mom the story gets better. This was literally the funniest chapa I have ever been on. Yes the man was annoying and all but I saw something I thought I would never see Mozambicans do. So every time the chapa would slow down or we pass a big city he would by a bottle of cheap liquor, he would set it down and one of the passengers would hide it quickly because the man was that annoying and needed to stop drinking. I found out later that it’s illegal for chapa drivers to have drunk individuals on their chapa. Anyways, they hid about 6 bottles on this 6 hour chapa. The best part was when he tried talking to me in English, please stop I speak Portuguese and he would continue because he’s English were madeup words. Every time he tried talking to me because he would forget, everyone would yell at him over and over again that she speaks portuguese. I literally sat on the bus with my earphones ignoring him but laughing. Then I made it to quissico finally.

So the chapa ride was well worth it.

 

We went exploring a tad and got to catch up with one of my best friends here. It's nice knowning he lives in a vacation spot. Jealous but not so much cause I love my site.After spending time there, laying by the lagoon and getting to know their site, we traveled up to tufo beach because yes I definitely needed beach time.

 

Sticke bridge at the Quissico lagoon

Kids working hard

Carrying stuff over the stick bridge

We met up with other volunteers who I am close with but never see because of the travel ban. I enjoyed every second about it. We camped at the beach and talked about how much has changed since we got here.

Literally September is coming up and that means we have been a year in Mozambique….A YEAR. Crazy. I feel like I just said goodbye to my family.

 

This one is for you mom!

The beautiful Beach

 

So after spending a good amount in the South it was time to head north for a week. I went to Nampula for a very special conference…. My community library project! I am starting a library in Vanduzi, I will be teaching little kids how to read and write in Portuguese and I will have about 175 Portuguese books to teach them with. These kids have never seen a book and I get to change that. I already started the project with four kids and found an amazing dependable counterpart. We spent the whole week not only eating amazing food but he was learning different teaching methods and how to read to the children. I am very excited for this project because it was exactly what I wanted to do and heck I already attract all the little kids. Sometimes I think it drives my roommate crazy that they are always over here but she totally understand how much I love them. The best part about this project is, knowing it is something I am actually really good at it. I have to say I love my job.

 

 

 

Counterparts doing a theater

Some books we have

Joe teaching the secret word

Our training group (Fei, Jules, Joe)

Can't forget the thumbs up

Everyone together

 

My best friend/Counterpart

He got his certificate!

Dombe and Zobue counterparts first time on a plane!

Derreck ending his journey

 

After the conference I was ready to go home and sleep in my own bed even though I was enjoying the hot showers and good food. I wasn't exactly ready to start teaching again because I was so tired but got right back into it and turned out my kids missed me. Here in Mozambique when a teacher enters the classroom all the students stand and greet you with "Bom Dia Senhora Professora" I respond "Bom Dia Como Estao" They say "Estamos Bem de saude" and then I tell them they can sit.  In one of my classes they decided to say "Tivemos Saudades" I couldn’t' help but laugh. Oh my ninth grade students I missed you too.

 

Side note...it's starting to get hot and even amendoim can barely take it!

 

Senhora Professora...estamos pedir sou livro

 

 

Oh July! One more month until a mini vacation! This trimester my kids seem to be so much better and seem a little bit more interested in biology. Yeah who would have thought kids loving Biology? Their test scores have improved drastically and they aren't cheating anymore, they are learning!

 

Some of biology kids studying in front of my yard with my book

 

We are in the month of July so that call for Fourth of July!

We explained to our colleagues how this was our independence day and how we usually celebrated. We decided to invite all the PCV's to our home for Fourth of July and attempt to cook American meals the best we could. We also invited some of our close friends at site to come join us. Haleigh and I decided to make, burgers with cheese (yes I said cheese), mac and cheese, beer batter onion rings/eggplant, black bean salsa haha and so much other good food. We had a huge feast! One down side was I had a terrible stomach problem first ever bacterial infection in my stomach so I couldn’t eat the food I wanted to but luckily there were leftovers and since I started medication after the big celebration I was capable of eating it. It was soooooo good. Also don't worry I recovered!

Mine and Matt's Prom picture

My Fellow Central 21ers

Our JUNTOS group had a conference this month. We had to choose 5 students from our group which was fairly easy because we only have about 8 and there are 5 that show up every time. The conference was in Gondola, They got to meet other groups in Manica and exchange ideas. Of course we were worried they would be intimidated since Vanduzi is a new site and they just started their group but they surprised us. These kids were speaking up, performed there song, and came out more motivated. These students came back and pushed our Juntos group to work harder and explained other art projects we can do. It was such a good experience for them. So hopefully they continue on this awesome self-motivation.

A group doing a theater piece

 Graca our JUNTOS girl wrote a poem that day and read it to every one, we were so proud

Haleigh and I being Silly

Me with the JUNTOS kids

Everyone that was there for the conference

All of us together!

Joao, Manuel, Neto, Ana, Graca

 

July meant my best girlfriend in Chimoio was going back to California. NOOOOO,to soon to soon. I was sad but we should be reunited very soon. We had a big despidida for her and ate really good food made by our Mozambican friend Silvino. He makes the best chicken and beans in all of Mozambique.

 

 

Augusto, Osvaldo, Wendy and I

Wendy and I having a dance party like always

Macho partied to hard at the despedida

 

Okay drum roll please.........

I also found out about my application for my community library and…..I was approved! The month of August my counterpart and I will be traveling to Nampula for a week for intense training. I can't wait, my counterpart is so excited because

1.       He has never been on a plane

2.       He has never been to Nampula

3.       We are getting books!

Hopefully he learns a lot from this conference. I am so excited I cannot wait to actually get a good start on this project. It's actually happening…I get to work with kids, something I am really good at, preteens are little too much for me! Here are some pictures of the kids I want to work with. All kids need is some paper and crayons and their imagination will grow!

 

 

 Also we have personal ninjas in our yard

Our neighbor is best friends with our dog

 

Okay tchau voces!

Estamos Juntos!

Wonderful month of June. This month was so busy and flew by way too quickly.  This month we celebrated my roommate’s birthday and one of best friend’s birthday Laura! After reconnect, I was ready to get back into teaching mode. Most of all begin my secondary projects. During reconnect I learned about the Livro Aberto/ EGRA secondary project that dealt with younger children and teaching the how to write and read. It is a little preschool but something kids could enjoy instead of running around in circles for hours. In Vanduzi, my house is right in front of the pump (our water source). Throughout the day we have many mothers who come and collect water and of course where there is a mother, one child is bound to tag along. There are so many kids by the pump who literally run in circles for hours. They already love me and sit in front of my house to watch me so I decided this program was perfect for them and I was sure the parents would love to get them out of their hair for at least 45 minutes twice a week.  I have 3 kids already who come over every day just to draw with me and play hopscotch, so I brought books back from reconnect to kind of see if kids would be interested. These kids fell in love with the 5 books I brought back. They would come back every single day pediring (asking) for the books. They see all the pictures they would make up a new story every single time. This is when I decided to apply for the program and begin my own community library. I was getting a little worried because it was hard to find a counterpart, and I would stress to my roommate, Haleigh, how everyone has a counterpart and have so many children already. I was thinking my project wouldn’t be approved. Then I realized I had the best counterpart right in front of me. Haleigh has a colleague named Derreck who teaches English also. He is one of our best friends at site, visits us and helps us out a lot. He had so much experience working with children (he was a primary school teacher once), speaks the local language and Portuguese, also very dependable, which is hard to find here…..the best part is that he is fluent in ENGLISH. This is Peace Corps Volunteers dream!  I told him about the project and he loved it. We discussed how we can begin with teaching them Portuguese and eventually transition English lessons as well. You might be wondering why English? Well Vanduzi is very close to the border of Zimbabwe and also Malawi is fairly close. These countries, use English as their native language. Many students know that speaking English is very necessary and could help them potentially get jobs with companies from those countries. Therefore learning English is extremely important and many students are eager to learn. So we applied for the project and have to wait until July to find out our results…..oh July.

(Panshe and Amendoim sharing the Esterra and reading)

 

Our Juntos group has been going really well. They been working together and learning a lot. We have a really strong group even though it is really small.

(Our counterpart Caushe and good friend)

 

 

Students working hard

 

Their first published journal

 

Close up of our leaders!

Birthday celebrations, for Haleigh's birthday we had a few friends over to celebrate and we ate homemade mac and cheese meanwhile we watched the World Cup! It was a fun get together and we enjoyed it very much. The first week back I went to Tete for the very first time to go celebrate Laura's birthday. Which was a lot of fun, we ate her good pancake cake that her roommate made and had a dance party with her closest friends at site. It was a great night. Her site was really pretty and small, they had a beautiful river that we got to see and hang out by.

 

Laura with her birthday pancake and presents!

The river at their site

So pretty!

Laura's Dog Simba

Jeff and Simba bonding

This was taken on my way back to site Beautiful Manica

Haleigh and I being Mozambican and preparing dinner for her birthday

Wendy, Taylor and Anna. It was super cold that day

Sophia and our favorite neighborhood kids

Eating gummy bears!!!

 

 

 

Once I came back and after all the celebration Haleigh and I decided to visit our very close missionary friends Heather and Rick. They invited us to their house to get a little break. It was nice to feel part of their family and be in a really cozy home. They have two cutest kids and two dogs that of course Haleigh and I fell in love with! It was nice to be away from all the loud bars and speak English all weekend. Don't worry family you don't have to worry about me getting lonely, many friends invite us to their homes and treat us like family.

 

Heather on the side there and Haleigh with the BEAST

Me and this goofy puppy

 

This month we also celebrated Vanduzi becoming a district. Which is huge here and now our school doesn't have to go to the city that is 45mins away to get paperwork approved. Our director is working hard making our school better.

 

 

Our Director of the school

Some of our students and Simao our teacher friend!

 

Welp that is all I have for you folks! 

 

 

                          
                                                     Always yours, Thelma and Amendoim!