Malaria TOT

8/11/14 Ancuabe -> Nampula

I had a horrible day! So my boleia fell through to leave Ancuabe early in the morning so I ended up getting into Nampula late at night around 6pm. I spent most of the 6 hours ride to Nampula texting and calling people in Nampula to help buy a train ticket for me to go to Cuamba the next day. That didn’t happen because apparently all the tickets were sold out so I decided that I was going to take a chapa to Cuamba. After arriving to Nampula, I was getting off the truck and I was heading straight to a taxi to go to the hostel when a guy came up from behind and yanked my purse off and ran away. I chased after him screaming for help but no one stopped him. Luckily he dropped everything on the ground and ran away with only my phone and camera. People helped me picked up my passport and the rest of my bag on the ground so I didn’t lose the important stuff. It’s all replaceable items but it still sucks though since my iphone and camera were both new ): Lesson learned! Cannot let a 3rd time happen ): I hate this city! Anyways, so I got to the hostel, checked in, and went to a nearby food stand for dinner. The guy working there has a car and was going to help me track my phone but it was offline so couldn’t track it. Luckily I had an extra basic phone on me to use so I was able to get some phone numbers from my icloud. I only had 1 bar of battery left on my phone though and no one at the hostel uses the same charger. I couldn’t sleep well that night since the guy underneath my bunk bed was snoring really loud and I kept waking up every hour because I was paranoid that my phone would run out of battery and I’ll oversleep.

8/12/14 Nampula -> Malema -> Cuamba -> Mecanhelas

I left the hostel at 4:30am, took a taxi to the chapa station for Cuamba, and then found out that they’re not going to Cuamba today. I ended up taking a chapa to Malema (5am – 10am) and then waited for a chapa going to Cuamba to come.  About an hour later I managed to get a ride with a freight truck passing by heading to Cuamba. The ride was horrible because the roads were so bad. Imagine sitting on a trampoline and having someone jump on it next to you.. that was the majority of the ride was like. So that took another 5 hours so I got into Cuamba around 4pm. I found the chapa for Mecanhelas and waited 1.5hr for it to fill up before it finally leaves. I finally made it to Mecanhelas at 7:30pm! And just in time right before my phone was about to be out of battery. I was turning it on and off all day to save the battery.

8/13/14

I woke up so sore!! It has to be from sitting in bus/truck/chapa all day the past 2 days. So I spent the day prepping for the TOT and exploring Mecanhelas a bit with Alice, a fellow Moz 20er. We thought we didn’t have a projector so I started writing what I need on the big poster paper but were relieved when we found out that one of her org does have a projector.

8/14/14 Malaria TOT day 1

7:30am- 8am: Chá

8- 8:30am: Boa Vindas e apresentação

8:30- 9am: Pré teste

9-10am: Causas da Malária

10- 10:30: Lanche

10:30- 12: Sintomas da Malária

12- 1pm: Almoço

1-3pm: Prevenção e Tratamento da Malária

3pm: TPC                 

Day 1 went really well and according to schedule. We got to Alice’s org at 6:30am to set up for the training. There were 15 participants total.

We started session 1 (Causes of Malaria) with an agreed/disagreed/not sure activity where the participants move to whichever corner that represent their position the best after we read a statement. The three statements were: The families in my community believe that malaria is serious and can be fatal; the families in my community believe that they are at risk of malaria; the families in my community believe that it is worth it to protect themselves from malaria. We then talked about transmission and life cycle of malaria.

The second part of session 1 was symptoms of malaria. We gave each participant a flash card with a symptom on it and had them put it in either the ‘symptoms of malaria’ pile or ‘not symptoms of malaria’. Then we went through it and told them which ones actually are symptoms of malaria and which ones are not. After the symptoms, we talked about malaria in Mozambique with some facts and statistics. We finished a little early before lunch so we went outside and played a quick trivia game with bean bags. We asked them a question related to the information they just learned and then throw the bean bag to a person and they have to answer it. During this time, one participant made a comment that we have to get rid of all the mosquitoes to eliminate malaria. We explained to him that we don’t have to kill off all of the mosquitoes to get rid of malaria, we just have to get rid of the malaria parasite so that there won’t be any for the Anopheles mosquito to infect people with. It was a light bulb moment where they were all ‘ooohhh!!!’ hahaha

Lunch was yummy and the portion was huge! We had chicken, rice, salad, and potatoes.

We played an ice breaker game to get them energized after lunch break. We played hug a buddy and called it abrace amigos.

We started session 2 talking about ways to prevent malaria. We also did a net hanging demonstration, an activity that shows the importance of having everyone sleeping under a bed net, and hang the mosquito net (pin the tail on the donkey style)

For treatment of malaria, we asked for 3 volunteers and gave them each a ‘weak parasite’, ‘strong parasite’, and ‘very strong parasite’ sign to hold to. Then we did an activity to show the importance of completing the 3 days treatment instead of stopping after 2 days even if they feel better and wanted to save the 3rd day treatment for another time. We ended the day with giving them TPC to do, which was to read the Tatu book and do the mini test at the end of the book.

8/15/14 Malaria TOT day 2

7:30am- 8am: Chá

8- 8:30am: Revisão da Informações

8:30- 10am: Combatendo da Malária em Mecanhelas

10- 11: Apresentação

11- 12: Pos Teste e Availação

12- 1pm: Almoço

1pm: Encerramento e Certificados

Day 2 started a bit behind schedule but the timing worked out eventually. We began by reviewing all the information that they learned from day 1 and then we went outside to play relay games. (I love activities!)

We divided the participants into 2 teams. The first round of the relay race game, they had to arrange the steps in order of what they must do if they have malaria. 

For the second round, each player from each team has to run to the front of the room, pick up a paper with a symptom on it and then run to the side to put it in either the 'symptoms of malaria' or 'not symptoms of malaria' pile before the next player can go.

After the games, they were divided into 4 groups according to their organizations to create an action plan to fight malaria in their community.

Each group presented their action plan to everyone

Doing pos test and filling out evaluation of the training

Alice giving out perdiem

People love certificates here

group photo!

8/16/14 Mecanhelas -> Cuamba

I took the first chapa out of Mecanhelas and got to Cuamba around 7:30am. The ticket booth wasn’t open to buy a train ticket until later in the afternoon so I wandered around Cuamba for a bit until Brianna was free. We baked delicious chocolate cinnamon banana bread and did a marathon of Once Upon a Time. We watched 8 episodes total and ate lots of bread and ice cream all day :) We met up with other 6 other PCVs for dinner

8/17/14 Cuamba -> Nampula

I met up with a 4 Moz21ers to take the train to Nampula together. I think I have bad luck with this train.. The first time I took the train from Cuamba to Nampula, it broke down so we didn’t get into Nampula until midnight. I spent 18 hours on the train that time (it was supposed to be about 10 hours only). This time, it ran out of gas so we had to wait for a truck to bring more gas from Nampula, which delayed us for about 2.5 hours. I didn’t get into Nampula until almost 6:30pm. I got to crash with Rayna (Moz21er) for the night at City Hotel so I didn’t have to pay for a hostel, yay!

8/18/14 Nampula -> Pemba -> Ancuabe

I woke up at 3am to head out. I didn’t see any taxi running but I got a boleia with a Senegalese guy to the bus station. I got into Pemba around 10:30am and went to LAM to change my return flight from Maputo to Pemba. It only cost me 1307mets so not too bad! :) Then I met up with friends, ate lots of the frozen yogurt and ice cream, bought cat food, and then got a boleia back to Ancuabe. It feels good to be home!! I was homesick since day 1 of the trip hahaha

July 2014 updates

Hosting Site Visit July 5-10:

I got to host site visit for 2 PCTs from Moz 22 group for 5 days so they can see what's life is like as a PCV. We spent the first day in Pemba at the Pemba education volunteers' house where they got to meet other volunteers. There were 13 of us total. We had a great party for July 4th with the Pemba volunteers' neighbors. On Sunday, we went to the beach in the morning before taking the chapa back to Ancuabe. I was excited to have visitors! They're the first volunteers to stay over at my site. I had a great time showing them around and cooking meals and baking together. It was unfortunate that they couldn't see the work that my org does since the training we were supposed to have with the health committees in the communities kept getting postponed. On the bright side, they got to experience "Mozambican time" and see how things work and learn how to deal with it. They also got to participate in my secondary projects!

Work:

I will have 4 new coworkers starting in August! I switched office with Amelia so now I'm in the bigger office where 2 new coworkers will join me. One will be working with me for the Juventude e Saude [youth and health] program and the other one is responsible for maternity safety program. Work has been really slow for me this month and pretty frustrating because things keep getting cancelled or postponed. I was supposed to go meet with the education director with my coordinator earlier this month to talk about the youth and health program we want to do but it still hasn't happened yet. The meeting is set for August 1st now but vamos ver! My org finished building a Casa de Mae Espera [House for waiting mothers= where expecting mothers stay at leading up to their due date to ensure that they'll get the medical help when they need it] at the hospital this month so that's an exciting news.

My new office space

REDES meetings:
7/1/14 Taught the girls how to make Ojo de Dios! Got the idea from a fellow Moz 20er and help from youtube videos 

7/8/14 The girls created a collage of their dreams for the future and presented it to the group. We then discussed what they have to do in order to reach their dreams. 

7/15/14 We talked about income generation and brainstormed possible projects we could do. Afterward I did an English lesson for them.

7/22/14 We did another English lesson and cut circles out of capulanas (part of our income generation project- selling capulana flower hair clip)

Horas das Crianças:

7/2/14 Pin the tail on the donkey but malaria version: Hang the mosquito net

7/7/14 Played soccer 

7/9/14 Practiced writing letter G and colored Superman

7/18/14 Practice writing letter H and colored Winnie the Pooh

7/30/14 Played soccer. I'm horrible at it. I usually play goalie after the first few minutes so that I wouldn't have to run as much but I'm not good at blocking the ball hahaha =(

English classes:
I finally got around to setting up schedules to teach English to my coworkers and neighbors. As of now, I have 5-6 different 1 hour sessions for different group/individuals per week after work and on weekend since they're all at different level and have different availability. And of course, with Mozambican time, sessions get postponed to another hour or another day.. which sometime interferes with my Hora das Criancas which I then have to postpone that to another day. It's not my ideal preference but until I can figure out a better schedule, that's what I'm doing for now.

Taking a quiz after finishing a lesson

Vovinam:

7/28/14 Officially started my Vovinam class! We'll be meeting every Sundays. Starting with a small class to see how it goes before opening it up to the community. So far, I taught them how to bow, do basic punches, kicks, blocks, stances, and how to roll. We will be working on that for awhile so that they'll have a strong basic foundation.

Other updates:

-Zambie is back to being an only child [for now..]! I gave Grey away to my landlord's family whose house have a lot of rats. 

-Zambie is pregnant again and is probably going to pop any day now. She's much bigger than last time so I'm going to guess that she'll have 4-5 kittens.. vamos ver!








-There's a huge ebola outbreak in West Africa right now :( Peace Corps is pulling volunteers out of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea for now. Don't worry guys, I'm on the East coast so I am fine. My heart goes out to all West Africans and I hope they can stop the ebola epidemic soon! This outbreak is the most severe in recorded history :(
-I'm waiting for the school director to finish working on the budget list for the library project and then hopefully we can start working on writing a grant together next month.

-I'm heading to Mecanhelas to do a 2 days Malaria TOT [training of trainers] next month with another PCV! I'm excited but also really nervous about my Portuguese and the traveling there alone though haha. It will take me 2 days to get there and 3 days to get back. Next month is also mid-service conference and... I'M COMING HOME TO VISIT!!! :)

Malaria Boot Camp; Moz 22 PST; 26th Birthday

Malaria Boot Camp X June 1-15:

I had a wonderful opportunity to attend the Malaria Boot Camp X in Thies, Senegal. I flew to Senegal along with 2 other PCVs from Mozambique. It was an intensive 11 days training from June 3-14 (6 days a week, almost 12 hours a day). There were 40 PCVs and staff from DC and 15 African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Togo, and Uganda. I feel lucky to have met such an awesome group of people to learn and share experiences with.

Stomp Out Malaria Boot Camp X

We learned about everything related to malaria in depth: the plasmodium lifecycle, treatments and prophylaxis, HIV co-infection, major interventions, malaria in pregnancy, M&E, behavior change, vaccines, health supply chain, and more. We got to skype with many experts in the field, visited an entomology lab and a health hut. 

We also visited Thieneba Seck to talk to El Hadj Diop. He is the leader of one of Senegal's most effective community based malaria prevention program. He was very inspirational and spoke with such great passion about malaria. In 1999, his 12 year old daughter died from malaria along with other village children and many pregnant women. Afterward, community leaders gathered to ask questions about what this disease was, what caused it and how they can stop it. After talking with local health workers, El Hadji along with a few others implemented a campaign to stop malaria. After a few years, they did it! Thieneba Seck and the surrounding areas are now free of malaria.

 One of my favorite part about the boot camp besides eating really delicious food is getting ideas and inspiration, and sharing best practices cross- country that we can take back and use in our own communities. It was an amazing 2 weeks spent learning all about malaria and what we can do to spread prevention awareness to reduce mortality since it affect all of our communities.

All the meals were delicious!

Moz 22 PST June 16-22:

Right after Senegal, I went to Namaacha for a week as PCV Trainer to help out with week 3 of Moz 22 PST [Pre-service training]. It's kind of crazy how I was in their shoes a year ago! Time went by fast :) We talked about malaria and youth development all week and even got a chance to visit an orphanage. It was a fun week spent getting to know the 32 PCTs [Peace Corps Trainees] and I'm excited to find out their site placements!

I also got to visit my host family and had dinner with them for 2 nights. It was great seeing them again and since my Portuguese improved greatly compared to 10 months ago, I was able to converse more and catch up with them.

Feira de Saúde June 28:

My org hosted a health fair in Salaue where I spent my birthday distributing a total of 330 mosquito nets to children under 5, pregnant women, and elders .. not a bad way to spend it right? :) 

After a long day of work, I came home and cried... To this awesome video!! Best present ever!! I love my family friends and boyfriend :)

https://vimeo.com/99396248

Birthday Party June 29:

I decided last minute to throw myself a birthday party earlier in the week. Luckily I have amazing neighbors that helped me with practically everything. Ancha and Tia helped me put together a list of food to buy to feed about 30 people. I'm so glad they helped me with it because I totally wouldn't have had enough food! Ancha told me "Moçambicanos comem MUITOS! Não como você!" [Mozambican eat a lot! Not like you] and then joked about how they're going to eat, go home to use the bathroom and then come back and eat more hahaha. The total only costed me around $120 which is nearly half of my living allowance but I hardly spend at site so it wasn't a problem. Some items on my grocery list looked like this: 25kg rice, 10kg potatoes, 5kg beans, 2lb xima, and 1kg onions. Tio helped me buy 7 chickens [originally 8 but 1 fell out of the box on the motorcycle on the way back.. haha] from another village on Friday. I was thinking of frozen chickens but he came back with live ones! I had to keep them in my kitchen until Sunday so now my kitchen is a mess! They pooped everywhere ): But Tio will help me clean too :)

Cooking took alll dayyy! Ancha and Tia pretty much cooked everything. The kids and I helped out whenever we can.

I invited everyone to come at 3pm.. of course no one comes on time but this time, it's a good thing! We didn't finish cooking everything until almost 4 pm. The party turned out great! My neighbors, coworkers, REDES girls and a lot of crianças came.. more than I expected but there was enough food for everyone. After dinner was dance party :) 

Hora das Crianças:

Instead of the usual writing and coloring, I got to play soccer with the kids with a REAL soccer ball that I received from Grassroot Soccer at the Malaria Boot Camp! We used to use strings of fabric scraps wrapped around plastic bags to make a ball.

Other updates:

-I finally reached 4096!! Spent a lot of down time & break time playing this game this past month hahah

-I went to Swaziland and got 4 more stamps on my passport :) [One of my bucket list item is to fill up a passport. 10 pages down, 7 more pages to go!] I had a few hours free during my last full day in Namaacha so I went to Swaziland. There wasn't enough time to chapa to a city so we just took a stroll for about an hour. There wasn't much to see or do ):

-The youth and health program that I'm supposed to start with my org is still a work in process.. finalizing plans sooonn hopefully!
-I'm working with the school director to build a library! I'm so excited! The students will love it.
-Grey caught her first rat!