PST Week 8: 3rd Practicum visit and Maputo trip

3rd Practicum visit 7/26:

We accompanied an activist with 3 home visits to people living with HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis. It was a really good learning experience to see and meet the patients in the community and learn about their stories and treatment. 

Maputo trip 7/27: 

We finally had a Saturday off from training so we went to Maputo to buy things. We're doing Secret Santa in our Moz 20 group so I finished my gift today. The hightlight of my day was Cadbury chocolates on sale!! haha It's 75MT in Namaacha and 53MT in Maputo last time I saw it.. it was on sale for 37MT! So i bought 4 bars (3 for myself to stock up, 1 for my little niece).. by the time I got home, it all melted :( but its still good! just not as pretty. I also got to eat thai food! My favorite! :) 

Other highlights/things I've learned:

-Movitel came from Vietnam! How cool! It's hard to use iPhone in public so I decided to buy a 'dummy' phone so I can use it as my main phone and reduce the chances of getting my iphone stolen by using it only for Internet purposes. I got huge discount on it too yay! :)

-I played a lot of games this week with my family. It's really fun and great bonding time too. They taught me how to play Police & Thief and Jogo Burro. I taught them slapjack and a simple magic card trick. During one of our slapjack game, my sister accidentally slapped on the wrong card so she was like 'mosquito!!' hahah

Playing Slapjack

-We learned how to make peanut butter from scratch and headbands/flower clip out of capulana.

making peanut butter takes a lot of energy!

First headband I made! I made a matching one for my host sister too :)

-My sister saw me walking home from training so she hide and then popped out and screamed boo! to scare me.. it worked :( She got me back for scaring her from behind the day before haha

-One of the visiting volunteer made all of us matching bracelets! 

US and Moz flag colors together

PST Week 7: Ramadan dinner, Site announcement, and 2nd Orphanage visit

Ramadan Dinner 7/14:

Rami (fellow trainee) put on a Ramadan feast for us and it was delicious!! My first time celebrating Ramadan also!

Site announcement 7/18:

(see previous post for my site placement) When we arrived at the hub, the staff was already drawing out the map of Mozambique with the sites that we're going to be placed at. After much anticipation, we finally know where we're going and who we're going to work for in the next 2 years! It was followed by delicious food and cake, yum!

Moz 20!

anxiously waiting

Last to finally get my package

Standing on our site on the map

2nd Orphanage visit 7/19:

We went to Irmãs Franciscana again to play with the kids and then we hung out and talked with the teenage girls in the boarding school. They're on break from school for the next 2 weeks so this is our last time with them :( The teenage girls invited us to come have lunch with them before we leave training so hopefully we can make that happen. They are so sweet and nice!

Singing, dancing, and playing games

Other highlights/things I've learned:

-IPhone battery can explode.. I left it in my trunk and found it like this when I took it out. I'm out of phones if I lose my iPhone 4 now :( 

-We went to the tailor this week to get our matching capulana made to wear for swearing in ceremony. I'm getting mine made into a simple dress since I'm not artistic enough to draw a pretty design for the tailor hahah

- Did another palestra (small lecture) on TB

-We had our 2nd language written test this week. It wasn't too bad.

-I went with Julia (fellow trainee) to a Movitel store and the guy working there was Vietnamese! First Vietnamese I've met here haha. He asked for my number and told me that he'll call me to come back on Monday so he can give us both a free 1gb of internet!! Yay! I hope he'll call haha

-I did English lessons with my sister a lot this week and it's been a really good practice for me to learn Portuguese. After teaching her the English words, I tested her memory by saying it in Portuguese and she has to translate it to English. We had a lot of funny moments with our pronunications. 

-I can hold conversation with my family now! It feels great being able to communicate with them well compared to when I first got here.

Site Placement

After anxiously waiting for this day to come, we finally know where we're going to live for the next two years and who we're going to work for! I'm opening a site in Ancuabe, Cabo Delgado! It's a completely brand new site so I will be the first Peace Corps Volunteer there. It's exciting because I will have the ability to start whatever kind of activities I want to and won't have to live up to the previous volunteer's work.. yet scary/nerve wrecking! 

Site Code: Ancuabe, Cabo Delgado

Size of Site: Small, District town

Organization: Wiwanana

Type of Placement: NGO

New/ Replacement Placement: New

Site mate(s): No

Short description of organizational activities: Wiwanana uses community centered projects to promote health in rural populations. They work to ensure widespread community involvement and support in all of their activities. Areas of focus including HIV/AIDS, tuberculoses, malaria, hygiene and sanitation, nutrition, infant and maternal and child health. They also work in the areas of gender equality and the support/strengthening of local CBOs (community based organizations) and associations.

Requested assistance from the organization:

-Support the organization in strengthening local CBOs and associations

-Assist with projects and programs related to capacity-building of local CBOs and associations including assisting with training community activists on M&E tools, health topics and community intervention and mobilization strategies

-Participate in and assist with small-scale, organizational based research on social-cultural factors that affect public health initiatives.

-Assist organization with developing strategies to incorporate new health-related subjects into their outreach activities.

-Support in the planning of and participate in trainings for staff and focal groups.

-Actively participate in monthly review meetings

Other info:

-Beside Portuguese, I might have to learn Macua also (the local language there)

-Wiwanana has 50 members in the organization

-5 of Moz 20ers are in Cabo Delgado so although I'm the only one in Ancuabe, I'm within an hour to the next closest volunteer. I'm also only a little over an hour away from Pemba beach! Yay!

-Wiwanana's main office is in Chiure, a nearby town where Elizabeth (fellow Moz 20er) is, so I will have a lot of opportunity for collaboration. She will also work for Wiwanana and is my closest neighbor so I've already told her that we're going to be best friends for the next 2 years :) 

-Target groups are teenagers, mothers, people living with HIV/AIDS, and children under 5 yrs old

PST Week 6: Shadow site visit

Shadow site visit:

I went with Melanie (fellow trainee) to visit Kelly (current PCV about to COS) in Pemba, Cabo Delgado. It was an awesome trip and a nice relaxing break from training. Kelly showed us around the city, share with us about her work and experiences and gave us really good advices. We met a lot of the education PCVs in Cabo Delgado as well

Sat: chilled at the beach, had dinner at a fancy restaurant then went to a discoteco

Melanie and I

Education PCVs

Haven't ate at a fancy restaurant for a long time! They even had complimentary bread with butter! haha

hitch hiked a free ride home :)

Sun: spent the entire day at Bush Camp. I got to cross off 2 things on my bucket list!

Pemba Bay

#117. Archery.. check!

#167. Kayaking.. check!

yummy all you can eat buffet

Mon: walked (a LOT) around the city. we went to the market, visited the health clinic, hospital (saw 2 dead bodies), walked through a lot of bairros, and went to the beach where we had a splash flight in the ocean with the local kids

the market

lunch was delicious!

crack open the coconut for us

my dinner: mapata com arroz.. really good!

Tues: we had lunch then flew back to Maputo. We stayed overnight at Hoyo Hoyo Hotel and managed to do a little shopping before it gets too dark. We were able to find shampoo (the hotel didn't have shampoo for us) and nail polish so it was a very good night! I got to use the SHOWER!! It feels so good to take long hot shower and feel super clean.

Melanie, Kelly, and I

The bed, shower, and AC felt so good!

Other highlights/things I've learned:

- I got to enjoy a real cup of coffee at the airport! Café com leite.. So yummy! I miss coffee :(

- I took my first outdoor COLD bucket bath at night this past week.. not a fan of it. Also ended up with 10ish mosquitos bites total from the 3 quick outdoor bucket baths
- Hitchhiking is the way of life here

- I had my 2nd interview this week after getting back from site visit. We talked about my preference for site placement. I want to work with an HIV/AIDS organization in a rural medium sized community that's within 1-2 hours from a city and a volunteer. I also want a toilet, running water, coastal site placement, and site mates.. but these are wishful thinkings :( 

- I got my mid-LPI result back. I ranked intermediate low, which was better than I thought I did so yay! I need intermediate med to considered as 'passing'. I'm pretty sure I want/need a Portuguese tutor still when I get to site.

- I received Lisa's card and pictures! I wanted to go to Maputo (a lil over an hour away) print out pictures to give to my host family so I was really surprised and happy when I got this! :) 

Thank you Lisa!!  

- I finished making my first micro palestra (small lecture) that I have to present on Monday to my language group!

HIV Transmission

PST Week 5: July 4th and tests

I'm halfway done with training now! I finally hit that point where I'm feeling out of it and tired of training this week. I just wanted to stay in bed every morning haha. I was dreading Friday because of the mid LPI test but looking forward to Saturday for my mini vacation from training.

July 4th:
We had a party after training to celebrate. It was really fun to relax, hang out, and dance with everyone. Definitely the break I needed from feeling constantly tired this week. The wonderful visiting volunteers bought sausage and steak for us and we all buy/made more foods/drinks.

Mid LPI test & Round Robin test:

LPI (Language Proficiency Index) is an oral test so I've been trying to practice as much Portuguese as I can this week to prepare for it. I read to my mãe and irmã and they helped corrected my pronunication. I practiced conjugating the verbs to describe my daily routine in present, past tense, and imperfect. I think my LPI went pretty well.. the tape recorder made me a bit nervous though. I got asked about my routines here and in US (yes!! practiced the right stuff) but then there was role playing and asking about what type of HIV work I want to do here and the type of group I wanted to work with and why. I think I did okay for these part since I was able to understand and answer the questions but I didn't know much vocabs to expand on it.

Round Robin test has 4 sections: Core, Technical, Medical, and Safe & Security. At each section, I was asked 3-4 questions about the material we've been learning. It was pretty easy but the questions for tech was slightly harder to answer.

Other highlights/things I've learned:

-Iron Man 3 was on tv!! I was shock when I came across it. Maybe I won't be too behind on movies and music by the time I come back to the state :)

-My camera is fixed!! Soo happy!

-I got an email saying that I'm a marrow match for a female patient. I was so sad! The lady changed my status to temporary unavailable for now and will reinstate me when I come back. I replied and said that I'm willing to donate if they still need it by then. Hopefully they find another match soon!

-I saw a huge cockroach crawling INSIDE on my mosquito net!! This was supposed to be my safe spot :( I am leaving my net tucked in at all time now.

-I learned how to cook more dishes :) I probably will end up eating bread and peanut butter on days I'm too lazy to cook though haha

I miss rice cooker!

-A couple of us met up to exchange media. So excited to have more movies and tv shows to watch during down time once I get to site! 

-'Yesterday' is a really good film about HIV. It portrays the stigma, lack of knowledge and resources, lack of access to health services, and domestic abuse that exists here in Africa. 

-Finally received letters from Bryan :) Mail does take awhile to reach me here.. 3-4 weeks 

-I'm SO excited for my shadow site visit to Pemba, Cabo Delgado!! I get to fly across the country! I'm leaving tomorrow morning and I get back late afternoon on July 9th so I get to stay for the night at a hotel in Maputo and go back to Namaacha the next morning.. That means I get to SHOWER!!! With hot running water! Ahh luxury!! :) :) :)

Namaacha [A] to Pemba [B]