Best Care Package/X-mas present ever!!

Thank you for making me feel loved even on the other side of the world. I'm blessed to have such great friends like you guys!

Words can't describe enough how thankful, happy, loved, blessed, excited, and [insert all synonyms here] I feel!!!! :) I can't thank you enough either! This is the first Christmas that I'm away from friends and family at home. No overplayed Christmas songs, Christmas shopping, and Christmas decorations made me a little bit homesick. This care package couldn't have come at a better time. It is seriously a treasure box! I'm deeply touched that so many of you pitched in to send me this care package. BEST PRESENT EVER!! :) 

After 30min walking in the pouring rain to get to the post office before it closes

Anthony, Candice, Caroline, Dang, Duong, Hien, John, Kevin, Lisa, Michael, Minh, Nguyen, and Tina: Thank you for the monetary contributions!! It is ridiculously expensive to send mail to here, especially a 46lb box.

Catherine: Thank you for the beef jerky!! It was so yummy! I already finished a bag during my traveling journey across Moz. It saved me and my friends when we were stuck in the middle of nowhere with no food.

Christine: Thank you for the ramen and hi-chews!! I haven't had mi mama for years!! Reminds me of my childhood when I used to crush the noodles and eat it raw.

Dina, Rosa, & Thuy: Thank you for the candle, foot cream, lotions (x) and shampoo (x)!! I get frequent black out so the scented candle will make it much more enjoyable. It is way to hot to wear shoes and I walk around a lot so the foot cream is a life savor to my cracked n dry heels!

Jenny & Wilson: Thank you for the fiber protein bars and scrapbook (x)!! I normally don't have time to cook breakfast or lunch because of work but now I won't starve and it will be a nice switch from just eating bread :)

Katie: Thank you for the strings, cat foods/toys, hand sanitizers, coloring books, hair ties, and antibacterial wipes!! I will make you the 5 strands braid bracelet that you like :) My cat will be so happy! I can't wait to color with the children too. They're going to be so excited!

Katie's aunt & uncle: Thank you for the shampoo & conditioner (x), face wash, and chapsticks!! You guys are so kind and generous to buy these for me even though I'm a stranger! I'd love to meet you guys when I come back!

Quynh: Thank you for the multi vitamins and all the water mixes!! There's not a lot of variety of food here but I can get all the needed vitamins now :) Filtered water doesn't taste good and I drink a lotttt of water everyday so now it can be a lot more tasty!

Ruth: Thank you for the flip flop, hair dye, nutella, raisins and twisters! I can't wait to get rid of my ombré and dye my hair and stand out even more in town lol Can't wait to bake cakes with nutella and raisins too!

Vicky: Thank you for all the Starbucks!! You are a life savor! You have no idea how addicted I am hahah

Katie & Kimly: Ahh a billion thank you!!! for taking the time to plan, organize, and put this all together!!! Thank you for buying the rest of the goodies too! I love you guys!! 

(x)- Sorry there wasn't room to put it in the box but I'm still very thankful for it! The box was completely filled. Katie did a good job at wasting no space :)

I hope I didn't miss anyone (blame it on Katie and Kimly if I did since I got the list from them haha). The box got a bit wet since my friend's house got flooded from the pouring rain so I had time to open the box and transfer everything to my big plastic bag before I left for my trip. Thank you everyone again for everything!! My first bite of chocolate and sour patch kids was AMAZING! I can't wait to eat the rest and share them with my coworkers and neighbors. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! FELIZ NATAL A TODOS!

I wish I took better pictures, there are a lot more stuff buried underneath! :)

6 Months Mark

Dec 1st was my 6 months mark in Moz! The past 6 months have a lot of highs and lows. Life here definitely has not been easy and I still get those moments here and there where "why are you putting yourself through this" crosses my mind. Nonetheless, joining Peace Corps and being here is one of the best decisions I've ever made! I've already gained a lot of personal growth- discovering and surprising myself with what I'm capable of doing and tolerating, trying new things, and staying outside of my comfort zone. I'm excited to see the person I'll become at the end of my 2 years service at this rate! Living here and seeing and experiencing firsthand the poverty that exists in 3rd world country has forever changed my life perspectives. Children as young as 6-7 years old spend their days selling things in the market, helping out in the machamba, cooking and caring for their younger siblings, and carrying things on their head (like bucket of water, woods to cook with, etc). Parents leave their house for a few days or weeks at a time to work in another town to make money for their family. Teenagers dropping out of school to take care of their babies. People getting sick because of lack of hygiene sanitation and clean water, from malaria, HIV, etc. The list goes on and on.. but with all the poverty problems that they faced, people still share and give even when they don't have much. A bread or mandaze will be split between however many people are there even if each person only get a tiny piece (I've seen this with my coworkers and neighbors and it always warm my heart!) I have less than 21 months now to try to make a difference here and give back as much as I've learned and gained here if not more. "Peace Corps: the toughest job you'll ever love" True story :)

I've been getting lazier and lazier about blogging and also busier with work (sorry to those who actually reads my blog! haha) but I will try to do a monthly post from now on. Also, I'm not much of a writer so I will often let pictures do most of the talking! :) So since the last post...

Realização duma assembleia comunitária que sera asistida pela visita e apresentação de actividades culturais 10/30/13:

Bicicleta ambulância. There’s only 1 bicycle ambulance in this village to bring people to the hospital (about an hour bike ride one way)

theater group doing a play about HIV

Explaining different ways to treat water before drinking it

Line for HIV testing

Family planning

Nutrition

Reconnect IST (in service training) 11/4 - 11/8:

"The purpose of this Reconnect training is to provide you with a space to reflect on your first three months at site, learn new resiliency strategies, and learn/review a variety of technical skills to enhance your effectiveness as a Volunteer, receive more necessary vaccinations, and revisit key policies and procedures that are designed to make your service safe, healthy, and effective." 

It felt good to be reunited with the rest of my Moz 20 groups! A week of speaking English, taking showers, eating out, shopping, etc. After being at site for 3 months, Maputo was a bit overwhelming! I felt like a country girl going into the big city for the first time hahah I was able to buy a lot of things that I wouldn't find at site.

Encontro de reflexão sobre febre malaria na aldeia Nacololo com tema: toma de medicamentos 11/12:

Capacitação de parteira tradicional 11/28-29:

Worlds AIDS Day 12/1:

Family planning

Blood donation

Mesuring blood pressure

Malaria rapid test

Distributing condoms

My coworkers and I

Capacitação de multimídia 12/9-12:
I stayed in Chiúre for a 4 days training on graphics and multimedia with the Chiúre team. The first 2 days were boring and torturing for me because we learned how to use Microsoft Publisher to make business cards and invitation cards and Adobe Pagemaker to make a newspaper. The last 2 days, we went out to a community in Metoro to interview, take pictures, and do voice recording to make a video about the hygiene sanitation project. We learned how to use Photo Story, Adobe Audition, and Sony Vegas.

Feira de saúde 12/14:

Demonstrating the correct way to use a condom

HIV testing

Visita da troca de experiência 12/15:

Exchanging experiences about hygiene sanitation projects with Pronanac 

Going house to house to survey and observe the current hygiene sanitation in the neighborhood

Home improvement:

My house feels like home now! I made a curtain for my window to get a little bit more of privacy since I always have kids peeking in whenever I open the window for air. I decorated the wall more with paintings I bought from Maputo, pictures, and fabric scraps. I received a mosquito net from work so I put it in my guest room for Belinda. (She's my landlord's daughter and my best friend here. I let her live in my guest room and in return, she washes my clothes, get water, and sweep my quintal for me.) I also added a net to my backdoor gate so I can keep it open for air without having too many bugs fly in. 

Other highlights/events:

-I started doing insanity workouts and Belinda joins in with me sometime. I haven't been keeping up with it though. It's so hot inside my house even at night too. It is summer here now and it is miserably HOT. I want to sit inside my fridge/I am living in an oven/I don't want to leave the air conditioned office at work/I am melting and drowning in my own sweats kind of hot :(

-I booked my flight to Zambia in April!! After 4 years, I can finally meet my sponsored child! So excited!

-Received my 1st care package!! Everything I needed/wanted to make life easier here and more! :)

-Locked myself out of my house.. again. I never seem to learn my lesson :( I left my keys on my bedroom doors and closed my backdoor when I went back to work. I was able to open the front door with my landlord's key since we have the same lock but not the 2 padlocks on my front gate. I tried using a bamboo stick to get the keys but it wasn't long enough to reach. This already caused some attention. Belinda found a reallly long bamboo stick where she has to stand at the other end to help me hold it up. This drew a lotttt of attention and soon after, I had 20-30 people at my door watching me trying to get my keys. One of the guy managed to break off the key ring with the backdoor key so I got back inside my house! After this incident, I hid my bedroom spare key behind one of the painting in my living room and gave my backdoor spare key to my landlord.. hopefully this will be the last time I get locked out of my own house! hahah 

-Rainy season started. There's so much more bugs in and around my house now! My quintal is going to flood one of these days. On the bright side, I don't have to worry about water shortage now! 

-I just found out I have a guava tree in my backyard. Leaves are growing on it and hopefully I'll get some guavas soon. My pumpkin seeds are growing too!

 -I found a fresh egg in my storage room one weekend.. the next day I realized how it got there haha I should keep the door open for my neighbor's galinhas to come in more often.

-Mango season started! SO. MUCH. MANGOES! I love it! I've been deprived of fruits here.