a peru says gobble gobble

Thanksgiving was a bit out of the normal, if you can only imagine. A group of 51 American Peace Corps (at the time) Trainees gathered together with our local language professors and peace corps administration to celebrate and American holiday on mocambican terra. it was amazing. We split up into groups and tackled classic American dishes. Stuffing, turkey, green bean casserole, gravy, blah, blah. My group made mashed potatoes. We dished out 25 kilograms of garlic mashed potatoes and 15 kilograms of cheesy mashed potatoes! It was glorious. The good times flowed in Namaacha that day as we laughed and enjoyed our last couple weeks in Namaacha for training. I wish I could really truly explain the feeling I had as I looked around at the group of soon to be volunteers and wondering what kind of impact we would have on our communities over the course of 2 years. That was quickly blown away though as we opened some wine and enjoyed each others company.

Vida e boa. Nao e?

Imala, Land of Machambas

Sorry for the delay in updates blog world. I have been on an Africa high, and have been enjoying the life of learning Portuguese, struggling with Makua, and working on Machambas(vegetable gardens). Let me give you a quick run down of the past month, and I will upload a photo or 2. After 10 weeks of training in Namaacha, the group formerly known as Moz 21 trainees are now called Moz 21 volunteers! It's official. I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. During week 7 we learned of where we would be serving in the country. It was an awesome experience because the language teachers drew a giant map on the ground and included the 11 provinces. We then all lined up, opened up our site placement, and walked to our site on the map. It was really cool to see everyone who would be living near me in the small village of Imala in Nampula Province or Northern Mozambique. That weekend we decided to have a competitive futesol match. I will describe the match more in detail on another blog post. I will also talk about thanksgiving, swearing in, and my move to imala!!

vida e boa! nao e?