thankgiveness

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving (or thankgiveness, as the Mozambicans like to call it)! Mine was very strange but still pretty wonderful. I spent the week before Thanksgiving in Nampula for a workshop on "best practices" with the entire SCIP Nampula team. The workshop was led by a young woman from Boston. While she did an amazing job facilitating the workshop, she does not speak any Portuguese so another American who works for SCIP, the 3 other PCVs who work for SCIP and I acted as translators all week. It was pretty exhausting.

At the workshop in Nampula I was asked to attend and help facilitate another workshop on stigma and discrimination, especially focused on HIV/AIDS. So me and 2 other SCIP PCVs went to Ribaue (a district in Nampula west of Nampula city) to help our fellow volunteer, Patty, who had coordinated the workshop along with the rest of her SCIP co-workers in Ribaue. The workshop was a huge success. Many of the community leaders that attended had no idea what the words "stigma" or "discrimination" even meant. But after the 3-day workshop, they were able to define the words, describe how stigma and discrimination can be displayed in their communities, and create plans to disseminate the information they learned to the members of their communities. Along with Jack (a PCV from my group, Moz 16), I led a discussion on "modes of transmission" and "portals of entry" for HIV and was pretty surprised by how much the community leaders knew on this subject.

After the workshop ended on Wednesday afternoon, a SCIP car took me, Jack, and Bethany (another Moz 16 SCIP PCV) to Malema, which is Bethany's site. Two of my friends from the province of Cabo Delgado came to Malema on Thursday and another Moz 16er from Niassa province came on Friday to celebrate Thanksgiving. We cooked ALL DAY on Friday. Literally. From 8am-6pm. We started with a delicious breakfast- fried eggs, hash brown potatoes with peppers and onions and french toast with banana and mango syrups. Afterward, we started the preparations for dinner. What's on a Mozambican Thanksgiving menu, you ask? Here's what we were able to come up with- mango salsa, cornbread, chicken parmesean, Jamaican macaroni salad, macaroni and cheese, curried vegetables, Mozambican beans (feijoada), rice, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole (with fried onions), beef roast, pumpkin cake, apple crumble, and ginger cookies with lime icing. We ate like kings.

Bethany invited several of her Mozambican friends over to eat with us and before eating we all stood in a circle and went around saying what we are thankful for. It was a little emotional, but the general consensus among the PCVs was being grateful for the amazing opportunity to be in Mozambique and to have each other to share the holiday with.

On Sunday we all left Malema and I rode the train back to Nampula. The scenery was absolutely amazing, riding through the lush mountain range. But it was nearly a 7 hour ride and we were all exhausted by the time we arrived in Nampula. Now, I am back in Monapo (finally!) and am still pretty exhausted. I have so much unpacking and setting-up to do in my new house. Not to mention house repairs and building furniture. And with Christmas right around the corner I am feeling overwhelmed! I never, ever thought I would be so busy as a PCV. But I would take this over having nothing to do any day.

Here's what my life looks like for the next month- spend as much time as possible with Vonnie (my sitemate) because she leaves to go home on Dec. 7th, work with Edmundo (my supervisor) to supervise the community distribution of birth control pills and condoms with our team of promoters and animators, get OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) from two neighboring communities legally registered and enrolled in school, welcome the Moz 17 Education PCVs (I'm getting 2 in Monapo!), go to Nampula for a week to work with the SCIP Monitoring and Evaluation official, travel South to Inhambane province for Christmas, and finally, celebrate the New Year in Maputo! 2012 will be here before I know it!