Adeus Trainee, Ola Volunteer!

Hello all! Hope all is well wherever you are. I haven't updated in awhile and I apologize! I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! Woohoo! All 51 of us were sworn in at the ambassador's house in Maputo on December 3! On the Nov. 30th, we celebrated with our families! I gave a thank you speech. I was shaking the whole time, but everyone enjoyed it. I will try and post the video. Videos are hard to post when the internet connection isn't very strong. It was sad saying goodbye to my family in Namaacha, but I am excited for the opportunities that Liupo will have. Ok, back to swearing in...We stayed in really fancy hotel in Maputo. It was called Hotel Arabias or Vilas Arabias...I felt like I was in the movie, Aladdin. After having our swearing in celebration, we took to the streets of Maputo to find some good food. After eating dinner we all met up to hang out one last time and say goodbye to each other. It was an emotional night. On December 4, the northern people, myself included, were to fly out of Maputo. We barely made our flight. The staff underestimated our baggage and didn't send a big enough vehicle for everything. After arriving in Nampula, we went to our hotel which was also fancy. There I had to argue with the front desk because the paper they had said I was a male...and I am obviously not...The positive side of the argument was that I got a room to myself! We also had a conference at the hotel where we got to meet our supervisors or colleagues of the schools we would be working in. Our pedagogico director is really nice. A pedagogico director is the person that oversees programming and is in charge of the professors. On Dec. 6th, a majority of the Nampula volunteers left for site. Again, it was sad saying goodbye to our friends. The road from Nampula city to Liupo is very bumpy and rough. It is a dirt road the whole way. Half way there we got a call saying that they packed the wrong luggage and that my stuff was still in Nampula city. I was lucky enough to have some things with me, though. Once we arrived in Liupo we were put into a temporary house because our house isn't quite ready. It is right next to the governor's house and it is fancy! We met other supervisors and important people with the school and community. Language is definitely difficult but we are getting bye. The local language here is Macua (sp?). We want to learn a little of that too. Today, we walked around a lot. We did get to see our house. It is tiny! lol...We went to the school, the market, and introduced ourselves to neighbors. We are exhausted so decided to rest all afternoon and continue walking around tomorrow...I know I am forgetting a lot so I apologize for the random thoughts, events, etc.

Check out the pics!