care packages.

A few details/tips for anyone who does want to send a little care package/letters/etc:

-letters rarely get delivered from what I hear… it’s better to send a padded envelope for any personal letters and/or small packages.

-don’t bother Expressing anything over… the Mozambican postal service is a little slower to what we’re use to back home. Sure, the package will arrive in So. Africa fairly quickly… but it will probably get stuck in Mozambique for a few wks, so it’s not really worth it and its much more expensive.

-I hear that the U.S. postal service has a flat rate box for $57, doesn’t matter how heavy as long as it fits in the box…

-Anything you send over will probably take a minimum of 3-4 weeks to get to me, just FYI…

*Supposedly, the people at customs are less likely to steal if the package is addressed to a Nun/Clergy person, so some people have their friends/family address their packages to “Irma…” (Sister….) and cover the package with religious paraphernalia of Jesus or the Virgin Mary. Whether you want to pretend I am a nun, or not… well, that’s up to you, LOL.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 months in!

Image
Oi,  Two days ago marked my 3 month mark at site! Whoooo! It’s definitely the first of many Peace Corps milestones. Reconnect Conference also took place last week in Maputo. Reconnect Conference happens after your first 3 months at site (our conference was a week premature) and its designed to bring your group back together, share your experiences from site, talk about the challenges you’ve experienced & brainstorm some resiliency strategies to help cope. We also had a session on Monitoring & Evaluation, which is just a fancy way of describing the process of ‘reporting’ back to Washington. I left Chimoio early Sunday (the 4th) and flew down to Maputo. It was great to see my fellow Moz18ers once again and hear about everyone’s experiences at site. We had daily sessions from 8-5 Monday through Thursday and a half day on Friday. On the first night there I got to go to a reggae show on the marginal (like the Cali PCH, but in Maputo) which was pretty great. Aft...
Read more

fidel castro.

July 11, 2012 I just got back from a short trip to the northern province of Gaza… I visited a current volunteer in a barrio called Fidel Castro, which is about a 30 minute drive from the capital of Xai-Xai. The trip was definitely a learning experience… a lot of questions ran through my head during the last few days, and although I did not fall in love with the barrio of Fidel Castro, I am glad I got to see first hand what the PCV experience is like. I think that in general, the Peace Corps experience is characterized by highs and lows. Sometimes you are happy to be here and other times you can’t seem to stop asking yourself what the hell you signed up for… These last few days have certainly followed this pattern…. My alarm went off at 2:40-ish on Saturday morning. I got dressed, gathered my things and set off to meet the rest of the volunteers by 3am. I walked over to our meeting spot with Carla and her host mom in absolute darkness. There was a power outage right as I was ...
Read more

O ano ja acabou!

Image
The year is over (well, almost!). December is here and health associations are getting ready to close down for the holiday season, meaning that work is coming to a halt d'aqui a nada . Last week was actually a really busy week of work (hey! I never get to say that!) that served to pretty much close the associations activities for the year. Here's a short re-cap of the past week: Monday, November 25th was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and my association, LEMUSICA, kicked off a series of activities: Monday Nov. 25th- International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women The association led a march and performed a dance to "One Billion Rising" in the center of town. The director gave a speech about cultural norms that perpetuate the tolerance of violence against women. She called on the crowd to defy cultural norms and recognize violence against women as a grave human rights violation. Sometimes, when bys...
Read more