April Recap


We are nearing the end of April and things on this side of the world are more are less the same with a few minor adjustments. First and foremost: the weather is cooling down (thankfully)! Lately, the averages are around a cool 70 degrees (yes, that’s right- 70 degrees is considered cool in my world now. Africa will do that to you). I’ve been able to use blankets (a thick blanket, at that!) when I go to sleep and I’ve even been wearing sweat pants to bed! It’s pretty remarkable. Let’s see… it’s also cool enough that I can wear my lion mane (hair) down without feeling like I’m going to suffocate under it (curly/frizzy hair girls- you know what I’m talking about). Aside from these wonderful climate changes, there’s been a lot happening… here is my photo recap:

April 4th: I celebrated my 25th birthday with a group of friends here in “Chitown” (first birthday here in Africa, yeeaaaabudddy!). A few days before hand, I actually found out that my friend Carolyn’s bday was also on April 4th so we had a cool little combined birthday dinner J
From left to right: Carolyn, Mary, Shane, Anna, Wendels

Doug, Me, Carolyn, Mary, Shane, Anna, Zach


During the weekend, Haleigh and Joanna came in to celebrate my birthday. We drank wine, ate homemade pastries, and drank some Manicas (of course).


April 7th: Mozambique celebrated Dia da Mulher (National Women’s Day). Although I sadly missed the celebrations in the center praza, I did run into a lovely group of women on my way into town. I threw on my Josina Machel capulana to show solidarity with them and THEY.LOVED.IT!!! Two women even offered to show me how to properly tie my capulana so that it didn’t fall or drape when I walked. In honor of women’s day, I wrote a piece about the importance of Women’s Empowerment in the REDES April newsletter. If you haven’t checked it out, do it now!


“Josina Machel, OYE!!!!”


Later that night, I spent some quality time with my site mates by going over to Shane’s house (which we’ve never been to or hung out in) and cooked Mac& Cheese (special shout out to Val Cooper for that lovely care package w/ Velvetta). 

'MERICA!

Shane's house has a lot of character

PCVs spend a lot of time cooking things we miss-
tonight's dish: Mac & Cheese w/ a Avocado side salad, mmmm

April 9th: I set out to my PDM (Project Design and Management) Conference with my counterpart, Nerzita. Nerzita works with me at ATM and she has experience in all of ATM’s projects (sewing, BioSand Water Filters, and HIV/AIDS palestras). She is also my REDES counterpart. Conferences are awesome first and foremost because I get to get out of site and see people from my group (MOZ 18; I am the only 18er in the central region of the country and although I’ve made formed some great friendship with my fellow Centralers- there’s nothing like some Moz18 camaraderie). But moving on to the real work stuff- the conference was about designing, implementing and assessing the impact of projects that we (will eventually) carry out at our respective sites. To open up the conference, I helped Ilidio (the assistant to the health program director) with a brief presentation about Peace Corp’s history in Mozambique. The conference covered many topics- from the logistics of designing a project to funding.





Moz18 LOVE!










April 13: After PDM conference was over, Nerzita and I flew back to site and jumped straight into the REDES TOT (Training of Trainers). I believe I’ve mentioned REDES before, but REDES is a girl’s empowerment (secondary) project carried out by MOZ PCVs. 



Later that night, the Chitown PCVs gathered for a diner with our Country Director and his wife (who had been traveling through the Central region of the country and conducting site visits).


My site mate Hoang is an excellent cook

Shane, Anna, Don, Hoang, our CD, his wife, and our visiting vol- Lisa

Light outage


Back to REDES TOT- the conference ran smoothly and we reviewed the key sessions that we want the trainers to carry out with their groups. Many of the sessions were facilitated by Mozambican counterparts, while a few were presented by PCVs. I was asked to present the session about the importance of Sex Education in the REDES project (Valores e Educação Sexual).

A game that illustrates the damaging effects of HIV on the immune system


Contraception session- Condom demonstration

Nerzita's practice session
Proud to have her as my counterpart :)


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