Mexican in Mozambique

An excerpt from an email I wrote/ U n extracto de un correo electrónico que escribi: -“Pues, prima. Aquí la cosa es… interesante. Hay días que estoy súper feliz de lo que estoy viviendo y me digo, “WOW! Vivo en África! Esto si es vivir!” Días como esos cuando estoy aprendiendo mucho y observando todo lo que veo y creo que vale la pena todas las dificultades que paso… La verdad, esta experiencia es difícil… pero te forma de una manera que no se puede encontrar en otras experiencias… como, por ejemplo, en una clase. Hay días que tengo muchas ganas y me siento ambiciosa. Me pasan miles de ideas por la cabeza, ‘quiero entrar en este proyecto, quiero escribir un reporte de esto,’ … días donde veo muchas oportunidades… Días en que escribo mucho y me siento bien. Días en que me pongo hacer listas de mis metas- metas de estos dos años como voluntaria, metas personales, y metas que tengo al largo plano. Quiero mejorar mi Portugués, quiero aprender la lengua local, quiero tener un proyecto...

I am sitting in the Peace Coprs Office crying my eyes out... It's about 6:30pm on this Saturday evening and I am killing time on the interwebs before heading to a BBQ despedida for one of my site mates. I happened to glance over into the room next door and I saw a TON of packages stacked up. I browsed trhough them casually and was delighted to see one of them with my Mom's writting! A few weeks ago my Mom, my aunts, and some of my cousins all compiled a care package for me with tons of goodies. The contents include: a toilet seat cover frying pan cooking pot kitchen cooking utensils measuring cups! (cups & tbs) chicken seasoning 8 packets of Beef ramen noodles Un Rosario & Virgen de Guadalupe prayer thing (I forget what they're called) pink Essie nail polish hand sanitizer small tupperwear kitchen sponges Nutella! nivea creme kitchen towels oven mit 16 acrylic paints !! M&Ms! 2 pckts of Hello Panda cookies :) 3 pckts of cookies hello kit...

September 16, 2012 My head is cheia (full) of endless thoughts/questions. The writing bug has bit me again and I feel like there are so many things to share, so I apologize if this doesn’t make much sense. I feel like my life has become full/representative of all those lame clichés (sayings) you always hear growing up. You know those things you hear your parents say all the time, like “you learn from your mistakes,” & other sorts of nonsensical bullshit we try to tune out? Well. Ahaha. These little sayings are alive in my life now more than ever, not because I keep hearing them, but because I am finally starting to see so many of them actualize in my personal life/experience as a PCV. You guys know what I’m talking about, right? Those —-  “experience is the best teacher?” .. “love is blind,” …etc..? This experience is still new and fresh, but I feel myself learning and growing a lot already. & not always in a really deep and meaningful level (although...

September 14, 2012 Two days ago marked my first month at site. This entire process is still so new… I feel like such a ‘newbee’ in every sense of the word. I spend a lot of time with other PVCs from earlier groups and its quite an interesting dynamic. A lot of the near by volunteers (and the volunteer I’m replacing) belong to Moz15. Their group finishes their service in the coming months and COS (Close of Service) has been the topic of the hour in almost every gathering lately. I’m so curious as to how they are feeling, and of course, I’ve already pestered many of them with this question… but it seems like there are so many questions left unanswered. But these questions that fill my head are questions which I will figure out as I go… that no amount of advice can give me the answers to. I look at them and I see myself and I recognize that we are on two complete opposites ends of the spectrum- they are finishing up their service while mine is still commencing. I look at them an...

It’s Saturday afternoon. Today I saw a dead dog on my way into the cty center, discovered where all the cheap Chinese lojas (stores) are in town (thanks to one of my site mates), and I also got mugged. I was walking to the Peace Corps office with one of my site mates after doing a little shopping around town. We were walking down the main avenue, 25 de Setembro, after stopping by this little shack to get some cokes and a little bite to eat. We’re walking… it’s a little after 12pm and I notice some guy following closely by… I noticed he was right behind us, so I turned to ‘let him pass,’ but when he realized I had noticed him- he grabbed towards me but only managed to grab the plastic bag I had hooked to my backpack strap. My site mate (Shane) looked at me, “did he grab your stuff,?” and immediately pushed the guy back. The bumb stumbled back and muttered some demands. Shane yelled at him to give me my bag back, but I asked him to let it go. We walked away (with all of our valuable...

Thursday night-8:03pm, August 30 th .  The days are passing quickly. I feel like the time is flying by… I’m tired… and I haven’t even started any projects yet (as far as work is concerned; & I probably won’t for another few months).  My ‘work’ is pretty flexible and relaxed for the time being (although I have an indication that it will probably remain like this for my time here). Some days I don’t feel like writing. Nothing seems worth sharing. Other days- my head is filled with funny, quirky, or aggravating anecdotes. Like I mentioned in my last post, I’m keeping this blog in order to share my experience with those back home (& frankly, anyone who thinks my writing is worth the read), but also because the act of writing is therapeutic to me. Writing helps me get my thoughts in order… it helps me make sense of things… and it helps me reflect on my own actions, thoughts, emotions, etc. Sometimes I find myself thinking, “god, I hope this isn’t boring...