January 12, 2012
Wow. 2012. Pretty crazy, huh? I realized on New Year's Eve that I spent the entire calendar year of 2011 in Mozambique. I didn't leave once. I traveled around to many different parts of Mozambique (I have now visited 8 of the 10 provinces) but never actually left the country. I'm hoping in the next year I can make it to the last two provinces I've not yet been to as well as my upcoming trip to Cape Town with a couple friends that should be really fun.
Hopefully most of you read my email from right before the Holidays but if not I have copied the more relevant portions below this one (and thank you to any of you who were so generous as to donate to our project). So what have I been up to the last couple months? Well I traveled up north to the province of Niassa for a big Thanksgiving celebration with some fellow PCVs and the Medicos Sem Fronteiras (Doctors without Borders) office up there. It was so much fun. We also went to Lake Niassa for a couple days. Then I came back to my site and had planned to host Christmas for any remaining volunteers from my group (most were home in the States for the Holidays) and all the new volunteers who just arrived in Mozambique in September.
However, on December 20, a heartbreaking tragedy befell some of our fellow volunteers down in the Southern region of Mozambique (for more information you can look here) and so all the Northern volunteers from the new group, some of whom had been at my site, traveled to Mozambique Island for a memorial service for their two fallen friends. All the other volunteers were invited to the memorial service as well and so all 15 of us who had been in Angoche left on December 24 to head to Moz Island. We spent Christmas there but then the new volunteers wanted to spend more time together to get through this difficult time and so 16 people came back to Angoche on December 28 to spend the New Year together as well. I had all those guests in my house for about a week, and while it was certainly a bit hectic, everyone helped out and it was really quite a heartwarming week. So many of them thanked me as they were leaving, saying the week of beach going and friends was exactly what they had needed. And I'll never forget, as one of them was leaving she told me, “It's like you healed us.” Needless to say the days of cleaning and getting the house back in shape after they left were completely worth it.
Now that the New Year is here I've been trying to get prepared for school to start up again. However, despite the opening ceremony being on Monday I still don't know what I'll be teaching this year. I can't say I'm all that surprised to be honest. Last year school didn't really start until about a month after the opening ceremony. And the class schedule changed completely at least four times during the first trimester. So we'll see. I've told my supervisors I can teach math, biology, or chemistry (and would prefer to teach those since they are what I studied in university) but it's difficult to argue when they say the English teachers they have aren't fluent and they want a native speaker to teach the upper level students. Either way, once I know what I'll be teaching this year I'll let you all know.
Well I'm off to enjoy my last few days of freedom before school starts back up. I hope you are all doing well back in the States, and please let me know how everything is going for you. I feel so out of the loop over here. And for those of you who don't know I will be home for about three weeks in mid to late April for my sister's wedding. I should be splitting my time between Ohio and DC (where the wedding will be). I would to see all of you while I'm there so make a note on your calendars. :)
Love,
Alissa
Short version of my pre-holiday message:
One thing my sitemates and I are hoping to accomplish in the next year is to help solidify our Youth Center as a place where kids of all ages in our town can come to learn, read, and explore. We would like to start a youth literacy program to help the youngest kids learn to read. The problem is finding children's books in Portuguese is extremely difficult and all printed books here in Mozambique are very expensive.
So in the past few months my sitemate, Margaret (who has since finished her service and returned to the States) and I have written grant to try and raise money for this new project. And in the spirit of the holidays I would like to invite any and all of you to check out or website where you can choose to donate to our youth center and aide us in buying the books and supplies we need to help the kids of Angoche. Information on our grant can be found here as well as a more detailed description of our project.
Thanks in advance for any donation you might make and I sincerely hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!!
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