Final Post about my PC Moz Experience! Plus pics!

So here it is, my final post about my travels in Mozambique and other parts of Southern Africa. For those of you still reading these updates after two years, thanks for listening. It means the world to me that I had the opportunity to share my experience with you. If at any point in the future you (or a family member or friend) has questions about Peace Corps, life in Southern Africa, or my experience there, please please email me. I love to share what I've learned with others. Speaking of sharing, here are the top 100 (or so) photos from my two years in PC: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.763824821830.2145444.5905091&type=1&l=574c6d20cd

I cannot believe I have already been home from Mozambique for over a month. It seems nearly impossible that my time there has already come and gone. I left for Mozambique over two years ago, and somehow all that time has now passed without me fully appreciating how quickly it was happening. There are days I wish I could have stayed there even longer, but then I think of all my family and friends here in the States and know that as much as I love all my new friends in Mozambique, I was ready to come home.

Many things have changed in the past two years and at the same time many things are the same. I've learned a new language, gone on safari, taught high school students English and young women self-defense, painted public service murals, swam in the bioluminescent Indian ocean, and so many other things that sometimes I can't even keep it all straight. I've seen beauty, heartbreak, hardship, and love. Growth and destruction, life and death. I saw all these things in some form every day, and I will never forget the time I spent there. I've felt lost. I've felt passionate. I've felt scared, alone, and enraged. I have no doubt I have come home a different person for the things I experienced, but I also have no doubt that the love I have for every person and the belief I have in the overall good of humankind will never be shaken, never be broken.

There were days both in the past two years and before I ever laid eyes on African soil that I wondered what was wrong with our world. How can we (those of us fortunate enough to be born in the richest countries on the planet) sit around while millions die of starvation and disease when we have the ability to help and make a difference? How can we not be outraged by the inequities and injustices that surround us? I've learned that while things always seemed black and white when I was growing up, nothing is simple. Helping others is not easy, nor is it as straightforward as I always believed. Trying to do good in a foreign country is especially difficult because even after living for years in a culture and learning the language, there are so many intricacies we cannot see and so we cannot fully understand or appreciate how our efforts might affect things on a larger scale.

That being said I have never regretted my decision to join the Peace Corps. I know many people, including some of my loved ones, couldn't fully wrap their heads around my reasons for doing so. And while they were still supportive of my choice, which I very much appreciate, I wish they could have been there with me. I wish I had the words to properly explain how deeply I felt the need to see beyond our nation's walls. To see how people on the other side of the world are living every day, and to live with them, so that I will never forget how lucky I am and I will never take for granted all the things I have in my life. Food, shelter, family, education, freedom. Things that so many of us have in abundance and are so easy to abuse and mistreat. We are all so blessed and I needed to give back in any way that I could to people who don't have those things. I know there are some people in the U.S. in those dire straights, but there are countries full of people who spend every day wondering when their next meal will come or how they can possibly send their children to school. They pray and they beg and, yes, sometimes they steal to make ends meet and feed their families. But I try so very hard not to judge them, even if it's from me that they're stealing. Because, just like me, and just like you, they are just doing the best they can with what they have.

I've learned so much and seen so many things, and what I never understood before I came here was that while I've tried hard to improve lives here, my life has been changed far more than any lives I've changed in return. I've worked hard and tried my best and honestly can say I've made a difference, even if only in the littlest of ways: A girl who now believes she can go to university and have a career. A boy who has learned to use his skills for the greater good and not just selfish pursuits. I know I will never forget my time here. I know it will always be with me, helping me to try to do the right thing. Whether it's donating to charity, volunteering on the weekends, or spending my life campaigning for more foreign aid, I will not let the people I've met or the hardships I've seen leave me. I will try my best to do good, and persuade others to do good as well. Democrat, Republican, Independent, or politically apathetic, we can all do better to help our fellow humans wherever we are. And that's what I've learned in the past two years, and that's the message I wish to share with you all today. Do good things, big or small, because no matter how much of a difference you make to others, the difference in yourself will always be greater.

Estamos juntos! (We are together!)

I love you all and I wish you the happiest of holidays.

~Alissa

Finally posting my last couple entries (months late!)

September 3, 2012

It seems like every post starts with an apology for not posting more often. I think by now you probably understand I'm busy here and send them as often as I find the time. So instead of asking for your forgiveness I'll just say I know you're all busy too (school just started for some and fall is upon you) but if you find the time on this Labor Day or just need a distraction here is a nice long update on my crazy adventures in Peace Corps.

The past few months since my last update have seemed to go by even faster (if that's possible) than the previous stretches between my updates. A large part of that owes to my having spent nearly the entire month of July out of the country. We had our two week break from school between the first and second trimesters and I managed to finish my grades and leave early as well as miss nearly the entire first week of this semester due to terrible travel luck on my return, but we'll get to that later.

While school and the things I've done there like continue my computer club and have another local and regional science fair have been fun, I'd really like to share the details of my trip with you all, because at times I wished any one of you could have been with me to share in the adventure. When planning this trip I knew it would be my last big adventure in Southern Africa. I knew I wanted to see things I hadn't before including wild animals, bordering countries to Mozambique, and the world famous Victoria Falls. I finally found groups of people doing each of these things and managed to cobble together a trip where I would be traveling at different times with 15 different fellow PCVs in four countries over three weeks. Whew.

My trip started with a three day trek to the border of Mozambique with Malawi in the northern city of Mandimba where my friend Kyla lives. A group of 9 of us met up there and the next day we crossed into Malawi to arrive at Cape McClear, a tiny town on the southern end of Lake Malawi. My favorite part of that leg of the trip had to be the bicycle taxis we took to the border from town and then to the Malawi town on the other side of the border. We stayed for three nights of fun, food, shopping and yes, I'll admit, drinking. We let off steam built up from the last semester of teaching and met lots of other expatriates as well. We had volunteers from all different groups and sectors (volunteers now arrive in two groups a year, one education, one health, as well as some volunteers who stay for extra time leading there to be currently 5 'groups' represented in Moz).

My favorite part of the Cape McClear section of my trip was not the drinking or making new friends, though both were thoroughly enjoyable. My favorite part was a boat trip I went on with two other volunteers and one of their friends who was visiting from the States. We spent an afternoon going out and around an island in the Lake and seeing fish eagles and other wildlife as well as a snorkeling session where I saw fish in all kinds of dazzling colors ranging from bright yellows to metallic purples. Our guide on the boat told us the names of the fish eagles, including Shakespeare, blue tooth and cherry haha. We then returned to the main land where the guide and his friend cooked us a dinner from a fish we bought from fisherman still in the boat on the way back. It was delicious and we ate it while being entertained by a band of local boys with homemade instruments.

The next morning we all went out separate ways and a fellow PCV named Julia and I continued on to Zambia for SAFARI. The funniest part of that leg of the trip was that the Zambian visitors visa cost $50, which had to be paid in cash, in US dollars. Needless to say I did not have $50 with me and so my friend and I had to exchange Malawian currency for a $100 bill (which I haven't seen in literally years) that one of the money changers had on hand for us tourists who don't know how things work. Thankfully both Malawi and Zambia's national languages are English (actually all of the countries bordering Moz have English as their national language) so that made negotiating a little easier. We finally made it to the safari camp, arriving in the back of a pickup truck full of sacks of cabbage.

The next three days were spent enjoying the beautiful safari camp called Flat Dogs (a nickname for crocodiles here) inside the South Luangwa National Park. We saw tons of wildlife both while on game drives and even near our cottage seeing as the camp was actually inside the national park and hippos, elephants, and monkeys were frequently gallivanting around like they owned the place. There's nothing quite like walking home from dinner and turning a corner to find a huge hippo or elephant in your path. Guides from the camp walk the guests everywhere after dark and make sure you stay far enough away not to bother/enrage the animals, but it's still pretty intense.

We went on two game drives (four hour guided tours in open trucks with 6 people or fewer), one in the morning starting at 6 and one in the evening starting at 4 and going past sunset because many of the carnivores only come out at night. In the total 8 hours we spent driving around the park we saw: elephants, hippos, giraffes, zebras, lions, water buffalo, hyenas, baboons, monkeys, warthogs, porcupines, mongoose, giant eagle owls, and countless other birds, not to mention many different kinds of antelope including water buck, reed buck, impala, and puku. It was an absolutely amazing experience to see all the animals in their natural habitat and I need to give a shout out at this point to my sister and new brother-in-law without whose help this trip would not have been financially possible for me. THANK YOU!

The final leg of my trip was also in Zambia. First I met up with three other PCVs in the capitol, Lusaka, and then we traveled together from there to Livingstone on the border of Zimbabwe to see Victoria falls, the largest waterfall in the world. On the way to Lusaka I got a ride with a really nice guy who worked for the government and played old American country music over and over. Nothing I really knew but one I remember was called “My Tennessee Mountain Home'. It made me wonder what the artist would think if they knew their music was popular in Zambia. Surreal. So we made it to Livingstone and while we were only there for three days we managed to see the falls, eat some great Mexican food, get attacked by a baboon, go on a sunset booze cruise on the Zambezi river, and while my friend Emily bungee jumped off the bridge by the fall that connects Zambia with Zimbabwe I zip-lined from one side of the bridge to the other with my friend Stephanie.

Then we made the slow and arduous journey back to site passing through Tete province in Mozambique, then Manica, Sofala, Zambezia, and finally back to my province, Nampula all the while stopping to see friends on the way. Overall the trip was 3 weeks long and I would not have traded it for anything despite the rough travel. I had an absolutely amazing time and wish more than anything I had a better internet connection so I could send you all pictures. I do promise to post them once I am back in the States in just two months!!!

Now I'm off for my last mini-adventure in Mozambique, our close of service conference followed by a few days at a beach called Tofu in southern Moz. I'll be back in about a week and hope my inbox will be full of updates on all of you, my fabulous family and friends!