Quelimane's for suckas!

We're out of here! Amy and I are leaving tomorrow to spend a glorious week in Cape Town, South Africa. We have lofty goals and aspirations for the week that may include:
1. climbing Table Mountain
2. wine tour....i sense a hint of currant berries and juniper, underscored with the essence of nutmeg. yes muffy, it was a good year.
3. cage diving with great whites...maybe...well, probably not since i am claustrophobic and fear all salt water creatures
4. penguins!
5. real coffee that comes in cups as big as my head
6. hotdogs. well, i don't actually know if Cape Town has any hotdog vendors, but i'd give my left arm for a Chicago Dog right about now...with extra tomatoes. hey, a girl can dream.

80 nets, 3 estrangeiras, and 1 baby Bushie

We did it! Yesterday, Amy, Sara, and I went to Namacurra for the Christmas program for moms and babies from CCR clinic (high risk children). All the moms are HIV+, and some of their babies as well. Sara and a nurse from Namacurra organized a program to teach the moms about nutrition, sanitation, and malaria. At the end of the program, we talked about the importance of using mosquito nets to prevent malaria, especially in young children who have HIV. You should have seen their faces when Sara told them they were all getting a mosquito net! It was amazing! Then Amy did a demonstration on how to use the mosquito nets. We ended up giving out over 80 mosquito nets (we still have many more to give). And get this...we were checking the health cards and weight of each baby as they received their nets, and low and behold, a woman arrived with twins who didn't have names. She chose a name for one of the boys but couldn't think of a name for the other. So Sara goes, "how do you feel about Bushie?" The woman laughed and smiled...so in the little village of Namacurra, there is now a baby boy by the name of Bushie. HA! I'm not even joking! The rain held off for most of the day, but as soon as we finished handing them out, the sky opened up. I think that was Bushie's way of saying "you're welcome." :-)

Christmas Miracle

I'm ACTUALLY going to start my project this week! After procuring approximately 37 letters of approval from various government officials in Mozambique, I'm collecting my first pieces of data on Tuesday.

bric-a-brac

I got a hand-written letter from Hannah. Not only was it written in blue pen on lined paper that had been ripped out of one of her poli sci notebooks, it was written in old timey English, circa 1860. My dearest sister, your letter could not have reached me a moment sooner. The rains have commenced on the dark continent, and I long for home. Please tell mother and father I send my love, and God willing, I will return to Haverhill Manor in four and twenty fortnights.

Amy got a care package today filled with jcrew shorts, a new package of Hanes wife beaters, and double stuff Oreos. And that pretty much sums up Amy in a nutshell.

Today I'm doing interviews to find a research assistant. Requirements: can speak Portuguese and Chuabo; proficient with Microsoft Word; will agree to cook me mucapata and matapa at once a week.

Amy and I bought plane tickets to go to Cape Town, South Africa after Christmas. First of all, the flight from Quelimane to Maputo on LAM (Mozambique's airline) is more expensive than flying from Maputo to Cape Town on South African Airlines. Not only that, Amy's ticket was more expensive than mine because she's 26 and therefore an adult, but I'm only 25 and considered a child. Bem vindo a Moçambique!

Bushie's mosquito nets have been sitting in a box here at the Quelimane office for months now. And they will continue to sit here until at least January because this place runs about 10 times less efficiently than the federal government. I've been given every excuse as to why we have to wait to give them to the people who need them. I'm really thinking about changing the scope of my research to, "foreign aid: a glimpse of how your hard-earned tax dollars are being wasted."

The peanut butter truck has not arrived in Quelimane. But the coke truck has, bringing both Coke Lite AND Coke Zero. So I've got that going for me...which is nice.

Chuva!

The rainy season is upon us here in Quelimane. Friday the 5th was probably the hottest day we've had. I worked up at sweat just brushing my teeth. The situation was made worse by our tin roof that turns our house into an oven. By late afternoon, gigantic cumulus clouds began growing in the sky, and by 4pm we could hear the rumble of thunder. We had a little sprinkle that night, but the real rain didn't happen until Saturday morning. We had a 20 minute downpour that left the streets flooded almost up to our knees. As I was sitting in my room enjoying the sound of rain on the roof, I heard, "Oh crap!" and looked up to see Amy sprinting down the hallway and returning 2 seconds later with our largest pan. We quickly realized that the pan could not catch all the rain that was leaking through the sealing, so we grabbed Amy's stuff and moved her into the living room.

We also decided on Saturday night that we have the rockin'est dependencia in all of Quelimane. Between the flashing Christmas lights, paper snowflakes, and perpetually playing carols, we're pretty much a beacon of holiday cheer.

Bells will be ringing...

a quick list of the highlights over the past couple weeks:

1. My big fat Mozambican wedding--it rocked! At one point, I was sitting in the Furuma family Land Rover with 10 other people (they have a big family), with a cake sitting on my lap. Dono Francisco was driving and Dona Lourdes was shotgun. And the entire way to the reception the two of them fought about how Francisco doesn't like Lourdes' cousin and thinks he's obnoxious and hates going to her family gatherings. And she was yelling at him to be nice to her cousin and the in-laws. It was hilarious! Some things are truly universal.

2. Thanksgiving--peace corps Megan came into town with a couple chickens...kill it and grill it! Not quite the same as turkey, but close. Amy whipped up some mac'n'cheese and I baked a couple apple pies using Troy's oven. Plus we had a mashed tuber of some sort (wasn't a potato, sweet potato or mandioca. still a mystery what it actually was). The only thing that was missing was falling asleep in front of the tv while watching football.

3. Amy and I are Christmasifying our house. We cut out a bunch of paper snowflakes and bought a couple strands of lights from our local Chinese reject import store. Not only are they blinking multicolored lights, but they also play Christmas carols when plugged in. Sidenote: everything in Quelimane is the stuff that either wouldn't sell in China, or that they couldn't export to countries like the US because the products contain things like lead and mercury. So everything we buy promptly breaks or is probably giving us heavy metal poisoning.

4. December 1st--World AIDS Day. Went to Namacurra and Macusi to see their celebrations. Parades, singing, theater pieces, and soccer games.

5. Tomorrow heading to Malawi for our monthly rendezvous with the border patrol. Like always, if I appear to have dropped of the face of the earth, I'm most likely in a Mozambican jail. Call the embassy.

6. Lastly, but certainly not least, my little Hannah got into law school. I'm so proud of her!!! But if she becomes an ambulance chaser, I'll never speak to her again. Love you Hanchy! Sisters for life!