Friday, December 6, 2013

12/3/2013: Goodbyes and new beginnings

It’s official. This week celebrated Thanksgiving, Homestays, and the end of training to finally become official sworn in Peace Corps Volunteers.
Last Friday (yes, a day late) we were able to create our own little (or not so little) family Thanksgiving in Namaacha. Of course, our mães thought we were insane thinking we could cook things like turkeys, green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pie, and other things. And I quote (but translated) “YOU are chiefi of pumpkin pie?? You know how to cook??” “Yes mãe, I cook all the time at home.” It’s never the same as being with our families, but it all came together and reminded us a little bit of home.
To continue the party weekend, the next day was our Homestay celebration! Our mães cooked all the traditional Mozambican food and gave us family capulanas. Such a bittersweet time. Transitioning from training to volunteering but saying goodbye to each other and our families.
But now here we are, in Maputo, officially Volunteers, freshly sworn in by the ambassador himself. It’s kind of weird. We are about to start the real adventure of why we joined Peace Corps—not hanging out with 50 other Americans, not being taken care of by our mães, actually teaching It’s all about to begin. And it’s a little scary. We’re leaving what has become our reality and started a whole new reality—again—I feel like this is something I JUST did isn’t it?? But here we go again starting over, again. And it really is pretty exciting! Soon I’ll get to meet my roommate, I’ll get to meet the irmãs at the school, I’ll have my own house, I can start my own routine, and my Mozambique reality and dream can begin. And I’m excited.
After a week of our supervisors conference and spending time in Maputo eating “American” food and hanging out together, we have finally at our sites! I arrived in my site today and it’s just fantastic! My roommate is amazing, the nuns are wonderful, and the school is beautiful. The other teachers are all really excited to be teaching and I’m excited to call them my coworkers. Now to unpack…which most of you know I really severely hate. But hopefully this will be the last time for 2 years.  

I’ll update my pics soon.

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