These last few days have just flown by and been
a whirlwind of craziness. To start with
I AM FINALLY IN MOZAMBIQUE! But I’m
getting ahead of myself, so I’ll start at the beginning for you.
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| The view from my hotel balcony in Maputo, Mozambique |
Monday after I got to our hotel in Philly, I
met up with some other volunteers who also arrived a day early. We went out to eat, got a few drinks and
then just hung out and got to know each other.
We were all pretty exhausted because most of us got very little sleep
the night before because of nerves and excitement, so we went to bed relatively
early. Then Tuesday, everyone arrived
and our staging officially started. It
included some icebreakers (although not as many as I expected and honestly, was
dreading), and then going over some general PC things. It was great to finally meet the people who
would be going on this adventure with me.
We have 50 people in our group and all of them are amazing. After our 7 hr staging we all split up for
our last meals and then came back to the hotel and played some cards and had
some more bonding time. At about 11:30
we went to do one of 3 things; either go get some sleep, repack, or just chill
until we left at 2AM Wednesday morning for the airport. I figured that it wasn’t a good idea for me
to go to sleep since it was already about 11:30, so I repacked, took a shower
and relaxed until it was time for me to head to the lobby to check
out.
After making sure everyone was in the lobby, we
all loaded up two big charter buses (which was great because everyone had 2
seats to themselves so we could stretch out and sleep if we wanted to), and
then the fun really started around 2:30.
We left the hotel, drove about 2 hrs to JFK, then had to wait until
about 7:30 when the check-in finally opened, got through security and then had
to wait until 11 when we boarded our flight.
(PS I only got about 30 minutes
of sleep on the bus.) Our flight, 15hrs
to Johannesburg, South Africa, was filled with lots of movies, games, bonding
time, eating, and finally sleeping. By
the time we were in Johannesburg we were all in such a haze. We had no idea what time it was, what day it
was, or really where we were. After
figuring out that it was already Thursday and that we had basically lost
Wednesday completely in the air and figuring out the time with the +7hr time
zone change, we realized that we had a 4 hr layover until we boarded our flight
at 1:05pm to Maputo, Mozambique. This
flight was much easier. It was about 45
min. and I slept almost the entire way.
We were greeted by the Country Director and some of the other staff, and
surprisingly, we all got every piece of luggage with everything in it. (1 point for Moz 21).
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All 50 of us crammed into 3 vans, while most of
our luggage was put into the back of a pickup with a trailer hooked up to
it. Then took a short ride through the
town and checked into our hotel. And
then, of course more fun started, our first round of vaccines took place and
then dinner.
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| View from my balcony in Maputo, Moz |
Today, was full of lots of icebreakers and general
information about Mozambique and PC, and of course more time just to hang out
with everyone. We met some of our PC
Mozambique staff and someone from the embassy came and basically told us
everything that could go wrong and all the issues that there are in the
country. Generally, I feel that
Mozambique is a very safe country, and PC has a very good handle on what is
going on and where it is not safe for us to be. Then we learned how to put together and use
our water filter and all about the Peace Corps Moz Medical Office. The PC Moz staff seems awesome. Of course
following this… was more vaccines! So
far my in country vaccines only total 4 but my arms are still pretty sore,
should be fun moving my luggage tomorrow!
I still don’t feel like I'm in
Mozambique. We have been staying at a
very nice hotel overlooking water and its beautiful here. We’ve had showers, air conditioning, a pool,
running water, and pretty good food for the past 2 days. Tomorrow we leave for Namaacha (na-ma-sha),
which is about 2hrs away to meet our host families. I am very excited to start this journey and
feel as though it will be a reality check, since it will be more like my life
for the next 27 months. I have very
little Portuguese skills so it should be very interesting communicating for the
first few weeks and will probably be a lot of pantomiming. Wish me luck!
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| Another View from my balcony in Maputo, Moz |
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| View from my balcony in Maputo, Moz |
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