Friday, February 18, 2011
The World According to Megan
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The End of Self Site-Imprisonment: Hostel Takeover and the Super Bowl
Happy almost my birthday everyone! ; )
Also, happy almost 18th birthday to my little bro and a Congrats on finishing High School as well! Another congrats to my UMN Synchro team and their amazing skate at Mids this year!! Good luck at Nationals girls, I’ll be thinking good thoughts for you!!
I am very happy to say things are continuing to move along here! My project is going very well so far, and life is moving along here in the Swaz.
Things are actually ahead of schedule for my project which is fabulous. I intended to submit the proposal for the funding for our project to the Peace Corps at the end of February. It is a large VAST as they’re called (Volunteer Activities Support and Training) so it needed to be submitted at least 3 months before the project, due to start May 30. But my counterpart and I finished it three weeks ahead of schedule and I submitted it on Friday! It was very exciting and I was very proud of myself so needless to say I was feeling pretty good this weekend. Even a packer win couldn’t bring me down! I’ve got a meeting next week with the PC office staff to discuss the project, and keep going down the path toward getting the funding. We’ve also talked with people from the various NGOs we are asking to come for our project and with the director at the clinic to lend us a nurse for the day, and everyone is very willing to help out so far so I am feeling pretty good about everything! We’re heading into town on Thursday for more meetings, so its just busy busy getting this stuff done!
I am also starting to teach Life Skills at the Primary School tomorrow! I hope. I thought I would teach last week, but it kept getting pushed back. But I finally got my schedule last Thursday and I now teach Grades 5 and 6 on Wednesdays and Fridays. It’ll be nice to have a little more of a schedule, while still having a lot of time to organize short notice meetings and impulsive trips to town. I’m a little nervous about the young age, both for material comprehension and English comprehension as well, but so far I have been impressed with the kids’ English here, so here’s hoping.
This last weekend ended a long continuous time at site for me, my own self induced site imprisonment. ;) Being in a small country like Swaziland with relatively good transport (meaning you don’t have to wait days…) makes it easy to get into town fairly often, which can be a blessing and a curse. I didn’t really plan it, but I went into town just once for a few hours since I returned from Mozambique a little over a month ago. It was good to just be at site, hang out in the community, and be productive! But with that being said, I welcomed this past weekend of Hostel Takeover and the Super Bowl with open arms. Hostel Takeover was a blast. One volunteer had the idea in November that since our All-Volunteer Conference was so fun and we all don’t usually get to see each other, we should all get together once every three or four months at a backpackers in town, just to catch up. So that was this weekend. So fun. We had a little over half the volunteers there, so it was a pretty good turn out. Then of course there was the Super Bowl. I was very excited to finally see a football game, heck anything besides soccer and cricket, for the first time in a year. But why the only football game I got to see had to be a packer game, I’ll never know. So there were about 8 of us, 7 people cheering for the packers and me, who stayed up literally ALL NIGHT watching the game, 1:30am to 5:15am. Well Steph fell asleep in the first quarter and I took my usual third quarter nap, but other than that ALL NIGHT! Ha. It was fun, but we didn’t get to see any cool commercials, just the same three ESPN commercials, as it was broadcast on ESPN International. We did however get to see Christina mess up the National Anthem and the Black Eyed Peas, Slash, and Usher at half time. But that will probably be our only American sporting event this year. At least until next Super Bowl. Unless of course the Wild/Blackhawks/Penguins go to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and that is broadcast on ESPN International… Then I just might have to camp out at the backpackers for the series, sleeping during the day and watching the games all night. ; )
On another note, our trip to Cape Town is coming together quite nicely. We are meeting up with our friends from PC Lesotho that we met in Mozambique for this trip so it should be even more fun. Frankly, I am mostly just ecstatic about hitting up McDonald’s. But of course we’ll make sure to get to other places too. ; ) Trips to Table Mountain, Robben Island, and Simon’s Town for penguins are definitely on the agenda.
But before its time for Cape Town, we have our Mid Service Conference in March (Mid Service? Already?) then after Cape Town it will be time to get my health project underway before my parents come to visit in June! How exciting will that be?? Lots of stuff to look forward to coming up, which is very exciting.
Well I hope everyone is enjoying their February and the snow. At least Phil the groundhog says your winter will end early. We have translated that into an early end of summer here, which those in Lubombo are quite pleased about as well. Though me in the mountains? Not quite sure I’m ready for an early transition into winter. Though it won’t be even close to the Minnesota winter I’m used to, I hear there is frost sometimes and frankly, when inside your hut is the same temperature as it is outside, anything under 70 is pretty darn cold.
Anyway, love and miss you all! Thanks for all the birthday cards and the package(s) that I’m not sure who its from yet till I get into town next week, but whoever you are thanks!
Love, Megan
Also, happy almost 18th birthday to my little bro and a Congrats on finishing High School as well! Another congrats to my UMN Synchro team and their amazing skate at Mids this year!! Good luck at Nationals girls, I’ll be thinking good thoughts for you!!
I am very happy to say things are continuing to move along here! My project is going very well so far, and life is moving along here in the Swaz.
Things are actually ahead of schedule for my project which is fabulous. I intended to submit the proposal for the funding for our project to the Peace Corps at the end of February. It is a large VAST as they’re called (Volunteer Activities Support and Training) so it needed to be submitted at least 3 months before the project, due to start May 30. But my counterpart and I finished it three weeks ahead of schedule and I submitted it on Friday! It was very exciting and I was very proud of myself so needless to say I was feeling pretty good this weekend. Even a packer win couldn’t bring me down! I’ve got a meeting next week with the PC office staff to discuss the project, and keep going down the path toward getting the funding. We’ve also talked with people from the various NGOs we are asking to come for our project and with the director at the clinic to lend us a nurse for the day, and everyone is very willing to help out so far so I am feeling pretty good about everything! We’re heading into town on Thursday for more meetings, so its just busy busy getting this stuff done!
I am also starting to teach Life Skills at the Primary School tomorrow! I hope. I thought I would teach last week, but it kept getting pushed back. But I finally got my schedule last Thursday and I now teach Grades 5 and 6 on Wednesdays and Fridays. It’ll be nice to have a little more of a schedule, while still having a lot of time to organize short notice meetings and impulsive trips to town. I’m a little nervous about the young age, both for material comprehension and English comprehension as well, but so far I have been impressed with the kids’ English here, so here’s hoping.
This last weekend ended a long continuous time at site for me, my own self induced site imprisonment. ;) Being in a small country like Swaziland with relatively good transport (meaning you don’t have to wait days…) makes it easy to get into town fairly often, which can be a blessing and a curse. I didn’t really plan it, but I went into town just once for a few hours since I returned from Mozambique a little over a month ago. It was good to just be at site, hang out in the community, and be productive! But with that being said, I welcomed this past weekend of Hostel Takeover and the Super Bowl with open arms. Hostel Takeover was a blast. One volunteer had the idea in November that since our All-Volunteer Conference was so fun and we all don’t usually get to see each other, we should all get together once every three or four months at a backpackers in town, just to catch up. So that was this weekend. So fun. We had a little over half the volunteers there, so it was a pretty good turn out. Then of course there was the Super Bowl. I was very excited to finally see a football game, heck anything besides soccer and cricket, for the first time in a year. But why the only football game I got to see had to be a packer game, I’ll never know. So there were about 8 of us, 7 people cheering for the packers and me, who stayed up literally ALL NIGHT watching the game, 1:30am to 5:15am. Well Steph fell asleep in the first quarter and I took my usual third quarter nap, but other than that ALL NIGHT! Ha. It was fun, but we didn’t get to see any cool commercials, just the same three ESPN commercials, as it was broadcast on ESPN International. We did however get to see Christina mess up the National Anthem and the Black Eyed Peas, Slash, and Usher at half time. But that will probably be our only American sporting event this year. At least until next Super Bowl. Unless of course the Wild/Blackhawks/Penguins go to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and that is broadcast on ESPN International… Then I just might have to camp out at the backpackers for the series, sleeping during the day and watching the games all night. ; )
On another note, our trip to Cape Town is coming together quite nicely. We are meeting up with our friends from PC Lesotho that we met in Mozambique for this trip so it should be even more fun. Frankly, I am mostly just ecstatic about hitting up McDonald’s. But of course we’ll make sure to get to other places too. ; ) Trips to Table Mountain, Robben Island, and Simon’s Town for penguins are definitely on the agenda.
But before its time for Cape Town, we have our Mid Service Conference in March (Mid Service? Already?) then after Cape Town it will be time to get my health project underway before my parents come to visit in June! How exciting will that be?? Lots of stuff to look forward to coming up, which is very exciting.
Well I hope everyone is enjoying their February and the snow. At least Phil the groundhog says your winter will end early. We have translated that into an early end of summer here, which those in Lubombo are quite pleased about as well. Though me in the mountains? Not quite sure I’m ready for an early transition into winter. Though it won’t be even close to the Minnesota winter I’m used to, I hear there is frost sometimes and frankly, when inside your hut is the same temperature as it is outside, anything under 70 is pretty darn cold.
Anyway, love and miss you all! Thanks for all the birthday cards and the package(s) that I’m not sure who its from yet till I get into town next week, but whoever you are thanks!
Love, Megan
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Busy as a Bee, as the Swazis Say
Hey Hey,
Hope everyone’s January is winding down well. It’s almost February, meaning it’s almost my birthday! My first in Africa, and I’ll finally be a big kid Peace Corps volunteer! ;) Except once I finally hit 22, everyone else will be 23+, and I will never catch up! Oh well.
Well things are just moving along so well here! I have had a few meetings with my counterpart about our Health Project and we’ve settled on some dates for the trainings, the topics of the trainings and who will be the presenters. Then we met with the RHMs (Rural Health Motivators – bogcugcuteli in siSwati) who will be trained by nurses and NGOs and then teach to the community. My counterpart said she was concerned that they would not want to partake in this project because they would think it was too much work. I was nervous too because, frankly, it is a lot of work for them, doing surveys, attending the training, teaching three two-day sessions to the community. And it is a lot of work for my counterpart, as I am hoping that we do the planning together and/or she does it, so she can do this when I’m gone. But during the meeting I was so impressed with everything and everyone. My counterpart conducted the whole thing without any prompts from me (which was nice but at the same time I had to struggle to follow along as it was all in siSwati… story of my life here) and the RHMs were so engaged and discussed the topics they thought would be most beneficial to the community and even suggested that their training be three days instead of two. Then before the meeting closed, they said they wanted to thank me for involving them in my project about 200 times and that it was clear to them how much I loved them and wanted to work with them. I was so touched, especially because I was the one who should have been thanking them a million times! They said the two previous volunteers in the community came and went and never worked with them or invited them to help with projects so they were ecstatic when they heard I wanted to meet them. And I was ecstatic when they wanted to participate in my project so it is a definite win-win. : ) So February will be busy writing the grant for this project to submit by the end of February so that the project can start at the end of May!
I also had a meeting at the Primary School today. Schools started almost two weeks ago now and I hadn’t heard anything from the head teacher about teaching Life Skills so I assumed it had fallen by the way side as the schools were already in session, and I was alright with that as my Health Project was going so well. But as soon as I sit down in her office today she says she is giving me three periods (1/2 hour each) a week for Life Skills. Apparently they still haven’t made a new timetable for this year, two weeks into the year. But she says it should be finished by Monday and I will begin teaching next week! So things are really starting to pick up here, which I am very thrilled about. Seven months in, it’s about time huh? Ha.
Also, an update on my half marathon adventures (for those of you not on Facebook and Twitter who haven’t seen my rantings), the TwoOceans Half Marathon filled up in record time this year, all 13,500 spots. And we weren’t registered! : ( But we signed up for a 10K Trail Run instead, which should be equally fun. So we’ll still be running in Capte Town over Easter weekend. Maybe we’ll hit up the actual half marathon next year; pending COS (Close of Service) Conference dates.
Well that’s about all for now. It’s almost 9, way passed my bedtime! I don’t know if I’ll get another update up before the Super Bowl so everyone make sure they cheer hard against those pesky Packers for me! Especially those of you going! ; )
Love you and miss you all!
Megan
Hope everyone’s January is winding down well. It’s almost February, meaning it’s almost my birthday! My first in Africa, and I’ll finally be a big kid Peace Corps volunteer! ;) Except once I finally hit 22, everyone else will be 23+, and I will never catch up! Oh well.
Well things are just moving along so well here! I have had a few meetings with my counterpart about our Health Project and we’ve settled on some dates for the trainings, the topics of the trainings and who will be the presenters. Then we met with the RHMs (Rural Health Motivators – bogcugcuteli in siSwati) who will be trained by nurses and NGOs and then teach to the community. My counterpart said she was concerned that they would not want to partake in this project because they would think it was too much work. I was nervous too because, frankly, it is a lot of work for them, doing surveys, attending the training, teaching three two-day sessions to the community. And it is a lot of work for my counterpart, as I am hoping that we do the planning together and/or she does it, so she can do this when I’m gone. But during the meeting I was so impressed with everything and everyone. My counterpart conducted the whole thing without any prompts from me (which was nice but at the same time I had to struggle to follow along as it was all in siSwati… story of my life here) and the RHMs were so engaged and discussed the topics they thought would be most beneficial to the community and even suggested that their training be three days instead of two. Then before the meeting closed, they said they wanted to thank me for involving them in my project about 200 times and that it was clear to them how much I loved them and wanted to work with them. I was so touched, especially because I was the one who should have been thanking them a million times! They said the two previous volunteers in the community came and went and never worked with them or invited them to help with projects so they were ecstatic when they heard I wanted to meet them. And I was ecstatic when they wanted to participate in my project so it is a definite win-win. : ) So February will be busy writing the grant for this project to submit by the end of February so that the project can start at the end of May!
I also had a meeting at the Primary School today. Schools started almost two weeks ago now and I hadn’t heard anything from the head teacher about teaching Life Skills so I assumed it had fallen by the way side as the schools were already in session, and I was alright with that as my Health Project was going so well. But as soon as I sit down in her office today she says she is giving me three periods (1/2 hour each) a week for Life Skills. Apparently they still haven’t made a new timetable for this year, two weeks into the year. But she says it should be finished by Monday and I will begin teaching next week! So things are really starting to pick up here, which I am very thrilled about. Seven months in, it’s about time huh? Ha.
Also, an update on my half marathon adventures (for those of you not on Facebook and Twitter who haven’t seen my rantings), the TwoOceans Half Marathon filled up in record time this year, all 13,500 spots. And we weren’t registered! : ( But we signed up for a 10K Trail Run instead, which should be equally fun. So we’ll still be running in Capte Town over Easter weekend. Maybe we’ll hit up the actual half marathon next year; pending COS (Close of Service) Conference dates.
Well that’s about all for now. It’s almost 9, way passed my bedtime! I don’t know if I’ll get another update up before the Super Bowl so everyone make sure they cheer hard against those pesky Packers for me! Especially those of you going! ; )
Love you and miss you all!
Megan
Monday, January 17, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Back to School!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Mozambeaches!
Hello Hello!
Well I am back from a wonderful 9 day trip to Mozambique. It’s nice to be back in my own bed for sure, but the trip made me very excited about traveling more and I am already looking forward to our trip to Cape Town in April!!
We started off our trip with a pit stop to spend the night at our fellow volunteers’ homestead in a community closer to the border. They have a very nice, big, two room plus bathroom area house with a little patio that we were all very jealous of, but grateful for as it could comfortably fit the 6 of us traveling through. We went on a nice hike around their area and Brooke cooked us a delicious Indian meal and Reid made some fabulous French Toast for dessert/breakfast.
Then we headed out early the next morning for Mozambique. We were quite the site in the kumbi with all our bags and lets just say the local bomake were not quite pleased with us taking up so much of their morning kumbi. : / But we made it to and through the border with no problems, thankfully. Then we had to catch a kumbi (chapa in Portuguese) to Maputo. Our friends on PSN told us in their manual that you just had to walk through the border post and down the hill to the bus rank. Well 45 min - an hour later, and only thanks to a few friendly locals, we finally got to the bus rank and into the smallest kumbi I’ve even been in. And it was in this small kumbi we learned that they like to cram their kumbis even more full than those in the Swaz. In Swaziland, once you have 15 passengers in a 15-passenger van, they will leave, cramming in some more along the way. In Moz, they won’t leave till there are at least 4 people in each row, bringing it total to at least 18 before departure. Awesome. Plus the back seat was raised a little off the ground so those of us in the back seat spent the whole hour and 45 min ride to Maputo with kinked necks. I was uncomfortable, I have no idea how Eric who is a foot taller than me, handled it. But we made it and were instantly in awe of Maputo. Swaziland is a small country with small cities. Though Mbabane is pretty developed, its not too terribly big, and Manzini is about a 4x4 block radius, despite the amount of people and crowded bus rank. Brooke said the best way to describe Maputo is like 17 Manzinis put together, which probably means nothing to you because you’ve never seen Manzini, but its true. Maputo is a large city that looks very African, with ruined buildings and virtually no traffic signs. We were all in awe of the 4 way stops with no signals whatsoever. How people drive in these cities I have no idea.
We made it to our backpackers around noon and spent the rest of the day wandering around the city taking in the sites and hunting for the ocean. You’d think it wouldn’t be too hard as Maputo is bordered by the Indian Ocean on two sides, but I was so turned around, I thought it was on the other two sides, even despite the map. Fortunately Eric and Jessica were more directionally aware than I was. That night we met two girls from Peace Corps Lesotho who were headed up to the Inhambane area the next day like we were so we got to know them and were very excited to spend our week with more Peace Corps people (PS: one was from Apple Valley! Small world huh?) Also just another little tidbit about our trip, we decided to camp the whole time. Good idea; saves money and such. Yeah not such a good idea in the city as we were camping on the cement. We’d probably still do it again, we’d just continue to complain, or I would at least. ; )
The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn to catch our 6am bus up to the beaches of Tofo, 8 hours away. And so, in true African-ness, we wait, and wait, and 6am comes and goes, as do 7, 8, 9, and 10 am. All the while the receptionist is telling us it is coming, just another half hour. But what else could we do but wait? Finally it rolls in at 10:30, with obviously not enough spots for everyone and their bags. But long story short, we crammed everyone and all their bags and surfboards and tents into the bus and were on our way by 11. I’ll spare you the agonizing 10 hour bus ride of cramped quarters, obnoxious South Africans, too many stops, spilled milk (literally) and skip to 9pm when we finally made it to Tofo. Once we finally got off the bus, checked in (oh surprise there’s this festival going on here we didn’t tell you about and you have to pay 500 Meticais or we’ll kick you out at 11… what?!), and dinner in our stomachs (the only thing besides pastries and NikNaks we’d eaten all day), everyone was in much better spirits and a walk to the ocean just down the stairs helped us all forget the bad travel day.
The next day was New Year’s Eve and we headed into the nearest town for food for our meals and, obviously, champagne. It was quite the adventure, including people getting lost in a town maybe the size of Benson (which has also happened…), but we all got our food and drinks and made it back to the backpackers… eventually, meeting some crazy cool people along the way. The rest of the day was spent lounging on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and checking out the local market – delicious bread and hot dogesque things. The New Years Party was pretty sweet, much more than I had anticipated, including fireworks on the beach (what could be better?!) and popping our champagne corks into the ocean at midnight. Truly a great New Years. A bunch of us tried to stay up to watch the sunrise over the ocean, but decided to go to bed when Eric said a sentence and I said “What I was asleep and woke up in the middle of that sentence.” and he responded with “I have no idea what I said, I did the same thing.” So we all packed up our stuff and called it a night, and never did see the sunrise. Oh well.
The next 3 days were spent lounging on the beach and in the chairs over looking the ocean when we were too burned to go back in the sun. We met so many other Peace Corps people it was great, from Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia and Malawi. We also met people from Grassroots Soccer living in Cape Town, it was really nice being around more Americans for a little while again. We ate some good food, though we usually had to wait 2 hours after ordering to get it, and we all know how pleasant I am when I’m hungry, well now everyone here knows too. : / There was lots of seafood and peri-peri to be had, by others… But all in all it was a great trip.
We decided to head back to Maputo a day early to get a full day in the city. After another transport debacle (oh yeah even though our signs say it leaves at 6am, the shuttle left at 4am this morning. Yeah there’s nothing we can do, you’re SOL, go get public transport), we took public transport and actually made it back to the city in half the time it took us to get there. We then spent a nice day and a half in the city, checking out the local markets (including the fish market, which everyone hyped and was frankly more like a smelly shack but everyone else loved it so… yay!) and on the way back got caught in what I swear was a hurricane but I’m from Minnesota so who knows so we had to wait it out in a local bar drinking $1 beers. Bummer. The next day we headed back to the Land of the Swaz in the pouring rain, but despite the few downs we had, the beach was beautiful, the city was amazing and of course the company was great! : ) It was a great trip indeed. I have a few pictures that I hope to get up at some point, but obviously who knows when that will be.
So now its back to reality got to start things going here in the community. I’ve got something going this week, someone wants to give school supplies to the kids in the community before school starts next week (its Back to School time here), then hopefully getting this Health Project going and maybe teaching Life Skills, we’ll see if that comes together. Other than that, just 15 weeks until the Half Marathon in Cape Town, gotta get running! More like gotta get something going here before I go on vacation again! ; )
That’s all for now, I need to get to the store for some bread. I’m going to make some hummus today and finish my book. I’m reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Definitely recommend it if you’re looking for something to read.
Happy New Year to you all, hope you had a wonderful Holiday Season!
Love, Megan
PS: Happy 21st Birthday to my sister Ali!!! Have a wonderful time in DC. And Congratulations to my cousin Chris and his new wife Allie! Wish I could have been there to celebrate with you, it looked like a beautiful wedding.
PPS: I want to give a shout out to Shelley Brand from your sister Jessica! ; ) Can’t wait to meet you if/when you come visit us!
Well I am back from a wonderful 9 day trip to Mozambique. It’s nice to be back in my own bed for sure, but the trip made me very excited about traveling more and I am already looking forward to our trip to Cape Town in April!!
We started off our trip with a pit stop to spend the night at our fellow volunteers’ homestead in a community closer to the border. They have a very nice, big, two room plus bathroom area house with a little patio that we were all very jealous of, but grateful for as it could comfortably fit the 6 of us traveling through. We went on a nice hike around their area and Brooke cooked us a delicious Indian meal and Reid made some fabulous French Toast for dessert/breakfast.
Then we headed out early the next morning for Mozambique. We were quite the site in the kumbi with all our bags and lets just say the local bomake were not quite pleased with us taking up so much of their morning kumbi. : / But we made it to and through the border with no problems, thankfully. Then we had to catch a kumbi (chapa in Portuguese) to Maputo. Our friends on PSN told us in their manual that you just had to walk through the border post and down the hill to the bus rank. Well 45 min - an hour later, and only thanks to a few friendly locals, we finally got to the bus rank and into the smallest kumbi I’ve even been in. And it was in this small kumbi we learned that they like to cram their kumbis even more full than those in the Swaz. In Swaziland, once you have 15 passengers in a 15-passenger van, they will leave, cramming in some more along the way. In Moz, they won’t leave till there are at least 4 people in each row, bringing it total to at least 18 before departure. Awesome. Plus the back seat was raised a little off the ground so those of us in the back seat spent the whole hour and 45 min ride to Maputo with kinked necks. I was uncomfortable, I have no idea how Eric who is a foot taller than me, handled it. But we made it and were instantly in awe of Maputo. Swaziland is a small country with small cities. Though Mbabane is pretty developed, its not too terribly big, and Manzini is about a 4x4 block radius, despite the amount of people and crowded bus rank. Brooke said the best way to describe Maputo is like 17 Manzinis put together, which probably means nothing to you because you’ve never seen Manzini, but its true. Maputo is a large city that looks very African, with ruined buildings and virtually no traffic signs. We were all in awe of the 4 way stops with no signals whatsoever. How people drive in these cities I have no idea.
We made it to our backpackers around noon and spent the rest of the day wandering around the city taking in the sites and hunting for the ocean. You’d think it wouldn’t be too hard as Maputo is bordered by the Indian Ocean on two sides, but I was so turned around, I thought it was on the other two sides, even despite the map. Fortunately Eric and Jessica were more directionally aware than I was. That night we met two girls from Peace Corps Lesotho who were headed up to the Inhambane area the next day like we were so we got to know them and were very excited to spend our week with more Peace Corps people (PS: one was from Apple Valley! Small world huh?) Also just another little tidbit about our trip, we decided to camp the whole time. Good idea; saves money and such. Yeah not such a good idea in the city as we were camping on the cement. We’d probably still do it again, we’d just continue to complain, or I would at least. ; )
The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn to catch our 6am bus up to the beaches of Tofo, 8 hours away. And so, in true African-ness, we wait, and wait, and 6am comes and goes, as do 7, 8, 9, and 10 am. All the while the receptionist is telling us it is coming, just another half hour. But what else could we do but wait? Finally it rolls in at 10:30, with obviously not enough spots for everyone and their bags. But long story short, we crammed everyone and all their bags and surfboards and tents into the bus and were on our way by 11. I’ll spare you the agonizing 10 hour bus ride of cramped quarters, obnoxious South Africans, too many stops, spilled milk (literally) and skip to 9pm when we finally made it to Tofo. Once we finally got off the bus, checked in (oh surprise there’s this festival going on here we didn’t tell you about and you have to pay 500 Meticais or we’ll kick you out at 11… what?!), and dinner in our stomachs (the only thing besides pastries and NikNaks we’d eaten all day), everyone was in much better spirits and a walk to the ocean just down the stairs helped us all forget the bad travel day.
The next day was New Year’s Eve and we headed into the nearest town for food for our meals and, obviously, champagne. It was quite the adventure, including people getting lost in a town maybe the size of Benson (which has also happened…), but we all got our food and drinks and made it back to the backpackers… eventually, meeting some crazy cool people along the way. The rest of the day was spent lounging on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and checking out the local market – delicious bread and hot dogesque things. The New Years Party was pretty sweet, much more than I had anticipated, including fireworks on the beach (what could be better?!) and popping our champagne corks into the ocean at midnight. Truly a great New Years. A bunch of us tried to stay up to watch the sunrise over the ocean, but decided to go to bed when Eric said a sentence and I said “What I was asleep and woke up in the middle of that sentence.” and he responded with “I have no idea what I said, I did the same thing.” So we all packed up our stuff and called it a night, and never did see the sunrise. Oh well.
The next 3 days were spent lounging on the beach and in the chairs over looking the ocean when we were too burned to go back in the sun. We met so many other Peace Corps people it was great, from Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia and Malawi. We also met people from Grassroots Soccer living in Cape Town, it was really nice being around more Americans for a little while again. We ate some good food, though we usually had to wait 2 hours after ordering to get it, and we all know how pleasant I am when I’m hungry, well now everyone here knows too. : / There was lots of seafood and peri-peri to be had, by others… But all in all it was a great trip.
We decided to head back to Maputo a day early to get a full day in the city. After another transport debacle (oh yeah even though our signs say it leaves at 6am, the shuttle left at 4am this morning. Yeah there’s nothing we can do, you’re SOL, go get public transport), we took public transport and actually made it back to the city in half the time it took us to get there. We then spent a nice day and a half in the city, checking out the local markets (including the fish market, which everyone hyped and was frankly more like a smelly shack but everyone else loved it so… yay!) and on the way back got caught in what I swear was a hurricane but I’m from Minnesota so who knows so we had to wait it out in a local bar drinking $1 beers. Bummer. The next day we headed back to the Land of the Swaz in the pouring rain, but despite the few downs we had, the beach was beautiful, the city was amazing and of course the company was great! : ) It was a great trip indeed. I have a few pictures that I hope to get up at some point, but obviously who knows when that will be.
So now its back to reality got to start things going here in the community. I’ve got something going this week, someone wants to give school supplies to the kids in the community before school starts next week (its Back to School time here), then hopefully getting this Health Project going and maybe teaching Life Skills, we’ll see if that comes together. Other than that, just 15 weeks until the Half Marathon in Cape Town, gotta get running! More like gotta get something going here before I go on vacation again! ; )
That’s all for now, I need to get to the store for some bread. I’m going to make some hummus today and finish my book. I’m reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Definitely recommend it if you’re looking for something to read.
Happy New Year to you all, hope you had a wonderful Holiday Season!
Love, Megan
PS: Happy 21st Birthday to my sister Ali!!! Have a wonderful time in DC. And Congratulations to my cousin Chris and his new wife Allie! Wish I could have been there to celebrate with you, it looked like a beautiful wedding.
PPS: I want to give a shout out to Shelley Brand from your sister Jessica! ; ) Can’t wait to meet you if/when you come visit us!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Snow!
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