Kokomo

Somehow we’ve reached May. Not real sure where the past year has gone. A year ago I was working at the Don Lee Center in North Carolina – teaching kids about salt marshes, fish anatomy, pond life and pirates, singing songs about scat and little red wagons, and sailing the Neuse River. And now I’m in Moçambique teaching human biology in Portuguese, catching boleias up and down the country, cooking with carvão and swimming in the Indian Ocean. I use to complain about driving the 15 miles up to road to get to the grocery store or CVS and now it’s a 5 km walk to a very basic outdoor market and at least 4 hours through the mountains in a packed chapa to reach other basic amenities. But you know, it doesn’t seem all that bad now.



Team Central



This past weekend was a holiday for most of the world (Dia dos Trabalhadores, Worker’s Day, the equivalent to Labor Day in the U.S.) so we all had a long weekend at our disposal. Here is PC Moçambique world, that meant Beer Olympics in Vilankulo! More than anything it’s a chance for all of us PVCs spread throughout the country to get together at the beach and catch up. There may or may not have been beer drinking and crazy events involved. What this meant for me was my first opportunity to get to the beach since our Bilene trip last November. And it was way over due. As most of you know, I’m a bit of a beach bum. My friends in college called me a fish and not because I enjoyed studying them. I am perfectly content with a long day on the beach, swimming when I get hot, munching on goldfish and drinking a huge diet coke. I miss those days especially when I’m in Dombe depending whether it would be cooler to sit very very still inside the house to avoid sweating or move outside under a tree and have to deal with the chickens, crianças and bugs. But the weekend was wonderful! I got some beach time in as well and good catch up time with volunteers I rarely get to see. Vilankulo is a beautiful, postcard like place that I will be visiting again very soon! I am again borrowing pictures from Audrey and Hannah because my camera was left behind in Chimoio due to the downpour we left town in.

naturally we had a torch and sang the national
anthem for the opening ceremonies!



a very flat beach and big tidal differences
trap boats at low tide



Not much else exciting to share except that my Colorado trips is now just a month away and I am beyond excited, but starting to get nervous. I can only imagine (but trying hard not to) the reverse culture shock I’ll experience but so many wonderful things will happen in those short couple weeks that I’m sure it will be worth it! I did have an oh so lovely evening that involved Mona and I sleeping in the cab of a truck on the side of the road in the mato but I'm saving that little gem to share in person!

Kokomo - The Beach Boys (this song always comes to mind when I'm at the beach!)