Officially a PCV!

After 10 weeks of training that at times seemed like they were never going to end, Moz20-ers finally went from PCTs to PCVs on Aug 6th! Amazing group of people, that's for sure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After site announcements we still had a few weeks left of training to get through before heading off to site. I thought this time would pass really slowly because we were all so anxious to get to site, but for me it didn't for some reason. I was just trying to soak up those last few days with my Moz20 crew and my host family and Namaacha before we were all scattered to site. It still amazes me how close a group of 26 strangers can get in 10 short weeks. I would trust my life to anyone in our group and do anything for them. I already miss them all and can’t wait for reconnect in 3 months!! It is going to feel so good to be re-united :)

 

We had a big farewell party with all of our host families before leaving site as well. There was tons of great food, drinks, dancing, and fun. I feel like all of training we have been looking ahead waiting for it to be over, but it wasn't until the last day came that I realized how much I was going to miss it...funny how things always work that way. Here are a few pictures from the party of me and my host family, they were amazing!

 

 

 

 

The swearing in ceremony was short and sweet. We sat outside of the ambassadors house, listened to a few speeches, sang the Mozambique and American National Anthems, took some pictures, mingled a bit with RPCVs that had come for the event, had some finger foods, and just like that it was over. We headed back to the hotel, rested for a bit, then soaked up the last bit of time all 26 of us would have together before heading our own ways to site.

 

The very next day we were separated into two groups for the North and South regions. All of the Northern volunteers boarded the plain for Nampula for our supervisors conference. I was not sure what to expect out of the conference, but it turned out to be really helpful. We got to meet our supervisors, then Peace Corps went through step by step what we are all about, what they should expect from volunteers, basically just got everyone on the same page so we were all comfortable with things and knew a little more what to expect when getting to site. I actually had 2 supervisors at the conference, one from each of my orgs. I left the conference excited to finally get started with my work!

 

Angela and I with our Wiwanana counterparts

That excitement was followed by somewhat of a let down. It would be a lie to say the first week at site was not a huge struggle for me. Almost every night I went to bed thinking how much easier it would be to just to pack up and head home. I was staying in a hotel because my house wasn't ready when I got to site, I was out of clean clothes, the power in the hotel went out, I could not go anywhere without feeling like every person I passed stopped what they were doing to stare at me, every time I went to the market I would get followed around by kids saying they were hungry asking me to buy them food, when I tried to go to a soccer game with my site mates to just hang out and relax and have a little relief I was pretty much the only female in the entire place and I was continually being confronted by drunk men. It was like anything I did I could not get an escape for myself. But something deep down inside of me must have wanted to stay and push forward, because here I am still here!  

 

Just like I kept telling myself, the struggles finally pasted. I was finally able to move into my house and start settling into my new life. Everyone that I work with both at the Hospital and at the Wiwanana office are super friendly and I can tell they are making a big effort to make me feel comfortable even though my Portuguese skills are still quite lacking. I don't notice the staring as much either, I don't know if it is because I have gotten used to it or if they have gotten more used to seeing me or a combination of the two, but it is easier to handle now. There are still a lot of little things I am working on ironing out but I am starting to realize I need to just take things day by day and make a point to celebrate the little accomplishments, like discovering a whole new part of the market I never knew existed before or starting to build a relationship with the kids who live next to me.

 

I still have a long way to go before this place is going to feel like home, but I think I have finally made it over the first hurdle. I just have a few more things to figure out for my house and then I can start putting all of my time and energy towards learning this language, getting to know the people, and figuring out exactly what my role here is going to be.

And this is my house! I had quite an interesting first few days here, but I will save that for another post :)