It's been awhile…

It has been almost four months since my last blog entry and so much has changed and yet it feels like nothing is different. The season has changed (Feelin' hot hot HOT), I have a whole new set of responsibilities at work, there is a new and exciting person in my life, and I traveled thousands of miles to be home with my family and friends for the holidays.

Since the beginning of September, things at work have become a little crazy. I was asked by my boss and one of the high ups in the CARE Maputo office to take over all of the responsibilities of the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for my project. I agreed as long as it was understood that I have other responsibilities and commitments outside of the CARE office like to Peace Corps and REDES (I am the National Financial Director and I still have a girls group that meets twice a week). Now, I find myself busier than I ever thought possible and missing the days of asking "are you sure there is not anything I can do today? Please give me SOMETHING to do!!!!" I miss the days of going to smaller communities and sitting under a tree while the ATSC counselors test people for HIV or driving out to local businesses and chatting with the owners while their employees took tests. I also miss the impromptu English and Xitswa lessons that always seemed to happen during lunch or slow points in the day.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the challenge that comes with my new responsibilities and I am really grateful for not only the professional experience I have gained but also for the opportunity to learn new and interesting things. Recently, I have been working with the data entry people in the hospital because Mozambique is striving to go digital with the HIV + clients' records to ensure everyone can receive consistent and quality treatment. Last week, I facilitated a training of four new data entry people who will head out to the more rural districts and begin the process of digitizing their hospital records. I will be joining them this week to monitor their progress and work side by side with them, entering patient information to speed up the process a little bit.

So moving on to the new and exciting person in my life… Camille.

In the middle of October, another redhead worked her way into my life. So now, not only do I share a home with one (Courtney), my closest neighbor inside the compound is also a redhead. I have come to conclusion that I am destined to be surrounded by good looking redheads. I guess there could be worse things. Not only is she a redhead, but she is my age, American AND a southerner! Pretty sweet deal if you ask me! Now there are four American southerners living in my community. I feel like we should start our own cult or something. Write Odes to the Good Ole Southern way of life. Okay, that may be taking things a little too far.

Finally, my journey home to the States

On December 17^th, I hopped on a plane in Johannesburg, landed in Atlanta, missed my flight to Little Rock (no surprises there) and saw my grandma for the first time in over a year. Needless to say, it was glorious. I ate almost all of the things I wanted to, drank probably more things than I needed to, saw as many friends as possible, successfully completed a roadtrip in three states after not driving for over a year and even went to a NFL game. Three weeks later, my flight gets cancelled the morning of to ATL, but I did, surprisingly, make it on my flight back to Africa. Mission accomplished. I am officially ready for the next exciting year of life in Mozambique!!!

Boa Entrada para todos!!! Happy 2010 everyone!!

Bairro SEED

Lena, Courtney, Me, Caspar, Flora, Andreas, Camille, and Helga

My Vilanculos Family