Back to the Namachaa

One year later and where am I? Back in the Namaacha for training.

Me and the host family

Though most of the activities were the same, my point of view was sooo different. I still ate meals with my host family, went to mind numbing tech sessions with the other trainees, practiced Portuguese with the language trainers, and spent a ton of time celebrating every day of training with my friends Manica, 2M, Preta, and Capitan Morgan. But where last time I was a scared little newbie portugeseless trainnee, this time a grissled and chiseled bearded veteran volunteer.

Just like during my PST (pre service training), each the 10 weeks has 2-3 of the current volunteers visit to share their experience. Though many volunteers apply, a couple months ago I was surprised to find out that I was one of a handful of 17ers selected to attend training. Like all of the visitors, I taught model lessons, explained what I do at site, and helped out the trainees with their Portuguese. But I had the great luck to also be there for site placement, aka when they find out where they'll be spending the next 2 years of their life.



Non-formal education with trainees

Arriving Sunday with my fellow training volunteer Amanda Moore, I went straight to a family dinner at my old homestay house. Mama Laura, Cecylia, and Lina were happy to introduce me to the newest member of the family, Mimosa the cat. Not only was the food as good as I remember it, but sitting at the table with my Mozambican family felt like being home again. Since I had left, Mama had built a whole knew room on the house which she was especially proud of, my sister Cecylia had gotten a job at the German bakery, and Lina had graduated 9th grade. Of course, I brought them the standard mozambican gift of a capulana, and they all approved of my fashion choices.

Monday and Tuesday I attended teacher and Portuguese training sessions, which all went well, though I think the math and science trainees were disappointed to get a French lesson. Wednesday brought hub day, and the all important site placement.

19ers seeing their site placements

After surrounding the giant map of Mozambique, the Moz 19ers, 12 of which are transfers from the recently closed Peace Corps Cape Verde, were handed their site placement envelopes. After an agonizing pause where they read the cover letter from country director Carl, we counted down from 3 and they ripped open their packets. Of the 68, 32 are headed to the north, 6 to Zambezia, and 1 to Alto Molocue. I'm very excited to get to know my new site mate, Eric Wilburn, over the next year. It'll be great to have another volunteer in Alto and even better to have another at my school. Afterwards, everyone went out for celebratory drinks, and I got to answer a ton of questions about the various sites and site mates for the 19ers. Much to their credit, almost none of the trainees were unhappy with their placement and I didn't hear anyone complain about being far from friends, amenities, or beaches.

The Newest residents of Zambrozia

Thursday and Friday held more tech and language sessions, meals with the family, and bar outings. Saturday I left with a bunch of trainees in a Peace Corps car to Maputo for my Sunday morning flight back to Namupla. Unfortunately, the LAM pilots decided to go on strike, which is why I'm in the Peace Corps office in Maputo right now righting this post. All in all a great week at training, and I can't wait till this newest group of volunteers swear in in a couple weeks.