On Thursday, we got introduced to the local contact for the World Food Program. We learned that the province I'm in is being hit hardest by the drought and could result in many people starving to death later this year. My site is the jumping off point for the rest of the province, so it seems that I can do something, even if it's just gathering information from locals about where things are bad. Among other things, I'm optimistic about this mini-project.
I picked up a Changana dictionary in Maputo. Unfortunately, it's only Changana to Portuguese (and not vice versa) but it also has an excellent grammar section. This should be another major step in my language learning.
I handed out six packets of the HIV/AIDS lessons, so hopefully most of the volunteers who have them will give the lessons. And it's up to me to write the next six.
I caught a movie in Maputo, "Eight-Legged Freaks". About the only redeeming quality of the movie was that it was subtitled in Portuguese, so I learned some slang.
Also, a bunch of us went thrift-shopping in a major downtown market. I found a good, tight clubbing shirt and a true find: a Hartford Whalers uniform. I can't find these in the States, but I come to Mozambique and find the uniform of my favorite team!
On Friday night, the outgoing medical officer threw a great party at her place with Indian food, a DJ and lots of...drinks. We went out afterwards to a local club, where I started to feel ill. Not surprisingly. I had pre-partied at the hotel with some whiskey, then had a few glasses of wine at the party. I had received a flu shot earlier in the day, and just the day before had taken my malaria medication. After the taxi dropped just me off, I went back to my room and fought off chills to get to sleep. Weird.
Even weirder was spending so much time in hotels this past week - swimming at all times of the day, and not worrying about much of anything. I decided to not go back to site today, just because it would be too much of a shock. I spent this evening at another site with Chris, Jake and Christen playing euchre and cooking. A good end to the week. On Monday, I start the 2nd trimester. Wow - it's going so quickly..
Peace
John
