Mop-In-Yahn-EE

The ever dramatic site announcement day came on Wednesday, and we couldn’t be happier with the results. All of us 51 trainees lined a basketball court with a giant map of Mozambique drawn in chalk. We were told to wait patiently while everyone was handed an envelope and after a seemingly endless 10-second countdown, we tore open our fate. The packet included a map of our new location, our job assignment and a letter from the volunteers we are replacing. As soon as we saw the dot on the map, we knew it was Mapinhane, a site Chris had visited last week and felt like it could be our new home. We were overcome with excitement, then walked to our spot on the giant map only to be even more pleasantly surprised to see some of our closest friends will be living in close proximity. We are so excited to get the real experience started!

So let me tell you all about Mapinhane (Sounds like mop-in-yahn-ee), our home for the next 2 years. It’s located in the southern coastal province of Inhambane (sounds like In-yahn-bahn-ee). Inhambane is known as the province to go to for beaches and islands in Mozambique, so I am one happy camper. Now, that is not to say we are living right on the beach. In fact, we are about 30k inland, but that’s close enough for an easy day trip! And let me remind you all that visitors are welcome any time!!! You’ll be able to see us living the Peace Corps way, but can also check out amazing beaches. :)… As I mentioned earlier, Chris was able to visit the couple who currently live here so I was he took some pictures of the cute house. They have 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and living room, a garden and dormitory style bathrooms outside. Our house is located on the compound of the secondary school where we will be teaching, Escola Secundaria Padre Gumiero . It is a private, mission school run by Brazillian nuns. Yes, this Jew girl is going to live on a Catholic mission! The mission is a good thing since there is less corruption than most Mozambican schools, there are smaller class sizes since it is private (40-50 students instead of 100) and apparently, it’s one of the best schools in the country. I am told that parents from bigger cities will send their kids to this school since it is known to provide great education. I am so looking forward to teaching motivated, eager kids! The only issue with being on a mission is that the actual town of Mapinhane is about 2k away from our house so integration in the community may be a bit of a challenge but in a town of only about 5,000 people, we’ll be able to figure it out! Also, we are told the market doesn’t have a great variety of foods, but our closest biggest city, Vilankulos, is only an hour away and apparently they have anything we’ll need. We know we will want to make the trip there often anyway to enjoy the beautiful beaches and have a night out on the town once in a while. :) We like the fact that we are living in a site where we’ll be able to have the quintessential Peace Corps experience, but can easily go into a bigger city and relax by the beach if we want. Oh wait, I didn’t mention the most interesting piece of information about our new living situation- We only have electricity for 2 hours a day! If it were up to Chris, he would like to be completely energy free but for my sake, I am glad we have a little something! We are supposed to get power 24/7 sometime this year but I have learned when you are on Africa time, you just can’t be certain about anything. But that’s ok because we really are looking forward to the challenge of living more simply. That’s one of the reasons we signed up for this! And it’s not like we will totally struggle since we will be able to cook on a gas stove, and use our own generator. Oh, and we will not have running water but that is a luxury here in Mozambique, so I wasn’t expecting that to be the case. We’re lucky since our pump is located only about 10 feet from our house. We won’t have to climb up a mountain and carry water back on our head. :) The married couple who lives their now absolutely loves this site, and is so enthusiastic about us taking over. When Chris saw their house during site visit, he said he could sense the positive energy and love, so it feels good knowing we are taking over for a couple who had a great experience. I’ll say it again, we are thrilled about our site and cannot wait to start our new life as official PCVs!

We now have our new permanent address so you can send any future letters or packages here! This is a mailbox in the nearest biggest city, Vilankulos which we plan to go into a least a couple of times a month as mentioned above. We can still receive mail at the original address we gave you in the PC Maputo office, however, we won’t be in Maputo as often. Also, remember to draw a few crosses and “Jesus loves you” notes for a better chance of delivery!

Our address is:

Laurie and Chris Williams, PCVs
C.P. 16
Vilankulos, Mozambique
Africa

Now that we have a vision for what life will look like for the next 2 years, we are growing more restless of training. We are VERY ready to live on our own again, make our own home and get started on our projects. But, we are appreciating the time we have left with our friends all together before we are spread across the country, and are excited for our group’s Thanksgiving dinner this Friday. Also, we’re participating in model school for the these last couple of weeks so that should make things move along. We are all teaching and observing 45 minute mock lessons in our disciplines to Mozambican students. It’s a great exercise in getting a feel for our teaching styles and gaining some feedback before we are all sent out to be teachers sozinho (alone)!

HAPPY TURKEY DAY TO ALL!!!!