A more recent account of my life

Hey, I just wrote this post this past weekend. I'm also not sure why one of the ones in March posted in Portuguese. I wrote it in English, so I'm pretty confused.

Hello again! I’m back in Nampula for another conference. This one is for something called JOMA, which means Jovens em mudanca e accao, which means Youth for Change and Action. A lot of volunteers have JOMA groups, which use journalism, theater, or other arts to promote change and action in relation to AIDS, gender issues, etc. I don’t have a group, but I volunteered to come help out with check in and random things that come up. Next year I think I’ll try to get a group going. I’ve actually been working to get my English club going (I think I’ve written that before), but it still hasn’t happened, but I don’t think it’s my fault. I want to use the community center for the English club, so I had to write a request. Then I had to wait for the school secretary to type it, but the times I wanted were written incorrectly, so I have to wait for them to type it again. Then my director was gone, so I had to wait for him to come back and sign it, then the administrator for the district was in South Africa, so I had to wait for her to come back and approve it. That’s how things work here, there everyone has a specific job, and isn’t willing/qualified/allowed to do what someone else should be doing. (Another example: I went to the post office in Nampula one time to mail a letter. The person who sells stamps wasn’t there, and no one else would sell me the stamp, so I had to wait a few weeks until I came back to mail the letter. One more: my friends went to eat at a restaurant and ordered sandwiches. The guy who makes sandwiches was on vacation, and apparently the people who make pizza, salads, and everything else ) But I think my request for English Club is finally ready, but now it’s the break between the 1st and 2nd trimester, so everyone has left Nacaroa, including me. But I think it will really be ready to start the first week of the 2nd trimester. And I’m pretty excited about it, the students keep asking when it will start. Also, as related projects I want to do an English theater group, and start a penpal exchange with a teacher I’ve been corresponding with in the US. She teaches ESL, so we want our students to exchange letters in English, which I think will be exciting for both groups.
I have started making no bake cookies for various people at site, and they’ve been a big hit! People would often teach me how to make food/give me food they’d made, and I didn’t know what to do back because most “American” foods require ingredients I can’t get/store at site, or an oven. I’m also going to buy stuff to make s’mores while I’m here so I can make those for people. One dessert I’ve learned how to make is doce de abobera, or pumpkin sweetness. You peel and de-seed a pumpkin, and boil it in a little water until it all turns to mush. Then you add coconut milk and sugar, and eat it.
April 7th was Mozambican Woman’s Day. There was a ceremony in the morning with dancing, singing, drum circles, and other cultural activities. Everyone was really excited that I wore some traditional Mozambican clothes, a long cloth wrapped around my waist for a skirt, and a head scarf (like bandana style, not Muslim style). In the afternoon, I had a party at my house. They brought a generator over and we had music and everything. It was a lot of fun!