25/11/09

We got our site placements today! It was torturous, they waited until after all of the sessions because they knew we wouldn't be able to concentration once we had found out. Them they passed out a white envelope to each person, on the outside our name and a letter reminding up that we were Peace Corps volunteers, not club med members, and that they tried to place everyone in the sites that were the best fit for their skills, etc. Then once everyone had their envelope they gave us the okay and we all ripped our envelopes open! They had a huge map of Mozambique and had given everyone a sticky with their name on it so everyone labeled their site so we could see where everyone will be. In previous years apparently people have cried when they received their sites, but nobody in our group cried. I am in Inhambane province which is along the coast (though I am not sure how close to the ocean I will actually be). I am only five hours from Maputo which is great because traveling and visitors will be so much easier and I can easily get to the Peace Corps office. I am also only am hour from Inhambane city where I will have access to things I can't buy in a small town. I have two site mates: Emma a Moz 13 who is also a teacher, though not at the same school, and Ann from my year who is a health volunteer. It is a brand new site so I won't have to live up to the expectations set by the previous volunteer, but it is also a little daunting because I am creating my role in the school completely from scratch. The school is a mission school run by nuns, I think. My school director is a nun which I am a little relieved by because one problem women volunteers can have here sometimes is butting heads with an "old fashioned" make school director who doesn't appreciate women who speak or think out of turn. There are quite a few other volunteers in the area and in Inhambane province in general which will be nice, especially during the upcoming holidays. After all this excitement we celebrated Thanksgiving by eating more food than we should in a month.