20/08/11

During our COS (Close of Service) conference we made a picture slideshow of everyone and Ann, Mike and I were in charge of the music. In a moment of cheesiness we added the “graduation song” by Vitamin C. One of the lines is “where you gonna be when you turn 25?” and Anna, Ann and I turned to each other and said wow, we turned 25 in Mozambique. I never in a million years would have imagined that. Last night we got a bunch of PCVs together to cook and play some Pictionary. And today we met up at a delicious restaurant to catch up on each other’s lives and some more Pictionary. It was a wonderful birthday, and a wonderful way to complete 25 years.
One of Ann’s REDES girls from the primary school (not the school where I live and have a REDES group, but the primary school in town, about 4k from where I live) went to the REDES conference. I didn’t know her before (though I know her family from around town and the store they own), but we just fell in love, she is a darling. She and another REDES girl stopped by Ann’s house on Friday (Ann’s REDES girls stop by her house all the time to color, look through her People magazines from America, or just hang out and listen to music) and when Ann told her it was my birthday she made me a birthday card and then also called me today to wish me happy birthday. It made my day!
At lunch today we were all enjoying fries when Jasmin (our new sitemate) looked down at her ketchup and said “oh my gosh is that a bug?” She looked like she was going to throw up and got up quickly and went to the bathroom. Ann and Angela shrugged and reached over and each took a fry saying “she isn’t going to eat them anymore, right?” Jasmin was the only person at lunch from the newest PCV group (they arrived in Mozambique 11 weeks ago). There was probably a time when the rest of us would have been bothered by a bug in our food, but one, two and three years later (Becky, a third year extendee was at lunch also) it took us a second to remember why anyone would be bothered by it.
The other day Buck said something and I laughed and said, “that’s definitely not a word!” He disputed, so I told him I would bet him $5, or 150 Meticais. I later won the bet, so I excitedly said “sweet! I can get a Big Mac meal when I go back to America!” But Jasmin, fresh out of America only 11 weeks ago, said “actually you couldn’t get a whole meal for only $5 anymore unfortunately.” “Well here in Mozambique you could 75 loaves of bread instead!” Buck offered. (Bread here is sold in hamburger bun-size loaves for 2 Meticais each.) Wow, such a different life.