O Happy Day

Sorry I've been a little MIA for a while.  Motivating myself to write blogs has been kind of difficult lately. It’s not like I haven’t been happy or happy to be in Mozambique, but I've just been in kind of a homesick funk, especially for the last couple of weeks while one of my Peace Corps besties was  back in the States for a wedding.   I miss my friends and family, and am literally counting down the days until my visit home in December.  This is the longest I've ever been away from home (almost at the year mark), and I honestly can’t believe I've made it this far.  But I think yesterday finally broke me out of the funk.  Yesterday was just a great day.  It might sound like nothing special, but to me it was a picture of a perfect day in Messica.

I woke up to freshly made cinnamon cake.  Enough said.

I went to calamidades with Sarah and we literally bought two full bags of clothes for under three dollars.  I bought some Nike’s for 200 mets (about 7 dollars). I was so excited!  We also found avocados at the market which is pretty impressive because avocado season is over.  Overall it was a very successful  market trip.

When we got home, Sarah and I had a fashion show with all our new clothes. We can now kind of wear the same-ish size pants/shirts, so we have some clothes we’re going to share!  Seriously, this was the best news of all time because I never thought this would happen. Yay Africa diet!

Then one of the Pedagogical Directors from school came over to fix our sink that hasn't been draining for awhile.  He is the best and always comes to our rescue.

After an amazing lunch of guacamole and homemade corn chips, Sarah and I set out to go see the modista (seamstress) that I had dropped capulanas off with the week before to make a dress, a pair of pants, and a purse.  I was super excited to see how they turned out, and though they needed a few alterations, they looked great!  I will go back to pick them up on Tuesday.

On our way back from the modista's house, Sarah and I stopped by our friend Otilia's house to invite her over to work out with us.  We had been talking about working out with her for awhile, and we downloaded this new workout/dance program called Hip Hop Abs that we thought would be fun.  On our way home we stopped by another friend’s house and invited Vovo Gida to join us in our workout as well.  I honestly wish we would have taken pictures, but literally this 45 minute workout was probably the highlight of my Peace Corps service thus far.  They really enjoyed it but it wore them out.  After the workout ended, we put on music and just had a dance party in our living room.  Hilarious and awesome don’t even begin to cover it.  The whole neighborhood knew something crazy was going on in our house and I bet they were all super jealous.  Hopefully they’ll come work out with us more often, or at least come over for more dance parties.

After Hip Hop Abs, the over-achievers that we are, Sarah and I did day 3 of Insanity.  It was tough, but I’m super proud of us for staying motivated and sticking to our workout plan.

Sarah and I then made a very Mozambican dinner of fried fish, rice, and salad.

I went to bed early and fell asleep after watching an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

So in general, life here in Messica is going well!  The third trimester is about halfway over.  This week I will be reviewing with my students and giving tests.  Next weekend I’ll be going to Quelimane to visit one of my Peace Corps besties and also to check out the National Science Fair. Lots to look forward to!