Finally a Summer birthday!

Its Friday March 18th, the day before my birthday and I already start celebrating. Normally I'm not the excited about bday's but here its different - for the first time I'm having a bday at the beach with nice weather! Back at home its either snowing or freezing cold, so I had to go big with this one!

There were a few people that came into town Friday night and stayed at my place, and then we all migrated to the beach. The other ppl were meeting us at the beach. There was about 30 ppl at my party - both peace corps volunteers and my Mozambican friends. We laid out, ate food, had some drinks, listened to music, and tried not to drown in the ocean with all of the rough waves that came our way. The day actually started off kind of chilly which I was so worried about - but then the sun began to shine! of course it would on my special day.

Once nightfall started to come around, we all gathered our things and made our way to the chapa stop. But luckily for me and my friends, Michelle (my site mate) coordinated a PRIVATE chapa to lug all of us back to Chongoene. Now that's bday service. To have a chapa with enough space for everyone and there's not someone sitting on top of you, is a nice way to ride back home. Some people slept at Michelle's house, and the others at mine. The party continued at my place, and it was really nice. I never really felt so loved, there were alot of ppl that came out - and I even got GIFTS. I never get gifts like this. I got a mini turtle paperweight (awesome), a towel wrapped in soccer ball paper (thx peggy!), two capulanas, a bottle of wine, and a homemade peneira (used to make rice) with my name written in purple that said 2011. That gift was the most special. I have a picture of it but totally forgot to put it up! I'll fix that later on. But it was a rockin time, and I'm so thankful to everyone that came out to celebrate with me. yall are the best.

me and Mallory!

hangin' out.

this post is about what happens when mosquitos stop being polite....and start getting REAL

Have you ever wanted to just scream bc your entire body was covered with tiny bites from merciless, BIG mosquitoes? Well, I have. Umm.....I have bites everywhere - my feet, my arms, my legs, my neck, and EVEN well....ya know. Do I have to spell it out for you? They are a pain, and I find myself spending lots of time scratching and applying cortizone cream on my body, like its my job. And then if I scratch too hard, I start to bleed, then if I'm outside some fly comes by and tries to eat me up. So now I have an open mosquito bite, dripping blood, and a fly trying to have lunch. Isn't it gross? I try not to scratch them, but its a part of my daily routine.

Let me further explain....

I try my best everyday to take a bath by nighttime, and run in my bed before the monsters really start to come out. And by the way, these mosquitos are HUGE. They're just not normal. Its almost as if they take sterioids or something....kinda like the roosters and chickens here. Oh yea, I saw this one chicken, and his feet were like backwards, and he had the NERVE to "cock-a-doodle-doo" right outside my window at 5am. Um excuse me, LET ME SLEEP. He made more noise than normal, and then when Pepper (my dog) started running after it - the rooster tried to escape - but since his feet were like sideways, he didn't make it very far. Usually I yell at my dog when he chases chickens, but I gave him a pat on the back for this one......Oh sorry, back to the bugs...

So anyway, its around 6:30pm, which means the sun is down and by 7 it will start to get dark. I'm in my latrine. I tell myself, "ok Naa, don't take any more than 10 minutes in here bc you'll get eaten alive." I splash the water on my face. add some facewash...done. I lather my body with soap.....ok, ok......5 minutes pass....done. oops, crap, there's a monster on my leg. I slap it. I miss. He's gone...for now. I rinse, grab my towel, and literally do the 2 step back to my house. But oh wait.....there's a problem. "I forgot the bucket in the bath. Should I leave it there? Will somebody steal it?...Probably, its a nice bucket." I run back to the latrine, and BAM, two mosquitoes waiting for me as I pick up the bucket. 2 quick bites. Ouch. It kinda hurts. So THEN, I finally am done with this whole being-outside thing, walk quickly to the house, and then FALL on my right leg. Yea yea, laugh it up, but it wasnt funny at the time. I'm dirty again, not to mention my right side of my body is covered in sand. But I brushed it off, went in the house, put on my pjs, and settled under my mosquitoe net. It's sord of like camping for the next two years, and my bed is my tent. I swear, I don't feel normal at all here....and I love it.

If you are in Africa and not taking malaria profilaxis, you're outta ur mind. There has already been two of my friends who got malaria, and I dont wanna be the next. (knock on wood). Oh well....let's see what happens, bc I have got to get used to this.

smooches.

And the Race Continues.

The race wars have continued for me here in mozambique. I hate to keep blogging about it, but this one situation blew my mind. I just had to write about it.

Michelle and I were sitting at a restaurant the other day, and this White man (probably South African) came up to us and shook Michelle’s hand and greeted her.

“Hi, how are YOU?” (guy shakes her hand)
“WE’RE good thank you.”
“Great. Are YOU from America?”
“Yes, WE’RE from America.”
“Ok, what are you doing here?”
“WE’RE volunteers with Peace Corps.”
“Good. Nice to meet YOU, take care.”
“Yea thanks, nice meeting you too.”

I had to emphasize the YOU and WE because Michelle was trying to acknowledge that I was also sitting there, and yes the black girl is also American. But this happens all the time when I’m with her. She’s the white girl, and people will speak to her first and literally hold a conversation with her while not saying a thing to me. Or I get the, “Where does she live? Is she a volunteer too?” And I’ll be standing right next to Michelle. Um Hello, just ASK me, I have a mouth too. Sometimes I want to say something, like “You can talk to me, I’m standing right here.” But it happens so frequently that I don’t have the energy to go into it. I figure if a grown person doesn’t know any better or have the manners to speak to me, then I really don’t have the time to deal with it. Depending on the situation, I'll speak up, but normally it flies over my head. To stop every person and say how I REALLY feel would be time consuming. And let's face it - you can't waste time in this country.

Anyways, I have started to learn to deal with racism and discrimination in this country with a sense of humor and laughter. i also learned that just because I'm different and receive unwanted attention or bad attitude, doesnt mean I have to take it - and I don't! I usually keep my cool, but I will not be disrespected. Not here, not anywhere. Like they say, through time things will get better....it has to right? Cuz I got a long way to go!

Smooches