I went to visit another volunteer at his site last weekend and it was a great break from Namaacha. I went to Gaza province, about 4 hours NE of where I am now. I got to experience a real chapa ride. On the way there, we had 24 people in a van! It was crazy. We went to the beach in Xai Xai 2 days during the visit. It was aaamazing. There was hardley anyone there and the water was so beautiful. I´ll find out where my final site is in a couple weeks, but I have my fingers crossed for somewhere close to a beach. I´m not really into the ´roughing it´. During site visit, we made really good food. It made me hopeful that I won´t be eating rice with a mixture of meat and coconut and peanuts on top which is what I eat most days during training. Its my host sister´s birthday tomorrow. She´s turning 5 and we´re having a big party! Ahaha! it worked. My first picture. There´s me in Africa.

It´s weird not being in the states for the election results. I watched coverage of it yesterday morning, but I was with my host family, and they didn´t really get why I was so excited. But I did have quite a few Mocambicans ask me what I thought about the elections, so that was fun to talk about.

Training is going alright. We just had a midtraining language test and I scored where I need to be at the end of training...meaning I can speak like a 6 year old! Woo! We´ve had a major overload on group projects and creative skits in all our sessions. I hate that stuff. I just want to be lectured to!

My language class made an ´American Meal´ this week. We did it at my house, which was good, since my family had been doubting my cooking skills. It was nice to cook stuff the way I know how to do it. We ended up making more of an Italian meal, with spaghetti and a tomato sauce, garlic bread, and a salad, with pancakes for a snack. My sister was trying to micromanage my veggie slicing for the salad, telling me my tomato slices were too big. And I was finally able to be like ´Its an American salad! We like big pieces of tomatoes, back off!´ Ha. In the end, I think everyone enjoyed the mean. And now they can´t tell me I don´t know how to cook :)

We have site visits this weekend for 5 days! Im really excited to be somewhere else for a few days!

Hi!! Thanks to everyone who has sent mail! I just mailed out a bunch of letters yesterday, so youºll be hearing back soon! Yesterday, our whole group went to Maputo and bought phones and ate pizza. It was amazing.

Training is going pretty well. I will be teaching chemistry to 8 - 11th graders. I feel pretty good about grades 8 and 9, as thats mostly basic chem that I enjoyed learning, but starting in 10th grade, they start learning organic chemistry. So if I end up teaching that, I will have a lot of relearning to do!! If anyone has any ideas for chem experiments using around the house reagents, please email them to me! We´ve started practicing teaching in Portuguese, and its pretty rough. This week, Im giving a lesson on balancing formulas. Super exciting! Im going to try to post pictures now, we´ll see how that goes...

its not going well. i will try later!! ha.

Hey to whoever is reading this! I have officially been in Nammacha living with my host family for a week. All is good! In my host family, there´s a mom and dad, 3 sisters (15, 12, and 4) and a brother (13). We live in a little cement house with a tin roof (with electricity!). It´s a beautiful city... I love my walk home every day! You would all be so impressed, I have yet to get lost in Namaacha, and its a pretty big town!

I feel kind of like a big baby here, because I have to relearn how to do everything! Even though I insisted I could figure out how to take a bucket bath, my sister insisted on showing me how-- como se diz ´awkward´em portugues? I´m learning how to cook with charcoal, wash my clothes, and next week, kill a chicken (sorry rachel!!). The portuguese lessons are going pretty well, but it´s frustrating because I wish I could communicate well right now. In liu of being able to speak much portuguese, I´ve been having lots of dance parties (send bad rap music please!) and playing lots of cards with my host siblings. Miss you all lots!

Today was the last day of our 2 day staging in Philadelphia. I learned all about Peace Corps policy (blog responsibly!) and the basics of what to expect when we arrive in Mozambique. The biggest part of staging was to get to know the other 58 people in our group. Moz 13 (that's our group!) is a young group, with everyone under the age of 30. Everyone I've met is really nice and very enthusiastic. I've had so much built up anticipation over this day that its hard to believe I'm really leaving tomorrow! Eeeeeeeeeeee

I started my malaria meds which was pretty exciting! I took a picture. Ate a philly cheesesteak. Did a lot of interactive group activities. That was staging! I'm praying that my luggage is under the weight limit tomorrow because the only other thing I could really take out would be a textbook which would be sad. Tomorrow we arrive in Johannesburg (Jo-burg as the cool kids call it), South Africa where we'll spend the night. The next day we leave for Maputo, the capital of Mozambique where we'll spend the next 4 days learning some 'survival portugues' and way important things I guess. Then we're off to stay with our host families! I'm off to rearrange a few things and try to get a good nights sleep before i GO TO AFRICA!!!

My First Blog Ever

I leave for Mozambique in 3 days!!

Things have been a little crazy lately trying to wrap everything up and pack. I thought I was doing pretty well on the packing front; almost everything fit into my 3 bags. Then I tried to lift my first bag and couldn't. Soooo I have to do a little bit more "prioritizing" to do in order to keep it under the weight limit.

Once I arrive in Mozambique for training, I will be about 2 hours outside of the capital, Maputo. I probably won't be able to communicate through email very often during the 10 week training, but I'll update this when I get the chance. I also really appreciate letters! Mail can take anywhere between 2 weeks and a month, so it may take a while, but I'll definitely get back to you!

Please sent mail to:
Stephanie Goettl, PCV
U.S. Peace Corps
C.P. 4398
Maputo
Mozambique

It helps to write airmail on the envelopes and number your letters so I know if any have been lost in the mail.

Tchau!