Past adventures...

The thing is, not having written for over three months, I don't know where to start! So here's a summary with highlights in short before I pick up and take you again with me on my Mozambican adventure...

Maio:
Walked in a march together with my colleagues for access to HIV/AIDS treatment for everybody in Mozambique. The march was organised by Matram an organisation which is fighting for access to treatment all over Mozambique. Some of the Kindlimuka members work at Matram.

Junho: I went back to Holland for 1 week for my youngest sister Christine's wedding (with Sjoerd). Ofcourse my agenda for that week was crazy busy, sorry I couldn’t see or call all my friends and this time it felt more difficult to say goodbye to my family, in particular to Yasmine, Lisanne and Quentin (my 2 nieces of 1 year, 4 years and nephew 6 years)

Julho:
- Just after I got back in Moz my friend Joanne came to visit me, we had some adventures together here. Looking back, because she reminded me of holland and my family, her being her made a bit harder for me to get back in the relaxed Moz mode, but it was so great to show her my town, my friends, my food, my loves, my special places, my Mozambican colleagues, my beers...
- Paul Norris, a 3 mnth vso short-term-volunteer who started out with me at the same time in Kindlimuka finished his placement and went home to the UK. I so much enjoyed working with him, really missed him after he’d gone and needed to find myself a new status without him in KM. Paul is about to become a father for the first time in September!
- Went on a homestay, was 4 days and 3 nights part of a Mozambican family in the country, 2 hours up north from Maputo in Macia. This is part of the vso in-country training. Out of the 5 families (we went with 5 vso’ers) the poorest one picked me. They (mother and 3 daughters, 14, 9 and 2 and father not there since March because he works in Chokwe) don’t have beds, so as they do themselves, I slept on the floor in a caniço (riet) hut. Got down on the flu the first day already, thank god I brought my sleeping bag, it felt so cold and hard at night! The family lived in Chokwé 7 years ago and lost everything because of the floods in 2000. So they moved to Macia and had to start all over again. I really don’t want to this again under the same conditions (winter in Moz ánd feeling sick) but I it has made me very aware that over 70% of the Mozambicans live like this.

Agosto:
- A virus went to through Maputo. I was sick end of July after the homestay, which went on for a couple weeks. Other friends had the same symptoms, a combination of flu and diarrhoea.
- As last year I volunteered in the BiD Challenge to coach entrepreneurs in writing their business plan. This year I am coaching Philippa, a smart young woman from the UK who is going to start her business TIE (www.theinternationalexchange.co.uk) in Brazil.
- O meu português está a melhorar (my portugese is improving) which my colleagues are noticing and my work hours per day are increasing because more of them want my help… Attended last week 4 days a workshop initiated by a potential donor (all in português), facilitated a FOFA (SWOT) workshop with the Kindlimuka management and wrote all their words while they were speaking in português on the flipcharts almost without any faults.

OK, ofcourse I can write more in depth… but it may be better if let me know what subjects you would to hear more about ;)

Last but not least, thanks all so much for your reactions on my blog! Old schoolmates (wauw Sonja and Wendela nice to hear from you), old old boyfriends (Ben), colleagues (Sven, Jeroen), even some per e-mail (Milou, thanks for your kind words) or per sms (Martin). I promise to keep my stories short from now on and more frequent.

Tomorrow, I finish at 13.30 hrs and head off for the weekend to Swaziland!