Inhambane- Feb 16th

I am at my first internet cafe in Inhambane (a city 1.5hrs away from Massinga). We came to this city today and toured the hospital here as well as the health training centre. The hospital tour was 4 hours long- not exaggerating at all.. and we had to leave at 6am this morning to get there... so it's been a kind of frustrating day. We actually all felt like we were going to die during the tour (as it was in Portuguese).
On a positive note, we are now headed to Tofo to spend the weekend there!! YAY! We are staying in another hostel... this time on the beach. This is our only beach weekend.. so I hope we really enjoy ourselves. It can be a little stressful at times, especially when everyone is hot and tired and there are personality clashes! Overall it's going well though. No one has bitten anyone's head off- yet.

Last week we worked in the Hospital across the street from the health centre we are living at. The hospital is very sad at times... but I enjoyed myself, even in the mad house that it was. One day I spent in prenatal, assessing all these moms from villages, who speak local languages (not Portuguese), along with the Mozambican nurses speaking crazy fast in Portuguese. It was awesome though. Then the next day I was in an assessment area where we weighed children and then gave them immunizations. That place was complete chaos.

Mozambique is absolutely beautiful. It reminds me of Thailand in many ways... but obviously there are many differences as well.
I am feeling like it is forever since I've been here, and forever until I will be home.

Well.. we have to go now. One think that is definitely something to adjust to is that everything we do is as a group and everything we do is related to each other. I guess what I am saying is that there is no independence!

Anyway.. I am doing fine and have had no break-downs or anything. Thank you so much for all the support and prayers. You have no idea what it means to me.

pics of maputo

This is our visit to the Central Market where we bought food for lunch. It was a labyrinth of stalls! Anything and everything could be found there! Such fun!

Several of our group posed in front of one of the Central Market stalls.

We walked around the city until we were all too sunburnt, tired, or hungry to walk anymore. Then we gratefully settled around a table at a local bar/restaurant for fried chicken and fries! So refreshing!

Brittany sporting the style of the day at the airport in Johannesburg, South Africa.

We are ALL having this much fun!

This is a view of the bay from our balcony at "The Base", our hostel. The breeze makes this a desirable place to retreat to when the heat becomes too much for us!