quelimane, in brief

hey folks, sorry i haven't posted in a while. it's been a busy couple of weeks. i had to write up my practicum, repack all my stuff, get sworn in (i'm now an official peace corps volunteer!), and say goodbye to my family and friends. and now i'm in quelimane! it's a small city, very walkable, with enough stores to get most things i could need but without feeling too big. there are more bikes than cars on the road!

right now i'm staying in a hotel with the other zambezia health volunteers because our organizations have planned an orientation to help us get to know them and our jobs. it's nice to have the time to get to know them a little better, and a great show of the support we're going to have, although by now we're all itching to get to our sites! i'm itching a little less because i got to see my house today! it's outside of town, in an area with sand streets and small houses that feels a little more rural. my house is a dependencia, which means it's behind another house, like a guest house. it's small, and yellow, and really cute. i didn't move in because the owner is putting some finishing touches on it, but i'm looking forward to buying household things and fixing it up. that probably won't happen til next week, because i'm going to be going with my organization to deliver the other icap volunteers to their sites, so i'll get to see a lot more of the province and how my organization operates in the various districts, which i'm really excited about.

i promise the next post will have more details (and hopefully some pictures!), but i just wanted to let my readers know i was alive and well in mozambique! I hope to get to the internet again before the holidays, but if i don't i wish everyone a peaceful christmas/hanukkah/solstice/new year.