ONE YEAR!!!

So, it's been a very exciting few weeks.... First I had my 25th birthday. Exciting! The girls in Chokwe threw me a party with champagne, cake, twister, and movies. I'm so lucky to live next to such amazing girls. Then, for the weekend, I went up to Gorangoza to visit some other volunteers and take a mini-vacation. It was a LONG trip but totally worth it. Five of us that went have Septmeber birthdays so we had a lot of celebrating to do. I'm starting to realize just how different parts of Mozambique are. Down where I am everything is flat and dry- nothing like anything I've ever seen before. Inhanbane is more tropical, with so many coconut and banana trees, and of course gorgeous beaches. And then Manica/Sofala are more hilly and colorful. I felt like I was driving through the states, with the changing colors of the leaves and the mountains (hills really) in the distance. Too bad I dont live a little bit more central so I could travel a bit more. Anyways, I saw my first wild animal!!! It was a baboon- and I was SO excited a punched Colin who was sleeping next to me. Apparently I'm the only one in this country that's never seen a wild monkey because he just laughed at me. During our weekend celebration we went to the river close to Brian and Jordan's house twice each day. It was fabulous! And hilarious actually- a large group of molongos marching down to the river, turning rocks into water slides, playing catch with soap bars, washing our hair then putting on sunscreen... it was great. We cooked amazing food (ok, they cooked, I helped), played card games like we did during training, and camped outside next to the bonfire. Amazing weekend. I'm here with a fantastic group of people.

So, today I am celebrating not only being in country for one year, but also the birth of Lucy's 4 babies. Bright and early this morning she perched herself on my bed and went into labor. After promptly revoming her from my bed I sat with her and tried to make her a bit less confused about what was going on (if that's even possible...) She seemed pretty clueless about what to do once they were born- she kept pacing through my house- but hopefully she figures it out here soon.

One year down, One more to go. I've learned so much, grown so much, been knocked down more times than I can count, but this has definitely been one of the best years of my life. A year ago today I had NO idea exactly what I was getting myself into. I can only imagine what this next year has instore for me...