4th of July Audrey's Visit

Firstly, sorry for being MIA for so long...life has been busy here! Enjoy the new posts!

Usually the 4^th of July is a fun-filled day of barbecuing, beer, maybe a parade, and some fireworks. Here in Mozambique, in the company of many America-loving volunteer, we tried to make the day no different. I went up to a town called Inharrime, about 4 hours north of where I live, where some of the volunteers who arrived a year ahead of me were setting up for some 4^th of July fun. WhenI arrived everyone was sitting outside decked out in red, white, and blue clothing, eating popcorn, and drinking beer. Good start right? We all mostly hung out outside in the sun chatting and listening to music all afternoon, and it was nice to be around Americans and speak English for an extended amount of time. For dinner they made cheeseburgers and potato salad. Some of the girls had also whipped up some cakes and brownies for everyone and had appropriately made red, white, and blue colored frosting to decorate the cakes with. One was decorated with an American flag and on the other one they made the Peace Corps logo. It was very impressive. At night a bonfire was made...minus the fireworks we came pretty close to having an American 4^th of July party right? I certainly thought so!

My friend and fellow volunteer, Audrey made the trek down from Tete (a province far, far away) to meet everyone in Inharrime at the 4^th of July celebration. It was the first time that I had seen her since swearing in in December so it was great to finally see her again. Her parents were visiting in the coming weeks so she was making her way down to Maputo, the capital to meet them. We planned to meet up in Inharrime and then she came back to Chongoene with me and spent 3 days at my site. It was great to have an extended visitor! She attended some of my classes and we had a question and answer session with her and my 11^th grade classes, which was great. Audrey and I are basically the same height, have similar color hair, and both of our preferred outfits are usually jeans with a black fleece jacket. EVERYONE we met asked us if we were sisters and were shocked to learn that we were not. She got a few marriage proposals from some of my students, which is nothing out of the ordinary in this country for us. My students really seemed to like her and it was nice having company in my house. At the end of the week I took a couple of days off and went down to Maputo to “play” a little but, so I got a nice 4-day weekend out of it. Three other volunteers that we are close with were also there so going out with them and exploring the city was a great time. On Sunday, I dropped her off at the airport and started the journey back to site!