Merry christmas, happy new year

Cleaning grave sites as a awareness-raising activity for AIDS day

Dec 1 International AIDS Day celebrations

Our solar fruit dryer, as of yet not tested due to the lack of "solar" and excess of rain

Basket full of Moringa leaves, so nutritious!

Cleaning and de-stemming various leaves, including pumpkin leaf, Moringa, sweet potato, and cassava to be mixed with peanut, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and soy to make a nutritional supplement powder.

Hands-on learning about the 4 "food groups" a la Mocambique (energezing foods, concentrated energizing foods, constructing foods, protecting foods)

Scorpion at Liwonde, Malawi. Ready for battle. Soon squished.

Goliath Heron, Liwonde

Parading hippos, Liwonde

Vanessa and I did a river safari to celbrate Christmas - a different kind of holiday festivities.

With my near and dear (she really is my nearest PCV neighbor at 65km north of my site) on the Zomba Plateau, Malawi

Mt Mulanje

Not enough time to climb up Mt. Mulanje, just made it to this waterfall with frigid, refreshing swimming.

Mulanje tea fields

Meponda - the New Years festivities location

Rob Jentsch! In Mandimba! Outstanding! 

Rob Jentsch tasting the local corn-based hooch. 

Train ride: Cuamba to Nampula

I'm growing corn for the first time in my life. I'm hoping I can introduce Mozambicans to sweet corn - if you're going to have a corn-based diet, it shouldn't have to taste like cardboard year-round.

The town soccer field got ditches dug around it, rerouting 3 neighborhoods rainwater run-off paths.  One of the new paths ran directly across the road, down the hill in front of our office, and precisely in our front door. We flooded.

Analizing the damage

Only one stage of the broom pushes to paint bucket, paint bucket pushes to shovel, shovel pushes to trash-lid, trash lid tries to heave over the edge of the cement ridge process.

Hitch hiking to Ilha de Mocambique! We got amazing rides from a brit, some young Mozambican miners, and a crew of South Africans. Comfy cars, air conditioning, and good conversation.

Ilha, "nota mil," or "a million bucks"

Sara's grilled fish and Matapa Siri Sir (a seaweed, coconut milk, and cashew dish). Taste bud nirvana.

Paradise.  Good bye, Ilha! 

Next up: Trying to get to Tofo, an allegedly postcard-perfect beach in Southern Mozambique, a meeting in Maputo, then back to site! It's time to buckle down for a few months and really set in stone the work that I've been doing with the association.  With roughly 6 months left as a Peace Corps Volunteer, the "new ideas, new projects" phase is pretty much over, and I'm moving into a phase where I really want to make sure the skills we've worked on as an association are strong and sustainable, and make sure that the first stages of their first funded project are well-done and conscientious. In April, we'll have our final Peace Corps conference, and after that it will be time to start tying up the loose ends.

I hope this finds everyone off to a great start in 2014. I know I'm thrilled to see the changes that have come about over my last year and a half here, but I'm also so excited to know that this is the year I get to go home to family, friends, and food that I love.

Happy new year/Boas entradas!