SITE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was probably the most nerve-wracking day of all of training- the day all of us in group Moz 23 (the 23rd group to serve in Mozambique) found out where in the country we'll carrying out our Peace Corps service for the next two years. And Mozambique is such a huge country (it's over a two-and-a-half-hour plane ride from the north end of the country to the south- roughly the equivalent distance of Boston to Miami), where we (and the good friends we've made in training) are placed really does make a big difference in terms of where we can travel and who we can visit during our time here. And of course all sites vary widely in their climate, community size, and landscapes- from large cities to small villages, from hot to cold, from beach to plains to mountains. And until today, most of us in my training group had absolutely no idea where we, or our friends, would end up.

Well, now I am ecstatic to be able to say I will be spending the next two years living in the village of Nauela, teaching high school biology in the central province of Zambézia!

It's actually a bit farther north... but I was too lazy to fix the image.

I don't know much about Nauela yet, since all I was actually given on paper was the name of the town, and a dot on the map to tell me where it is. For site announcements, the Peace Corps staff drew a map of Mozambique and the provinces on the floor of the basketball court near our training lecture hall. 

It's hard to see, but the map of Mozambique is drawn in chalk on the far side of the court.

All 55 of us stood in a row along the side of the court as staff handed us the envelopes containing our site placement info, though we weren't supposed to open them yet. As we waited for them all to be handed out, we started trying to feel up each others envelopes. "Oh, yours is thin, you must be opening a site!!!" said Tyler next to me. We'd been told that those of us replacing volunteers would receive reports and advice from the previous volunteers in our envelopes, while people going to new sites (where no volunteers have previously worked) would have to wait for more detailed info. I felt of thrill of excitement. I didn't mind too much either way, but I did think it would be cool to establish a first-time Peace Corps site. Either way, at least I finally wouldn't have to wait much longer to find out!

Finally, after significant buildup of tension, the staff let us open our envelopes. I was thrilled to see I was in Zambézia, since I'd secretly been hoping for a location in one of the central provinces. And since I didn't recognize Nauela as the name of any big cities, I knew I'd probably gotten my wish for a smaller town. I walked out to stand on my place on the map, and as everyone else went to stand in their spots as well, it was surreal to finally see everyone's final site locations, and to see who else would be near me. I feel pretty lucky in that the five other volunteers in my group going to Zambézia are all awesome people, and since I'm in the northern part of the province I'll be "close" to several Nampula volunteers as well. And I'll be within roughly 150 miles of the Malawi border!

Since my envelope didn't have any other information, I found Gelane, our education director for the north, and interrogated him about my site. He confirmed that it's a pretty small town/village, about an hour-and-a-half to the nearest larger city, Alto Mólocuè. He admitted that transportation will be difficult- the only option for getting to and from Nauela will be open-backed trucks. The house will have no running water, but I might have electricity, since apparently they're actually in the process of building a new house on the teachers' compound for me, and they're trying to get it wired up. He even mentioned they might install solar panels...? We'll see. And it turns out that Nauela isn't actually a new site- they have had education volunteers there for several years, and in fact, I'll have a sitemate, an English teacher named Gabriella, who is from a previous year of volunteers who switched from her original site to move to Nauela a few months ago. It'll be nice to have someone to share the experience with!

Gelane also mentioned that I'll have a "foster family" of sorts- they're simply a local family who've unofficially taken on the role of helping out the volunteers in Nauela, and making it a little easier to integrate into the village life. I then asked about the possibility of having a vegetable garden near the house, and he mentioned the best way to do that would possibly be to help my foster family with their garden, since they already have a large one. So we'll see about that! :) 

Last but not least, from what I've heard, Nauela is supposed to be in beautiful rolling-hills-mountainous-country, which pretty much sounds like what I've spent years dreaming my Peace Corps site would be like. So, um, YES THAT IS AWESOME :D

I definitely feel like I lucked out- of course, I'll find out first-hand how it is in a couple of weeks when I arrive, but so far I'm feeling great!

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Actually, there is one last fun fact about my site- it's within a couple hours' of the two cities where my host sister and aunt (my mãe Olympia's daughter and sister) live! Given how huge Mozambique is, and that Zambézia is the only place outside of Maputo where my mãe has relatives, the fact that I've now been placed this close to 'family' is an insane coincidence. I can't wait to meet them!