Vacation Time

The end of April also marked the end of my first trimester here in Moz, and also my first opportunity to travel a bit and get to know the rest of the country. I took the free time to catch up on my beach time. I traveled to Tofo, Bara and Vilankulos down south. Bara is one of the most beautiful places I have every been--I felt like I was living in a post card. The south is definitely a different world from the Africa I know and live in, with all the tourists and development. It made me glad to know it was an option, but also that I didn't have to live down there and be mistaken for a tourist everyday of my life. Really made me appreciate what I have in Angonia. It was also great to get to see some of the PCVs I haven't seen since swear-in and catch up with them and their lives.

I also took the chance to try out scuba diving. Scuba is very big here in Moz since it is a ton cheaper than doing it in the states. They happen to offer a one-day course where they sit you down and make you watch a video and practice in a pool in the morning, then in the afternoon you go out on the ocean and do a 50 minute dive. It's the same philosophy as tandam sky diving--you always have an instructor right there by you. I never thought I'd ever be tempted by scuba, but the opportunity was there so I took it. Unfortunately for me the entire experience turned out to be a bit of a struggle, but I'm glad I tried. From getting the wet suit on, to jumping in the boat after pushing it out to sea, to motion sickness and vomiting it just was not my day. Unfortuantely once I finally started descending down, I could only make it 3 of the 12 meters before my ears felt like they were going to explode and no amount of nose plugging and blowing or jaw moving and swalowing was going to pop them. So, I did scuba dive, I just didn't see any cool fish or coral. Like I said, worth the experience.

Other than that, vacation was just filled with lots of sun bathing and great meals (sausage stuffed crust pizza, hamburgers, seafood chinese stirfry, prawns, ice cream, club sandwiches, etc. etc.) Needless to say when I get back to site I'm going to get quite a few "Esta a engordar!" ("You're getting fat!") but it was worth it. I'm excited to get back to site and back to teaching, back to what I now feel like is "life as normal".