April 23

I returned from the annual JOMA conference last Monday. JOMA stands for Jovens para mudança e açcão (which means young people for change and action). It was created by some PCV a few years ago and today almost every PCV site in Mozambique has a JOMA group (that is, a group of students who meet every week and do activities – such as painting murals, theatre, and journalism – that are vaguely related to the fight against HIV and therefore funded by PEPFAR and U.S Government). I know I said that in a somewhat cynical way, but in all honesty projects like JOMA are probably a more effective use of PEPFAR money than anything else the U.S Government is doing in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Anyway, the JOMA conference was fun. It was completely organized by PCVs – which made it slightly stressful (though I was not in charge so not for me). During the day students learned about a specific profession (artist, journalist, actor etc.) from a Mozambican professional and at night we ran summer camp – like activities that the kids loved (problem solving activities like egg drop and feats of strength like tug of war). It was probably one of the best weeks of their life for the 50 or so Mozambican students who attended.

I returned home to lovely Gondola to find that my house had been broken into. The thief stole primarily DVDs, though he also took a packet of gum (he took winterfresh gum but left Juicy Fruit and Big Red…a wise choice in my opinion), five pens, a light bulb, and three condoms (that is my contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS). However, we found out from our neighbors who the thief is and we know where he lives – unfortunately he already sold our DVDs. Perhaps we will ask a local witch doctor to curse him (that is popular method of crime control around here).

April 25

I think I mentioned before that it is getting colder, a lot colder. The drop in temperature has had some unexpected consequences – most unexpected has been a reduction in bathing by me. Generally, during warmer months I took nothing but cold baths – because I did not want to go through the process of boiling water (boiling enough water for a hot bath is a process that takes 20-30 minutes, so it needs to be planned out). In this weather the prospect of taking a cold bath just does not appeal to me anymore. As it turns out the prospect of planning when I want to take a hot bath doesn’t appeal to me either – the result is less bathing, oh well. To head off worry from the many nurses to whom I am related: I still bathe often enough to ward of infection etc.