I should change my name to ‘the LAME panda’

So unfortunately I haven’t been living up to my name as I haven’t really traveled much at all, not only since I got back from south Africa, but also since my last update. I had finally decided that I was going to get my act together and get out of the house more, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out… I made one trip so far to go visit my friend Camille in Gurue and it was absolutely breath taking! We talk a lot about the beautiful beaches in moz, but this time I headed inland to the mountainous tea plantations of Zambezia province. The trip I had been dreading so much was actually quite enjoyable and I even got to buy a giant basket full of tangerines for about a buck fitty! And they were so delicious too! Camille and her new roommate annie live in a cute little house in a teacher’s compound on school campus. There were about 15 volunteers visiting that weekend and as always it was a weekend filled with really amazingly good food and a fair amount of drinking = ] the only bummer was the first night we were all there, 5 ipods, including mine, and a set of speakers got stolen. After we had all gone to bed that night someone had cut a hole in their window screen, reached in and nabbed em up off the table… it definitely put a damper on the weekend. I also realized just how much my life had revolved around that thing! It had my entire address book (speaking of which I now no longer have anyone’s address cuz recently, when I was really bored, i moved all my contacts to my ipod, so everyone email them to me again please), calendar, pictures, video clips and of course music… no more mr.aahh, angry birds, word warp, trivial pursuit and scrabble!!!! Falling asleep has been a much larger challenge without games to make my eyelids heavy and my e.p.i.c playlist to lull me to sleep… although now I may actually finish reading my 900+ page whopper ‘shantaram’. It’s a really good book, but I read and read and read and just don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere! I’ve been working on it on and off for about 2-3months and I’m on page 470 or something… daunting! And that bad boy is so heavy to hold up and after like 10 min of reading my arms start falling asleep! Anyway can yall believe it’s already JUNE??? We’re about halfway through the second trimester and july’s gonna be a big month with some people coming through to visit including von’s best friend michelle and then MOMMY AND MIRAY COME!!!! I seriously seriously seriously can’t wait!
Oooh last month von and I also started English Club! It’s a very elite, invite only, group of our very best english students that don’t get the challenge and level of attention necessary during class. The group meets every Saturday and we’ve done everything from play games to paper folding to watching movies and the only rule is that you have to speak english! Oh my students also taught me this awesome new trump game! So pumped cuz it is by far the best 2person card game I have ever played and can be played with up to 8 people although at that point it’s just a hot mess. So the game started with just me and this kid Nelson so he taught me and I picked it up pretty quickly and I actually kicked his butt, but as more kids started trickling in we added them in and played in teams and every time kids came in and saw me playing they would look to nelson and ask ‘does teacher know how to play?’ and he would be like ‘I only just taught her, but oh she knows. she gets it.’ haha I felt like I was hustling them but what can I say? I’ve had lotsa practice! thanks gweon family! But they’re a great group of kids so it’s been really fun!
Also von and I started tutoring this 5-year-old cutie patootie! His family is totally loaded but he’s too young to start school and his parents just wanted him to get a jump-start on english so we see him 4 times a week. It is crazy the difference it makes to start learning a language when young though cuz I’m pretty sure he, after just 2 months, speaks better english than most of my 9th graders! He does some dang cute things like von taught him ‘I don’t know’ and he says it all the time now, and he says ‘thingers’ instead of fingers and I secretly hope he’ll make that mistake for the rest of our time together cuz it’s so so so cute!!! The parents wanted to pay us, but since we’re not allowed to ‘make money’ while we’re here, they instead bring us the most amazing snacks ever! From cookies and cakes, to green mango curry soup, we almost prefer it to cash!
So thanks to my malaria meds I’ve been having crazzzyyy dreams, and I really should start writing them down, but last night there was one where I was trying to save a talking dugong and running around trying to get him to water and instead we got chased by a crocodile and it got the poor dugong and I just barely got away. I swear I didn’t throw the dugong to the croc to save myself! But seriously… right? anyway I think I’ve been chased by crocs and sometimes snakes a few other times too which is weird cuz I still haven’t seen a crocodile in this country, or at least not in the wild as we do have 3 baby crocodiles in our ‘zoo.’ We call it central park zoo, but its just one little cement and gate structure that holds 3 baby crocs captive… it’s really kinda sad, but it’s the highlight of the Monapo tour whenever friends come to visit!
So von was gone this past weekend, she went to go help out with a conference, so I was home alone for about 5 days, and all I can say is thank GOD I don’t live alone… I almost lost my mind trying to find things to do and being alone makes you constantly THINK! I had a few things on my mind and I swear I was non-stop obsessively thinking about them and I don’t think it was very healthy… may have aged about 2 years in 5 days… no good… von don’t ever leave, ever. Ever.
Well I think that’s about it and I should have more to write in the coming months so I’ll try not to slack on the blog writing! I miss everyone SO SO SO SO much, especially my doofus of a nephew, bambo, who thinks Mozambique is filled with ‘beaks’ haha.

20 months down and just 6 more to go!
The lame panda