Much to update!!

Merry Christmas Eve!! Again, many apologies for my blog posts being so few and far between. I'm at site now (yay!) and there's no internet there so that makes keeping this up to date a little difficult. Ok, so my site! Here is my address for the next 2 years:

Chelsea Harrower
CP #36
Morrumbene, Inhambane
Mozambique Africa

Please remember that if you want to send packages you need to write "Jesus Saves" all over the box! That is incredibly useful in deterring theft.

Morrumbene is a really beautiful, quaint town that's near the beach. It's pretty ideal in that I'm a 30 minute chapa (taxi) ride from Maxixe, which is a larger city with all of the nice amenities (restaurants, cheese, ginger snaps). I've only been at site for a week and I've already traveled to Maxixe 3 times...I live in a 1 1/2 room reed hut. I say 1 1/2 because there is the main room that has a table, 2 burner stove and shelves, then there is a 3/4 wall to separate my bedroom from that main room. I have a little curtain as a door. It's very cozy. I have a large quintal (yard) area with lots of pretty trees. My latrine is in another hut thats separate from my main house and then my shower hut is also separate. I'm the proud owner of 3 huts total. I inherited a dog, Lucy, who makes sure I don't get too lonely. She barks at everyone and everything. No one walks by my house without her announcing it. I definitely feel safe. I'm the only volunteer in Morrumbene, but I'm only about 30 minutes from quite a few other volunteers so it's not too bad. I don't start school or anything until February so I have A LOT of free time on my hands now...it's been quite boring and has made me question if it was a good idea for me to live by myself. I think that once school starts, however, I'll really appreciate the peace and quiet I'll be able to have by myself. I stare out of my window quite a bit...it's amazing how long I can do that without even realizing it. I'm definitely learning to adjust to the "slow life" here in Mozambique. I'm 99% sure that I'll be teaching 8th grade (at least for my first year). My average class size should be about 70-80 students in each turma (turma is a group of students that take all of their classes together. Instead of students going from class to class like in the U.S., teachers travel to each classroom and the kids stay put). I should teach about 8 different turmas in 1 year. It'll be a huge learning curve, but I'm really excited to get started. The volunteer that I replaced in Morrumbene, Taylor, left me really well prepared with sample lesson plans and visual aids for class. So, yeah! I'll have more information on what it's like to teach here come February...
Being away from home for the holidays has been a little rough...I think all of us here are feeling a bit lonely and out of sorts. It's HOT HOT HOT here. I keep hearing about all the snow storms back home and I just can't picture it. I hope you all are driving safely, though! I traveled North to Vilankulos to spend Christmas with my friend, Laura, and some other fellow PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers...everything, EVERYTHING has an acronym here). We are planning on spending the entire day at the beach...so life isn't too rough here. :)
Anyway, happy holidays everyone! I really do miss you guys. I hope everything is going OK back in the States. Keep me updated!! Much love!