Passing the torch

It's site visit week! The new group of PC trainees in the Education sector arrived last month, and their new sites were announced last week. And guess which PCV is getting replaced? Me! And about eight others from my group. The rest of the trainees will be pioneering new sites.

First the trainees went to a two-day Counterpart Workshop with their soon-to-be Head Teachers and heads of the PTA from their new schools. Then the trainees travelled down to their new sites to get acquainted with their new sites and prepare themselves to spend two years there after they swear-in.

My replacement is named Vanadie and I have been hosting her since Friday. I introduced her to the neighbors and the teachers. I showed her around the school and the trading center and the Boma. And we did lots of cooking and chatting about the house and the site and PC. It was a lot of fun!

On Saturday afternoon I took her on the walk to the scenic overlook near my house. It is a nice walk, a beautiful view and it was one of the places I went during my site visit two years ago with Ryan, the PCV I replaced. And we found out there is 3G up there too!

Here we are, enjoying the view and the good cell service!

She is really positive, motivated and has a lot of ideas for projects in the community. So I'm ready to pass her the PCV torch. Zabwino zonse, Vanadie!

Why I haven't been blogging

I am way behind with blogging. It's not because nothing is going on, believe me. I took a trip to Mozambique, I've been busy teaching physical science to Forms 2-4, I did Camp Sky!!!, I had my COS Conference and I have less than two months in my service.

So why I haven't I been blogging?

The main reason is this:

This message makes me so sad : (

Almost everytime I try to do anything at my phone when I'm at my site, I see this message above. My cellular internet has gotten to the point where even WhatsApp only works half the time. Phone calls don't come through a lot, and I lose service at lest once a day. So doing a blog post is pretty much out of the question, especially if I want to upload a photo.

That means I have to go to the city to get 3G data so I can post. Which I have done over the past two months. Quite a bit actually, between vacation and camp prep. But I've been so busy when I'm there that I just didn't find the time to sit down and to write and reflect on my experiences.

But now I'm running out of time, and I know you're all dying to hear about Camp and the snake in my bafa and how the kids tore all my sweet potatoes out of my garden and how my Form 2s are starting their National Exams. So I'll try to write some posts at my site and then post them the next time I'm in the city.