Paul and Eli Blog in Moz

Yes, it has been a long time without a blog entry, and I'm sorry for that, although many of you have received a PDF newsletter which talked about July. The last two months or so have been pretty busy for us. We came back from our first trip to Malawi at the end of June. There was only a few weeks of school and then final exams following that, and the second trimester was officially over. This year Mozambique is doing their third national census, and it's a very big, very serious undertaking... I'm actually very impressed by the organization of the whole project, although we are taking nearly a MONTH LONG BREAK from school in order to get it done! (It is, however, incredibly important for the future of Mozambique, so I understand. Its a very detailed census). So, what are we doing with all this free time? First, we held the first ever science fair in Ile, and went to Gurue to help with their first science fair. (Send me an email if you want a copy of the newsletter that talks about the science fair k01pj01@gmail.com) Both of the science fairs were excellent, and we will be taking 3 students to Nampula in September for a northern regional science fair...also a first time event up here in the north.
In July we made a 2nd trip to Malawi, in fact going back to the very same Liwonde National Park, but this time we went with other PCVs (from Mocuba and Gurue, our two closest neighbors). We arrived in the park exactly 1 month to the day since our last visit. We spent 3 nights and had a great time. At one point a large heard of elephants walked right past us, in a marsh, another time we were in a tree house 'lookout' and saw a herd of 34 elephants go underneath us.
The biggest news though, is that my parents visited! They were in Mozambique for about 10 days (a 2 week trip minus travel days). They spent several days in Ile, went hiking through the tea plantations of gurue up to an amazing waterfall and back, saw the school but unfortunately no classes, went to Nacala and spent two nights at a resort outside the city, saw whales in the bay, and spent a night on the Ilhe de Mozambique. They actually flew out of Maputo today, having arrived yesterday in the city and managed, without speaking portuguese, to get to the hotel, go out for pizza and ice cream, and get to the airport with out problems. It was, I think, a wonderful trip, and I will leave it to them to describe it in more detail. (to be posted here soon, I hope).
Also, a big announcement from Eli and I: we are receiving funding for a project through PEPFAR, the US program that funds HIV/AIDS programs, to create DVDs with short HIV/AIDS films. It's a big project and I'll be staying an extra six months in Mozambique in order to complete it. So, I will be returning around June, 2008. Eli has decided that she would like to continue teaching for a third year, and, pending final Peace Corps approval, will be staying until December of 2008. (Although Peace Corps will give her a plane ticket to come back to the US in June or July for a month). I know you may be sad that we will not be coming home as soon as you had hoped, but on the bright side, there will be 12 more months of exciting blog entries :) Hope everyone is doing well back home, take care,

Paul and Eli