One of the best holidays every year is Thanksgiving, the family gets together, football all day, and great food. Well Thanksgiving in Mozambique didn’t disappoint. All the PCTs had a nice big festa at Casa Grande. We had four turkeys, tons of mashed potatoes, cakes, cookies, different kinds of rice dishes and more. I have to say I didn’t actually think I would have turkey for Thanksgiving in Mozambique. I cooked green beans with onions and garlic and tossed them in a vinegar and sugar mixture. I haven’t eaten so much since I left America, I looked like I was pregnant all night long. Even though my family wasn’t there it was still a good time with my PC family.

A couple days after Thanksgiving was the host family festa for all of us. We all got to spend the morning getting our visas renewed at the Swaziland boarder, love government issues. Afterwards, all us PCTs went to the school and started to practice a couple songs to sing to our home-stay families during the festa. The families then began to show up and then the Namaacha government officials. There were speeches by the government officials, PC, PCT and the families. My sister, Iren, actually represented the families and gave the speech. The families had spent the morning preparing all the food for the festa and it was really good, this included many chickens and even a cow! There was lots of dancing, singing, and of course pictures.

After the festa wrapped up all us PCTs decided to spend the evening at a local establishment, since it was our last weekend in Namaacha and err go our last weekend all together. This day just so happen to coincide with the greatest rivalry in all of college sports, the OSU-Mich football game. Even with all the fun that I was having during the festa there was something bothering me in the back of my mind, The Game. It was the first time and many years that I was not able to watch The Game. I have to say that the most homesick I have felt since being in Mozambique was today and the main reason for it is that I was missing The Game. On top of not being able to watch it, the internet was out for cell phones. As The Game drew closer and closer, I was feeling more and more homesick. Luckily, I have one of the best friends I could ask for and he was going to keep me in the loop via text. Just shortly after kickoff the interwebs decided to start working again and a bit of calm began to settle over me. As I religiously kept refreshing my browser to not miss a single score, I was able to relax a bit and enjoy the company of my fellow PCTs, as they could attest to my neurosis. As the Buckeyes took the lead and kept it that way I was able to play games and just enjoy the great conversations. Overall it was a great day with lots of fun and of course another victory for the Buckeyes!