Canada Day, July 4th and new volunteers!

Well, to be honest this last week went by a lot slower than most of the weeks I've been here.  Mostly the reason being that it was our "break" week.  We didn't have any specific projects we were working on so it allowed for some more relaxation time than work time, which I didn't mind either.  I've used my time effectively by starting my application for optometry school!  I'm not setting myself up for any big plans or anything, but I thought I would try and open my options up and seeing what my potential is.  My desire to do optometry has grown since I've been here after seeing many people with poor vision and eye care.  Shon (Utah) and Giovanna (Brasil) both arrived this week and they will be developing a new curriculum for the childrens clubs in all of the villages!  They will be great assets to the CFL team. Karen will be starting her gender equality project this week, so I will be helping a bunch out with her in her study!  So I feel like these last weeks will probably go by fast since we will be outside for most of the days working in the villages :)

Can you believe how fast the time has gone by?  Man tomorrow will be 3 weeks until I come home! and only 2 more weeks till I travel to Maputo!  My time has been well spent here and I'm so grateful for the chance I have to be here!

Here is the great Canadian cake that I made on Canada Day!  I figure I would show my canadian pride and make a cake for all of the workers.  Cremildo and I were both impressed and decided to cut the cake together, haha.

I figured the cake I made was worthy of a picture at least!  Here's to you Canada!

 Joao Bueno (him and his family live with us in the Care For Life building) married Kelly from Utah.  They have 3 boys Connor, Caelin and Chase and they are so great!  To celebrate July 4th Joao (actually from Brazil and works for CFL) decided to make us pizza!  It was super delicious!  Kelly even added banana and avocados to one of the pizzas.  It was surprisingly good!  I had never tried that before!

I'm sure you are all thinking what is going on in this picture!  Well, the bugs couldn't resist my lovely feet I guess!  These bugs are called "Matakenhas"--- mut-uh-ken-yas... they are basically almost microscopic in size and they live in the dirt and soil.  They get into your feet, bury themselves and then live and lay eggs.  That's about as simple as I can describe it.  Pretty gross!  I had 2 of them, one on the top left and bottom right of my foot! Haha

Here's a close up of one of the bugs!  Can you see inside the little white ball that there is like a tiny strand of brown?  That's the little bug that gets into your foot!  

Adilson was a life saver as he was kind enough to take them out of my foot!!  Haha everyone had a good laugh because originally I thought they were little tiny rocks that had been embedded into my feet, but later found out that they were not, haha.

Sorry for the backwards picture, but here is a picture of different eye diseases common in the human eye.  Anamicas who is the nurse at CFL gave me a little "optometry" lesson about vision and the various problems that people in Mozambique face.  I was so grateful that she was able to teach me what she knew because I told her that I was planning on doing optometry!  I love the people here and also working for CFL.  It was has been a very rewarding experience so far!

I hope you all have a great week!  and I will talk to ya next week!!

Love, Kevin