Me meo toa, but this time out of excitement.  Last week my colleagues had a Meeting of the Parties in New Delhi, which means that this week is the final rush of preparations before heading to Mozambique, hereafter referred to as Moz.

The primary reason for our visit is the second workshop of the ABS capacity building project in Maputo.  The first workshop in April was on the basics of ABS and the Nagoya Protocol, while this workshop will include information on the details of ABS negotiations, ABS in the African context, and a How-To presentation for using an ABS manual.  My main task will be facilitating communication between my colleagues and workshop attendees.  Since none of my colleagues speak Portuguese, my experience teaching in Portuguese in Moz will hopefully prove valuable.

We will also meet with the funding organization, the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development, in their Maputo office and perform a few site visits to universities with genetic resource research programs.  I’m stoked to see the reality of this project to date, as my short-term work in Madrid gives me just a brief and narrow glance.  I imagine I will learn quite a bit from the workshop, the meeting, and the visits.

Finally, once we have completed most of the work and concluded the workshop, we have one full weekend in Moz, and my colleagues gave me the task of organizing this weekend.  Unfortunately, my Peace Corps hometown of Mucoque (Vilankulo) is a touch too far to reach by car for just a weekend.  However, my second home in Barra, where I worked in the SCUBA diving industry after service, is not.  HOORAY!

I cannot honestly say what will be best: the satisfaction of doing real work again in Moz, gaining a deeper understanding of the implications of my work this summer, reuniting with my home-stay family (they live near one of the universities in Namaacha), or being in my home province on the Indian Ocean once again.  I am excited and nervous about each in very different ways, and so…me meo toa.