Lena and Alden you will be missed.

 On December 22^nd I was informed that two volunteers from my training group Lena Jenison and Alden Landis were killed tragically in a car accident here in Mozambique.  Along with their deaths, three other volunteers were injured but are doing well.  The accident occurred in the Gaza province in the southern part of Mozambique, and not many details about the direct accident have been given.   For the past 10 weeks I had been getting to know these girls all throughout training and when we left to go to our sites I was certain that I would have the next two years to get to know them better.   Lena and Alden were both amazing people, full of the enthusiasm, energy and life.

  My favorite memory of Lena was when I took a bus ride back from Maputo with her on our way to Namaacha and the only thing we did the whole time was joke around and laugh about a whole slew of random jokes that we were making, we were laughing and poking fun at each other the whole hour and a half ride.  I will miss the funny faces she always used to make, and the way she used to make sarcastic remarks about everything to get a few laughs from the people around her.  We always used to talk about going to Peru together after our service, because she had already been and loved it and it has been a place I have always wanted to visit.  When I finally get to Peru some day, I will have fond memories of the times I had with her.

Alden was a beautiful woman who was quick to laugh and smile at any joke.  My favorite memory of her was when I surprised tickled her one day while we were all at the bar for a few drinks and she promptly jumped out of her chair, shrieked and then promptly turned around and ran into a pole. We were both laughed at that for a good 15 minutes.   Alden and I shared a love of running.  I always enjoyed the times that her and I spent chatting about the Marathons we’ve run or the random exercises we used to do.  The world was a better place with her in it, and I am sad that her time came so early.

Overall, the holiday season has passed well for the rest of the volunteers and I, we gave each other presents, shared a whole bunch of meals together, had quite a few laughs and rang in the New Year.  However through we all have kept a positive attitude over the past few weeks there has been a distinctive shadow that has been hanging over our heads.   These two girls were very special, and my heart goes out to their families and friends who are having such a rough time with this loss.  

Lena and Alden you will be missed.

A little catch up

It has been almost a month since I have been able to blog about my time here in Peace Corps.   The last few weeks have been a flurry of traveling, seeing other volunteers, meeting new people at site, and dealing with the events of the past few weeks.

To start from the time I wrote my last post on December 16^th (though it didn’t get posted today Jan. 3^rd) to December 22^nd my time at site was going very well.  I found myself spending my days doing little chores around the house, talking with people in my village, and starting to look at little things that I could start doing for my community.   As luck would have it, I met a man in my village named Alberto who was really interested in organizing a training around HIV/AIDS  for a group that he is in and starting in the next coming weeks I may be helping out.  (There is more to come on this when it becomes more of a reality!)

December 16th 2011

On Monday December 12 I arrived at Mangunde, Mozambique where I will be living for the next 2 years.  Mangunde is a very rural area that is located in the heart of Sofala.  It is flat, warm, and very green.  At this time of year mango trees are going nuts and you can buy huge mangos for just 1 metical a piece (This is roughly 4 cents).  The town is very quite given that exams have just ended and the school is practically vacant. Mangunde is located right next to the Buzi river, which is supposed to be filled with crocodiles and even an occasional hippo (Don’t worry I will be avoiding all dangerous and otherwise harmful animals).

 I live on a Catholic mission where the mission runs a primary and secondary school along with hospital and a small agriculture school.  The people here have been very friendly and I get a good feeling every time I walk around and talk to people.   I’m going to be having a roommate his name is Ian and he has been a volunteer here in Mozambique for just over a year now, and I am sure that when he comes back from his visit to the states that we are going to get to know each other quite well (given that we are the only two native English speakers in the entire village).   

Another interesting thing to note about my living situation is that I am basically inheriting an entire Mozambique family.   Gracinda and her son Jacinto (about a year and a half old) live in a hut right next to Ian and I’s house and we all share the kitchen that is attached to our house.   Gracinda is Ian and I’s empregada, that is we pay her by the month to do things like cook dinner, do the laundry and dishes, and to fetch water.  In the states this would probably seem fairly weird, however here having an empregada is quite normal and it is a way of giving someone who would otherwise have trouble finding a job (not that Gracinda would, she is a very capable woman) a way of supporting themselves.    Anyways,  Gracinda, Jacinto, and Gracinda’s niece Anita all live with me more or less and they are all very friendly and in Jacinto’s case absolutely adorable.  Jacinto enjoys running around and finding items that he thinks would be fun to hide on me (I just recently found my sandal that he hid on me the first day I got here).  I think we are going to make a nice little familyJ.

                December 16^th 2011:   So today started out more or less normal (given that I just moved to Sofala and have only been here for 4 days) I got up drank some tea and sat outside on my porch waiting for an open back chapa (a pickup truck more or less) to come so that I could catch a ride to a town called Muxungue which is where I was going to buy propane for my gas stove, tomatoes, onions, and a few other things, that you can’t seem to find in Mangunde.  

Well I woke up around 5am like I usually do thinking that the Chapa was going to come around 6am (I later learned that it normally comes between 7:30am and 8am) So I spent my morning waiting and reading and keeping my eye on the weather which was starting to rain a bit.  After waiting for a few hours and thinking that I should probably just hold off my trip until the next day, Gracinda called out to me that the chapa was here. I quickly grabbed my propane tank threw on my poncho and ran to catch the chapa.  

I got on and settled in to what I thought was just going to be an hour or so journey given that Muxungue is only about 45km away from Mangunde.   However fate had other plans, first it started to rain lightly and then it got a little harder….then it began to down pour.  Mind you at this point I’m in an OPEN BACK Chapa, that is I’m in the back of a pickup truck with 15 other people a few sacks of rice, corn, and other things along with my propane tank and it is storming.  Now if that is not an adventure enough when it rains this heavily the road (only one) from the town of Mangunde to the main road becomes very muddy (did I mention it’s a 25km dirt road).  The tuck that I was riding in back of was having trouble getting through some of the mud patches so a bunch of people and I had to get out and help push it along, all in rainy weather conditions.   Now after the truck got moving and everyone got settled in to their respective positions (I was seated on top of a bag of rice, close to the edge of the side of the pickup truck…a side that seemed to be loosely attached…) I settled into a 3 hour ride in the rain where for about 2/3 of it I had to pee (They had a little pit stop before we hit the main road that I took advantage of).  So after 3 hours sitting in the back of a pickup truck in the pouring rain we finally arrive in Muxungue where I find out from the driver that the chapa (the only one to return to Mangunde that day) was going to return right away because of the rain (O shit… )  After making that journey I was bound and determined to get some propane so that I didn’t have to spend an hour lighting coal to have my morning tea.  As luck would have it the propane filling station was right next to the chapa stop, so all I had to do was pick up my propane tank and cross the street (it’s still pouring) just to find out that they don’t have any gas… I this point I’m severely amused at my situation and ask the man if I can store my propane tank there while I try to run and pick up a few things he says that’s fine and I head off down the road for a bit. 

Let’s just recap a bit (This just happened to me so I’m still trying to rationalize the string of events that just occurred)   I waited for 3 hours to catch a 1 hour chapa ride to Muxungue that ended up being 3 hours all of which I spent in the pouring rain just to arrive in Muxungue to find that the only reason I would put myself through this (to buy propane) was not going to be achieved.  So while I’m laughing at myself at this point I reach down to grab my phone to call a friend so that I can share my tale of woe, just to find out that when I dropped my phone on the chapa earlier it got wet and now was not functioning.  So now I have zero ways of communicating with the outside world…. (That was the biggest o shit moment I have had in Africa).  So finally after buying some bread and water I rapidly return to the chapa stop to find that the store that I was going to have my gas tank filled was closed and my gas can I left with them was nowhere in sight (the optimist in me hopes that the guy will remember the next time I come, and won’t charge me for another tank, just the gas.)  

Recap: I’m in Muxungue, Mozambique, Africa a city I know nothing about, it’s raining, I’m soaked, I have no form of communication, I’ve lost my propane tank(the only reason I went to Muxungue was to get that thing filled), and my only ride back home for the day just left. 

Then my luck turned around and I ran into 2 of my neighbors here in Mangunde who remembered me and helped me out (I didn’t remember their names and still don’t given that I have serious trouble pronouncing them) They told me that a mission car was coming buy and that I could catch a ride. When the car got there I talked with the driver and he said he would come back for me in a few minutes.   He did in fact come back for me and served as my ride back to Mangunde (this time in the front seat of a car…I never thought I would be so happy that vehicles have closed tops).

Things I learned today:  Never travel out of Mangunde (This is where I will be living for the next two years by the way) on days when it is raining.   Have a hard copy of your cell phone numbers saved somewhere and carry a hard copy of them with you (ya know in case your cell phone dies due to ridding on the back of a chapa in the pouring rain).  Don’t drink tea before you get on a chapa, during this whole event I had I had to pee, this added a whole new realm of uncomfortable to the experience. Always bring your poncho, that thing saved my life today.  And lastly as long as you keep a cool head, and keep looking for a solution things will work out.   I feel as though I kept very high spirits throughout this whole event given that at times I was quite stressed.   I also learned today that, without a doubt, I live in the middle of nowhere Africa and it is not easy to get here.  As crazy as today was, I definitely would not want to be anywhere else at the moment.  

Now I'm Offically a Peace Corps Volunteer

   So it has been quite some time since I have published a blog!  These last few weeks have seemed to both fly by and drag on.  Ever since we got our site placement the last few weeks of training was all about getting in as much time with the other volunteers as possible and honing our Portuguese skills so that when we get to our schools we actually have the ability to teach.  With all of the anxiety and anticipation of getting to site, yet sadness that we would be leaving a bunch of people we have gotten to know very well over the past 10 weeks, it has been quite an emotional roller coaster these past few days.     But now with all of that said and done as of December 8th 2011 I became an official Peace Corps Volunteer!     Yesterday, was a huge day for us.   We all got up bright and early to catch a 6:30am Bus ride into Maputo City, where we chilled at the Peace Corps office there for a little while before heading over to the United States of America's Ambassadors residence, where we had our swearing in ceremony.   It was wonderful to meet our Ambassador to Mozambique, Leslie Rowe, who was a fantastic hostess, and very interesting to converse with.   We got a chance to chat with her after the ceremony for a bit and it was interesting to hear about her life in the foreign service, she had served in a number of countries and speaks fluently something on the lines of 3 or 4 languages.  The way she spoke about the foreign service made it seem like a very interesting career path to take.   
    Anyways, to talk a little bit more about the ceremony I have to say that I am very honored that out of all of the volunteers in our training group, my group choose me to represent them by giving a speech in front of the ambassador and all of the guests who where invited to the swearing in ceremony.   I was super flattered and very excited to give the speech (which was in Portuguese!) and I'm happy that my group choose me.   An interesting fact about the Peace Corps swearing in Ceremony is that, we as Peace Corps Volunteers take the same oath that the Foreign Service Officers, and the President of the United States take when they get sworn in to their positions. 
   After the swearing in ceremony which took most of the morning the other volunteers and I headed back to the Peace Corps office to grab our stuff and then headed to a hotel to spend our last night together, it was hard saying good bye and I am going to be very excited to visit the other volunteers at their respective sites when I get the chance.

  Well that's all for now, after this next week I'm going to have a whole bunch of new things to talk about because I'm moving to my site!    Super excited!
   Take care :-)

Site Placement!

11/20/2011
       Wow!  First I just have to say it has been quite an exciting week!  This week started out kind of crazy with everyone returning from site visits tired but full of tons of interesting stories and experiences.  After that the week quickly reached its climax on Wednesday when we all found out the different sites where we will be moving to.   After spending the last 7 weeks getting close it was a stressful/exciting/nerve-racking moment where all 51 of us read our letters that outlined where we would be living and placed ourselves on a large drawn out map of Mozambique that was drawn out on the gymnasium floor of the  school we use for our training classes.   I found out that I will be moving to Mangunde!  It’s in the Sofala province of Mozambique and from what I hear from my future roommate it is quite a small town.   I will be working on a mission that runs a secondary school as well as a clinic teaching……English.  At least English is what they have me put down to teach, however after talking with Ian (my future roommate who has been living in Mangunde for a year now)  said that I have a lot wiggle room when it comes to what I will be teaching and that I can almost definitely change at least some of my classes to physics classes (as you can tell from reading my blogs… English might be a rough subject for me to teach lol).
       I’m very happy about where I have been placed and about the other volunteers that are around me.  Since Mozambique is a very large country (about twice the length of California more or less) the other volunteers who are within the same region as you or within 6 hours of you (by bus) become your lifeline during your two years here in Mozambique so needless to say it’s important that you mesh well together.  Some of the people that got placed in my region have been people I’ve gotten really close to hear in Mozambique.  In my province there are 4 people from “Moz 17” (what we all our training group) going to Sofala Myself, my good friend Mac (one Goofy A@# Mother F@#$%^,(it’s an inside joke that he’ll laugh about if he ever reads this)), Adrienne a delightful person who I went to Catandica with who is probably going to laugh at the fact I called her delightful, and Dylan…I guess I would describe him as delightful as well (who calls people delightful?…  )anyways the 3 of them are pretty awesome so I am happy that we make up team Sofala.  We also ended up getting a bunch of other fun people in the central region(Side note: The central region of Mozambique is made up of three provinces Tete, Manica, and Sofala….and umm they’re in the center part of Mozambique).  And since listing the names of the people and trying to outline how awesome they all are would take awhile and probably not do much for you, you will just have to take my word for it that they are…well…awesome.   The only sad part of this whole venture is the realization that everyone not in the central region or in a boarding province is a very long distance away.  It just means that on some of my longer breaks I will have to pay them a visit (Ariel and Maria L. that means you!)
       Continuing on, other than receiving that piece of news, which is at the forefront of all of our minds, we have spent the week preparing our model lessons which will be given to local Mozambicanos here in Namaacha during the next 2 weeks.   This is the real test of how far our Portuguese has come in the last 7 weeks.  I will be giving 2 lessons, one in 10th grade math and the other in 10th grade physics (fingers crossed that they go well).  Speaking of Portuguese It has come to my attention that a weird phenomenon occurs when you try learning a third language so close to your second.  Instead of learning Portuguese as a separate language than Spanish I swear I’m learning it as though it is a dialect of Spanish.  What this means, is that after 7 weeks here in Mozambique It would be a struggle to get even a single sentence out in Spanish(it would come out Portugeseified, but my Portuguese is great keeping in mind I’ve only been here for 7 weeks.  
       Some other interesting events was that my host sister Minda turned 29 on Thursday so this past Saturday we celebrated her birthday.  I had a great time on Saturday, and was flabbergasted by the amount of food that they made for the party; they started cooking at 2 and didn’t stop until around 8.  The party was a huge success (I mean with dancing, beer, and lots of food you really can’t go wrong) and Minda seemed to really enjoy herself. (At some point I will post photos and videos of this on my facebook).   Lastly I get to talk about the adventure I had today!  Today a bunch of volunteers and I went on a hike to where the Swaziland, Mozambique, and South African boarders meet.  This triple point of a boarder  is at the top of a small mountain that overlooks Namaacha and is a wonderful site to see.  After that little adventure I had the great pleasure of coming home today and spending 3 hours washing my clothes….appreciate your washing machine!   
       A few public announcements:  Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone enjoys their turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie (if all goes well I should be able to eat all three of those things here).  And I special  Happy Birthday to Jackie Wong who turns 23 this week!
      

Over a month in Africa!!!

  I’m writing this blog post on 11/13/2011, I can’t believe that it’s been over a month since I’ve posted something on my blog!  The time here in Mozambique seems to just be flying by.  The last four weeks have been filled with language classes, field trips, informational sessions and hanging out with fellow PCVs.  They have been keeping us crazy busy these for the past month that today is literally the first day I have had enough down time to write a blog.  So here are some updates on what I have been up to lately:
       On October 16th I went on a field trip to the site of a plane crash that occurred in 1986 where the first president of Mozambique, Samora Machel, was killed (under mysterious circumstances).  The site of the plane crash is just outside of Mozambique close to the boarder in South Africa in a town called Mbuzine.  On this day every year they “open” the border from Mozambique to South Africa to commemorate the death of their first president (This year was especially interesting given that it was the 25 year anniversary).   By “open” I mean that they allow you to cross into South Africa but you pretty much stay in a fenced off area around the crash site and walk along a fenced off path way to get there.   While there I saw both the president of South Africa (Zuma) and the President of Mozambique (Guebuza) speak.  It was the first time I had ever been so close to a president of any country.   I’m especially jealous of my friend Mac (a fellow PCV)  who managed to get into the press section of ceremony and was there just a few feet away from the two presidents during their speeches. 
         Another week of note was the week just prior to Halloween where it rained a ton.  Rain in Mozambique, at least where I live, adds a certain dynamic to your day to day life.  The first thing to mention is the fact that the majority of the roofs here in Mozambique are made of this thin corrugated zinc material and when it rains even slightly it sounds like someone is talking a hammer to your roof.  I can’t tell you how many times my first few nights of rain I literally jumped a foot out of bed thinking the roof was about to be torn off the house.  Just a light drizzle sounds like a hail storm on these roofs.  After the first few nights you grow accustomed and it doesn’t really bother you anymore, but man o man those first few nights were rough.   Also a certain feature of the soil here in Namaacha is that when it rains the streets, pathways, walkways and just about everything turns into a nice thick sludge that makes getting to classes an adventure.  Also when you have to wash your clothes by hand mud becomes your bitter enemy… especially socks… washing muddy socks takes forever, not sure why I decided to bring white socks to Africa but next time I’ll know better.     :-P.  
        Anyways the weekend of Halloween was an awesome weekend for us here in Namaacha despite all of the rain on Saturday and Sunday we had training in how to build a Permagarden which I thought was super fun.  A permagarden is basically a super productive gardening technique that was developed by Peace Corps in Tanzania as a way of teaching locals a way of gardening that yields a high level of productivity in a small amount of space.   It involves digging trenches to control waterflow and then tilling the soil and then mixing charcoal and ash into it to create a healthy place to grow your food.  It was a lot of fun just spending the day with the other Volunteers planting and transplanting banana trees, tomatoes, lemongrass, sweet potatoes, corn, couve, and lettuce.  And to top it off on Saturday night after a full day of gardening we all went home got cleaned up  and then headed to a Halloween party which was extra fun given that Mozambique does not celebrate Halloween and seeing a bunch of people walking around in costumes just cracks them up.
          Something else that just happened that was super exciting was that all of us Peace Core Trainees just recently got back from a variety of trips that PC sent us on to see various sites where current PCV live and work.   Last Saturday 11/07/2011 I headed over to Catandica in the Manica province to stay with two education volunteers who will be heading home and replaced in December.   I went with two other Trainees Maria, and Adrienne and the three of us had a great time.  We headed to Maputo from Namaacha on Friday night and stayed in a hotel there so that we could catch our 7am flight to Chimoio (the capital of the Manica province).  The airport at Chimoio was quite an interesting sight considering it was a single building the size of a small house in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.  Not what you necessarily expect when you are flying into a Major city but it had a certain charm about it that I thought was endearing.  Once there we took a taxi to the Peace Corps office located there, which was very nice and had a pool! (Which was actually just the hotel next door’s pool, but we decided to take a dip anyways) Considering it was around 40 C  a few minutes in the pool was fantastic.   After that we met up with Kendra one of the volunteers that lives in Catandica and we all got on  a bus up heading up to her house.  The ride to Catandica is about 2-3 hours and the bus that we were on (known as a Chapa)  was crammed pretty full, I was sitting on an aisle seat that had no back which made for an interesting although not all together comfortable ride.   We arrived in Catandica in the evening on Saturday and just relaxed and had a beer before heading back to the house we were staying out for some much needed sleep.   Adrienne, Maria, and I then spent the next few days relaxing hanging out with Meghann and Kendra and helping with the daily chores associated with living in Mozambique.  We ate some amazing food over the time we were there and saw a ton of Catandica.      To give you a little more of an idea of what Catandica is like; Catandica is a decent sized town that is on one of the major roads that connects southern Mozambique to central Mozambique and Malawi.  It’s located at the base of a beautiful string of mountains that that create a wonderful backdrop for the town.    Adrienne, Maria, and I took some time one of the afternoons we had free and we hiked up one of the paths leading into the mountains for a few hours.  That was a particularly highlight for me because once you get high enough you can see for hundreds of miles along the flat planes leading up to the mountain range that starts in Catandica.    Overall Catandica was quite a wonderful place to visit and the trip as a whole I have to say was very enlightening.
 Some things I would like to mention about this trip are about the buses that we took to get to and from Catandica.  These buses known as Chapas can be something on the lines of a 15 passenger vehicle or the larger ones look like a shorter version of a common city bus you could see in the states.  Now I find fascinating about these Chapas is the ability to fit a huge number of people into such a small space.  One the way back from Catandica we were in what would normally be a 15 passenger vehicle but we managed to fit 30 people to the chapa.  It was incredible, every single time one person would get out two or more people would take their place, needless to say we were quite cozy on our trip back to Chimoio.      
 Two other things that were of startling to me on the trip was one the level of poverty I saw along my trip from Catandica to Chimoio, and the strength of the Mozambique women I saw.   On the subject of poverty, there were a few instances where I was struck with the fact that in the middle of my 2 hour journey between two more or less major towns/cities there were little villages of straw huts all along the way surrounded by small plots of land that were being farmed.  Now keep in mind that in a vehicle these places are separated from any major market by over an hour.  And also realize that almost no one in these small villages has a vehicle, their nearest schools would be half a day’s journey by foot on a good day and that a well that would serve as your only source of water could be located miles away from your house.   Reading or hearing about it is so very different then seeing it firsthand.  On the subject of the strength of Mozambique women, I don’t even know where to begin.  A good example of an average Mozambique woman can be summed up with something that Adrienne, Maria and I saw on our hike through the mountains. At one point we passed a group of three women each with a baby wrapped in a Capulana (a large rectangular piece of fabric) and tied to their backs as they each carried a large bundle of sticks (the sticks were about 15-25 feet long) on their heads as well as having some farming equipment in their hands, the site was impressive, especially considering that woman in Mozambique are expected to do all of the housework and prepare food for the family every day.  It’s an impressive sight to see.  
Anyways this brings to a close my second blog post and now your updated on what’s been going on in my life over here in Mozambique!   The next blog post will be an exciting one considering that on Wednesday of this coming week I get by site placement, it’s a huge day for a Peace Corps Volunteer because we find out exactly where we will be living for the next 2 years of our lives. :-D

First few weeks in Africa!

Bon dia!
  Hello everyone!   The date is now October 9th and I have been living in Africa for about two weeks!  It’s crazy how time flies.  For the past few week I have been living in Namaacha, Mozambique and it has been quite an adventure getting acclimated to a whole new culture, language, and environment.  Right now I’m in training (and will be for the next 8 weeks) so that I am prepared to start teaching in January.   The family I’m living with is super nice and consists of a married couple and their four month old daughter named Kiarra (who is adorable!).  They’re just a few years older than I am and have been amazingly helpful with my acquisition of Portuguese.  Using my Spanish I haven’t had too much of an issue communicating and I can feel like my Portuguese is getting better every day.   I have enjoyed getting to know the other Peace Corps volunteers as well it helps to have people who are going through similar experiences  to help through the emotional craziness that is moving to a different country. 
       We (the other volunteers and I) arrived in Maputo (the capital) Mozambique on Thursday September 29th after a 15 hour plane ride that wore us all out.  We then proceeded to pack into a bus and head over to a hotel where we spent a few days getting acquainted with each other and the Peace Corps in general.  After a few days in the capital (getting very spoiled at our hotel, which was probably the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in and one of the only hotels in Maputo big enough to hold our 50+ group of people) we headed off to Namaacha, a town about an hour west of Maputo right on the boarder of Swaziland (I can literally walk to the boarder of Swaziland from my host families house in less than 30 minutes).   Since then we have spent the last few weeks settling in, and taking classes)
   So here is what I’ve been up to this past week or so.  Every day, I’ve been getting up around 5am either going for a run with a fellow PC volunteer, or working out in some way.  After working out, my host mother (or host sister has she prefers to be called) usually has already boiled water for my bath (something I will be taking charge of shortly).   Bathing was quite an adventure the first day or two because there is no running water here for the most part you basically just boil water and then mix it with cold water until it reaches a preferred temperature.   After doing this you take a cup full of water and get yourself wet, soap up, and then rinse yourself off with a few more cups full of water.   I feel like I’m doing my part to cut down on water consumption these days considering, I only need about 2 gallons of water to take a bath :-P.    After I “Tomar banho” (take a bath)  I eat breakfast and head out to class.  Classes usually consist of either language lessons, or informational sessions on health, Peace Corps policy, or Mozambican culture.   After class all of us Americans leisurely walk back to our host families and sometimes grab a drink at a local bar before heading home.   We are quite a spectacle as we walk through town and we turn a lot of heads.   There is not that much tourism in Namaacha(though there should be, because it’s beautiful) so a large group of white Americans walking around town is quite an event.   Everyone I meet is wonderfully friendly and curious about what I’m doing here in Mozambique, and it has been quite an adventure trying to have conversations in my broken Portuguese.    After classes, I usually head home and chat with my host family and I am in bed and asleep by 8:30 or 9pm. 
     The food I have had thus far has been great, and fantastically simple to make.   The main ingredients for all of the dishes are some combination of coconut, tomato, onion, peppers, potatoes and other green leafy plants.   They do a lot of sauces using the above ingredients and put it over either rice, cassava or Xima(It’s like thick grits).  There are also a ton of banana and papaya trees around so for dessert there is usually some form of fruit.   Part of training is learning how to cook with local foods so I have enjoyed the evenings where my host mother (Minda) teaches me how to make some of the most common dishes eaten around these parts.
 Overall I am having a great experience so far (minus the fact that I’ve been a little sick with a head cold for the past few days) and I have been learning a ton.  The people I have met so far have been wonderful and very helpful in getting me settled in.   As for my mental health I think I’ve been keeping in good spirits (I’ve already achieved a reputation of being abnormally happy and content all of the time :-P )    We still have about 8 more weeks of training here in Namaacha and I’m looking forward to using it as a time to get to know my fellow volunteers better and to improve my Portuguese.    Take care!  And I hope everyone is doing well!
Ps.  For the few weeks of training I won’t be posting a ton just because they keep us so busy and when I’m not in class I’m usually hanging out with people around town.   Also if anyone wants to call me  (it’s only 13-15 cents a minute using google voice!!!)  my cell phone number here in Mozambique is             82-354-8433    .  Remember there is a 6 hour time difference (12pm in America = 6pm here in Mozambique)    I love to receive calls!