November 10, 2012

We watched an interesting movie this morning. It’s called “Yesterday” and I think it’s set in South Africa. It’s about AIDS/HIV in African communities here and I was pretty depressed after watching it. Beautiful cinematography though and it was very enlightening. It made me realize that most of what I know about AIDS is about the impact AIDS has in the U.S., not Africa. I also kept thinking about “Rent” Mindy. No day but Today :) I have that movie now. And “Love Actually” too! So happy! But yeah, I would recommend the movie for sure. It made us realize the importance of our roles as educators in our community. I need to learn Portuguese! I also learned that a lot of people who supported Apartheid in South Africa moved to Mozambique after it was abolished so if we do look “white,” a lot of Mozambiquans will assume we’re racist. I’m still not 100% sure what people think I look like here but it’s good to keep in mind. 

Assane came in as I was writing this. I’m borrowing a book from my family called “A visual English Portuguese dictionary.” He was just sitting down, reading it, when came to the flower section. Assane then started telling me that we have some flowers in the yard! He recognized daisy (margarida) and clover (trevo) then brought in four different flowers. He is adorable. 

 Assane giving me flowers :)

This afternoon, a group of us (Me, Stephen, Amanda, Casey, Ella, Pam, Nick, Jenea) walked around the neighborhood. We planned on going to Nick’s house to watch a movie but his family was blasting music and really loud. Eventually we decided to try the science office. The security guy let us in and we watched” Lord of the Rings” outside on the floor until it got dark. When the sun set, one of the Peace Corps drivers came back and invited us inside. He was extremely nice and we were much warmer! Plus Amanda brought a projector so it was quite a nice setup. The guy even gave us a ride back home too when we finished. Did I mention how much I love that so many of us nerds? :)

The next day (November 10th) was also super hot! My host sister helped me wash clothes (they are convinced that I am hopeless and help me do everything). My host mom also freaked out when I was washing clothes. She thought I would get really sunburned like Casey haha thank goodness I’m half asian! 

My oldest host sister visited that day for the first time. She lives in Maputo and just had a baby! He’s 30 days old (it’s tradition here in Mozambique for babies to not leave the house until they are 30 days old or older). All the neighbors came over to see him, there’s such a sense of community here. 

After that, we ate lunch on our porch on a mat on the floor. My adopted mom gossiped about the other Peace Corps volunteers while we watched the neighbors and ate papaya for desert. So funny. I also saw my other brother for the first time since the first week. He goes to a technical high school in Maputo and “majors” in accounting. He has an interview with Save the Children on Monday and I hope he gets it!