October 11, 2012

Hi everyone! 

Thank you so much for all the emails! I absolutely loved hearing about everything you guys have been doing and what’s new in the US. I can’t wait to vote too, November is coming up soon!

I finally figured out how to get internet on my phone and I can now read the emails you send me! It takes forever for me to type on it, though, so I’m typing this now on my computer. Later, I’ll put it on a flash drive and bring it to the really old and slow computer in town to send to you guys. I have two SIM cards here. The Peace Corps gave us cards for the two most popular cell phone providers here (Mcell and Vodacom) and we won’t know which works better at our site until we get there. I completely lucked out because I bought a phone here that holds both cards in it so, as of right now, if you want to call me on either one and I should pick up :) We always eat dinner at 8pm so I think I should be free to talk at 9pm my time, which is around noon at home. 

Class starts at 7:30 so I’ve been waking up early! It’s expected that I take a bath at least twice every day. Here, most people take at least three. My language professor was so surprised to hear that we only take one a day in the US. He must think we’re crazy. Or just dirty. Haha. My house, as I said earlier, is much nicer than I expected. I have an indoor bathroom and my bedroom is pretty big! No running water though. I take a bucket bath by first heating water and mixing it with room temperature water. I also need a bucket of water to “flush” the toilet too. The other day, we walked to where the other half of our group of peace corps trainers live. There are 68 of us total. About 25 teach bio/chem, 10 math/physics, and the rest teach English. The English teachers live in “casas” that are made of stones and mud and their neighborhood is much different than ours. I didn’t realize this until recently, but we science kids live in houses the Portuguese built when they used this town as a vacation spot. There are many beautiful old buildings with bright colors and overgrown vines in my neighborhood. I haven’t walked around with my expensive electronics yet, but I will definitely take some photos before I leave. The other neighborhood I mentioned is kinda “the ghetto” of Namaacha. The reddish/brown dirt and tin roofs/walls of latrines give it a completely different feel and atmosphere. I feel pretty spoiled right now but am not complaining. I’ll get a real understanding of what  life is like here in Mozambique after training. 

I feel very safe here in Namaancha. The reason why I haven’t brought my electronics out of my house yet is just a precaution. We are right next to the Swaziland border here and even though we don’t do anything, everyone here sees us as a big dollar sign because of our American faces and accents. And, in reality, I feel like they are completely justified in thinking that. We are rich compared to everyone here even though we only get around the equivalence of $40 US dollars every two weeks and I have so many clothes compared to everyone else in my family. I am the fifth volunteer my family has had so I think they’re pretty use to all the funny and strange things we Americans do. I don’t think my experience has been as awkward as other people I’ve talked to because my siblings always want to talk to me. They are nice, happy, and more than willing to correct my accent or tell me when I’m making no sense. I really haven’t been learning as much as I want because I spend most of my time either in school or entertaining my siblings. By the time I get back to my room, I’m too tired to do anything but sleep. Most days we are in our language groups (5 volunteers and 1 teacher) but we have days when it’s just the science people and other rarer days when all 68 of us get together. Sometimes we go to the local bar to hang out. There is also a social center and the biology study area to go to too. We’re kept pretty busy and I haven’t had much free time to do anything. 

Let’s see. The weather. Right now it’s raining and the sound the rain makes on our tin roof reminds me of Grandma’s house. Everyone in the house is bundled up, including me. Today was the first day I was cold while bathing and I’m wearing my Long Beach sweater with pj pants. I assumed it would be a lot hotter here since we’re heading into summer but I am absolutely loving the coolness we have right now. Last weekend it was pretty hot, dry, and windy. I’m not exactly sure what to expect in the coming weeks but I hope to buy some rain boots when we go back to Maputo on Saturday, along with whatever else I can think of. 

Food wise, I’m pretty happy! The older volunteers warned us that the food would be extremely bland and we would not get many veggies but I’ve eaten more than I expected (which also might be because my family knows what Americans like to eat already). I’ve had fish, chicken, beans, and lots of green veggies (Cassava leaves, spinach, punpkin leaves). They mix pounded peanuts and coconut milk in most of the veggie dishes and we have either white rice or xima with every dinner. For breakfast, I have a hot tea (they still think I’m crazy for not putting any sugar in my cup), fried egg, and freshly made bread most days. Sometimes I have veggies too (tomato, cucumber, onion with vinegar and salt) or french fries as well. I get a big snack of juice, crackers, and fruit. We’re all pretty sad we missed avocado season but right now we have mini bananas, oranges, apples, and yummy papaya often enough. Mango season is in december, I can’t wait! I also heard lychee exists here two for a couple weeks at the end of november and I definitely want to try some. My sister, Atesia, also made these delicious doughnut things last weekend and these fried triangles called samosa (see photo).  It tastes SO GOOD! My new favorite thing. It seriously tastes like the egg rolls mom makes at home. Thank goodness Peace Corps gave us a cookbook with that recipe inside. There are lots of influences from other countries, like India, here in Mozambique because of the old trade routes used when Mozambique was still a colony of Portugal. Also, have you guys seen the “No Reservation” show with Anthony Bourdain on the travel channel? Check out the Mozambique episode if you can, it’s pretty good and makes me want to try piri piri.

The mosquitoes still love me. I keep getting bit on my feet, at least one bite a day. The bites aren’t as itchy as the ones in Taiwan and the mosquitoes only come out at night, which I’m thankful for. The main problem is that the mosquitoes here can actually kill you :/ I’m on Larium now. One pill a week. I could hide under my mosquito net all night but when I do that, I end up just falling asleep prematurely in bed. Lucky me, huh?

Please tell me whats new in your lives! I dying to know all about it :) Stay well and hopefully you’ll hear from me again soon.

*Mei there is a commercial on TV that plays the beginning of Breakeven by the Script. The non-lyrical part. It makes me happy haha