Vida em Mozambique*Thus far

I can't believe that I have been here in Mozambique for over a month now! Sorry I haven’t written and/or posted any pics sooner. Things take longer here, including the internet, which is difficult to come bye! To set the mood for you, it is 9:43pm, and I am so tired! Bedtime here is usually around 9:30pm, later than that is def pushing it. I wake up when the roosters start to crow, no I'm NOT joking! They seem to be loudest around 5am-lol-it seems funny as I type this, but in the mornings I'm not laughing! Things are so good here right now. I don't know how to describe life here, but I will try to tell you some of the things that I believe you should know.

My host family is wonderful. It consists of my mae (mom), Belena, my irmao (brother) Mendis-14 and my little irma (sister) Amanda. Yes, there are two Amandas in my casa, we call my sister "Amanda Pequena." =) The people in Mozambique are so very friendly, I can't count how many times a day people say "Ola," as I walk bye, or ask, "Como esta?" And when you ask it in return you often get a big smile with a "Muito bem, obrigado." It is a very communal culture, family and friends, neighbors are the most important thing. Everyone is incredibly hospitable. It could be the poorest of families and they will offer food and drink to everyone and anyone who comes into (or simply near) their home.

I am currently in a city about 1 1/2 hours from Maputo, the capital, called Namaacha. We have been here basically the entire time. We have gone into Maputo 2x-and the capital is def a much different feel than out here. Namaacha is a rather rural city. Lots of goods we buy here actually come from our neighboring country of Swaziland. My current favorite thing to buy? COCUNUTS! One coconut cost 10 metical, and right now 28 metical=$1 (more or less). I have officially learned how to open a coconut with a rock, lol, I think it's my favorite snack because how often did I open one in Cali? Never! =) Weather? It is bipolar! It is raining buckets one moment and squalling hot the next! =) Rainy days here are...something else! I live in a part of the city with other health volunteers where we basically HIKE to and from class. I get my work out literally from walking around; everything is up hill, down hill, and then all over again...all day long! In my barrio dirt and rock are in surplus, and when it rains, walking around becomes quite the adventure. On these days our shoes gain about 5lbs each, of mud, and this is not me being over exaggerating! Many have fallen up and or down the slippery slopes, I haven't...yet. =/

What have we been up to? Well, Monday-Saturday (yes Saturday!) we have classes. There are about 69 of us volunteers, which you will be hearing referred to as Moz 14, because we are the 14th group of Peace Corps Volunteers to be here. So, Moz 14 is split into two; education and health. Only 1 day a week, Hub Day, is all 69 of us together, besides that we do separate training. Regardless of which group, we all start @ 7:30am everyday and go till about 5pm. We all alternate between Portuguese lessons and then tech lessons (either health or ed). I have learned so much, in what feels like much longer than just a month. Sundays, our one day off, is often spent cleaning! Doing laundry-this is obviously all done by hand, so it takes some time. Our families like to hang out with us on these days, since we are so busy throughout the week. The last two Sundays I have gone to fiestas (parties) with my family. One was a baptism party, and the other was a birthday party. Our days here are rather filled up.

A very popular pastime here, PASSEAR!! Which is really “walking?" We passear to visit other amigos around the city, and to explore the area. I already mentioned that the Mozambicans are friendly, and let me tell you, so are the other Americans I am here with. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many great, talented, smart, fun, adventurous, brave and all in all awesome men and women here. There are lots of us, and it is fun getting to know them all-and since there are so many of us it can be difficult to hang out, 69 of us can't all go to one place after Hub Day, we would overwhelm the community! So.....myself and a very lovely young woman from Oregon, Jordan, organized a Halloween PARTY!! There was a lot of work and some stress that went into planning it, but it was FANTASTIC!!!

There were 2 parts to the party; the first part involved our families. Costumes were of course required. And our host families had a great time, they thought our costumes were ridiculous, but they had fun laughing! =) Then after a few hours of eating, roasting marshmallows, and trick-or-treating, we said goodbye to the younger kids and all went dancing! There was a dj and there were tons of lights, oh, it was o so much fun! =) We are already working on ideas for Thanksgiving! It was a hit of a party!

Yes, there are lots of things I haven't mentioned, like how I bath in a bucket, outside, sometimes under the stars even (my fav!). My bathroom is outside, right next to the "shower," but late at night we all use something wonderful called a xhi-xhi bucket, and you def pee in a bucket, in your room. Sounds crazy maybe, but I'm telling you, it's pretty great. I don't wanna walk outside in the middle of the night and deal with the insects and animals in the latrin (bathroom) area! =( No! Xhi-xhi for sure!

There are so many other things I could say, but it's way past my bed time, I'm currently in my room typing this and I will save it and go to the internet cafe tomorrow to put this up, save some $$ that way! I have had ONE melt down day, which is expected, and normal. That happened @ the end of week 2. lol but besides that I am truly doing so well. Let me leave you on the most current of news; this Saturday-Wednesday Moz 14 is going on "Site Visits." That is where we are all assigned a site of a current volunteer to go and visit. Moz 12 and Moz 13 are the current volunteers that we Moz 14 will be staying with. And they are all spread out in this large country....and us Moz 14's were so excited to find out where we were going to be going! This isn't nec where we will be placed for 2 years, BUT there it is a possibility that they are placing us where they are to "test" their thoughts on it being a good match for us or not. We found out today where we are all going!!! And I got EXACTLY where I wanted to go!!! =) Can you guess?? Nope...PEMBA!!!!! Pemba is WAY up north; check it out on a map. The only way to get up there is by plane!!! (Or a car, which could take 1week+) Pemba is where people go to vacation!!! It is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL!!! I can't wait!!! We all leave Saturday, some earlier than others. I am leaving Namaacha at 4am with some other people to get to Maputo to catch our flights.

I hope that this all gave you some insight into my life. Let me know what other kind of details you are curious about, and what you want to hear more of. I am putting some pics up on facebook too for you to check out! I hope all is well with you, thanks for reading this. =) Lots of love from Namaacha (soon to be PEMBA) Mozambique!!

Amanda