Saturday, October 08, 2005

 

BLOGGING FROM MAPUTO!

**This is a personal website and does not reflect the views of the peace corps or the US government**


Hi! Eli and I have been in Mozambique for over a week now, but this is our first opportunity to use the internet and email. Theres too much to tell- but here's what we've done briefly. Our flight was 17.5 hours and not bad in itself- we did have our own little tv's and we could choose from a bunch of movies- but you know how nothing can make a 17 hour flight fun.
We spent our first 3 nights in a resort called Kaya Kawanga just outside of Maputo, but we weren't allowed to leave since we didn't have any language or city survival skills. The resort was very nice and Peace Corps did a good orientation/ vaccination/ simple language program. Eli and I found that we were going to be living together with one host family.

There's way too much to say in my limited time, so let me start with our host family situation. First, we live in a town of 8,000 outside of maputo. at first i was very surprised by the level of poverty, and for some reason i had expected our host families to be a little bit more 'western' to ease us into life here. that was an initial reaction though, and i'm really quite amazed with the people and the life here. my family does not have running water, but it's not really a big deal- we take bucket baths, use a latrine, and wash dishes in a big basin. we do have electricity, and eli and i do have our own bedroom in a seperate building. also our host family is amazing, they are extremely nice people. my father is a nurse, his wife works at home, there is an older brother who is a traffic cop, the younger sister (our age), i have a high school age brother whom i really like- he's also very smart and can understand all my portuguese/ spanish/ english, and a 5 year old boy who's a lot of fun.
even though the houses are cement and far far far poorer than any house i have ever been to in the states the people here all wear nice, clean and ironed cloths and carry themselves with a tremendous amount of pride. the students who are able to study in the secondary schools tend to be pretty intelligent, also everyone is very friendly. we feel very at home here, even after 1 week.

we have seperate language classes of 5-7 people and are learning portuguese pretty fast. eli understands 80 percent of what people say if they speak slowly, and i can use a lot of my spanish to understand or be understood. last night i helped my host brother with a question he had about the appendix and how it helps us understand evolution.

our host family also feeds us well, although its nothing extravagent either (by our standards) we eat a lot of rice, beans, and small ammounts of meat. Yesterday we had fish which was very good, although they also served us the head with eyes intact. i passed, although some time in the future i will try it. we're certaintly not going hungry, and i hear that a lot of tr ainees actually gain weight during training. its funny here because our family does not think we know how to work, and my mom was very proud of me when she saw me ironing my own shirt- although when my father say me he took the iron away from me and ironed it himself- he told me he was giong to teach me how to do it. also my mom was thrilled when i knew how to sweep my own bedroom.....

today I plan to buy a cell phone and eli will get a sim card so she can use hers. apparently we can text msg internationally- so to you guys- for the same price it costs to text someone here, so we can text you really cheaply. please email me your phone numbers if you want me to text you sometime. also, incomming calls to us are free (for us) so if you can get a good calling card, I will get you my number as soon as i get a phone. yes, there is good cell coverage around the country, or at least where peace corps is. its funny because my town does not have running water or land line telephones or internet, but we have 2 cell towers.

Its hard to describe my town and family and life in mozambique- everything is so different, and not what i expected, but also really wonderful. people are generally very curious and nice. women here carry huge loads on there head, babies on their backs in a sling, and groceries in both arms. the ground is dusty and there is trash everywhere. people litter like crazy. on the other hand, there are much fewer chemical polutants. we like to go out and have a coke (33 cents for a 200ml glass bottle) or a beer (85 cents for a good one of decent size) with the other volunteers. once i went to play pool with my host brother, but it was too crowded. also, peace corps keeps us veeery busy- we get up between 5:30-6:30 every day and go to bed around 10ish, they keep us busy with lots of language and culture and safety classes. the other day we had a class on cooking where a group of mothers actually made a meal with us (it took about 4 hours!)

one thing is that the people are always working here, except on sundays. my family never seems to be taking a break, unless it is to watch a brazilian soap opera on their little black and white tv.

Hopefully eli will be able to update with her opinions today too. we're both very happy with everything so far and are definetly glad that we decided to come here!

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