Field Trip to Maputo and Week 3

Its week 3 of training. Its hard to believe both that weve been here for three weeks already and that weve only been here for three weeks. Its also weird to think that in 7 weeks we are going to leave all the friends we just spent 10 weeks making and spread out all over the country to our separate posts.

On Saturday we had our field trip to Maputo and it was awesome. Having our priorities straight, we first went to a cafe and had coffee and cake. Real coffee. Real cake. So delicious. I also went to the cell phone store and got them to hook up my internet on my smartphone. I was super excited to find out that it works, but less excited when I got back to Namaacha and found it only works in Maputo. Ive kind of got it working in some parts of town now, but not at my house, which is a bummer. But having internet is a luxury and I was not expecting it, so its nice even if it doesnt work all the way.
In Maputo we also went to a bookstore and I wanted to but the Alchemist in the original Portuguese, but for some reason it was super expensive, about six times the price of other books (about 60 USD!). Instead, I stocked up on chocolate for me and my host family and went to the Peace Corps library here in Namaacha to get a book instead.
Before leaving Maputo we went to eat lunch at a restaurant where my friend Sarah and I shared a Haiwaiian pizza all smothered with real, delicous, creamy cheese. Mmmmmm. Never have I tasted something so amazing. And on that note, there is nothing I would not pay right now for a slice of strawberry cheesecake.

Ive been hanging out a lot with my host family. After classes end at five thirty I go home and keep me Mamá company while she makes dinner. We talk about a lot of stuff, mostly cultural differences and life in Mozambique. I taught my family how to play Uno the other day. They like it a lot, especially giving each other the wild draw four cards, but what they liked even more was my shuffling skills. I have spent a lot of time in the past week showing them to shuffle. My brother especially loves it -- I trade shuffling lessons for lessons in Changana, the local language.

We recently had a super awesome day followed by a super sad day. Our cat gave birth to two cute kittens, the pride of our neighborhood, but that the mom got locked out of the kitchen by accident, where her kittens were, and they froze overnight. I expected my four year old sister to react more than she did. Death is not uncommon here and people just accept it and move on.

On that sad note, I am in the process of getting sick, which is not fun. They tell you its not a question of whether you will get sick here, but when and how often. Somehow I still thought maybe I would be the exception, but me and my friend slash neighbor Lisa both have had fevers this last day or so. Not much I can do about it except drink lots of water and sleep a bunch. Peace Corps medical takes good care of us.

We had our first Portuguese test on Friday and I scored really well. We like our language instructor, Meque, a lot, but we unfortunately have to switch teachers next week as per Peace Corps calendar. Hopefully the next one we get will be just as awesome. Never have I laughed so much in class before.

Well, until next time.