Namaacha, Mozambique and Homestay

I have to be quick about updating because there are about 10 other volunteers in line behind me to use the internet.

Were in Namaacha for PST, preservice training, and were each staying with a Mozambican host family. My family is really cool, a have a mãe, a pai, and two little sisters, a little brother and a big brother. My little sister, Páscoa, is awesome. She is 4 years old and adores me. Shes hilarious. Yesterday at dinner, she was trying to eat chicken off the drumstick and kept falling asleep midbite. Eventually she just gave up and took a nap right there at the table. This seems common. I think I can embrace table sleeping.

We have training every day from 7.30 to 5.30 and it is exhausting. Luckily Mozambicans really like breaks, so we are always taking breaks and eating snacks. Oh gosh, the food. Its good but its SO starchy and fatty. The first Sunday I literally had 4 lunches and all of them consisted of batatas fritas (french fries) with fried egg. I am expected to eat with all of our guests, so if an aunt comes, we eat. Later an uncle shows up, we eat again. Vovo (grandma) comes and we eat again. Its really filling. My mãe is concerned that I am not eating enough, because I am too skinny. The ultimate goal of our host moms is to engordar us, to make us fatter. We had a conversation today about how in America and Europe we dont like to be fat. They were really surprised about that.

Training is going really well, though pretty tedious. Some days we have HUB days when we are all together, but most days we are broken up into our technical (English, Math, Chemistry) or language groups. The language lessons are pretty hard to concentrate on for me because Ive already studied portuguese extensively, so spending three hours on present tense regular verbs makes me want to go to sleep. But its a good review and Im sure we will soon get to a point where I dont know what is going on anymore.

The house I am living in is small but cute. It has an outdoor, enclosed pit latrine for a bathroom and we take bucket baths. Mozambicans love to take baths, they take three a day and think we are super gross for only taking one shower per day at home. My mãe and I came to a compromise that I would take 2 a day, in the morning and in the evening. My room is small but nice, the mosquito net above my bed is like a princess canopy. Woot. I think the worst thing so far is the cockroaches in the latrine, but when you turn on the light or open the lid they scurry back down to the pit from whence they came. I figure as long as they stay down there and I stay up here, I dont mind them. The moment they cross into my space, bug spray will be wielded.

There is so much more to say, but a lot of people want to use the internet so Ill sign off for now. Sorry for the typos and lack of punctuation, this keyboard is weird. Ill update again later, hopefully when I can get the internet to work on my phone.

First days in Maputo

Training in Maputo

We've spent the first two days in Maputo in a really nice hotel that we are not allowed to leave -- and for good reason. This morning we were given lots of training sessions, including Safety and Security training, which should really be re-named to "U.S. Embassy Officials Scare the Crap out of You". Other fun events have included lots of shots -- one of which I had not-fun reaction to, and even more medical clearance. The malaria medicine we got today to start taking has been known to induce extremely vivid nightmares and suicidal thoughts that may or may not go away after you stop taking it. Fun. But if you somehow get malaria anyway, you take the non-FDA approved meds that have their own slew of side effects.

On the upside, we have internet here, and running water and electricity, not to mention delicious buffets of food at every meal and a pool on the lawn that overlooks all of Maputo. If only we had the free time to enjoy it.

The gorgeous view of Maputo from the Hotel Cardoso.

Next Stage: Training

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we leave for Namaacha, a smaller place about an hour and a half from Maputo. This is the town where we will be spending then next 10 weeks for training, staying with a host family and learning about cross-cultural stuff, technical skills, and lots and lots and lots of language skills.  We are all pretty anxious about meeting our host families, adjusting to the *real* Mozambican way of life (not the bubble we've been living in in the hotel). I probably won't have internet there, and we haven't set up our phones yet (we're working on it) so this may be my last communication for some time -- there is only one place in Namaacha that has internet available, and if you flash your laptop there you're kind of asking to have it stolen from you.

I have a feeling that, as the saying goes, "Shit is about to go down."

Arrived safely in Mozambique!

Staging

I have a hard time believing that staging was only 2 days ago, partially because it seems like much longer and partially because I have no concept of time (having not slept properly in 3 days and being 7 hours out of sync with the sun....)
At the hotel in Philadelphia, we did a 5-hour seminar about the basics of what to expect, what the Peace Corps goals and commitments are, and the logistics of travel. We all met each other for the first time, too (though some of us had corresponded on Facebook already) and I am really surprised at how many names I got down pretty quickly. It was kind of nice to know that everyone else has the same reservations/fears/anticipations as me. Calming.

Travel

We traveled by bus from the hotel in Philadelphia to JFK Airport in New York, and in order to be "on-time" we left at 3 a.m. and arrived at the airport at 6 a.m. for our 11 a.m. flight. Of course, the check-in counter didn't even open until 7:30 so we sat around the airport and waited for a few hours, then checked in and waited for a few more hours.
The flight was very long, about 15 hours, but since none of us had slept the night before we were all pretty tired. I manged to keep myself awake until the meal service came through after take-off, but then I fell deeply asleep and didn't stir again until halfway over the Atlantic, about 6 hours into the flight. I watched part of a movie, but fell asleep for another few hours. My seat buddy, Saranya, must have been thrilled with my company.
We arrived at the Johannesburg airport without incident, and didn't have to pick up our bags. Half of our group transferred to a smaller flight to Maputo right away. The other half, including me, got to sit around for about 4 hours waiting for the next flight. At least the Joburg airport is pretty big and has lots to do. We ate lunch and had some delicious hot coffee.
Our flight to Maputo was really short, only about an hour, but that didn't stop me sleeping some more. I missed the snack service, which I came to regret later.  The landing was pretty bumpy and turbulent -- you could tell some of the people who weren't used to flying a lot looked super uncomfortable.
The only problem we ran into during arrival was some hitch in our visas and passports. I never quite figured out what the issue was, but eventually, after some phone calls and a meeting with one of the people picking us up, we got cleared to leave immigration and went to the hotel.

Mozambique: First Impressions

The area around the airport is pretty run-down, but the city center of Maputo looks pretty much like any other big city in a developing country. Lots of people, lots of cars, lots of buildings in various states of disrepair mixed in with fancy embassies and hotels.
I'm feeling overall pretty calm at the moment. We're in a nice hotel right now, and it kind of reminds me of South America. The fact that everyone is speaking Portuguese really adds to that perception.
Somehow things that would have bothered me under normal circumstances don't seem too important right now -- like the fact that the water coming out of the faucet was an opaque brown color for a considerable amount of time, or the fact that at this moment there is a little cockroach sitting on the bar, staring at me. I'm just happy that we're not underway anymore, that I have all my stuff and am in (relatively) unharmed condition (Though I managed to bump into something and give myself a rather large, multi-colored and swollen bruise on my leg).  It's weird, but nice to know that this is where I'm going to be for the next two years. It seems feasible.
I am definitely looking forward to sleeping in a bed for the first time in many nights. But before I do that, I have to organize and re-pack my bags, because we surrender one of them for storage tomorrow. I am running on my last reserves of energy, so I am going to go ahead and stop typing now.