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.