Written August 12, 2012

Posted when I find a source of internet here at site.

Bem Vindos Todos!

Welcome to Quissico, Inhambane! A lovely little town right along the EN1, it has beautiful lagoons, a small marketplace, and many other things that make it an absolutely wonderful place for my home these next two years. I have had a lot of thoughts about this entire experience thus far. . if you care to read, I will tell you about them.

Firstly, this language thing. . .its hard. I knew service would require a language aqusition, but not in a sense that I would be fluent/would need to be by the end of training. So I feel that puts me at a disadvantage. How else will you communicate with people about anything really. . .you need language. But it is coming along day by day. And hopefully these first three months won’t be too incredibly frustrating with the language (fingers crossed).

Secondly, I know that PST is supposed to help us, and in many ways it did – introducing us to the culture by staying with a homestay family, intensive language classes that were really helpful for yours truly, some really interesting technical sessions about health related topics in a Mozambique context. . .but at the same time, I had my life scheduled out for me, I had a family making me three meals a day (sometimes. . .but that’s another story entirely) I had a safety net of other volunteers who spoke English, among many other things that both helped and hindered me. These things helped me sort of slowly immerse into the Moz culture, but at the same time, acted as a crutch. . .I personally now feel super unprepared for my life here. I haven’t cooked a meal alone in a very long time, I haven’t gone to bed in total silence in 10 weeks, etc. . it’s a whole different game now. I was essentially being taught how to swim in a classroom without ever dipping my toes in the water, to suddenly be thrown into the deep end, in hopes that my classroom knowledge will help me win an Olympic medal. . . .*sigh* it’ll all come with time I suppose. I keep saying that – and I know it will. But at the same time, I don’t want to finally catch on to everything too late to really get a great experience out of these 2 years. . its hard to explain. But hopefully someone gets what I’m trying to say here.

Thirdly – this whole “moving your life” around in segments is slightly frustrating. I haven’t lived in a permanent residence since I was 17 years old. . I went to college, so every summer/fall I packed up my life to move, then I was house-sitting, and then I moved into an apartment – now I’m not faulting any of these experiences, they were all wonderful and really a great time in my life, but since then I have yet to find a place to really call home. And now here I am, my life packed away in two duffel bags, one trunk and a cardboard box. I have moved from a hotel room starting May 28^th, to a single room in a home for 10 weeks, to then another hotel room for 4 days, to now a temporary housing situation for 6 weeks. After mid-October I will finally be in the actual structure I can call ‘home’ for the next 24 months. Again, I am not complaining about any of these experiences, just trying to express what I’ve been thinking about in my down time. Most people get their first apartment and stay there for a year or so. . I’m getting my first house (which is smaller than most apartments) for 2 years, in Africa. . . go figure haha.

Anyway. Those are just some of my ramblings about thoughts that have crossed my mind. There are many others, but I will spare you all the gory details.

So my first (half) day at site! I am currently sitting on my bed in my temporary house. It’s a small circular building with a bathroom inside. Its all cement with a thatch-type roof. Two windows and a door. Its on the property of one of the organizations I am working with, so from what I hear it is very secure/safe. There (again from what I hear) is even a guard that watches the property at night. So hopefully all will be good here in these upcoming weeks.

We left Maputo this morning at 6:30 (in typical Mozambique fashion we were an hour and a half late) – two people forgot their suitcases at the hotel, and we stopped every time the drive took a phone call (peace corps policy) so it took us a bit to get here. But I arrived probably around 11:30am. I had traveled with my counterparts from the conference, so I was immediately taken to the house I’m now in. everyone was very helpful about getting my things off the top of the car/out of the back. It is still amazing me that I have already amassed more things than I came with . . . not sure how it happened.

The really good news is, I have had the chance/ability to hang my mosquito net, so I can now sit up in bed!! Woo!! It’s the small things in life really lol. So I did a bit of unpacking, when I say “a bit” I really mean a small amount, I don’t want to get too settled in here, to then pack up and move again. So I’m trying to keep most things in my bags/boxes, save for my bedding/shower/cooking stuff. Speaking of showers – cockroach kill count for my bathroom is at 2 for the day. I will keep you updated on how that goes.

So I settled in a bit, changed my clothes, and had lunch with the organization. It was a nice hearty meal of xima, couve, salad and of course, bread. I opted out of the bread (and got some funny stares) but all in all it was really tasty. After lunch we just chatted a bit, I went and tried to settle in a bit more, working out the water situation – people were really kind, and have lent me two pots, some plates, spoons etc to use while I am here. Mozambique is really an incredibly friendly country. So after that, I hopped a boella (free ride) into town to meet up with Angela. Before meeting up with here, I walked around a bit, just exploring on my own. It’s a really small town so it should be pretty easy to get to know (fingers crossed). We went down to the soccer field to watch our friend, a ‘peace corps’ volunteer from Japan- they have a similar program that is also a 2 year commitment, play soccer. It was great to see some of the teams – I am looking to join one – mom! Send my cleats! And wanted to see if I would be able to keep up with the team. Good news is, as a team most suck, because the individual talent is so high and people tend to not think in a “team” mentality. So I think I would be able to play alongside these men, even if I am the only girl. That’s something I’m going to wait a bit to see if its culturally acceptable.

After the game, the three of us made dinner – we cooked up some ground beef (found in a big city- not here) with some green peppers and onions, and had that with some rice over lettuce. It was a taco salad in a sense, as we used some southwest seasoning on the beef and chipotle seasoning on the veggies. . . can you say yum??

I have a basic outline of my first two weeks here at site. Tomorrow and Tuesday are dedicated to wandering around the town, getting to know the sites, buying things I need etc. Wed and Thus I have meetings with my organizations, and Friday . . . off the top of my head I can’t remember right now. But coming up the last weekend in August there is a huge festival here, of which we are all trying to prepare for. So that’ll be a really cool integration experience for me.

I cant think of much else to tell you all/tell myself. I’m going to snuggle down in bed with a Portuguese book, and get some sleep. Busy day tomorrow.

X’s and O’s to all

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