The first few weeks

Hey!! I'm finally using the internet from Namaacha! I might be getting on a little more frequently now. So it's been going pretty good so far. The family I'm staying with is great, a lot of people in one house: Mama Anita, an Aunt, sister Clara (31), brothers Samito (22), Zinho (20), and Jaque (17), and Clara's son Zeca (10), and me. The house has one main room that is divided into a dining room and a living room by a curtain. There are 4 rooms that come off the main one, the kitchen, my room, and then the two bedrooms that everyone else sleeps in. The food has been good, and I haven't been sick so far, but a lot of the other PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) have been, so I'm sure I will be soon too. My house has electricity, and they have a TV too. There is no running water, and I have a latrine hole in the backyard that also serves as the shower house. Which means that when 8 people all wake up and want to shower at the same time, and then all get home at want to shower again at the same time, it can be difficult to use the bathroom when needed. Which hasn't been a big problem yet, it just makes me nervous for when I inevitably get sick...

Training overall has been unimpressive. It is not well organized so we spend a lot of time waiting around. We also have 5 different people come to talk about the same thing, and since they don't hear the other presentations there is a lot of repitition. Language training is the best part, but it's still not intensive, and most people don't like it very much. But I like my family, and I practice talking with them, and I like the people in my language group and we have fun talking about random things in Portuguese. But I would definitely not call training intensive and full of important information. Namaacha is really pretty, which is good because we spend a lot of time walking all over to go to our classes, which are not organized near each other.

My brothers here are really in to watching Smackdown (wresting). Portuguese is coming along all right, still have a long way to go but I like talking to my family a lot. I have pictures of thanksgiving and halloween that I told them I'll have to explain to them in a few weeks cuz what I said last week made them think Americans were a little wierd. There are elections coming up here soon, so hopefully all will go smoothly with that and we won't get evacuated. I have a cell phone now, if you want the number ask Emily or my parents. Well, that's all for now!

More...

So I have a little more internet time and I thought of a few "Mozambican" things I've noticed, so I figured I'd add them.

First, I didn't know they drive on the other (British) side of the road here. Not only do they drive on the other side of the road, but they also walk on the other side of hallways/staircases too. It took me a little while to figure that out, and I wondered why I kept bumping into people in the airport and at our hotel. But then I noticed the escalators at the airport were switched, and it started to make sense. I'd never really thought about the driving on the other side of the road expanding to walking on the other side of hallways too, but it makes sense.

The other main thing to note is some medical procedures. We obviously have had to get several shots here for our own good, but they never really tell us what they are injecting us with, or if it has any side effects or anything. Also, when I got some shots today the medical assistant that was injecting me was just putting the used needles back on the table (there was a red biohazard disposal right next to her...I guess that's not common and she didn't know what it was for). Then the head nurse came over and told her where to put them, explaining they weren't going to be reused. Luckily I know that no one here has HIV since we all had to get tested before coming, but still. I've also started my malaria meds, but I'm taking Doxy, which doesn't give you vivid dreams, it just makes you get sunburned really easily. It seems kind of counterproductive to have a malaria med with that side effect given where malaria is prevalent, but oh well.

Well thats all for now, it's almost 10pm which means bedtime! I'm excited to see my training village tomorrow!

My Arrival

Well I'm happy to say I've arrived safely in Mozambique! We are staying at a rather nice hotel in Maputo, the capital of Moz. We have just had the lucky chance of meeting MC Rogers who is apparently a famous Mozambican popstar. I've never heard of him, but google him and see if it's true. So far we've had some orientation sessions, gotten some shots and other medicines, and gone over a bunch of info. Tomorrow we will be going to Namaacha, the town where we will have Pre-Service Training (PST). I can't really get a feel for Moz yet since the hotel is nice, but in a bad part of town, so we're not allowed to leave. We will be back here next Sat so I think I will be able to see more of the capital then. I'm excited to meet my host family and see what my house will be like. There are some current volunteers here with us now, and it sounds like living conditions might be better than we expected. Some families had TV, almost all had electricity, none had running water though, which is fine. It's supposed to be pretty cool in Namaacha, especially at first.

I've met a lot of cool people so far, and all the staff seems really nice. There's almost 70 of us, so it's taking a while to learn names and whatnot, but we're getting there. I wish I had more "Mozambican" information to share, but all we've really seen is the hotel, which is not too different from any other hotel, except we don't drink the water here.

And I'm happy to say, I have an address that I you can use to send mail to me during PST:

Jessica Bass
Corpo da Paz/Peace Corps
Avenida do Zimbabwe 345
Maputo, Mozambique

This address will be valid the entire time I'm here, but after mid-Dec I'll probably get a PO box closer to near where I'll be living, when I find out my site, but you can send letters to that address until I say otherwise.

I'm not sure when my next opportunity to use the internet will be, but not for at least a week I don't think, maybe not for a month, who knows.