Friday, October 2, 2009

In Mozambique

I'm in Mozambique! We arrived in Maputo yesterday and are staying in a swanky hotel for three days - hot showers, yummy buffet food, etc... This will all change shortly when we are transported to our training village, but we're enjoying the opportunity to recover from jet lag in luxury.

So far we have had various meetings where they tell us about the uncomfortable realities of life and at the same time encourage us with all the rewards of being a PCV here - the warm and welcoming people, the great food, the beautiful landscape... I think there will be more of this breaking down and building up in the weeks ahead.

My upper arms are a bit sore from the vaccinations, but other than that I feel great. I received my malaria medication (Larium) and various manuals about health, training, etc... We met all of our training staff - Portuguese teachers, education teachers, support staff, etc... It takes a lot of people to train 65 future Peace Corps volunteers.

I just had my language exam, which consisted of a Mozambican speaking to me in Portuguese and seeing if my responses (also in Portuguese) had any relevance to the questions he was asking. I think I did well, though I didn't understand what he was saying when he said "parabens" ("good job"), so I have to wonder. In any case, we're about to jump into intensive language training so I will learn Portuguese soon enough!

I may not be able to blog for a while once we get to our training village, but I will share some fun stories when I can.

A bit nervous, but still excited and feeling good. Can't wait to meet my host families, take a bucket shower, eat/learn to cook Mozambican food, speak Portuguese, practice teaching and make new friends!

Take care!

The view from my hotel room balcony - Maputo skyline & bay

1 comment:

  1. You would be excited for bucket showers... ;)

    Sounds awesome, babe. Can't wait to hear more stories!

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