Bucket baths and latrines.

The mountain that's shared by Swaziland, S. Africa, and Moz.

Walking to morning class.
Our welcoming to Namaacha!!

The group!

A lot has happened since my last blog. First, I moved to Namaacha to begin pre-service training (PST). Namaacha is beautiful and high in elevation compared to Maputo. It is pretty cold and I have had to wear a jacket or sweater almost every day. There’s a certain scent to Mozambique that almost reminds me of home, the smell of campfires. The only thing that makes it different is that it’s trash being burned on a daily basis.
My host family has been absolutely amazing. I definitely don’t have the most luxurious house out of the volunteers, but it is great. I have a host mom, two sisters, 2 nephews, a neice, and a cousin. Everything is different here, which makes for interesting days and lessons. I have had to relearn how to wash my clothes, wash my hands, take showers, cook (not that I knew how to before), and pretty much everything you could think of doing.
Training is going well. The majority of the first five weeks are focused on language. Portuguese is a lot of fun to learn, but I’m a little bit bitter about losing Spanish. They are similar and it’s hard to get myself to separate the two languages. I live for our ‘hub days’ when all of the volunteers are reunited for group lessons. These are usually focused on safety or HIV awareness.
Here’s a couple of the biggest adjustments:
1. Showers: Because there is no running water, I have to take bucket baths. They are surprisingly easy to do and leave me feeling clean. The only downside is having to take them two times a day. It is a long process and I usually have to get up a couple of hours before our 7:30 lessons.
2. Food: It’s actually pretty tasty (with the exception of cow liver). The only things I haven’t liked so far had nothing to do with taste, it was more of a texture thing. Almost everything is fried or carbs, so I’m pretty thankful for all the walking that we have to do.
3. Adjusting to my host family’s schedule is challenging, but necessary. I get up at 5:30 every morning to do chores (sweep the dirt, clean room, sweep house, wash dishes, etc.), I have to eat 3 meals and 2 ‘lunchies’ everyday, take 2 baths, and so on. It is going to be nice when we get to our own sites and can set our own schedules. We find out on Thanksgiving where we are going to be placed!
It turns out that Halloween is another volunteer’s birthday as well. We are thinking about doing some sort of themed party, which should be a hit (maybe masquerade with all of our sleeping masks from the plane). My family is planning on making me a bolo and they want to have a little vino as well.
I got a phone and would looove to talk/text! The country code is 258 and my number is 82 27 71 536 (I think that’s how they separate the numbers =/).
Most missed American item at the moment: washer and dryer.