TIA: This Is Africa

(update from oct. 9th)

So I’m sitting on the porch, watching a dog eat some leftover rice while I’m listening to the always trendy MC Hammer blasting in the background. A scene from the twilight zone? Nope, it’s just another Thursday afternoon in Mozambique

Ola!=) I am alive and well. Right now, I’m in Namaacha, Mozambique, which is where I’ll be for the next ten weeks of training. I am with a host family. Meu pai (my host dad) is Francisco. Minha mai (my mom) is Rebecca. I have 6 other brothers and sisters. They range from the age of 7 months to 22. The eldest, Orlando, stays at a boarding school, but the rest of us, including two visitors (they’re minha tias (my aunts) but I don’t know how long they’re staying or whether or not they’re really just visiting) all live in the same house. The place is not too bad. I have my own room, I sleep in a mosquito net, I take bucket baths, I filter my own water, and I poop in a hole. I have to crouch down and poop in it while I hold onto a pole to help keep me balanced. You don’t want your butt to touch the outside of the hole because it is definitely not something you want to sit in. I looked down that thing, and that thing is deep. I mean, Real deep. It was made in 2004 and it doesn’t look like it’ll be filled up anytime soon.

Minha familia is really nice. They feed me a variety of rice, vegetables, fish, chicken, and something that tastes like grits. Needless to say, I’m not complaining and in fact, I think I’m eating pretty well. Everybody is so friendly and they all seem so satisfied.

The house is definitely not aesthetically pleasing. It has barren gray walls, plain, tin roofs, and there’s a lot of dirt. But when you walk inside my house, they have electricity, three tvs, a stereo, and a dvd player. Oh yea, by the way, my host family only has one dvd, TC-2000. I’ve never seen/heard/thought it could exist. It’s a movie with the buff asian guy who doesn’t say a word in Bloodsport with none other than the Muscles from Brussels, Jean Claude Van Damme, AND it also stars aerobic trend setter Billy Blanks. Haha. Apparently he did more with his life than just create Tae Bo, and apparently he’s big in Africa. I felt like they needed a change and so I showed them the movie Transformers from my computer. You should’ve seen their faces. Priceless… and when they see something surprising or weird they say EhOooooh or EHHHhhhhh. They’re pretty expressive.

My first night here was the worst night of my life. It all started a little bit before dinner. I was sitting around attempting to communicate in Portuguese while we were al waiting for dinner. And then my stomach started rumbling. And then I started to feel not so good. I politely excused myself and went to the bathroom. Yes, I had diarrhea. My stomach continued to hurt and in the middle of dinner, after making sure that I got the message across that “I don’t want to be rude but my stomach hurts and I need to rest”, I went to go lie in bed. That night, I had this throbbing headache and my entire head and neck was burning hot. And the rest of my body was shaking because it was cold. I had to deal with this really bad fever all night. I remember I sorta went to sleep and then woke up and I looked at the clock and I saw that I only slept for an hour. When I was actually able to rest I had a really vivid dream (the malaria pills give you trippy dreams, and I took one earlier that day). I dreamed that I was back home with friends and family. And everything was great. We were all having a great time. And then all of the sudden all I heard was a foreign language. I really thought I was back at home until I heard the Portuguese in the background and the mosquito net I was sleeping in. For the next day and a half, I didn’t eat much and had to deal with my diarrhea. The only good thing about that is that I learned to get used to using the bathroom here real quick. Whenever I show people my house I point to the bathroom and say “minha primeia casa (my first house)” and then point to my real house and say “minha segunda casa (my second house)”.

And as you can see, estou aprender Portuguese devegar. I’m slowly learning Portuguese. It’ll be a slow process, but I’m sure by the end of the ten weeks I’ll be able to sufficiently and confidently hold a conversation with a six year old.

My days here are pretty long. I wake up around 5:30-6:00 am and get ready for the day. People in Mozambique are really clean. They take a shower every morning and a shower before dinner. I’m pretty much busy from 7:30am to 4:30 pm. During that time I have everything from language class, meetings, presentations, and more language class. When I get back, I’m pretty tired and I shower, read, write, eat, then go to sleep at around 8-9pm. Oh, and I also watch Os Mutantes with my familia every night. Haha.. a ridiculous tv show, and everything you would expect out of a cheesy tv show.

The air here is fresh and clean. And Africa is beautiful. I’ll try to put up some pictures next time. The internet here is really slow and so it’ll take forever to upload pictures. I took a bunch when I was walking around my neighborhood. Minha irma Salida (my sister salida) held my hand as we walked around. She said hi to the kids and told them that I was her brother. Yea, it warmed up my heart when she said that too. She’s 6 years old and she’s real cute. But yea, Africa is beautiful, and people here are poor, but they’re satisfied. Life here is simple. And people here are so friendly. I know I haven’t even been gone for 2 weeks but it already feels like I’ve been here for months.

I think I’m going to like it here=)

(update from oct 11th)
Cervete

Cervete is another word that means "heaven on earth", otherwise known as ice cream.

i had ice cream in africa and it was the most amazing taste/feeling/experience ever. it was a cone ice cream with vanilla ice cream and it had delicate and crunchy peanuts strategically placed on the top. and the glue that held the peanuts together was the drink of the gods, chocolate. and oh Man, it was amazing. i sat there on the ground of a gas station and savored every bite. and the best part was when i got near the end. the end of the cone was just cone, chocolate, peanuts, and more chocolate. it was so goood. the design of this ice cream cone rivals the mona lisa and pantheon. i've never appreciated an ice cream cone more than i did that day. i'm still thinking about it, and it makes me weak at the knees.

and before we had ice cream, me and a few others played some basketball with some fellow mozambicans. it was fun but no contest. especially when we have a 6'10" guy who played D1 basketball and our competitors were somewhere in the range of 11-14 years old. but all in all, we exchanged our cultures and i'm sure they'll bring reinforcements the next time we meet.

afterwards basketball and the little taste from heaven, i went to Shoprite. Apparently what they call Shoprite is what we call a market with multiple stands. i should've known better and not expect some superwalmart in the middle of namaacha, but after eating that ice cream i thought anything could've been possible. obviously, i was wrong.

will post more and try to say more. people are breathing down my neck waiting for me to be done. tchao=)