Ok, so how have I been? What have I been doing with my time? What’s it’s like in Mozambique? Well, we’re entering into the rainy season now, so last week, it rained everyday. I had to walk 20 minutes everyday in the freezing, yes it’s cold, rain to class. When I say freezing, I mean like 60’s (cold for Moz), and when I say rain, I mean that annoying light constant drizzle and not the rain that pours like rope from the roofs, though they say that that kind of rain will come later. I don’t mind the cold. Better cold and rainy than hot and rainy. Less mosquitoes that way. I just don’t like picking up all this mud. Yuck! There are not really paved roads here, so it’s muddy all the time, and my shoes get muddy and yucky so often it’s annoying. I also have to do laundry more often because mud gets on my clothes, but there’s no sun cause it’s always raining, so it’s such a bitch.
My daily life is pretty busy. I get home from school only in time to do homework and eat dinner and then I have to go to bed. The sessions are pretty interesting. This week, we learned about Permaculture in class, which is a technique of farming food in your own backyard. It’s all about maximizing water use on your land and composting to increase efficiency of the soil. I know, it’s so dorky, but a Mozambiquan family can learn this technique and feed themselves without having to go to the store at all. I’m really excited to test this out on my own backyard when I get to site, and I’m even more excited to take it on as a side project to teach it to Mozambiquans. I was talking to my host-mom, who teaches elementary school here, and she says that it’s very difficult to teach her students sometime because they come to class hungry often. Their parents work in the fields, so often times, they leave before the kids get up, which means the kids go to school without breakfast. People are very poor, too, so they just don’t have food. Then they go to school for 5 hours without food! Can you imagine that? The kids at home get breakfast, and then snacks, and then lunch in elementary school while the kids here go without food for hours! It’s no wonder they can’t learn! If a school could just learn this technique, then potentially, they could maybe feed some of the children, and if the families learn this technique, maybe the parents don’t have to go to the fields to work but can farm near their own house! I really hope I don’t lose my zest or memory of how this works, so I really can complete this project later.
Hmmm…. What else? O yea, so Mozambique only has an election every 5 years here, and how lucky is it that I get to be here when they have it? There are 2 parties, Frelimo, and Renamo, but there’s an overwhelming favor for Frelimo, so they’re definitely gonna win. It’s so funny how they vote over here. People still use written ballots, and there are no machines to count, so all the counting is done by people! Yes, that’s right people. And so the results aren’t even known until 15 days later! Oh, and there’s not record of people on the computers. I’m guessing they don’t have ID’s here, so in order for them to know that you’ve voted, they put this permanent ink on your finger that doesn’t wash off for like 2 days. So all these Mozambiquans are walking around with black fingers so that they can’t vote twice. It’s so funny. Over there, we get stickers. Everyone was so excited about the elections, my host family, especially. These people have only had their independence for maybe 20 years, and everyone really wants to take advantage of the fact that they can vote, and a lot of partying goes on afterwards. No one takes it for granted.

It´s so funny. The word that means ´robber here is ninja. So when people yell ninjas here, theyºre talking about robbers. Somebody´s mom was like don´t sit out there because the ninjas can see you, and she meant robber, but it was so funny. Haha… maybe you just had to be there.

Things I miss from home:

My bed.

Soft clothes… when they dry by sunlight, they´re definitely not soft.

Well, I have some homework to do later, so I’m really pressed for time. Maybe a longer update later.