My Host family calls me Irmao Jack but they say it so fast it sounds like "Man Jack"

From May 30^th to June 12^th 2011. I have experienced a lot. I had my last gelada in Phoenix. It was not great quality but it was hazelnut gelada and that was good. I met up with my group of Peace Corps volunteers headed to Mozambique. (Mos. 16) We had a quick intro to Peace Corps. We got vaccines (except for me because I already was vaccinated for yellow fever from when I went to South Africa. I took a quick trip to the liberty bell and the outside of Independence hall, got some sushi and had some last microbrews and American food with the other volunteers.

Then I woke up at 2:00 in the morning to get on a bus to JFK and fly 15 hours to Johannesburg. I got to see all of Manhattan at night and that was really cool and then we drove right across the city at 5 in the morning when no one was around. The flight to Job burg was relatively boring except for when we landed and someone played Toto “Africa”. That was awesome. I was really excited to be back in Africa and see all the South African stuff in the airport. It was very nostalgic. Then I got in the plane to Maputo for the hour flight. I was so anxious that thistles hour was almost painful. Then we flew past Maputo and it was solo beautiful. It is a city perched on a little peninsula separating a bay from the ocean. Thins but the city is on the north side, its smaller, it’s always sunny and it’s in Africa.

For the next couple days my colleagues and I got more intros into Peace Corps and more info about Mozambique and more shots. We then got some info about what life would be like for the following 10 weeks of training. We also are lots of good food and drank lots of good mango juice. We were in the hotel the whole time so we never got to see Maputo.

Last Sunday I met my host Family. I am in a town in the mountains about an hour and a half drive inland from Maputo. It is called Nemaha. I and all the other trainees are staying with host families as we are trying to learn as much Portuguese as possible. My host family consists of a 26 year old father 19 year old mother 2 and a do year old doubter and a 15 year old sister of the father. They are all very nice and funny and they enjoy my company even more than I enjoy theirs (at least I think so).

Every day I wake up at 5:30 in the morning (with the sun) I take a bucket shower and eat a simple breakfast of fresh baked bread (really good bread in this town) peanut butter, and tea. Then I have a Portuguese class with 3 other volunteers and one teacher. This is from 7:30 to 9:30. From 10 to noon I have some sort of introduction to some form of PC activity or health info session. Then I go back to my house for lunch (lunch and dinner are either pasta with a little tomato and onion or rice with a chicken stew with a little tomato and onion and sometimes green pepper, all with a grape Fanta and an orange, its orange season right now). Then I go back for some PC lessons or cultural event until 4 or 5. Then I do some homework at home and talk with my family and take another bucket bath until 8 when I eat dinner and then I go directly to bed at 9 or 9:30 because I am so tired and then I do it all over again. This weekend I went to Maputo to buy a cell phone. That was cool Maputo is a lot safer than Durban and prettier to so it  has been a welcome relief to my fears of spending time in a city where I have to be worried about getting stabbed. I got Chinese food with some colleges at the Chinese cultural center in Maputo. It was nice to eat lots of vegetables.

Today I did a lot of our door work for a hospital and for my house it was nice to do that I like out dory gardening work a lot. (Sorry about spelling and stuff imp in a rush)