Reflecting on my First Day in Namaacha

Today was a momentous day for a few reasons. Here they are.

We left Maputo for the training village today. Everyone and their carry-on piled into three vans and a mini bus (I was on the bus) and we made our way towards Namaacha. The drive itself wasn't too long, only about an hour and half. We arrived at the academy in the early afternoon and filed into the gymnasium where all the host mom’s and a few of host dads were serenading us with song.

After all the volunteers arrived and the singing came to an end, the host families held up small pieces of paper (some upside down) with our names written on them. It was then on us to seek out our families and join them for what would be the first of many interactions of the course of the next ten weeks. It took me a while to locate mine, but I eventually spotted a short, elderly man holding up a strand of paper with my name on it. I walked up, we shook hands, and just like that we were family.

Without saying much, we began our short journey back to his home by walking down the dusty and rock filled backstreets of Namaacha. We walked with a few other volunteers and their families, and I soon found out that these were my neighbors. As we all walked in an awkward, linguistically disconnected fashion, we tried our best to make small talk while observing the sites as we passed by them. Didn't take long to arrive at the house and I was surprised to find that it was small, but very cozy-looking. Not sure what I was expecting. More on the house later when I have a chance to snap some pictures.

Anyways, My Dad (or as we say in Portuguese, Minha Pai) is named Armando. He's a 70 year old farmer and active congregant at the local Catholic Church. He’s got a vibrant personality that easily transcends significant cultural and language barriers. He seems to be a pretty patient guy too. His wife is equally awesome. I don't know her first name yet but I call her Mai, which means mom. In addition to not knowing her name, I don’t know too much else about her except that she is a fabulous cook, and loves making soup. Can’t wait to learn how to talk about that so I can tell her my sisters make lots of soup too. Soup!

My first impression is that this couple might actually be some of the most amazing people I've ever met. Then again, he and his wife haven't poisoned me yet, so I'll have to wait until I get sick once or twice to let you know how I still feel about them. Honestly though, just the fact that they are even putting me up says so much about them.

After arriving, Armando showed me around his property.  We then sat down for some lunch: Chicken and Rice. Pretty standard, but very good. I was then given a few hours to unpack and get organized. My Pai also helped me hang my mosquito net, which included a ridiculously cute demonstration of what happened to Mosquitoes when they tried to get in. He pretended to be a mosquito, complete with sound effects (“ buzz buzz buzz”), and then showed me how they ran into the net but could not get through.  It was horrifically cute, and made me miss my grandma.  Old people dude, they rock.

As the sun set over the mountains and the temperature dropped, my Mai prepared some water for me to use to bath myself. I don't think I've showered that fast in years. And it would have been even quicker if I had spotted the humongous freakin’ spider earlier on.  I didn’t see him until I was drying off, but that's when, in an almost scripted manner, he slowly and dramatically crawled out From behind the shower curtain long enough for my jaw to hit the floor before slowly creeping back behind the curtain and disappearing again into the darkness of the shack I shower in.  I laughed that one off pretty hard. A friend of mine later told me that it was probably an African jumping spider. Thanks for clarifying that dude, nouns usually seem so much less terrifying when you put a few adjectives in front.

Around dinner time, two of my Mai and Pai's grand kids showed up. Turns out that they both live in the small 1950’s style camper that’s sitting on cinder-blocks in front of our house.  Actually, it’s kind of cool. Octavio is 26 years old and studying in Maputo to become a primary school teacher. His cousin is Gerson (AKA Armando Jr, or Mandinho), an 18 year old who I have yet to learn much about except that he doesn't want be a professor.

After dinner I spent a while trying to use broken Portuguese and broken English to communicate and talk to the family. All went really well.  Super awkward, but still fun.

It’s about 10 o’clock PM and I'm lying in bed typing this out on my iPod since I have no access to Internet. I think there’s a bar across the street or something cause dance music is blasting on repeat and not going off. It sounds like the speaker is set up in my window.  Unfortunately, it’s getting hard to hear the music since a number of the neighborhood dogs have begun a competition to see who can bark the loudest for the longest amount of time.  Good night?

UPDATE: Well, turns out it took me all of two seconds to fall asleep.  Even with the music and barking.  It's 3am now and I just woke up to use the Xi-xi bucket (the piss bucket…more on this later) in my room. The music is still pumping and those dogs are still barking. Also, the roosters just started crowing.  I have a sarcastic feeling I’m going to like this place.