Life as a PCT

Ive been here almost a month now. I miss you all back home so much! I really appreciate all the emails and letters. Im not too sure what to write about because its so hard to describe what my experience is like. Here goes...

Today I went to the market to buy a Halloween costume. Anyway, I was buying a pair of cute rose earrings and this guy next to me, who was buying something, said ´´Hello sister.´´ I was like, Hiii, do you speak english? He said yes. I said, are you fluent? Then he asked me how I was doing. I said fine, and you (in portuguese)..and he was like I speak english, I am a foreigner. I was like oh from where? He said from Swaziland. He asked me the same, I told him I was an American. He said, oh, you are visiting Mozambique? At first I almost said yes. Then I said no, I live here. He said oh in Maputo? I said no, here in this village. He asked why, he was so confused! I told him bout the Peace Corps. And he still didnt really understand. He asked how long I was livin here for and I said 2 years and he was shocked. He was like, oh my! Good luck in Africa, my sister! Ha. Yeah so today, reality kinda set in.

My host family is great. I feel like Im fitting in. They really treat me as if Im a member of the family. My siblings call me their sister and my parents introduce me as their daughter. Last weekend my brother asked me how to teach him to dance like we do in America. He put on hip hop at first, and then I told him that it wouldnt be appropriate for me to show him how Americans dance to that..So then, I put on my Kings of Leon cd and taught him how to 2 step! HA! It was fun and he was actually pretty good. Then I told him I learned the traditional Moz wedding dance and so we danced to that. Its actually more difficult than youd think. Then he showed me how they dance in the discotecas. Wow. Lets just say Im going to have some seriously cool moves to take back to the States. Thats one experience.

Also in training, we learn dances and songs and games that they play to around here. We learned this game called Terra, Mar! (Land, Sea). Basically what happens is you draw a line and one side is land and one side is sea. The kids line up and one person calls out terra or mar and they jump and the point of the game is to try to stump them so they land in the wrong place. Its a lot of fun, I play it with my young siblings, neighbors, and cousins. Actually, my friend Jessica, a fellow PCT, is my cousin. One day after training I was sitting in my room doing nothing really and my mom comes in and told me they were outside. So I went out there and Jessica and her siblings (my cousins) had walked all the way over to play Terra, Mar because they liked it so much. Its funny how much simple fun we have here.

The day after that, my parents and I went over to Jessicas for some kind of festa. I then learned that this was because my uncle was presenting his girlfriend or fiance to the family and they were wanting to get married or something. At least thats what I got out of it. There was lots of food. MMMM. We had carne da vaca (steak), frosted cake, and many other wonderful things! Delicious. Then, we danced. We all got in a circle, cranked up the tunes and took turns for people getting in the middle to show off. I definitely took up that opportunity. Then we played games. My brother and the rest of the kids had a contest to see who could stand on one leg the longest. Then we also played this game where everyone stands in a circle and sings and does this hand clapping game. It was interesting.

Hmm...what else can I share? Yall need to send me some ideas. Next weekend on Halloween the PCTs are having a party. Were getting together and bringing food and beverages and music along with a few family members. We will also have costume contests! I bought a GIANTS jerzee today, I guess Im going to be a sports fan.

Not everything is fun and games here though. Nope. Training is intense, I think I might have posted that before. Sadly, weve been learning about the HIV AIDS crisis here. The HIV prevalence in Moz is 16%..Thats almost one in every five people infected. Well, thats all I got for now.

I miss you all and love you SO SO SO much!!