Rain, rain go away come again… after I’ve left Mozambique!

So rainy season definitely started and it sucks. I think I’ve been spoiled by the perfect California weather, so it’s super hard to adjust to cold, rainy, muddy, gloomy, windy weather. Ok that part is actually not that bad because I have an awesome rain jacket, rain boots and an umbrella, so the part that really gets me is when I’m sleeping, or not sleeping. As you may have seen in my pictures, I have a tin roof and a giant tree that hangs over that roof. Well when it rains, I pretty much hear every single raindrop and it wouldn’t be all that bad if they were normal small raindrops that fall softly on the roof and make light pitter patter, but no they are monster golf ball sized drops that thud against the tin and they are loud! And then when the rain gathers on the tree and falls on my roof it’s like a land mind blowing up and it wakes me up and scares the crap out of me because I was probably dreaming about the landmines here and getting limbs blown off... So when it’s raining I’ve had to start putting ear plugs in just to get some peace and quiet during the night. And anyone who’s ever lived with me knows that I am the heaviest sleeper in the world. There’s a reason why nick calls me the hibernating panda bear because I can sleep through California earthquakes, new york city trash collectors and sirens!! So you know if I’m complaining that I can’t sleep because of how loud it is, it really is loud. But I’m sure I’ll get used to it soon enough seeing as that I’m just now starting to tune out the lil wayne blasting at 5am and the roosters and dogs barking at all insane hours.

So we finally got our site visit arrangements, and I’m heading up north to zobue, tete! It’s a city that’s up in the mountains of tete and right on the border of Malawi. It’s supposed to be absolutely gorgeous and you’re supposed to be able to see all sorts of cool things in the “sky night.” My friend Dillon and pretty much everyone here is slowly starting to lose their English skills… yikes! The other day I was trying to tell Miray something and wow I just could not get the words out and I think in the end I made up my own word! I think I’m getting so used to making up my own words in Portuguese that I’m just doing the same now for English! Oh and speaking of the “sky night,” I’m sorry but we definitely don’t sleep under the same sky! I know that people always say that even when you’re far away you’re all sleeping under the same sky, but dude my sky is wayyyyyyy better than your sky!! When it’s a clear night here, which is rare these days with all the rain clouds, but when it’s clear, the stars are friggin ridiculous! There are so many and they’re so bright that I feel like I’m standing in a simulation room starting at a fake poster or something. And if it’s that beautiful here I can’t imagine just how beautiful it’s going to be in tete! I wish I could take pictures of just how amazing it is, but it’s the one thing that won’t capture on my camera!

I leave u with one last story about my brother Eduardo. I was doing my laundry the other day and after arguing with him for about 15 minutes that he wasn’t allowed to help me cuz I needed to learn how to do laundry on my own, he settled on just sitting next to me so we could conversar. Well let me back up and tell you a little about the Mozambican culture of “dating.” Mozambique is very accepting of polygamy, and many men have multiple wives and girlfriends and it’s completely legit. We hear of men with multiple wives and guys with several girlfriends and everyone is “seemingly” happy. Well during my laundry sesh, which sucked by the way thanks for asking, I asked Eduardo why he didn’t have a girlfriend and he said because he was still a child and because he wanted to focus on studying and become a teacher first before finding a girlfriend! He’s 19 by the way and a good lookin kid cuz our neighbor totally wants to jump his bones! I almost want to believe in santa clause and the easter bunny again! He then proceeded to laugh and tell me that none of my clothes were clean…

With lots of love,
Esther

Ps. Today during our exams, it was like christmas because about 40 letters and packages arrived for everyone and shocking none of them were for me… ahem ahem hint hint!!!!!!!! Here’s my address again just incase you missed it the last time = ]
Esther Gweon, PCV
c/o U. S. Peace Corps Mozambique
AVENIDA ZIMBABWE 345
MAPUTO
MOZAMBIQUE