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

mama's cookin~

so i’ve figured out the key to african women’s cooking! it’s having hands like leather! my mae’s got the toughest hands known to man kind! and not like calluses, but she could probably stop a bullet with them!! she doesn’t need pot holders, peelers, or cutting boards (i’m sorry miray, you would never survive here, nor would they ever let you in with any of your cutting boards! i’m pretty sure they’re illegal here because i’ve yet to see them being sold anywhere. they probably confiscate them at customs along with land mines! cutting boards are mozambican enemy numero uno! so don’t bring any! but ps will you send me some?? the thin plastic ones from bbb would be awesome~). anyway yeah my mae’s got this giant knife that’s as dull as a butter knife and yet she can cut a tomato perfectly with it. it’s ludicrous! i mean she dices tomatoes and onions into perfect little cubes in her hands! take that hubert keller!! if my mae was on top chef doing the prep work relay race she would woop everyone’s butt at dicing vegetables!! and the no potholders thing drives me crazy!! last week she was boiling water in a kettle, and mind you none of the pots, pans, kettles have oxo heat proof silicon handles, everything is metal, and pouring out the water, she was trying to put the kettle back on the stove, but it lost balance and fell to the floor. i’m all like trying to use my shirt to pick up the kettle, but she just grabs the dang thing and puts it back on the stove with her bare hands!!!! IT WAS BOILING SECONDS AGO!!! even using my shirt sometimes it feels like its going to melt the skin right off my bones and she does it with her bare hands! it’s crazy!

anyway a month has now gone by since we’ve been here which is the craziest feeling ever! honestly being able to survive here makes me think i could do anything! ok so that’s a bit of a reach but u get the idea~ but i feel like i haven’t really written about what i’ve actually been doing here… for the most part we’re in “class” from 7:30 to about 4-5. so i get up at 6am every morning! and it doesn’t hurt! haha i never thought this day would come, but yeah i’m in bed these days by like 10pm! i mean it helps that there’s absolutely nothing to do here, and that we have 7pm curfews, but still its just so not me! anyway so yeah classes consist of portuguese, how to teach, and cross culture training. so yeah that’s the day-to-day stuff, and my portuguese is really coming along, to the point where i can argue in portuguese! haha confrontation seems to follow me around everywhere i go! man i love it! haha im jk i really don’t but yeah i’m excited that i’ll soon be able to tell off the random mozambican men that make fun of my rainboots in portuguese! this past week we also had two days of agriculture training! it was actually the most interesting training we’ve gotten here! i’m totally a gardening expert now! i can’t wait to get to my site and make a garden! it’s unreal how easy it is, and how much they can actually do! a small ¼ acre of permanent agriculture gardening can feed a whole mozambican family! i mean it’s friggin mind blowing! this system can seriously solve the worlds hunger issues and maybe even world peace at the same time! i’ll write about it more next time maybe once i make my own permagarden at site but yeah more americans need to garden more. it could save this planet!

yesterday was halloween, oh americans and our holidays, and we of course also celebrated! we got permission to throw a mini halloween party that was actually really fun! we invited all of our host siblings just so that they could kinda see what halloween is like, and we had jack-o-lanterns and candy and music and games and it was pretty great. and the costumes! i’ve seen some of the best in my life and we’re in friggin mozambique! i mean even me! i’m so not into the whole halloween thing and yall know i just don’t try that hard, and i still didn’t this time, but the costume pretty much found me! my friend ann found this sweet traditional chinese shirt at the market here and so i wore that and went as chun li from street fighter! i mean i looked legit! the hair was the hardest part but i think i got it just right. i’ll put up pics soon! it was so much fun and then we got our curfew extended to midnight so we all went to this sweet bar and had a few brewskis and danced and it was a good break away from our new hard to get used to mozambican lifestyle.

k i think that’s about it~ next weekend we go on site visits so i prob won’t update for a few weeks but you’ll get to hear all about what my future site here may be like! miss everyone so much!!

panda

ps. oh candace... you ask me that as if i could change that at will... don't u know that i'm like the worst writer on this planet? it's just not my style i'm sorry... but for you i suppose i could make an effort!

pps. also putting pictures up on here takes WAYYYYYY too much time, so i've decided to make albums on my facebook page instead! it was so much quicker so please view there, but for some reason you can't find me or the album let me know!