Breaking Radio Silence

I have made contact with the natives and they have accepted me as one of their own. No, seriously, its been amazing how well I've been fitting in here. I love hanging out with everybody, people love to talk to me, help me learn portuguese and macua, practice english, you name it. There's tons of stuff I want to give you updates on, so hopefully I'll remember most of it. Get ready for an epic post. Unfornunately, no pictures. I tried to upload pictures to a computer my first or second day and the computer wiped them clean, and I don't trust it here much. Maybe I'll find a better way.

Where am I sleeping: I helped finish a bungalow that was being built for me and Felipe, my awesome roommate. We have a "bathroom" and "kitchen". I say that because if we want water, we have to walk across the compound to haul it in. Although, we recently got an oven and stove top, which is great news because now the girls want to come over and cook with it.

What am I eating: This one is very easy to explain. Breakfast is rice porridge. Lunch is xima (pronounced shima) and beans. Xima is basically cornmeal, thats it. Zero nutritional value. Dinner is rice and beans. Sometimes we get extra ingredients in the beans, like carrots, onions, lettuce, potatoes. And you have to eat a huge amount of food just to get enough nutrition out of it to do anything at all. We have a fridge in our "kitchen" but it is being used to stock perishables for everybodies food. For example, I cam back the other day to find it filled top to bottom with heads of lettuce. And for water, I haul it in from across the camp (about 100yds) and boil it.

Are there giant bugs: Yes, but most of them aren't dangerous.

How's the weather: Thank you Al Gore, because everybody says it has been uneasonably cold here. And it's rained 3 times, and half of the people here have never seen a July with rain. It's so bad, because some of the kids (and myself) have been getting sick because it's so cold at night. It has maybe been getting into the mid-70's during the day, but it feels as if I need a sweatshirt or long sleeves sometimes. I'm up with the sun at 5am everyday, and the sun sets around 5:30pm, and I'm usually asleep by 9.

What's it like in Nampula: If Mozambique was America, Nampula would be like Dodge City. There are dirt raods everywhere, there's a run on the bank everyday, and if you want the police, you have to drive to the station, pick them up, and bring them back to where you are. The orphanage is right on the edge of the African bush. There road in front of the orphanage will take you all the way to South Africa, but it becomes impassible after about 200 yds. The new road to South Africa is built just a little ways over and isn't much better in spots. Supplies are available if they're available, and there's no telling when you'll get any in more. For intance, we ran out of propane the other day, and it took 5 days before we found a place with propane. The main roads in the city are paved and only a normal to slightly pothole-y in places. As soon as you get of the 5 or 6 main roads, then you're driving down streets filled with markets that are barely wide enough for 1 car to get through. And when you're driving you need to watch out for motorbikes (more to come on that). The people up here in Nampula all speak Portuguese and Macua. As soon as you get out into the bush, all people speak is only Macua.

How are the people: What can I say, they love me! There's about 50 kids here, and we get to do tons of fun stuff here. The older boys are the ones I hang around with most. They're the best at english and when there are supplies to do work with they are the ones working. I like a few of the older girls too because they don't know english, so I am getting good at speaking portuguese.

What is the culture like: Its not that weird, or maybe at least to me. There are a few quirks, like greetings, handshakes, paying, but I've gotten around those now. It was weird the first few days here at the orfonato, everywhere I went, people were following me around with a chair because apparently in macua culture people you respect always need a place to sit if they want one. And like the first few days they wouldn't let me do any work. AT ALL. And whenever we had to go somewhere, everybody piles on the back of a flatbed pickup, and everybody,even this old guy who must have been at least 50 (which is ancient in these parts) insists that I sit in the cab. We went out to get firewood the other day, we drove into the country about 30 minutes. These old crazy ladies that only speak macua were berating everybody for letting me carry wood and then yelling at the driver for not letting me drive away. Its very confusing to other people to see a "macuna", or white person, eating with the kids or shoveling cement or digging ditches. But by now, everybody here has finally put me on the same level as themselves.

What have I done so far: Well...
7/11 Arrived in Nampule, finally (see earlier post)
7/12 Went to church, and then drove with Victor in the truck to pick up a village. The orphanage has a big truck that it uses to raise money (the long-term goal to being self sustaining). We went and picked up a group of about 30 from a remote area and took them to another remote area. After that, I met with Victor and his accountability group. It was AMAZING. Nampula is fairly flatt, but everywhere, as far as the eye can see are these mountains unlike anything I've seen. So we climbed one and spent the whole evening praying. Daylight here (it's winter) is from about 5am to 5 pm. Very weird, especially coming from the longest days of the year in Seattle.

7/13 I was driving with Victor and he "hit" a guy on a motorbike. The guys brushed into us and was trying to hit a payday by taking Victor to court or whatever. So when we took him to the hospital to check him out, he insisted on filing a police report. At which point (this guy is too stupid to be true) the police find out he doesn't have a license (a VERY big deal here) and he gets in major trouble. Meanwhile, while Victor and the boy are in the hospital dealing with the police, the kid's dad comes and starts chewing out Visado (a guy that was with us). That lasted for about 15 seconds until I stepped out of the truck and the dad never said another word. Most people in east Africa are fairly short, which makes me about 6 inches taller than your average Mozambiquan. Combine that with being built like and an ox means that when I'm in the market, or walking down the street, people move for me.

7/13-7/17 I put the finishing touches on our bungalow, including tiling the kitchen, painting, and putting in a light.
7/20 I got to drive for the first time. Between not hitting any people, vendors, bikes, or goats, I did OK.
7/21 I drove about 10 kids in the truck to the hospital. They were getting checkups or malaria treatment or something. There's a private clinic that was literally 30 minutes on a one-lane dirt road through hardcore bush. It was awesome driving.

7/22 A few of the kids found out I like math. So ever since then I've been helping them with math, physics, and chemistry. There's a chalkboard in the dining hall I've been using and have been busy ever since.

7/25-7/26 Victor, and I went out to Maritane, a Congolese refugee camp for two days of some good ole fashioned big-tent revival! Literally, is was just what you'd think, except the music was awesome. The refugee camp deserves a whole post on its own, but in a nutshell, it's about 8 years old, is a UN refugee camp, it used to be about 8,000 people but is now closer to 4,000. The people all speak swahili, so we had a translator for most things. But the congolese music is awesome (the music in moz. is pretty sweet too, but not like this). The people are free to leave whenever they want, but the first obstacle they have to clear is that the camp is 40km (~25miles) from the nearest person. Its out on the edge of nowhere.

What will I be doing next: Ever since the kids found out I love math, I've been tutoring kids grades 9+ in math, chemistry, and physics. It's been going really great, and is actually how I'm learning the language the fastest. When I first arrived, all the kids just started a 2 week break from school, so it was really nice because they were around all the time. Now, school has started and because there aren't enough schools or teachers, kids either have class in the morning (6-11am), afternoon (11-4pm) or evening (4-10pm). I've spent about 4 hours a day tutoring, and have discovered that nobody has even a basic understanding of algebra (their teachers are horrible, classes are 60 people, and grades/tests are based on either bribes or if the student will sleep with the teacher). So later in the week for probably a couple of weeks we're gonna have algebra boot camp for everybody because of the close to 18 kids I've tutored, only 1 understands it.
Also, most of my attention has been on tutoring/teaching (which I've found I love) because we've run out of money for construction. Bank of America decided to stop doing international money transfers, so we are temporarily without construction money.

So, that is not even the tip of the iceberg. I'll try to get into town a little more often (maybe 1x or 2x a week) to update, but stuff is so cool here and I work too hard to give myself an afternoon or day off to do it.