Orientation

Welp. We finally made it! After a quick Staging event in Philadelphia, a 2 am wake up call, a 4 hour bus ride to JFK, a 4 hour wait, a 15 hour flight,  a 4 hour layover in Jo’berg, and a quick 50 minute flight to Maputo. We finally made it!

It was so great to be outside for a few minutes leaving the airport, and the weather in Maputo (the capital city of Mozambique) is surprisingly nice right now ….  Somewhere in the 70s.  Our  group of 35 (half of Moz15) checked into the Hoya Hoya hotel where we had to drag our 100+ pounds of luggage up 4 flights of stairs. So that was pretty sweet. Not.  We can’t see the ocean from our hotel, but we are right in the middle of the city.  It seems to be pretty a pretty busy place and is apparently not a good representation of the rest of Mozambique

We had our first day of orientation today – basically prepping us for Training (I’m noticing that we’re getting a lot of “prepping”….staging prepped for orientation, orientation preps for training, training preps for service blah blah blah).  We met with the US ambassador (who is ranking right up there with the lady who spoke at Rhodes baccalaureate as one of my new idols), learned how to assemble water filters, got a rabies shot, and had an interview in Portuguese…just your average Thursday! Hah!

On Saturday morning we are being bussed to Namaacha, a small mountain village on the border of Swaziland and South Africa for our homestay training.   I have no idea what the internet situation is there (I’m guessing very limited compared to Maputo) but I’ll try to get some posts in it keep yall updated.  OH and I should have a phone by next Saturday and texting is super cheap!

Ok so for some random information….

•           the other PCTs  (Peace Corps Trainees) are amazinggg ! They’re from everywhere and they are so impressive!
•         Meal time is getting more interesting everyday. Dinners have been pretty legit … lots of curries, stews, rice.  Breakfast is a little bizarre. Today, for example, we had huge HUGE bowls of bread (some sliced, some rolls, some loaves).  Then each person got a banana and a kraft single….maybe they figure the Americans really like American cheese? I don’t know!
•          I have a bathroom in my hotel room. However. The toilet doesn’t work, and shower either has hot water or cold water – never at the same time. And water pours all over the floor whenever we turn it on.
•         On the bus ride to our hotel, we passed tons of women and girls carrying huge buckets and crates on their heads! So impressive. We tried with our Medical kits today at orientation, and apparently you need to be a native with a lot of practice to be able to pull it off!

Hope everyone is doing well!! Miss and love yall!

Tchou!