Hello everyone!
I've arrived! It's been almost a week that I've been in Inhmabane, Mozambique. Before we got to Inhambane we were staying in Maputo, the capital city.
It's been a very exciting and eventful time. The flight to Mozambique was 3 flights and took 3 days. We left the 26th at about 11:30 ish p.m. and arrived the 28th at 11:30 p.m.. I lost my nice hard plastic water bottle in London somewhere so I've been rocking a big plastic bottle that I bought in Kenya for a dollar.
So, the first night was great, we met all the mozambiquans. We call ourselves "Canambique"... get it?
The 2nd night was not so cool. Someone came and robbed 3 out of 5 rooms. Luckily I was not robbed, but 4 boys wee not so lucky.. Dylan, Matt, Mark and Miguel. Money, iPods, cameras, some clothes.
Shit, eh. Well, on the bright side, nop passports were taken.
There are 10 boys and 8 girls, so 2 girls have to be paired up with boys as their counterparts. I am one of them.My counterpart's name is Altino. The 4 of us, the 2 girl boy pairs all live together, so Kelsey from New Brunswick and I share a room.
The bathroom experience was quite exciting. It's a concrete block with a hole. But it's smart, when we shower (twice a day) there's a hole on the side of the toilet, so the water from the shower is what flushes the pee and poop.
I found out today who my work counterpart is and where I'll start work tomorrow. I'm not at the orphanage (there are 3), instead I'm working with Nacia at the social justice center, so we get to go into the communuity and help the elderly and the children and so forth. Should be interesting!
My portuguese is improving. I can understand quite a bit if they talk really slow. My counterpart doesn't speak much english, so I guess I'll learn faster :)
So yeah, showers. It's really cool. We have boiled water nd then put it in a bucket and then put cold water in until its a good temperature. Shampoo  and conditioning is rather special. I did it for the first time in Inhmabane yesterday. I figure the hair is supposed to eventually clean itself and if I'm showering everyday that my hair much be clean.
Everyone is very nice! We live half an hour away from Tofo, which is a beautiful beach. We've been there twoce already, and apparently very saturday we'll go! It's soo beautiful! Simon (our supervisor) said that it;s very rare for CWY people to live near a beach!!
We went to the movies last night! The movir was "Elvis and Madonna" and no, it was nothing like ow you think it would be.
The 4 of us live the furthest away from downtown, so we take the "Chapa" every morning, and walk home in the evenings. Chapas cost for us 7 meticas (like 15 cents) and to walk it's half an hour! Chapas are like minivans only there's no "maximum number of people" haah, so for the most part you're squished in there with 20 other people. This morning I was able to sit beside the driver and I saw that the spedometyer doesn't work!
Ok, I have to go now, because my time is runnning out! Internet costs money!
Hope all is well.
I'm safe and happy and healthy!
love, tay