Training Continues . . .

19 days down. Only 51 left until the end of training . . .

I definitely underestimated the change required to live with a family for 70 days (PC training in Namaacha is host-family based). Sometimes I love talking with my host family, they are super nice and usually at least attempt to laugh at my lame/failed Portuguese jokes. Even though they are great people, my existence in their household requires a big change in their routines and a complete reassessment of my own. Needless to say, it has been a challenge for both parties and has required a bit of compromise.

Training is fairly all consuming, so my blog fails to be very entertaining. But here are the “larger” developments in my life since the last post:

1.     After surviving another bilingual mass, I have begun to long for the days before Vatican II.

2.     While the chicken noises no longer bother me, I now notice things that I couldn’t hear before. Like the Islamic call to prayer that wakes me up at around 4 am every morning.

3.     I’ve decided that I’m going to be a cooking vegetarian while in Mozambique (aka: if someone else cooks/kills the meat, I might eat it, but I won’t be preparing any meat). Basically, my first chicken killing was needlessly prolonged due to my inability to use a dull knife, so I’m done with the whole Mozambican chicken/meat thing.

4.     Some of my fellow trainees and I have developed an addiction to popsicles, which can be purchased for the low price of 5 mets (~30 mets = 1 dollar). They seem to be more milk based than usual, but are absolutely delicious.

5.     We have also begun to frequent a German bakery that opened about 3 months ago. It’s apparently run by a non-profit that opens bakeries in developing countries as a way of creating jobs (according to the man we spoke to, they have bakeries in 10 countries). Basically their cookies are amazing. And today I bought a hot cross bun-esque confection that was delicious. This addiction (combined with the popsicles) could become a problem.

Overall, still working on the adjustment thing and hoping that Portuguese wins the ongoing war between Spanish and Portuguese that is currently being waged in my brain. My language professor has informed me that Portugal has never lost a war against Spain (a fact I cannot verify due to my continued lack of internet access), so I’m hoping this trend continues.

Also, I have a cell phone now!! If you’d like my phone number (I feel a little strange sending it out to the worldwide web), please email me.