It's funny how quickly living here has become routine. Life has a comfortable rhythm, both in my home and in our classes. It leaves me feeling like I have been here much longer than I have and it is bizarre to think that only about a month had passed back at home. We will be halfway through training as of tomorrow, as week 10 will be our swearing-in and traveling to site.
Tomorrow, we will also find out what sites we will visit this coming weekend. We will be staying with currently-serving volunteers for about 6 days and seeing what it is like living at site. I am very excited to travel to another part of the country and to meet more volunteers. One of the most helpful parts of training so far, besides our homestays, has been talking with volunteers who have already been teaching in country. Each week, two volunteers travel to Namaacha and run some of our technical training sessions. Hearing their experiences and how much they vary person to person has been invaluable.
In other news, this past weekend I got my first black eye. I am absolutely fine and will post pictures of my super-sexy shiner when I get my SD card. During a 2-day session on Permagardening, I ended up with another trainee's hoe in my face. The hoe, or enchada in Portuguese, is omnipresent around here. With 81% of the country's population involved in agriculture (mostly subsistence farming) you can't walk down the street without passing someone with an enchada propped on their shoulder on just about every block. It is even on the Mozambican flag, crossed with a blessedly-less-present enormous gun. So I feel like it was a baptism of sorts and I am glad it was the non-lethal emblem that got me.
Our training class has had a shocking number of strange afflictions. So far, not too many have had the ailments you might expect - digestive issues, exotic flus and the like. No, we had someone get their head stitched up after splitting it on a basketball net. (The exotic aspect of his injury was that the doctor stitched the gauze pad into his scalp. On purpose.) Another trainee cut his hand while repairing the zipper on his backpack and also needed multiple stitches. Someone scratched his cornea with the key he keeps on a lanyard around his neck. And another was quarantined because he came down with chicken pox. All the maladies did lead to an excellent costume at this past weekend's Halloween party. Once again, pictures to come.
Currently, I am typing by the light of my head lamp as power went out a few hours ago. We had a beautiful sunny day that gave way to an epic thunderstorm in the evening. (The weather here is even more schizophrenic than in New England.) The windows were rattling and we heard at least one tree fall outside. Some of my friends here are living in houses with tin roofs and I hope it lets up before bedtime. It is making me feel a little closer to my friends and family back home riding out hurricane Sandy. My thoughts are with you all and I hope you are safe and dry!
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