Oh yeah...

So...work is picking up. It's nice. I have lot of sweet little projects: have a journalism group at the secondary school, a music group with kids 13-15 (a bunch of them are orphans), a capoira group that wants to do theatre plays and shows in the community, I helped my local CBO (community based organization) restructure their leadership and am still currently helping them develop, and I'm trying help a bunch of orphans get registered so that they can receive financial aid. I think I might start a permaculture project in the near future too...maybe little income generating project with orphans or with the cbo too...we'll see...yeah...life is getting better.

Ok. Nao ha mais coisas para dizer. Ou talvez tenho, mais aqui nao e um bom sitio para falar.

Tchau. =)

A return to reality?

So...I know I haven't written an entry in a really long time...but I seriously just didn't have the time or the patience before.

So...updates:

...

On second thought, I don't really feel like making anything that's happened public to the world back there. I'll just keep it as PC Moz fofoca. Sorry ya'all...

Well, maybe I can share that I can finally do an aerial (thank you mr. Mau Mau and the other capoeristas).

Ok...done.

Oh wait, I would like to say that I a couple days ago I hitch-hiked by myself for about 12 hours. Heading back to site tomorrow.

Ok...maybe I'm not done.

Summer is coming back! Starting to get hot again.

I'm trying to decide what to do about my hair. Cut it, braid it, or just leave it...decisions decisions...

Beach day was glorious...

Ok...now I'm done.

Chance encounter...

One day, I was coerced into attending a parade in my village. At the town square, while people paid their respects to a famous dead woman, a group of boys approached me. They said that they would teach me what they knew of capoeira if I would teach them what I knew of martial arts. Apparently, I "looked like" I knew how to fight...I'm not sure if that's because of the way I walked (which is actually quite awkward) or because I'm asian. Either way, sadly, they were kinda right...even though I stopped studying martial arts 13 years ago.

So...I started trying out capoeira. And then I realized something very obvious...I'm not as flexible as I was 13 years ago.

But it's still fun.

Peanuts?

Back at Home

Okay, imagine everything you know about the possible evolution of dinosaurs into modern day birds...got it? Okay, now imagine that all that happened to me in the past three months.

Yes, I now have wings, feathers, and can lay eggs. Sweet, right?

Ha, just kidding.

That is what I feel like, though. I seriously can't believe the stuff that's been happening to me...and it just comes non-stop, every day. Well, something big happens at least once a week.

Like, for example, a few days ago I was in a major city for a conference and a bunch of PCV's were robbed. I was walking back with an amigo and an amiga from a...place of dancing (which happened to be less than a block away from our hotel)...when four dudes jumped us. One had a knife, another had a broken bottle, and a third had...a coconut. The dude with the coconut was the one closest to me. The fourth thug grabbed my amiga and took some stuff from her. Just when things were looking very bleak, a car pulled up and the four ladrões jumped over a wall and sped off into the night. My buddy thanked the car and we hurried off to our hotel.

After the conference I was heading back home with a boleia, and the tire blew out. Of course, we were in the middle of nowhere, so we had to wait four hours for our driver to catch a boleia himself and fix the spare in the closest town. Not a big deal really. Kinda lame, thinking about it now, but I guess I'll just leave that there.

So...after a month filled with lots of viagems, I'm finally back at site. I have lots of ideas and lots of things to accomplish, but first I'm going to go for a run with my kids, cut my buddy's hair, and watch my clothes hang dry.

My computer.

I am...so...not in the mood to write an entry now.

So...I shall...not write one. Kinda.

All I can say is...I think I need a time out.

Payce.

Innocent...dancing...?

So...I was eating dinner with my buddy and a couple of friends that we knew at the hospital came over. They were going to the discoteca and asked us to join them. "Sure, why not?" I thought.

After a couple beers, I started dancing. I'm not sure who was raping who, but a lot of guys started taking turns battling me...very closely...as if I was a girl...I'm not sure how I feel about that. Well, I'm pretty sure I raped them.

I danced some more, until a girl asked me to dance with her. We talked for a bit, danced a lot, and then...she started to lick my ear. "WTF," I thought...So, when a girl came over and distracted her, I left the dance floor.

I talked with my buddy, and he said that I had been dancing with a hooker. He had seen her around the other barracas and had noticed her odd behavior.

I need to go shower. I sweated a lot. And...I don't want any STD's in my ear.

Aw yeah...

Can you imagine going from extreme sadness to extreme happiness in less than 24 hours?

Well, that has just happened to me, and as a result I'm extremely hyper at the moment. I won't explain in details what's happened...actually, I won't explain at all since it's all very private and this is a public blog...but...mew. Muahaha.

Sooooo...what's new in my world?

I have some RPCV's from Namibia coming to visit next week, I'm trying to score some funds for one of the local HIV stigma groups (all of them are HIV positive, but they are freaking awesome and happy people), I have a couple of orphans next door who I'm quickly becoming a father-figure to, and...I just have to straight up say this (sorry to all the peeps at home)...all the people I've met here in Moçambique (especially the expats and PCV's) are the most amazing individuals I've met in my life. I could not have asked for a better country placement...and I'm loving this province as well...

Okay, enough of that shiz.

So, interesting stories...I visited a hospital in a comunidade several km away, and they had a trash pit where they threw the placentas and biohazardous stuff (to be burned later), but it was placed directly next to a corn field. The nearest corn plant was seriously within 2 feet of the pit. Yummy!

People here love to dance. It's freaking awesome. Sometimes I'll walk behind the central mercado and people will be dancing in the fruit aisles. Oh yeah, I had a lanya (baby coconut) yesterday and I had a pineapple today. It was a nice change from my bread and peanut butter breakfast.

I 'm planning on starting my garden soon...maybe tomorrow after I find some corn seeds...I'm going to have peanuts, beans, onions, tomatoes, corn...and a couple other things...I don't have time to make any compost and I'm kinda lazy to find some ash, so I'll see what I can do with just pure digging...hopefully my yard has some nice nutrients...but whatevs.

There's more that I'd like to say but I seriously can't tell you...I just can't.

Peace out yo!

A nice little trip...

It all started off with frogs mating.

I was itchy from bug bites and what not, and my bed was uncomfortable...so I wasn't sleeping very well. Then, when the loud music from the local barraca (which is normal and I can normally sleep through) finally stopped at 10pm, the mating frogs started up. Now, all you people in the states might think you've heard frogs before, but some of these frogs sounded like they were being murdered or something. High pitched squeals emanated between the barotone croaks. Then a cat screeched at my dog. Then a dog growled at my dog, causing Vaca to whine to me...begging to be let in the house. I drifted in and out of restless sleep until 4am, when the Mosque's call to prayer told me that the sun would be up soon and I would no longer score any more z's.

So, I spent the next night at my buddy's house (and by buddy, I mean my Mozambican-doctor-mulatto buddy...there are no other Americans in my town...the only one I know of in the whole district, besides me, lives out in the boonies and I only see her a couple days every month or so).

I woke up at 5am, pretty well rested...used his comp to upload a few pix...watched the new version of Ninja Turtles dubbed in Portuguese...took a three hour trip over a bumpy road to a beach 50km away...tomar'ed banho in my undies with four other mozambican dudes in the ocean (they were better prepared and had speedos on)...caught a few waves, with my underwear threatening to wash out to sea (I hope the crabs and clams got a good look)...had some lobster which was pretty dry and unsatisfying, but only $5 US...fries and rice included...then listened to classical rock on the way back home: "What is love? Baby, don't hurt me...don't hurt me...no more..." Our driver speaks only a little English, but he loves listening to American jams. I waved to kids who randomly waved at us on the bumpy roads. I started pondering whether or not I like my new life here...a leaf from a coconut tree falling as I contemplated if I'm still in awe at being in Africa.

Not so much in awe anymore...it's more like...an awakening for me. I am here...I've been wanting to be here for a long time, and there are many things I am planning to accomplish...and I am finally here to do it.

If you don't leave the safety and comforts that you're used to...if you just follow the ebb and flow of the society you've been caught in...you'll never discover what it is that your heart really desires...well, at least for people like me, that is.

I've always felt something missing, and I think I've finally found it. It took me a couple years and a trip to the opposite side of the world...and some intensive classes and social adjustments...but I feel pretty damn lucky to live the life that I have and be the person that I am. Crazy, neh?