Finally a chance to update

Hey everyone!

The first 2 weeks have been pretty damn eventful, I must say. In that time, I've learned Portuguese, survived explosive Mozambican Mud Butt (in the same category as Montezuma's Revenge and Delhi Belly), killed/plucked/hacked up/cooked a chicken (and word on the street is that my host father is going to surprise me with a goat to kill tomorrow), re-learned how to do my laundry, and I've had my hate for gossip revived in small groups.

I'm still getting used to it all (like bucket showers rather than having running water), but my life has been made a little easier by having a cell phone with *sketchy* internet access. My host family is pretty sweet, with a few minor exceptions. My host parents are both really friendly and annoyingly helpful, and my host brother barely speaks Portuguese, since he grew up in Swaziland, so there's a lot of English flying around when he's not back in Swaziland.

I'm living in a small border town (not of the same class as Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez) on the southern border of Mozambique and am re-living my travel experiences of living in small towns. That is to say, there are two computers with working internet in the whole damned place, and I perpetually have to fight the other 68 people in my Peace Corps group for internet time. Needless to say, my posts for the next two months might be sparse.

Oh yeah, and somebody please, for the love of god, send me a box with thousands of frisbees. I've never seen such mayhem as when 18 billion elementary school children get out of class and see Americans throwing frisbees around. Utter mayhem. I've never been perceived to be so cool as I was to these Mozambican 10-year-olds while I held control of the disc.

That's all for now, as details are too many to mention. If you feel the need to call me, I'd love it. My phone number here is +258-82-294-8183. That should get my phone directly. If not, those of you in the States might try dialing +011 first. And please don't be offended if I don't call you. It costs about 40 cents a minute to call outside Mozambique, and considering I get less than US$20 per week as a living allowance...you do the math.

Much love to all!

~Pick