Hello Home,

Am on my way to my home for the next 24 months in Mugulama, no water or electricity and aparelmente my house has a door that is about 5 inches shorter than me and a roof of an undetermined height because my security officer and colleagues do not wish to tell me so I am have a house that is shorter than me. I also have 2-3 months to learn the local language of Longwe or something like that because most of the people I will be working with everyday do not speak excellent Portuguese, so I am looking forward to weeks of intensive language training. I will miss not hearing about things in the world, but if anyone knows me they know how much I love silence and I am guaransheed to get it now. I also did not bring a camera and the disposable i do have still is not developed and there is no point in sending it back to the states because it will not get there. I also do not have the most interesting things to write on here because most times you want to write about things that shock you or a new development in your life or personality but I really have not come across any life altering things since I arrived, maybe because I was expecting a lot of this stuff I have seen or lived with because I have wanted to do the Peace Corps in Africa for years or maybe because I am shallow; let's hope together it is the former. Take care and talk to you soon. Bryan.

End of Week 8

Hi,

Done with week 8 and it feels like it is finals week, cramming for tests and presentations. I have my practicum monday, with some young boys talking about their future and what work they want to do, with a little bit of gender talk, friday is the final language interview and i am not a very good speaker but i think i will barely pass and i am sure it will come with time and not living with people who speak english. I will be living in Zambezia Province, in a small village called Mugulama. I will be working with people living with HIV and AIDS, making sure they adhere to treatment, building the capacity of the community to recieve the materials needed to care for the sick, developing and implementing projects based on treatment, prevention and working as a link between the closest hospital and our community. I will have to learn a local language and prolly will not have electricity. Should be fun and tough. Hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and there is no real thanksgiving unless the lions play like the lions normally do. Go to go talk to you soon.

Week 5

Hi,

Mid-way through training and we leave next week for site visit, I am traveling to the Province of Zambezia and will be staying in a town called Mocuba. Apparently it is in the mountains or close to them. It should be a fun time leaving the place we have been for the last 5 weeks and seeing some of the country. Not much to report, everything is pretty much monotonous everday. Though if anyone out there has a 313 area code I do not know about, tell me because a glitch in the phone I have allows me to call 313 area codes for free. Shaun and I have never talked so much. Well, we did have a session with a lady living with HIV, it was very sad, because we all knew her husband passed the disease onto her since he has been a miner in South Africa for years, and after she told him she had it he blamed her and left her, now she has 3 kids, no job or money and is ostracized by most of society due to the stigma perpetuated by idiot government officials throughout the years or the hierarchy in most churches. She seemed so ashamed to be sitting there and I think she did it so she could get some food for her baby. In another note, I was strolling around the local mercado (market) and saw my first Michael Vick style dog fighting. These kids had three puppies probably 4 weeks old and they were dragging them around on leashes and got in a circle and grabbed the neck of two and smashed their faces together until the dogs started to bite eachother, it was quite pathetic and unfortunately I think they have bad role models when their parents beat the dogs and the kids lack the same compassion. And I think psychologists would argue the way you treat your animals could showcase the way you treat other things you feel are inferior to yourself?

4 Weeks Done

Hello,

Live is as good as it can be, though I woulnd't mind speaking the language a little better...family life is good and there is a lot to report but I am not I can write a lot of my views about certain aspects of the culture, because one, the PC policemen and women would call me ethno-centric, although it is only an observation which may be funneled through my past teachings and american culture, but if that is the case, no one can ever make an observation again without it being ethno-centric because we are all influenced by family, faith, schooling, culture and civil society as a whole, right? So it was a little bit of an illogical statement, anyways...secondly, lots of people read this and I sure dont want to put the Peace Corps in jeopardy if someone from the Mozambican government reads this and doesnt appreciate some of my viewpoints, it has happened before...but anyways i love the country overall...So I decided to share one moment which apparently has made its way to PCV throughout the country...
We have water filters and we have to filter the water and put a small amount of bleach in afterwards...it was a week before i set mine up and that day we play soccer with the local kids and it was really hot so i was chugging bleach water all day...I go to bed and wake up at 3am and have to go to the bathroom, so i get out of my room and go to the backdoor and i said to myself, "I have to go right now," 5 seconds later I am 5 feet away from my backdoor and 50 feet away from the outhouse and I said, "I have to go right f!@##%^ here" and I pulled my pants down and covered an area of, o i dont know, 8 feet with 4 days worth of food...so it is 315am and I am bathing myself at this water spicket naked and i dont have a flashlight to find the area in which i decimated with my feces, so i fill a basilla up with agua and dump it all around hoping it would wash it away...so i wake up the next morning and my family is digging dirt to cover up the area so the kids and dogs dont play in it and all i can say in my limited portuguese (it was the first week i moved in) was desculpe and obrigado, sorry and thank you...so i get home from class and on top of the new dirt are all of their large buckets to keep people off of it...so there you have it, my family thought it was funny and i decided i was ready for the rest of my time in sub-saharan africa.

Yo

Going, ok, only sick once so far. Not much to report, the language is going slow and there is a lot of stress on all of us to adjust to the living situations and along with learning a language, meeting the expectations of our host families and finishing other things the Peace Corps wants from us. The next 8 weeks will be increasingly challenging. I have never been so high at one point and absolutely depressed the next moment. Got to go. Love you all.

Bom Dia Mafuiane

Ho Ho Ho,



greetings from the motherland...what a time so far, I will just give short tidbits and use your imagination...first my new phone, i can get free text messages so write your heart away; my # is 827339507 and you must type 00258 for like an area code or something first, ill text you back if you i got it...um where do i start... for tatum, taking a bucket bath under the milky way while malaria filled mosquitoes surround you, and yes i cover my penis steve...you aint never had breakfast until you have eaten a fried egg covered in oil over top pan fried french fries at 645 am, yummy...i live with a good family, they have all kinds of f'n animals, and i eat meat a lot...all the little kids yell "mulungo" and then run up to you and follow you, come my children...Eu sou voluntaria do Corpo de Paz...i shit outside into the ground, not to bad but it has no ventilation...African women want me to marry them and bring them back to America, it is not tempting be cause I have Laura...Prolly wont get back to the internet until mid december, so it is your responsibility to text me lions and UM scores each weekend...thats about it, not too much, havent seen any national geographic type animals...o wait the first day i got to my family, they put on the only dvd they had, r kelly playing so i sang pissin on me quite funny, k got to go love you all peace

From the Mouth of its Founder

"Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a sufficient level only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live along side the nationals of the country in which they are stationed--doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language.

But if life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participated in the Peace Corps--who works in a foreign land--will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace."
-President Kennedy

Leaving Soon

11 days until I leave. Getting things together; finishing my last minute Portuguese studying; figuring out my financial obligations; and trying to get together some money to buy a few more things. Mostly, loving my girlfriend before I leave. That's about it, will only get to the computer once a week or so, since I do not have a laptop. My next blog will have my address in Mozambique and my initial thoughts upon arriving in my country of origin for the next 27 months. Take er ease.