Our first week

Our Peace Corps experience is starting out well! We met the other 67 Mozambique Peace Corps volunteers on Sunday the 23rd ãt an orientation in Philadelphia and were impressed with the talent and enthusiasm of everyone we met. The 17+ hour flight went smoothly and we stayed the night in a fancy hotel in Johannesburg. Then we had 4 days of pre-service training in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. Maputo had perfect weather while we were there and we enjoyed gathering poolside for meetings at the hotel there.
Last Sunday we took a bus to the city of Namaacha, which is on the border with Swaziland. We´re living in Namaacha for our 10 weeks of pre-service training. Our host father, Jorge, met the bus and took us to our first home away from home.
Namaacha is gorgeous. The beauty of the colorful sunset over the hills will stick in my memory. We´ve been enjoying spending so much time outside. Jesse and I hike to our Portuguese language classes early each morning. Each professor has 5 students - the groups meet outside in the yards of host families. We are immersed in Portuguese and are trying to learn as much as we can. The professors integrate lessons with "walk around" trips - to the market to practice the new phrases, to the ceremony celebrating the end of the civil war, etc.
Outside of class, we learn from and love spending time with our host family. Our dad, Jorge, makes time and effort to talk with us. We have 2 moms, Lydia and Elisa, who teach us everything we need to know around the house. The host families can´t assume that we know even the most basic things about living in a village. We´ve learned to cook on a charcoal stove, wash clothes on a rock, swaddle a baby on my back, make flour by pounding and sifting, and bathe by splashing water from a basin with our cupped hands. I´m even starting to learn how to carry water on my head, cut open a coconut with a rock, and dance with the energy and awesomeness of Mozambique. (In addition, I´ve had to prove that I already know how to sweep, slice bread, etc.)
We have 2-year old twin sisters, Fina and Vina, who love being bounced and tilted upside down. Our 9-year old sister, Fina, works hard on chores all day. 10-year old Jorge likes to quiz us on the Portuguese names of things in our room. We also have 18 and 21 year old brothers, Mito and Dino, who attend the secondary school where we´ll be presenting lessons during the last couple weeks of our pre-service training.
The family´s land has 4 small buildings - a free-standing kitchen, a building with the dining/family room and 2 bedrooms, a separate bathroom, and a 1-room building where Jesse and I sleep. Roosters, chickens and chicks, ducks and ducklings roam the yard and wake us up each morning.
Jesse and I are doing well. We´ve learned so much already and are looking forward to learning so much more! We´ve experienced so much, it´s hard to believe that we´ve been in Namaacha for less than a week!