Pictures

Me and my mae are cleaning a chicken I killed.




The second picture is of me with my Mae and Pai and one of my brothers with a chicken I just killed. My brother took this photo with my cell phone so the quality is not so great.

Site Placements

26/11/2008
Well today I found out where I will be living for the next two years starting December 15th. Apparently I will be in the province of Zambezia somewhat near Malawi. I will be living in a very rural town that does not have electricity so needless to say my house will not have electricity, but I will learn to live without it I suppose. I’m really glad that I brought my guitar as I was planning on using my electronic devices for my primary entertainment but I guess I will switch over to guitar playing, reading and solely use my iPod. Thank the gods for my solar charger.
I was told my house is large (2 bedrooms and a large living room, with a nice outdoor brick latrine/casa de banho and a small porch) so that’s cool, though if it’s large it will require twice as many candles to light it up. I think I will be going to bed early and getting up around 5 once it is light outside because dim light, whether it be by candle, or by a light bulb with an extremely weak electric current, makes me feel very tired.
I will be working for a branch of a larger American development organization so I’m excited to be working for an organization with some resources behind it. As all Peace Corps volunteers do I will be able to do some secondary programs but I guess I will be working a lot with water sanitation issues, which is not something I anticipated doing, but should be interesting.
Also as far as I can tell now… if I want to visit the closest PCV to me I will need to travel at least 3 hours, which is close here. I shall have lots of alone time.
Needless to say today all of us PCT’s were very excited to find out our sites and I was also pleased with the abundance of meat provided for us at the Peace Corps Thanksgiving meal. My family does not eat a lot of meat here at homestay and I think my brothers were a little shocked when I told them normally in the United States I ate some sort of meat with every meal. I’m a huge carnivore, so if meat isn’t readily available at my site I think I will have to raise some chickens. I am also interested in finding a scale so I can weight myself, since Iºve now had more than one person comment on my weight or clothes being baggy. I was on my first belt notch when I left the states and now Iºve had to move up 3 notches. I can no longer wear my cargo shorts without tying the draw string very tight, but itºs okay I feel fine and still have energy so Iºm not concerned at all!

Still Training

20/11/08
Well it’s the end of week 7 here in PCT Mozambique. I’m happy that soon I will know where I will be living the next two years of my life but also a little sad that soon we all be spread out to different nooks and crannys of Mozambique. Hopefully I am placed near a few of my friends so I can have the occasional get together. I guess I’m also just really eager to “ nest” and unpack all my things into a house of my own, instead of living out of my suitcase in one room with all of my things scattered all over. Also I look forward to meeting my community and meeting the people I will see routinely. My host family has been incredible though as I often hear stories or issues other people are having and am very grateful that my family is not hassling me like that.
Right now summer is heating up and we are starting to get more and more rain which sucks here as it makes traveling anywhere very messy and I’m suddenly very conscious of how dirty my clothes get now that I have to hand wash them. I hope that I’m placed somewhere with sand and not mud. Although I do have to admit the day after a big rain when the mountains are all lush and green it’s just simply breath taking. I have to remind myself to stop and stare at the scenery sometimes as its already become something normal.
During my site placement interview I indicated that I would rather be placed in a rural area than a urban one as I think that it would be very difficult for me to integrate into my community in an urban area and getting to know my community is one of the ways in which I hope to be effective health worker. I also think that it will be a good network of support for me emotionally as well as for my physical security. I’m told from other volunteers it’s not the bars on the doors or locks that make you feel safe but knowing that your neighbors are watching out for you.
I would like to work with people currently living with HIV or AIDS. I feel like I would find the work in those adherence programs very rewarding personally. I also would like to work with teenage boys in my community, but I will try not to get my hopes and will wait and see.
I have a killer craving for turkey right now too. I hope we get turkey next week, because the turkey that my neighbors have next door is getting pretty tempting and I keep telling it that it’s lucky to be living here in Mozambique because where I come from it would be entering its last few days….
I will miss having rocking out with my irmaos to T.I.!! I was just chilling with my brothers when we started listening to T.I. King (quite possibly one of the best rap albums out there in my opinion) when I looked around and saw that all 4 of us were all kind of dancing on our own to the songs….ahhh music, rap music in this case, truly is a universal language. Right as I type this the song Touchdown by T.I. feat Eminem is on repeat and it makes me smile. I love how my brothers love these songs as much as I do and they don’t even understand all of the words because they are in English, just goes to show how infectious the beats are I suppose. One of the reasons I love music is because it can take you back to a time and place, and now I have one more good memory to go along with T.I.’s King and the song Touchdown.

Cell Phone & Election

Bom dia,

I now have a cell phone my number is 011 258( I think that is how you dial to Mozambique from the states) and then - 82 -933-7396 is my regular cell number. It is free for me to receive texts and calls so go ahead and call -> though we are 7 hours ahead of US central time and will be 8 after you have daylight savings time.

I am excited about the election so any updates about who's winning or who the next president will be would be greatly appreciated!!!

Homestay Life in Moz

Well I've just finished week 2 of Pre-service training here in Mozambique. I've been staying with a Mozambican family in a small village near the Swaziland/Mozambique border. I am somewhat impressed with myself with how much Portuguese I've learned in just two weeks. My first night with my homestay family was interesting as I exhausted my conversation material (My name is ....., How are you?, Do you have kids? How old are you?) in a matter of minutes during the walk home with my homestay father. Now I can hold conversations with my host brothers, even though they are somewhat simple and sometimes I have to be creative in explaining things with my limited vocabulary but everyday I understand more of the conversations around me. I still find myself though being totally clueless as to what someone has said and knowing that I still have a lot to learn. But about my homestay family- they are amazing, laid back and incredible caring. My family consists of my Pai and Mãe, 5 irmãos (brothers) and 1 irmã (sister). My sister is 4 years old, and therefore feisty and full of energy. It took her a few days to warm up and speak to me although I sometimes do not understand her as it is a mix of Portugues and Xangana. My brothers are aged 23, 19, 17, 16, and 14. I have only seen my 19 year old brother on my first night at homestay and since it was my first night I was not able to communicate much with him other than to find out that the next morning he was leaving to go to the city to work. My 23 year old brother works as well but in the local area so he is here most of the nights but since he is older he comes and goes doing his own thing. When he is around though he's great to hang out with and we sometimes passear (meander around, or stroll) around town. My other three brothers are here at the house every night since they are all in secondary school and I don't know what I would do without them. All three of them usually hang out and listen to music on their CD player while I study and help me with my TPC (homework). If I had known they were so into music (Westlife, Bryan Adams, is that one song from the Three Musketeers soundtrack - "all for one and all for love" Bryan Adams?) I would have brought some of the many mix CD's I have made over the years as the music selection my brothers have is very random. My Pai is incredible, when we first arrived in town and were introduced to our families they were all singing to us and when I met my Pai I went at first to give the respectful Mozambican handshake but instead he gave me a hug and took my guitar to carry for me back to the house. Within minutes of arriving I was shown where the banho is and given soap and a towel to take a bucket bath (one of the things I found to be way easier than I thought it would be and afterwards I always feel so clean!). I was given some old flip-flops to use in the shower but on my way there my Pai stopped me and said that "I was his son and get new sandals" as he handed me a fresh new pair. My Mãe is a little soft spoken but also a very nice person. She has helped me hand wash my clothes and then iron them. She has also taught me how to fry an egg (strangely I was confused as to how to do it here with a coal stove) and how to make coulve ( kind of like collared greens in a white coconut milk sauce over top of rice or xima). Most of our training so far has been involving language but the technical training we have had so far is pretty exciting and making me look forward to finding out what area of HIV & AIDS health promotion I will be focusing on. Also each week we have had current Peace Corp Volunteers (PCV's) staying in our town as a resource for us to ask questions about what being at site is like and also for simple questions about everyday life in Mozambique. Also at the end of next week I will be getting a cell phone and the PCV's tell me that the plan here works that all incoming texts and phone calls are free for us so it will be very cheap (free) for me to be called, so I guess if you want to call or text it would probably be cheap for you to get a calling card or use skype.

Update-Maputo

This will just be a quick post to let everyone know that I made it safely to Maputo after a long flight. Today is a kind of exciting day as I will be going to a village outside of Maputo to stay with my host Mai and Pai for my ten week training. I am excited for this yet a little nervous as I will exhaust my possible conversation material in Portuguese in probably about 5 minutes.

Also, in about 3 weeks I will be able to purchase a cell phone and I am told I will be able to access the internet with said phone...soooo updates will come with more frequency!

Tchau!

Philly

I 'm currently in Philadelphia and today I proudy completed my Peace Corps staging. We have a big group and I've already met a lot of great people and have been told we are a great group. I'm going to keep this entry short as I am very tired and will have alot of traveling to do tommorow. But tomorrow we will be leaving for South Africa (finally in Africa yes!!) and we will get to the real nuts and bolts of our training. It's weird, I feel like I have already been in a Philly doing staging for a week but it's only been a few days, today when we ended training I felt like I knew our Staging officials for a long time!! Well I'll ttyl!

Thanks & Good Bye while I'm Training

Well my computer was finally fixed so now I can finally say thanks to everyone who came to my going away party, it feels great to have so much support and also don't worry about me, I'll make it back safe and sound I promise.

I finally have 99% of my belongings packed away either at my Dad's house or in Scott's basement, now I just have to figure out how to cram two years of my life into two small suitcases. Today I'll be going back to Viola to see my Dad and that will be the last time I'm in Viola for quite awhile. Tomorrow I will be going with Kate, Bearclaw, my Mother and Scott to the Renaissance fair in Shakopee and then afterwards to dinner with Kate's parents Steve and Debbie. Then it's off in the morning...that will be kind of hard but not so bad when you think about how fast two years will fly by and how it's not a "I'll never see you again goodbye" but "I'll see you later goodbye".

My address during training (till December) if you want to send me a letter (please do!!!) will be

Luke Wenzel, PCT
Peace Corps
C.P. 4398
Maputo, Mozambique

Please number your letters for tracking purposes and write
“Airmail” and “Par Avion” on the envelopes.
I have also heard that drawing some religious symbols on the letter helps as well to get them delivered....but don't go overboard on that!!!

I'll try and update as soon as I get a chance to, but that may be a few months after I leave.

Busted Computer and Itinerary

Well I haven't been on here lately as my computer decided to spontaneously start shutting down on Monday so I had to take it in to a local place to get it fixed (right now I'm on Kate's computer). But my itinerary is as follows
Sept. 28th Flight leaves from Minneapolis at 6:50a
to
Detroit @ 9:36a (probably later since flights are never EVER on time)
Switch planes and fly out at 10:06
to
Philly arriving at 11:44a.
Then I guess I am supposed to get myself to my hotel and check, where I will find info about the start of my staging at 1pm that day. It looks like it will be some pretty intense booked stuff straight through until Tuesday when we are to check out that morning and get to JFK for our flight to Johannesburg, South Africa (it's a 17h 40 min flight), arriving Wednesday. Thursday then we will finally be flying to Maputo, Mozambique YAY!!

Until then I still need to pack up all of my belongings and give away/ sell a bunch of it to my brothers...

Hurry up!

I received my staging info and it looks like I will be leaving Minneapolis at 6:50am (means I have to get up even earlier) and then will land in Detroit, switch planes, and then end up in Philly 11ish. I had better get all my stuff together and start packing soon huh.

So Mozambique it is!

So today as I woke up at the crack up noon and walked out into the living room Keisha (roomate's gf) mentioned to me that Mike (roommate) had found a package left at the door for me from Fed-Ex.
Right away I was pretty sure what it was, either my Solio or my invite (finally) from the Peace Corp. Sure enough it was a big blue folder with "the Peace Corps invites you to serve", I was so excited I ripped the front of the folder accidentally and saw on the first page that my assignment was to Mozambique, for the program of "Health & HIV/AIDS Capacity Building Project", my job title being "Community Health Promoter" with my dates of service being December 13, 2008 - Dec. 13, 2010. Wow for some reason 2010 sounds like the distant future not just two years away! My orientation dates are September 29-30th. So looks like I will be leaving somewhere around that time.
To go to Mozambique I have to learn Portuguese which really excites me, I was hoping I would get to serve in a country where English is not the primary language as learning other languages has always interested me, unfortunately my high school Spanish didn't say with me after high school graduation.
This summer has went by waaaay too fast. Mike told me earlier today that the guy who I am subleasing this apartment from will be back on the 17th which means I have to move all of my stuff out of here and then also pack it up for two years while I'm in Mozambique.....looks like I will be busy from here on out. I still have yet to decide when my last day at work will be, as I want to have at least 2 weeks to tie up any loose ends and hang out with some VIPs (namely my awesome gf Kate and my Dad).