I Like Republicans or...

Okay, before all of you attack me for that blasphemy let me explain myself. A wise man (my uncle) once told me that I should read up on my enemy (the republicans) before I attack them. So I have been and LET ME TELL YOU! This could not be a better time to want to read about the Republicans. Sarah Palin and John McCain have just provided so much entertainment. Some of the quotes will go down in history. I think "I can see Russia from my house!" is my favorite. I wonder if the word LIPSTICK will ever be heard the same way again. I envision future generations of budding politicians just shouting LIPSTICK at each other, it having become an insult thanks to a hick from Alaska.

But I can't really make more than inflammatory comments about what's going on over there. Trust me though it makes for very interesting dinner convos at Campismo restaurant here amongst us Americans. The Republicans have afforded me with such wonderful practice and I am truly grateful. My republican friends here (yes I do have republican friends) afford me the practice to become more elequant in my speech as I show them the error of their ways. Someone who has 5 children under 20, believes she can see Russia from the middle of Alaska, and belongs to a church where it's believed homosexuality can be cured in 21 days really shouldn't be running the senate - is something I tell my friend Scott on regular occaisons. At least he finally believes that sexuality is not a choice! We're working on him.

What I'm even more appreciativve of though is the ability I've developed and the opportunities I've had to look at things from a different angle. Life is not about iced chai lattes from Starbucks, the newest bag from LV, or who has the best golfing average. Don't get me wrong, those things are nice - don't think I really care for any of them though. I don't like Starbucks, am not partial to handbags (even though I do have a lot of shoulder bags here for work) and have never golfed in my life. But going back. None of my friends here in Maxixe have probably experienced any of my 3 examples yet they live happy lives. I was talking to an American in California per google chat today and this person was explaining what happened this week with some what appeared to be unshakable American financial institutions who fell FLAT on their faces. A friend of his' Dad lost 6 million dollars in investments. See for me now, that money is just a figure. I see on a daily basis what such a difference $5 can make to buy a new mosquito net for someone sleeping in a reed shack. I hear people grumbling about gas just going up to 45 meticais a liter. About a pound a liter or $7 a gallon. Mozambique was the UN's most destitute country in the world from 75 to 95. The majority of cars here are rusted tin cans with wheels and trust me, do not get very good gas mileage. But Mozambicans aren't stopping to drive, A vida continua is the daily mantra.

We, as westerners, need to learn that. Personally I see good eventually coming out of this. But just think how much respect will be garnered for America and the West if we pull ourselves out of a mess that the world has never seen before. It was done in Germany. So let's all calm down, sort things out again, let Sarah Palin enjoy the view of Russia and realize that we are connected and need to work together. I know Africa would appreciate it and love to be able to eat 3 times a day again.

CALM DOWN!!!! Ian

So I have less than 3 months left. I've outfitted my house to good standards. I still live in a shack by western standards I am sure. But I have a fridge, lots of books, furniture that isn't a plastic chair. I've got pretty curtains and just a variety of nick-nacks that most people here don't have or don't know what they are. Honestly though, the majority of what I have has been collected over the years and passed down from volunteer to volunteer. I counted once, I've got over 200 books! You think I schlepped them over here? I may have brought ten.

Anyway, the vultures are starting. Every day I get some phone calls saying "Oh your leaving soon, can I have this?" I get these phone calls from people I don't even know! Or people I haven't heard from in MONTHS! There are some people I wouldn't mind giving things too. I'm going to do that. Other things I want to sell. I'm not going to sell them at full price - or even a markup (I'm not the Bush Administration) But it's things I paid for!!!! Last night was the worst of the phone calls. I got a phone call from someone yelling quickly HEY HELLO GUY, I WANT YOU..... then the phone would cut off. Needless to say I was a little freaked. I sent a message out and found out who it was but the phone network has been very weird recently so I couldn't get to talk to him. He wanted me to give him my laptop and camera... for free... grr. Today I got two phone calls asking for my iPod for free. Maybe I should do that since it's broken. One of the phone calls was from a student from Homoine. My best student.

Really you think you know people. I almost feel that Africa is more materialistic than the west.... well maybe not.

2nd annual AAA MTn

I'm alive and well after my second trip down the road of theatre direcrting/organizing hell. But I survived! I had 11 schools participating and 11 PCVs came along for the ride. What a ride it was!

My day started with nerves. My nerves were stretched taunt because all the week before it was overcast, "cold" and London-rainy. I woke up at one point in the night, having already taken "Betasleep" from South Africa to insure a night of verligting van slaaplosigheid, and heard the cacophony of rain on my tin roof. I just cringed and tried to sleep another hour or two.

I woke up to my friend Justino knocking on the bedroom door. I've known him since 2005 and he agreed to be a judge for me. Since he lives about 75 kilometers away, I told him he could stay the night. I woke up, nerves streched beyond belief. I could only stomach black tea and we went off to the camp ground where the competition was going to be. Oh yeah, this was after I had already gotten a text. I was expecting it from Anne, my closest neighbor and someone who helps me a lot in my projects here. Nope, it was from Rachel, the PCV with a group from Mapinhane, a town 200 kilometers away. SHE WAS ALREADY HERE!!! It was 6 o'clock in the morning!!!! Oh boy.

I had to run to get some chairs, tables and the bastedor which I stored at a house closer to the city center. A bastedor is just a giant sheet that acts as a backdrop but here in Mozambique, without the sheet there is no theatre. It gets me so frustrated because.... well I'm not going to go into it because it's not worth me getting this mad over. I run to Anne's house and get the keys from here. Justino and I unload everything from the office and put it out on the front lawn. We get to the office at 7:03 AM so I didn't think I was late, especially by African standards. I relax though, because Anne comes and then the girls who have be using this office as a rehearsal space come as well. I notice it's 7:30 AM, still no car to bring these props to the south side of Maxixe. I get another text message... two more groups have shown up and they've all said that the guard to the camp ground didn't know anything about the competition. I didn't expect him to, but I still was panicky at this point. I spent the rest of my cell phone airtime credit calling my brother the night before so all I could do was send text messages to the driver asking where the hell he was. He showed up at 8 AM. Thank God the south end of town is only about 5 minutes away.

Got there and got set up. Thankfully I have such good friends here and we were able to get the stage set in 10 minutes. My old students from Homoine were there as well (some who were involved last year) and they asked right away if they could do anything. My housekeeper came. I had given her a day off earlier in the week so I could get her to come. She's a wonderful lady because she controlled the food all day long and is fasting for Ramadan! More power to her because I certainly do not have that will power. :)

I had a panel of 3 judges that took their work very seriously and my little buddy the cashew seller (James, I DO know his name) came and kept time. If it weren't for him, I would still be there. The rule was for each school to perform for 10 minutes. I gave them a choice of either Portuguese or English and naturally the majority chose Portuguese but the ones that chose English were hysterical and really thought out. Unfortunately, I don't remember the plot of a single one. I don't remember much of the day. I'm still tired from it today but really enjoyed myself. We were able to get 11 groups of students together just to joke and chat and watch some theatre. TO MY eye it looked like it was all the same, but some students got some messages out of it I'm certain. It was a generally festive enviroment. We had morning snack (I felt like a kindergarten teacher all day counting, counting) and then whipped through 11 shows before the scheduled break for lunch at 1. Had lunch, gave out the prizes and kicked everybody out by 3 PM. Thank GOD!!!! No surprise though, the car was a half an hour late coming back to pick up the theatre pieces and bring them back to my office. Now, thanks for all the rain dances, the bottles you may have buried and the prayers I know were thrown my way. It DIDN'T rain. As you'll be able to see from the pictures, it was one of the most beautiful days I've seen here in a long time. I wish I could just remember more of the actual theatre!

That's all folks...

PSA

Hey guys, I didn't realize people held my writing skills so high. Deepak Chopra wrote the blog about Obama and the Palin effect. I wish I could write that well.

Check him out at

www.deepakchopra.com really interesting stuff.


I

Obama and the Palin effect

Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the

national psyche

even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly

illustrated by the

rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican

convention in

Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice

President Dan

Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial

expertise in the

complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than

700,000

residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of

running one-tenth

of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering

international

figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness,

but her real

appeal goes deeper.

She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow,

deriding his

idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In

psychological

terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of

sight, countering

our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed

to face:

anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the

other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings,

but they

don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our

higher

selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory

kind. (Just

to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the

fact that Sen.

Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his

arrival on the

scene.)

I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually

not welcome by

the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here

to understand

Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a

rousing call to

those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a

higher vision.

Look at what she stands for:

--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a

return to

petty, small-minded parochialism.

--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair

America's image abroad.

--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a

claim for

social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't

need to be

heeded.

--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation

that these

issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.

--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.

--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out

corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who

doesn't

fit your ideology.

Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right,

which has been

in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that

minorities and

immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be

ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is

a foreign

threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all

right,

Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony,

of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the

same time. She

can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing

forty years of

feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of

women who

stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are

voting against

their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national

elections by raising

shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and

narrow-mindedness.

Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a

vacuum.

The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just

conservatives possess a

shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the

two forces of

progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its

furtive appeal

become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov.

Palin is that

she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming

debate honest. It

would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona

was a stalking

horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the

demoralized state

we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.



Something I found on the internet. Good reading for ALL

Really?

This is just too good. I've been following things through a variety of news sources about the elections of super stars. Obama v. Palin. I'm sorry but McCain is just an accessory at this point. You gotta hand it to him. It's like Obama is running against Hillary again and it's kind of scary because people may vote for the republicans just because they have a woman on the ticket and not because of her track record... oh wait she doesn't have much of the latter. :) Take that Obama-bashers. But I found something interesting on the BBC website which made me laugh so hard.

It's called SARAH PALIN: 10 Things We've learnt
A couple of the points about things we've learned have shown me her "true" character. I know that's an oxymoron, you can never learn the true character of any politician. Number one caught my attention. It has to do with the names of her gaggle of children. The woman likes to live in Alaska. Why invite her to Washington? She's so tied down to Alaska that her children are burdened with geographic coordinates as names... thanks Mom. Number 4 quotes actor/presidential candidate (why do actors always go for the Republican party?) Fred Thompson as saying that Palin is "the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field-dress a moose" And that's an important trait for the leader of the senate why? I guess there could be lots of moose in DC some day. Number 8 just tickled my funny bone to no end. I'm still laughing about it now. I want to know WHY HAS RELIGION BECOME PART OF POLITICS? What ever happen to separation of church and state? Being "religious" doesn't automatically make you a wholesome or good person. I remember this family of religious nutters that lived down the road from me growing up. They were some of the most stereotypically religious people yet some of the most hateful, ugly, and down right mean people I've ever met. So having a leader of the senate (remember the VP does have a constitutional job to do) who belongs to a non-denominational fundamentalist church that believes they can convert gays through the "power of prayer" just makes me want to go for the job myself. I guess the most basic thing for me is we don't need to burden a 44 year old mother of 5 (and soon to be grandma) with a son in Iraq, a pregnant out of wed lock (like that really matters in the 21st century) daughter and a child with down's syndrome, with all of our problems. She's got enough of her own!!!

But if she puts on some more lipstick, we may just have the Alaskan Evita. Oooo can't wait for THAT musical!!

What my mother taught me...

My mother taught me many things, but one thing I remember in particular is she always told me it's not polite to stare. Truthfully, I thought she was crazy. Now coming on to the middle of my 36th month in Mozambique (hot damn) I really understand why it's not polite. Walking to work this morning, two things happened to me that made me really look forward to the day when I won't be the mulungo anymore.

I was hacking out my 5th lung of the morning. My head cold still hasn't gone away. Some one in front of me started laughing. She came up and asked me if I were sick (I thought it was pretty obvious) and then just started laughing. I couldn't stop coughing, so I kept walking and so did she - right into a telephone post. She was too interested in my coughing (whoa! white people cough too!) About 5 feet later, the same thing happened. Not someone laughing at me in pain, but someone walking into a tree because they were more interested in me than in where they were going!

Am I that interesting?

Only in Africa

My dog is in heat. You know what that means. She drips across the floor, gives herself an examination and then fines it ABSOLUTELY necessary to come over and try to lick my face. I can deal with all those things because I'm usually able to tell when she's about to come over and keep her away. The thing I can't stand are the 5 to 10 horny romeos that come and circle my house like a pack of wolves almost every night. I try to keep Kuri inside because she is a smaller dog and I've seen some of the male dogs in my neighborhood and it wouldn't be a pretty picture. Kuri wouldn't have it at all though. She whined and whined and whined until I let her out! Two hours later I get woken up by this scared sounding bark coming from Kuri's little doggy ditch she dug under my wall to get in and out. I'm a little nervous for her so I go outside. She's desperately trying to get in under the wall, but for some reason can't. I try pulling her but either she (or something) is pulling back. I go and get the keys to unlock Fort Knox and go outside. Kuri is no longer on the other side of the wall, but I can hear her off on the other side of the compound. Keep in mind that this is all happening with my in my pj's and a small little maglite flash flight so I can see. "White man running around at night in his shorts" was not the local newspaper heading the next day, because we don't have one. Anyway, I start getting this feeling that someone is looking at me. KINDA FREAKY because it's about 1 in the morning at this time. I call Kuri, she comes running over hackles raised and stands between me and the darkness barking into the darkness. I'm freaked at this point and slowly raise up the light to see a HUGE dog like creature staring back at me. The dog was up to my waist I feel and just huge. I backed away slowly, grabbed my dog and ran into the compound. Did I mention the thing was huge? I think it was an African Wild Dog, but I talked to my neighbor the next day and he said I should be careful because there are reports of werewolves in the area. I thought I didn't understand him first, but then he said that it was a person changing from a human to an animal.

Gotta get me my mistletoe and silver dagger to keep next to my airhorn and pepper spray now.

Linguas

The human tongue is an amazing thing. It can make noises, it can lick your lips, it can hurt, it can taste, it can love. One thing I've tried training it to do is speak many different languages. I'm a complete dork and in my down time would gladly decline a German adjective. (Honestly, it's not that hard!) You just need to memorize 16 different endings and then figure out what part of the sentence the word is in. For example... no I won't bore you. Anyway, I pride myself in my language ability. It's the one thing I know I'm good at. Until I got to Mozambique anyway. Most Mozambicans can speak 5+ languages. My housekeeper speaks Portuguese, Xitswa, Bitonga, Ronga, Arabic (she's Muslim) and I'm teaching her some English. My best friend in Homoine speaks Portuguese, Machope, Bitonga, Xitswa, Changaan, Ronga, French, English. Here comes along the white man with his English, Portuguese, German, Spanish and I feel inadequate. Anyway, we went to our local bar the other night and my friend Scott asked the owner (who happened to be born in Austria) whether or not I spoke German well. He said, yeah I do but just a little slow. Considering I haven't been to a German speaking country in 3 years... I took that as a compliment! The reason for this post though is that I've slowly noticed over this past year how my brain and my tongue just don't keep up with each other. It doesn't matter what language I speak in, I speak slow. Here's a visual, the Simpsons making fun of starving philosophical artists speak. Or for those that know Noel... :)

I like to thing its my brain hard wiring me to speak like an interpreter. Like Nicole Kidman in that movie.

3 years......

This month will mark 3 years of my living in Africa. I landed in Johannesburg South Africa on the 29th of September 2005 and let me tell you, my clothes show it! I remember when Sam was here, she said it's better for clothes to be hand washed. I'm sorry Sam, I have to disagree with you/her. My clothes are horribly faded from the massive amounts of washing powder used. Honestly though, that is ok. Most of my clothes are going to stay here in Mozambique with anybody who wants them. The thing that bothers me is about my boxer shorts. My maid has suddenly been able to massacre the elastic in almost every single pair of my boxers. I wish I had a camera to show some pictures but I don't have the 12 hours to upload a picture here. So, the thought is new boxer shorts with the money that Peace Corps gives me.

:) Good weekend to all and to all......

My drug habit

Lariam has struck again! Let me first preface it with some back story. My dog has been in heat. Dogs get that twice a year and it lasts for about two weeks, according to vet.com. So I've been keeping her inside at night. Mainly because I don't want to have to deal with puppies as I'm leaving in December. Last night, she woke me up at 3 in the morning whining like the dog in heat that she is. I let her out which requires me to be fully awake getting through 3 dead bolt locks and two doors. I'm saying this so you know the state of mind I was in.

Yesterday I was supposed to wait for the new print cartridge coming up from Maputo. Like everything in this country though, you don't know where its coming in or when. I think the bus driver thought I was stalking him. I don't really care though. :) But anyway, this cold got so bad yesterday that I just had to go home. I'm glad I did because I got to go to sleep really early. I missed the print cartridge though. My friend muhurube went to pick it up and he said he was going to leave it at his sister's shop in the central market but I never heard from him. So when I went back to sleep this morning, I was worried what would happen.

I went to the central market and the guy at the shop said I couldn't pick up the ink until I paid 1000 MT or $40. I didn't have it so he drained the ink and put it into this giant clear plastic container kind of like what you find from the container store. I couldn't lift the container to bring it back so magically some wheels showed up on it like you see on luggage at the airport. I spent the whole walk through the city worrying about not splashing too much of the ink and then wondering how I was going to get it into my printer....

then I woke up.

Karma

I just finished reading a book that ended with a what goes around comes around moral. I've noticed it a lot recently. Now, I've been trying to take a personal day this entire week to get my theatre project in order. No such luck. Every day the accountant has called me asking for some sort of help saying I can stay home the next day. Now I'm typing this with an obvious fever and sweats even though it is a cold day! I feel like crap....

Now that I've bad mouthed Sarah Palin in two or three blogs I wonder what the GOP karma coming back to me will be.

Palin's experience

Just got this off the BBC

* Has she travelled outside the United States at all - other than an official trip to the Middle East last year?

* Does she have any appreciation of foreign or national security policy? Or any personal vision of the uses of American power?

* Did she improperly use her position as governor of Alaska to force the sacking of a senior state official for personal reasons? An investigation is under way in the Alaska legislature, and Governor Palin has retained a lawyer

* Was she a member of the Alaska Independence Party - a fringe group advocating secession from the United States - in the 1990s? The AIP says yes; her campaign says no

* Was she a supporter of the conservative Pat Buchanan, the one-time presidential candidate whose political star declined, especially among Jewish voters, after he was accused of anti-Semitism?

* What is her attitude to "pork" - the practice of lobbying for federal dollars from Washington to fund local projects and keep local supporters happy? She says she fought pork aggressively. Newspaper reports suggest she was adept at securing federal money when she was mayor of the town of Wasilla

* Does she really support the idea of teaching creationism - the belief that God created the world in six days, as stated in the Bible - in schools?

* What is her view of the causes of climate change?

* Did she oppose sex education in schools? Some commentators have noted a possible irony if she did, given her own pregnant teenage daughter.


WONDERFUL!!!!

Real Americans?

I believe in Karma and I'm a firm believer that it bites you in the ass if you are not careful. I've gotten bitten too many times here in Moz so I don't want to do anything more. But I've been reading up on this Sarah Palin and man is she an interesting one. She accuses the Democrats of talking too idealistic and not working for the "real american." We all know how well the GOP does that now don't we? What I want to know is if thinking everybody should have access to health care, a decent education and oh wait "life liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is too idealistic what plans do they have for us? I may just stay here otherwise....

The latest and greatest

My job this year has morphed into being the technology guru here at the office. It’s fine by me because honestly, it has taught me a lot about windows and viruses that I didn’t know before. But I kind of regret what I’ve done now because in all honestly I’ve released a monster. I opened an email for the accountant so he could communicate with the head office in Maputo. I thought that was fine because he was willing to learn. Now, everyone has to have an email! There is one computer at work that has email. There are a couple places in town where you can pay to use the internet – but it’s 60 meticais an hour there or $ 2.40 or £1.50 so it’s a bit out of league. Everyone will be using this one computer to be sending emails to each other who they see in the office every day! It’s kind of cute but annoying at the same time. I just hope that I haven’t started something in a culture that is so good at communicating and saying things. Mozambicans talk a lot and I’m beginning to wonder if all communication will be in IM form now.

You all are probably laughing now, but just remember most of my colleagues don’t have running water but now they’ve got email. I’m having the damndest time trying to explain that an email just can’t be jose@gmail.com. You have to be a little more inventive then that. Passwords are even funnier. They person who wanted to open the above email thought up of this password 1234567890. Really imaginative! Google does this thing with security questions, here I think is my favorite. Please remember that I got this answer after I explained that a security question is a way for gmail to realize its you and for you to remember your password. The security question was DO YOU LOVE ME? And the response was YES I DO! Somehow this is supposed to make her remember the password CASTRO1984.

Apology

I just wanted to apologize for that last blog. It was written very haphazardly. I wanted to make up for it with another lariam installment.

DREAM

I was in Australia. It was on a trip back home that I decided to go back to Sydney to visit some friends that live there. Anyway, I was staying with the family that tolerated me for six months while I was at university in Australia. Except we were in a new house. It wasn't the house where I had stayed. I was excited just to see everybody while I was there. Then I woke up. For some reason I really felt compelled to check my email on my phone. It's normally slow and frustrating but I wanted to check it. The first email in the email box was from the family in New South Wales! They were just writing to tell me that they've settled into their new house in the central coast right on the water... eerie.

Maybe I should continue taking the lariam and become a psychic. I'll read your mins now. You are thinking that this has become a stupid blog....

I hate hypocrites...

Miriam-Webster's online dictionary defines hypocrites as follows

1 : a person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion 2 : a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings


Now we can't hold Sarah Palin accountable for her daughters pregnancy. I'm sure life gets pretty boring in Alaska. I'd imagine it kind of similar to what teenagers have to do here in Maxixe... nothing, it's just colder in Alaska. But we can hold it against her that she is so judgmental about the subject and then when it happens to her family it's all hush hushed. Why does the media really care what goes on there? The only thing I am happy about is that it knocks the "wholesome family values" of the republican party of their pedestal! What could be better than that?

I wonder if this is the last little step before dementia for John McSame?

Oh my god.....99

I remember when I first joined the Peace Corps, I thought 27 months was an eternity. As of right now, I'm at 34 months. But the freak out now is I only have 99 days left!

AH!!!

More dreams

The past two weeks of Lariam dreams have been intense. Here are the ones I can remember from last night. In my dream...

I had gotten up and gone to the door between my two rooms. I opened the door and looked out into the living room. It was badly lit in the dream, but I could still see everything clearly. The room was covered in decorations of a deep purple and orange color. Everything was taken out of the room and my dog was sitting in the room looking up at me in a party hat with a poof ball on the top and one of those noise makers in her mouth. It didn't make sense!

The other part of the dream is much smaller but just as funny. I was turning on the TV and the newest soap opera from Brazil was coming on. It's title caught my eye. A familia de Hefele. The Hefele Family! Unfortunately I didn't get to watch any of it. But in my dream I didn't care. I just liked the fact that people were finally going to be able to spell my family's name and in Mozambique no less!

Technology in Mozambique

I'm really beginning to hate technology. It's common knowledge that under the four month mark, things start breaking down. I always laughed at the PCVs saying that because they just didn't make any sense. :) But Ladies and Gentlemen I'm here to say it is true. My flash drive has to be held together by ducktape if you want to put it in. My iPod is giving up its ghost because unless the headphones are in a certain position, it only plays out of one ear. (Anyone have any idea how I can fix this that doesn't involve duck tape and sticky tack?) This lovely bout of technological plague has extended and metastasized into all the printers and two computers. Luckily, the printers just need ink, but no store has it right now in Maxixe. One printer has ink but the cable to connect it to the computer is faulty. I've done pretty much everything I can think of, Google can think of and what the book is telling me to do. Nothing works! It's so freaking frustrating and I just want to go back to a place where duck tape is not how you fix an iPod!!!!!!!!!!