We shall see if this works

Howdy ya'll,

Howzit? I've been MIA for awhile but as they say, no news is good news or it just means I am damn lazy. But anyway, things are great. I'm down in Maputo right now on some Peace Corps business. I'm planning a boys leadership conference with some other PCVs from older groups. I think I'm basically there so they can pass the torch to someone for next year's conference when none of them will be here. I heard a crack in my mouth while I've been down here so I made a dentist appointment to just to make sure everything is okay. Keep your fingers crossed.

Quick announcement, my friend Monique is coming in about 5 months for a month long visit. I'm going to be meeting her in South Africa and we are travelling around SA and MOZ together for my summer break, which includes christmas and new years!!! Anyway, she is more than happy to bring stuff from all of you for me. I don't want to put her contact info up here but just email me and I will send you her address. REmember even packets of kool aid make me happy. She lives in New York so it should be easy for ya'll to get stuff to her.

So the title of this entry is in reference to trying to put up a video I made to either this website or my kodak online gallery. I think what may be happening is that I copy a bunch of stuff to a disk and send it to noel. We will see, "but, in Africa there is always time" and I hope you guys have all been enjoying what you have been seeing. Remember, visits are always welcome and I will pick you up anywhere in South Africa or Mozambique.

Where to begin... this past trimestre at work has been interesting. I've certainly seen a broad spectrum of Mozambican life that has shocked me and endeared me to the crazy life of being caucasian in Africa. My students "por fim" are finally used to me and I have been stopped on random occaisions about how some of my students really like my English class and look forward to it during the school day. Let me give you a mental image which I think you will find funny. The standard Mozambican way of teaching is very rote learning. The teacher usually stands by the board droning oout facts, writing it on the board and the students copy it into their notebooks. I, on the other hand am jummping around the room, standing on desks, crawling o n the floor, and running through the students... all to illustrate English vocabulary, now there is passion for your work...and I'm doing this is Portuguese.

Moving on, last month PC MOZ said goodbye to a group of volunteers that came in 2004. I got really close to one who lived in my local big city. So, I decided to come down with that friend to help say goodbye. That was my last blog I think. So anyway, the Peace Corps "godfather" hooked up a car rental for some visiting friends. Well, this car was pimped out. There was a sun roof!!!! But, it died about half way down the EN1 to Maputo. We then don't know how to get to Maputo, it is getting dark and we NEED to get Maputo. So I'm running around the town of Xai Xai to get a Chapa to drive us down. To make a long story short, we rent a chapa for 2.000.000 Meticais and get the private phone line of the police chief of the province of Gaza.

But, I am loving life up in Homoine and have outfitted my house to make it look really nice. I did it all from the camping section of the department store!

More later remember send me stuff!

Love ya'll

ian

Oh Maputo

So, here in Maputo after one hell of an African style trip. I'll do that blog when I have a little more time, because, you see I have gotten some pictures put up on the internet! I've actually been able to put about 35 pics up. There are three envelopes of hard copies heading stateside right now. To Mag, Jess and Dad. I know some people who are on there way to Joburg so I gave them the pictures and thinking that from Mozambique the photos have to go through there anyway to get to America so why not cut some of the middle men out. But, I'm going to try to share the picture through kodakgallery. I hope you can all see them and enjoy them. Pictures are going to be a slow process but I promise to keep them coming. Hopefully within the next two years internet connection will improve along with everything else so it will be easier. But I'm doing everything African style now. If you get an invite from Kodakgallery and know some people who want to see pictures who have not gotten an invite from me. PLEASE SHARE!!!!

Ndzi mbongile!

African pulse with a Latin rhythm

That is what Maputo is to me. I love that city and I have a long weekend from work so I am going to go to see my friend Fran off. The first time i went back to that city after being at site for a long time I will have to say this quasi New Yoker and Londoner got overwhelmed. IN my town, seeing three cars on the road is considered heavy traffic and two cars going the opposite directions is a traffic jam. So when I am in Maputo and actually have to look both ways before crossing I sit on the curb and hope someone will come to my rescue and help me across the road! No not really but more often than not a chapa appears out of thin air and I fly accross the road. :O) But in Maputo, the smells hit you full force and it is an overload of diesel fumes, every food under the sun frying up in gallons of cooking oil on the side of the road, the hair product of the ladies walking down the road who are wearing actual designs that could be seen anywhere. Not that I don't like capulanas but Maputo is a wonderful recharge for this little big city boy. Pictures are getting sent out to my sister, my father and Mag so everyone keep a heads up and when I can get my hands on a blank CD i'll burn my digital pics and send them to my brother to post on the internet. HEy Noel. flickr isn't working for me for some reason! :O(

Ianito

so, parte dois

Let me apologise immensely for not responding to any emails. Gmail is not accessible right at that moment. I have no idea why but this is Africa, so I have given up asking for along time now! Anyway, I am going to try and burn a cd of my pictures so far and send them to my brother Noel, who will then upload my pictures I hope. Otherwise, next time I go to Maputo, which is god knows when. :O)

Anyway, life is moving on along here. Last week was a crazy week at school. I broke up two fights in one day. One was between my dog and a turkey that wandered into my yard. The other was between two students that i actually had to battle with. But I felt like a good teacher because my director complimented me for doing the right thing and bringing the students to him! Last Saturday was apparently a student teach meeting and since I am head teacher of a stream of 65 students I was suppossed to meet with the parents. I show up at school on the day of the meeting at 8 AM. Which is the time I was told to be there. Only one other teacher was there and it was an english teacher so we get talking about the course and what we have to do. After, another teacher that only teaches during the night came up. He said he was here because he was put on as a teacher during the day. I laughed because it seemed so very mozambique. Little did I know it was my stream he was put in charge of! Anyway, I ggot booted out because anzdi wulawuli Xitswa kwatsi! :O( Hopefully that will change though. Also, right now I have no electricity at my house, who knows when I will get it back. The handy man had sent some kids up a tree to trim a tree, right over my electricity wires. I knew what was going to happen and it happened JUST AS I WAS TELLING THEM TO BE CAREFUL of my wires! Oh well....

Ya know, it seems like all I do is complain but I'm really liking it here! It's just I'm so used to it I don't think you guys would like to here about how I take a now COLD bucket bath under the stars. Or walk through groves of palm trees under the bluest sky to get to work every day. Or WOuld you? And don't worry, I am writing it all down for the (mis)adventures to come.

Africa is complicated

SO, I finally get the chance to upload some photos and I have to do them one BY ONE!!!!!!!!!! ARGH. But anyway, check out www.kodakgallery.com and have a look. It should be fun and interesting. I hope....

Just a quick update

Hello from the grand capital city of the land of good people. On a map, it just goes by Inhambane City. But its a cool little place and I have been here since Sunday. I'm staying until sunday befor I go to home to Homoine. We are at a Boy's conference now. This afternoon I'm painting murals on the walls around town. It should look good when it is finally finished. Don't know exactly when that will be then. I'm here with three other people from my town. Remember the "Can I have a tee-shirt with that" post? Well, this weekend has most definitely made me believe that even more. Both of my students and teacher want tee shirts of the conference. I'm scared there will mutiny if we don't get some for them so I think they are being made as I type. People where them with pride so maybe I will too.

Second, an last paragraph here. I've become a lot more patriotic since living here. Go ahead smile and laugh. But I didn't say patriotic to what. I'm saying patriotic to freedom of thought and speech and being taught to think for yourself. Something that I have noticed this week while listening to speeches and lectures about "thinking for yourself" and "thinking critically" stuff I have heard from middle school and yet it is all new ideas for my students. I'm going to try posting pictures into my online kodak album tomorrow, so, look here for t he web address.

Tchau

A little old but funny

Hello Everyone, I found this when I was cleaning my house and since I've taken to writting out my blogs, I thought I would post this now that the internet is back. Remember, this is about 3 weeks ago. I was just coming out of malaria and the like.
anyway, here it is.

So, to keep you all up to date, Africa is slowly kicking my ass. I came down with malaria and spent a week in Maputo. I was healthy enough to come home to Homoine but seemed to have left some part of me in Maputo. That tend to be kind of important in this land of giant bugs and killer diseases... it's my immune system. Malaria ravages your insides, turns the inside out and leaves you gasping for air. But I made it through and am resolute to make it better. It is the African flu though and everyone gets it. The flu on steriods. I'm beginning to think the survival of the fittest theory is correct. We whites came from this continent but the heat, bugs and diseases got the best of us so we left! So, we are NOT all powerful and had to leave "the kitche" and we gutted it in the process. But I'm not turning into the bleeding heart, bitching about all the injustices we Europeans have done to our mother continent. They were done, now it is up to my generation to realise what need to be done to rectify it. I'm seeing people work at that every day. African exploration is over. They are seriously going to bite western civilisation on the ass if we don't help them out a bit more. Something I'm definitely learned over the past 6 months, is Africa changes you whetheryou like it or not. I'm sitting here with my improvised swamp-cooler (a wet rag draped over my fan) listening to the BBC crackling through from Bush House in London "directly" to Homoine. And I realise how foreign my life 4 miles north of that transmission house and my life in America now seem. Time in Africa is something that needs to be experienced, it cant be described. Days are longer than weeks and hours are like months yet time marches on to the steady beat of the morter and pestal, the size of a grandfather clock.

Africa also has a wicked sense of humour. My laptop and iPod were collecting dust in my house and now are collecting dust in someone else's house. So, any care packages that may come, through in a couple of CDs. Anykind of music would be great. My address is a few posts back if you guys want it. My family has it too.
So, I've cut my ties from the music (read very important) part of my life and now am ready to listen to Africa in all her sticky, sweet, spicy glory.


(Ok sue me, I think I may have been slightly feverish when I wrote this out!) Hope you enjoyed it.

Can I have a tee shirt with that?

Oh my god, I'm back from the dead. Sorry for the long absence but someone has seemed to press the fast forward button on my life here and the fact that 5 weeks have passed since my last post seems unreal. Anyway, right now I am waist deep in final exams of my 600 8th graders. True to Mozambican style, I got my class schedule changes about halfway through the trimester. Now I teach 600 8th graders 3 days a week and I teach my fellow coworks one day a week. It leaves me with free mondays, to travel, to relax, or to sit in my darkened house pretending I'm not home. Calm down, I'm joking. Anway, by some miracle, I don't get supremely bored grading papers. I just tune into Bush House in London and before I know it I've got one glass of 75 students in the corrected pile. It also helps time pass quickly. I'm going to be a guru in the art of time management by the time Africa is through with me.

Moving on to my title... it seems if you through a free tee shirt into the deal, you can get Mozambicans to do or come to anything. I mean I understand completely. Especially since I have started to recognise my students on the basis of the clothes they where - and there are no uniforms at my school. In January, my friend put together a concert for AIDS awareness and as soon as the word got out that there was going to be a free tee in the deal, we had a packed house. I'm going to be involved in a national boys conference in about 3 weeks. Again, my students found out that a tee is going to be thrown in and they signed the dotted line with gusto. Its just very interesting to see the values and what some people will do for something that Wal Mart sells in packs of three for $8. (Which is what most people make a month here)

Do you ever wonder that things lining up in your life and making perfect sense are the gods smiling down on you or the cosmos aligning in your favour? (Pick your belief) Well, the other day I was going to the store to pick up some food to bring to my site mates house to make dinner. The lady that runs the electricity board in town drove by and asked if I were going to Inhamussua, the neighborhood where my site mate lives, I said yes and jumped in with her. I noticed someone in the back of her car who I recognised to be one of my brightest students. I climbed into the truck confused but thankful I wouldn't have to take a bus. I find out the EDM lady is his mother and she wanted to talk to me about the conference I had invited her son to attend. I had met her my first week at site and never made the connection. But now I've got the connections in town and I dont think my electricity will be going out any time soon.

Ill keep you updated about the conference and promise it will be in less than 6 weeks.

You never get Africa out of you!

Boy is that ever the truth. From the rythmic "thump...thunp" of a Mozambican mortar and pestal the size of a granfather clock, to the fireworks Africa sets off every night at sunset, she gets under your skin and stays there for life. She also has a few diseases to make sure you always remember her. Many of you have probably heard, I've got Malaria. I'm down in the Capital Maputo right now to get some tests and I went through the drug treatment already.
Let me tell you though, I have never felt so sick in my life. I hope to God that I never get arthritis because the joint pain I've experienced over the past week has been hell. But let me tell you how this first came on. I had been watching the superbowl with my friends Mike, Justin, LeeAnn, Josh and Meridith. We all gathered at a television for the one AM viewing. Some of them were from Pittsburgh so it made for a good party. I was on my way home and got sick on the way. Now I thought it was just because of lack of sleep. I then went home and tried to get some sleep but realised I have a 40 degree celcius fever. That is about 104! So I called the doctor and she had me go to the local hospital to get a malria test done. Taking ones own blood is not an easy task, yet somehow I've done it.

The symptoms of Malaria are a lot like the flu. But thank God it is so easily controlable and nothing really happens if you catch it early... if you are rich, white and working for the American Government.

See you all soon

Ian

Is this for real?

So, school is suppossedly starting tomorrow but we shall see if that actually come to pass because after all this is Mozambique. We had a week of meetings last week plus yesterday, Monday. I was told last week that I would be teaching 6 classes of 10th grade English a week. It is very good because it lets me have time for my secondary projects as well. But anyway, last week's first meeting was two hours late because the director couldn't get out of bed... dont know why. The next day he wasn't even there. Monday's meeting was basically me sitting around and reading (I'm going to be EXTREMELY WELL read by the end of these two years!) and getting to know my fellow teachers. I then escaped to the wonderfulness of the Bay of Inhambane.

The local PCVs were invited to a concert organised with the help of the American Embassy and one of our fellow PCVs. It was of an American Man named Vinx who is a wonderful Jazz Singer and Drummer. He was accompanied by his friend Stewart who just happens to be the presenter of Mozambican Idol. They both are very good singers and the show was rocking. It was held in this old school building built by the Portuguese in 1922. An absolutely beautiful building. Anyway, after the show, the man representing the embassy comes to get me about some teaching materials he has for Inhambanian Teachers and that the guys want to meet the Americans and thank them for putting all this together. So we go up on Stage and talk. Pretty much the next moment we are all going out to the local bar, read trailer that sells beer, and having a blast. The guy who is presenting Mozambican Idol is named Stewart and we chatted for a good part of the night. Guys I dont know what I can say to stress how big this guy is here!!!! I was sitting next to him talking to him as if it were nothing. All of a sudden I have his cell phone number and email address in my phone and he's chatting about how the next time I come to Maputo I need to call him and we'll go out for coffee. Let's just say, I've never lived this good before!!! It was definitely not what I thought would be happening when I signed up for Peace Corps, but I'm not complaining. I think the funniest part though is my friend Kara and I were talking to Vinx, the American about how much we make per month here. $200 to be exact. Anyway, he was shocked and all of a sudden he is slipping $20 into my hand! He took care of the whole bill for the night as well! Now I've got to go email them a thank you......and sleep dreaming of the Fame that may come my way in Africa.

Who'da Thought?

Ian

Boring old update

Nothing really interesting to update ya'll about here. The temperature peaked at 100 degrees Farenheit today. It was rough. But luckily the internet cafe has the AC cranked so I can cool off a little bit. OOOO Wait, I finally saw my school. But before I get into that, let me tell you about the boat trip I had last week. See, I live right near a bay. This bay seperates two great cities, Maxixe and Inhambane. Its only 2 KM across the bay or 60 KM by boat. So as a group of four of us are walking to the boat last week some girl tells us to get into a bus to go to Maxixe. Its about 20,000 Meticais more so - and an hour longer so we decided against it. We got in the boat and the waves started ROCKING. I think okay we can do this, we can do this, but the waves get bigger! The boat is not the most seaworthy of vehicles but we are allowed to go on it because its only a two kilometre distance. There is this sandbar around which all the waves were breaking. When we went through that area, I thought I was going to have to get out and swim! But we made it, the last boat to Maxixe that day. It's amazing how much people bond over experiences like that. Oh did I mention, a couple sharks live in the bay!

Anyway, very quickly. School starts in 3 weeks. I'm going to be teaching 10th grade. That constitutes people of 17-27 depending on how long it took them to get through school. But I should have only about 50 or 60 in a classroom. Some others up north have 100 pluse students in a classroom!!!!! The best thing, I will be teaching in a reed classroom, no windows, lots of desks and a chalkboard. Thats it. I wonder if I'll ever complain about lack of supplies again?

:O)

Update from Xai-Xai in Gaza

So I am in the land of Gaza right now but it is a little bigger than a strip. I'm visiting my friends Mike and Justin from training. They are here in the provincial capital at a teacher's training college. Before I go into how things are here let me give you all my new address. Interestingly enough I am now Reverand Ian Hefele as far as the Mozambican postal service is concerned. Apparently, things get through a hell of a lot easier and quicker when they are addressed to the church folk. If you send me anything bigger than an envelope write some of the following phrases on it and it will get here very quickly.
CHRIST IS KING
LONG LIVE GOD
JESUS SAVES
GOD IS MY SAVIOUR......... you get the idea.

Here is the address
Rev. Ian Hefele, PCV
C.P. 31
Maxixe, Mozambique

So, where do I begin. I've been beach hopping down the coast for the past 10 days because there is really nothing else to be done - the country is on one major holiday. But I'm enjoying it immensely and when I finally get my act together, I'll post some pictures. :O) When I left Tofo beach to come down for christmas, I knew it was going to be an interesting ride. I love it because buses work here on a whole different level of absurdity than anywhere I've ever been. First of all, they are called matchibombos - which suggests the English word rambling. Boy do they ever do that. Xai Xai is about 250 kilometres from my home and that took me 5 hours. Which really isn't bad on Mozambican time!!!! We went down to the beach here, where my cousin has actually been. (That a strange concept, knowing family members have been to comepletely random spots in the world where you are now standing)

Now, I've got to love you all and leave you. Justin is waiting for his turn on the internet. For lunch today we are going to gorge ourselves on steak and Xima (mozambican mealie meal) for the grand total of 40,000 meticais...or $1.75!

Ianito

Oh yeah I went swimming on Christmas day too!

Feliz Natal

I just wanted to write all of you very quickly and wish you a merry christmas and happy new year. I've found REALLY fast internet at the italian mission in Maxixe. I'm down here today to open a Post Office box get some things for my house and just chill by the water. I've got some PCVs from Namibia coming tomorrow. The three of them are doing a Cape Town to Cairo trek by land and I agreed to put them up for a couple of days. I got a call from them from Maputo (god that place seems like miles away) and they are excited to see the beach! So am I! But, I plan on going to Xai-Xai to visit my friends Justin and Mike for Natal. (Xmas) We are proabbly going to surprise, surprise go to the beach. The Bob Dylan song was not lying! :O)

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!

Love ya

IAn

PS. Gaterade in powder and any sort of spices are wonderful stocking stuffers for xmas in July!

Moving day

So the day after tomorrow I move. I pack everything up and head Northward about 6 hours to move into the Terra da boa Gente or Land of Good People. We had our swearing in last night. Very good time and a very good party. Now I'm headed back to Boane to spend some time thinking and packing and saying goodbye to some people. But on Tuesday, your's truly will be living in Homoine, Inhambane Provine.

Wish me luck

Ian

Ndzi voluntari xa corpo da paz!

Gi Xile!
Ndzi Ian, ndzi voluntari xo corpo da paz. Ndza tira xicolweni 25 de Setembro xa Homione, Inhambane. Ndzi mugondzise xa xiguisa!

G'day everbody! Howzit? That is a little taste of the local dialect I have started learning. It is called Xitswa. The x is pronounce "sh" like in Xela, Guatemala, Julie's place. Anyway, drumroll please..... I am going to the beach in Inhambane Province about 6-7 hours away from Maputo the capital. I amm really excited because
1. I'm living alone.
2. I'm going to the TERRA DA BOA GENTE!
3. Here comes fluent portuguese and Chitswa
4. I'm going to get to mess with all the tourists who come to the beach, especially the afrikaners!

It was a little shock to the system that I would be living alone first, but honestly I think that is what I wanted. I was talking yesterday to a really good friend here, Justin, and what he said made me realise that YES it was what I wanted and YES I am going to rock up there! Besides, my closest neighbour is only a 20 minute chapa ride away and the first person I met in the group is only 40 minutes away in Maxixe. And she has a hot shower!!!!!!! :O) Its a nice little perk occaisionally but I'm diggin the bucket showers. I'm in the middle of a field of coconut trees. I will be learning to climb those trees and get the cocos. I've cell phone coverage, electricity and a pump really close to my house. I'm teaching in a reed hut, which the entire school is made out of and unless more funding comes through, will probably NOT have any desks for the first year though. Once I get there Ill be setting up a post office box, but until then keep the packages coming to the Peace Corps office here in Maputo!

Back to the whole language thing. I'm very excited to be able to have the opportunity to use 3 languages every single day and to be able to add a 4th language to that when I go the beach (Afrikaans.) I can just see the white tourists faces when I'm speaking dialect to some Mozambicans and then turn around and speak to them in there language....OOOOO thats gonna be FUN.

So, here is the low down. I had to get my toenail removed again. Its a regular occurance throughout PCVs here in Mozambique. Make a long story short, they lanced it, stitched it up and now I have to walk around in sandals for the rest of the time INCLUDING SWEARING IN CEREMONY! But I think the Ambassdor will understand. Speaking of her, we had a Thanksgiving dinner that she came to at school. She stayed for 2 and a half hours! She is one of the nicest diplomats I've ever met, she even danced with us! But now, things are winding down in training. We have a big party with our host families next week. That's tuesday. Then we go and meet our school directors, they are coming to Maputo. Apparently, according to the PCV I am replacing he is known as macaco velho or OLD MONKEY. Ill fill you in on that! :O) Next Friday is our swearing in ceremony and we spend that night at this beach resort on Costa do Sol! Saturday is our recoverday and Sunday or Monday I move to the land of good people - as Inhambane province is known!

com respeito e amor

Ianito

Feliz dia da gracas

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU ALL!!!!! Sorry I didn't get to post this week, but I will soon. I think about you all and according to my friends here has pictures of all of you too! :O) I will have the info the next time I'm on the web as to where I will be for the next two years! ONE WEEK AND COUNTING!

Give me a call sometime

Ianito

Massinga!\

Okay everybody, keep your fingers crossed. We have 3 weeks left of model school. This is some crazy Peace Corps practice where I get up in front of a "smallish" class of 45. I think after these two years when i get back to the States and really do start teaching (you all can laugh now as I know what you are thinking) I'm not going to know what to do. Ill have a class of 30 and wait five minutes asking where the other half of the class is! :O) But after model school, we will have a big Thanksgiving dinner celebration and figure out where we are going for the next two years. They sent us last week all over the southern Provinces of this country and I went to Inhambane Province to a town called Massinga. IT IS PARADISE. The volunteer lives in a reed hut on school grounds and it is just everything I have thought about Peace Corps and more. Portuguese is only spoken at school and through strangers at the market but this volunteer speaks Matswa pretty fluently. I cant wait to be able to start on the local language as well. Inhambane is the beach province of MOZ. It is beautiful as you guys will see very soon. I've got to get some pictures developed. But they will be up as soon as I can get them up!

Speaking of photos. Everyone go to Noel's website to see pictures of my beautiful little nephew. He is gorgeous and everyone, keep him in your prayers please! Everyone have a happy turkey day and a merry Christmas if I don't talk to you. I'm cooking a candied yam casserole for all of us and I hope it goes over well.

Con todo amor
Ian

ps. letters et al take at least two weeks to get here. Anything and everything from home is wonderfully appreciated!

Oh the humanity

So here we go again guys, sorry about the typos in the last blog post. I realised that I had only 2 minutes left, so I started typing faster, than it just kept ticking and ticking away, so I just clicked send with out re-reading it. So anyway, let me apologise for the mass email. I've taken everyone off who wishes to be and will not send another one like that. I think I will stick to blogs. Gmail is a weird thing though. Every email that enters my mail box gets automatically entered into my address book. It could lead to trouble though too. :O) Won't do it again...

Now to the crazy news. I'm sitting here in Maputo (I love this city) at an internet cafe staying at Hotel Africa. I've just taken my first hot water shower in a month and nearly cried. I never thought it would make me so happy. Don't get me wrong, I love the bucket showers under the stars every night but sometimes, one is lazy. We have AC running today. Its 38 degrees outside and VERY humid. But, I'm loving life here. My Portuguese is coming along rapidly. I can already hold conversations with no difficulties. I did get highly confused witht he Spanish language but I've seen the pattern within the differences in the languages (Thank you German) and have even started picking up some Changana. the local african language.

Last week was the highlight of my time here so far I think. My Portuguese instructor is a regular Mister Rogers here on Mozambique. he has a regular Sunday morning LIVE show every week. Last week my friend Rhett and I were featured guests. A bunch of us from training took the Chapa(that is a whole 'nother topic) into the capital and then got picked up by the "studio" car for the ride to the TV studio. We come in and our introduced. eight of us dance the macarena and have a blast. There was a monitor on the wall behind us and I looked up once to see the camerazoomed in on my and Rhett's naldegas and show us shake it like they do. My teacher says we did him proud because I swear here in Moz, they learn how to shake their prosterior before they walk and long before they learn how to speak Portuguese! So then we are brought back stage to the "tan" room. We are handed cameras and told to act like tourists. So my friend Rhett and I are running around the studio acting like complete idiots (surprise surprise). Then the music stops and we're brought to the centre of the stage. Didinho then tells the audience that we like to learn how to dance like the Mozambicans. Music starts and we start dancing. We are up there with them clapping and hooting and hollaring for 5 or 6 minutes. When we got back to our seats, my friends asked us if we knew whether or not we would have to dance. We didn't. they were amazed, because they said it looked like it was coreographed!
On the way back to teh Chapa terminal, a man stops Rhett and me on the street. He congratulates us on our "bonito" debut on Mozambican TV!!!! It was crazy! The white community is not that big here so I wasn't surprised, but Rhett and I are seriously rockstars now. We cannot leave our houses without getting at least one kid running up to us for a hug. Its really cute and all of you definitely know that I'm lapping up every minute of it.

I'm excited for tomorrow because I am going to Massinga with my friend Justin. Its in Inhambane Province, about 9 hours from here. I get my own seat on the bus and everything! Those of you who have been to Latin America know what I am talking about. Inhambane Province has the best surfing and diving on the African Indian Coast so I will scope things out for those of you that would like to come and visit. Remember though my school year in January to October, so come and visit mid November-December to escape the snow!

Some side notes, everyone please keep my friends in Guatemala in your thoughts. They were destroyed by the latest hurricane to hit the coast and need all the help they can get. Keep on sending the emails and letters. I have gotten stuff from Monique, Mag and Margaret Cavanagh. It seems to take 2 weeks. Here are some thoughts for care packages if anyone wants to.
Film
Duct Tape
Gallon Freezer Bags~
Hand Sanitiser

Please please please send me text messages! It only costs a quarter. My wonderful siblings have my cell phone number and notes from home brighten my day. Thanks Kris!
I am saving all your emails and once I get to site, I will be replying.

Com tudo minha coração

Mano Ian

Muitas Coisas

Bom Dia do Maputo@!

First of all thank you all so much for your wonderful thoughts, emails and prayers. Unfortunately I won't be able to answer all the emails for some time to come. Email is slow! As the general pace of life is down here. Yet some how it manages to be manic as well. In case some of you have not heard yet. Felix Paul Alexis was born Oct 3rd and he is a LIBRA! He was very early but is doing okay. Everyone just keep him in your prayers. I'll teach him Changanna when I come back. So some amazing stories.

Let's see, the alarm clock I bought is totally useless because of the roosters that wake me up in the morning. I had to kill one the other day for my birthday feast. We made an offering to our ancestors, of which Mom was included. I wasn't allowed to spill any blood so I had to club the thing with a stick. It was suprisingly easy. I also hit it in the direction of the sun so it will bring me good luck and my ancestors "approve" of what I am doing.
I have made a reputation for myself as someone not to be messed with. The hawlkers are unbelievable and will try to sell you anything. so the other day I took a tampom out of my friends purse and tried to sell it to them!!!!

Com amor

Ianito

so...

So I get bitched at for not updating my blog and then I update it frequently with almost the EXACT same post. Oops. Anyway ya'll check out this website. go to useful prices

www.mozguide.com it should be very funny. I'm so excited, I can buy a live chicken for Mt.50,000 (Meticais) thats $2.10

HA!