I don’t know which is worse. The fact that I haven’t updated my blog in roughly four months or that what I am about to write is completely and utterly inadequate to capture all that has happened in that time.

First, the basics. I spent the first several months in training and I am happy to report that I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. Language classes threatened to keep me from swearing in, but in the end they felt I would still make a decent volunteer even though I can hardly string two sentences together in Portuguese. I have to admit, as I stood to take the oath I was more affected by the words than I expected to be. Swearing to “protect the United States of America from all enemies foreign and domestic” is some pretty heavy stuff! So if you see any photos of me at the ceremony and I look a little misty eyed, it is because the sun was in my eyes…or something like that.

I have been at my permanent site for a little over a month now. I wish I could tell you exactly where, but it’s a little touchy divulging the precise location of US Government employees abroad (cue the James Bond theme).

I live at a Catholic mission school in a little town in southern Mozambique that is not too far from Vilancolu and the surreal waterscapes of the Bazzaruto archipelago. I’ll be uploading some low resolution photos to show you what I mean as soon as I find reliable Internet access for a reasonable price. As of now we are relegated to using our cell phone as a low bandwidth modem.

Alice and I really are enjoying our new home, especially now that we have gotten rid of all the bats that were living in the house when we arrived. No, we don’t have electricity nor do we have running water, but we do have the most spectacular night sky I have ever seen. It is simply stunning.

Until recently Alice and I have been passing the days working on making our house into a home. There is a little video of some of my handiwork below. I got tired of taking bucket baths in a shower that looked like it was straight out of a horror movie, so I scrubbed it good. Then I used an old water filter, some twine, two broomsticks, and duct tape (god, I love that stuff!) to fashion myself an overhead shower. Works like a charm.

Now that school has started my days are being filled with preparing lessons for the two chemistry and one English class that I teach. I can’t tell you what a challenge it is to teach chemistry when the students do not have textbooks or even a periodic table of elements to refer to.

Today Alice and I are at a nearby town to pick up a deep cell battery to go with the one that we already broke. We’re desperately trying to bring power to our house, so wish us luck!

I hope to write again soon. In the meantime, I would love to hear what you want to know about my expereince so far. Just click on the comments button and shoot me your requests. Tchau!

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