I have been in Mozambique for one month and three days, and I think it is about time I wrote something home for everyone to hear about this place and what I have been doing.

I will say, I've thought about writing several times, but it is terribly difficult for me to put into words all I have seen and done. When I first got here, my head was filled with comparisons: “The restruants are just like the ones in El Salvador.” “The bread tastes just like Grandma Becker's.” “The women carrying everything on their heads is not like anything I have ever seen.'' Now that I have been here a little while, I have become accustumed to my surroundings and am not even sure where to start describing them.

I spent my first few weeks visiting Matt in a little village in Sofala, in the center of Mozambique. I had heard many stories of this place and I finally filled in all the gaps. I went to Matt's 8th and 11th grade biology classes and met many students who were eager to help me improve my limited Portuguese. One night we went with a friend to a small neighborhood where five men all played at once on a homemade Marimba (like a giant wooden xylophone with gourds below to echo the sound). We purchased fresh bread, tomatoes, onions and other local produce each day from the open-air market in the city. One day a student whose family runs a bakery invited us to come see how they make bread. The dough looked exactly like Grandma's used to – except that the ball of dough stretched the length of his whole living room as it lay on a giant black tarp to rise.

During my last week up north, Matt's boss from the Peace Corps came through town and offered to take us up north to visit Parque Nacional de Gorongosa, a wildlife reserve. We spent a night camping in the park, and took a drive through the next day catching looks at Impala, Warthogs, Monkeys, and many African birds. After that, we visited Matt's friend Kevin in a town called Caia. The area experienced great hardship during the Mozambican civil war, and its effects are still visible in abandoned houses and railroad cars which have stood vacant for twenty years.

After returning from Caia, we headed south to Inharrime – the area where I will living for the coming year. The general form of public transportation here – the “chapa'' – is a 15 passenger van always crammed with 20-25 people. These vans have no set schedule; they leave when they're full, charge purely based on distance travelled, and let people off an on at most any given place. I've become quite used to this form of travel and now find myself barely phased to be smushed between a man in a full suit and woman with a baby in one hand and a live chicken in the other.

Now, I have arrived in Inharrime at Casa Laura Vicuña – the home of the Salesian Sisters. The compound where I live is simply unbelievable. The main building houses the sisters, other volunteers and myself, as well as the office, kitchen, and dining room. Adjoing the main buidling in the dormitory where thirty-five girls aged 5-15 currently live. There is also a secondary school, a health building, a large garden, and two small guest buildings on the premises, as well as many building under construction (two more dormitory buildings, a bakery, a large cafeteria, and a primary school). The sisters run a top-notch project and we even have runing (drinkable) water, dependable electricity, and lots of rare foods through donations from European benefactors.

So now that I am here, my first task has been to try and settle in and find my niche within this already well-running project. I’m going to be working with the the older girls here teaching an English class each day, and helping the sisters with the younger girls however I can. They are working on starting a health post, so when that gets up and going, I hope to work on that, too. Right now, I am working on learning Portuguese, meeting people who live near our compound, and getting to know this area. Each day so far has been an adventure – I look forward to learning a lot in the coming year.