Wednesday, October 6, 2010

My Host Sister, Teresa


Here's the older of my two host sisters, Teresa. She wants to be a nurse or a farmer one day. Teresa also cooks amazingly well, which is lucky for me because she cooks almost all the meals for the family (I think), as well as sweeps and mops daily, and does laundry for her brothers and sister. She currently works as a secretary for the Frelimo office in Tete a couple days a week - the dominant political party here in Mozambique. Frelimo and its role in Mozambican politics is fascinating. But I suppose that's best left for another blog.

Your Brother,
Stephen

My Picture


Here's a picture of a me when I first arrived to Moz. I had to take this for my visa. I wanted to post this for a while now so I can use this as a before picture; I've been trying to let my beard grow for a month. Needless to say, it looks horrible. I'm gonna wait another month before showing you guys my beard in all its patchy grandeur. In the meanwhile, I'm taking votes on how I should trim it.

Your Brother,
Stephen

Monday, October 4, 2010

My Friend, Avozinha



Here's another photo from church. This is my friend, Avozinha. She speaks Nhungue, the native Bantu language here in Tete. It's pretty common for children to only start learning Portuguese once they start going to school. She hangs out with my host sister Joana a lot and I'll sometimes hang out with them when I'm sick of watching the Brazilian novelas my family loves to watch. Usually I'll have my guitar and usually I'll try to let them make up their own songs which I can play along to.

I just think she's ridiculously adorable. And I will probably be made fun of for using the word 'adorable.'

Your Brother,
Stephen

My Host Mom, Lidia



Here's a picture of my host mom. Her name is Lidia. This is her bustin' a move during our sunday church service (which unfortunately was 104 degrees F and lasted for three and a half hours). I wish you could see her face in this photo. I tried to take a proper picture of her after church was done but I got stuck shaking everyones' hands and she fled the scene like the Hamburgler.

Beautiful church though, huh?

Your Brother,
Stephen

My Host Brother, Jercio



Here's a picture of the younger of my two host brothers, Jercio (in red). As you can see, he is a stud. I think one of my favorite things about him is that I randomly hear him singing Nickleback songs in fake English. I don't actually like the band Nickleback, but I think it's really funny that they found their audience in Mozambique. Kudos. In related news, I also hear a TON of celine dion songs here, I suspect there is some kind of correlation.

Also, out of the whole family, I'd say he has the hardest time understanding my portuguese. No fault of his of course, my portuguese is legitimately bad.

Your Brother,
Stephen