Friday, August 19, 2011

Fear is the path to the dark side

I'm finishing up the second week of school, but it is more like the first because i only taught about five students the first week. This week everything is back to normal. No classes Monday night because the power was out. Problems with water.

We were luckily saved by the rain. We had no water here for over a week. We were waiting for this guy to come by to transport water from the river for us. Of course he did the "i'll come tomorrow" trick on us for a few days. Then Monday night it finally rained. Now we have about a month worth of water. And don't have to worry about when this guy will show up, at least for a little bit. I survived one week on ten gallons of water. I was eating tangerines to supplement drinking water. I normally drink more water than that in a week. I was so happy to hear that rain. I was down to my last five gallon bucket and had a nice collection of dirty clothes growing. Now all my clothes are clean and the water problems are pushed aside.

Forrest returns next week. It will be nice to have him back. He is also bringing a projector. And who knows what other types of goodies.

I don't know how or why, but Bryan Adams is extremely popular here. So i learned to play "Everything I Do" yesterday. Then this morning i sang and played it in class. What better way to show my students i care about them then with a Bryan Adams' love song. The students already knew this song pretty good, so it sounded awesome. I should have recorded it.

After class i made peanut butter. I roasted the peanuts, smashed them, then added some salt, sugar, and oil. It takes a lot of work but i don't have much else going on. And it tastes better, is richer, and a lot cheaper too. But im not really worried about the money, the Peace Corps gives me a lot more money than i need to live out here. I'm more excited about producing less trash and not needing to buy South African imports.

Well that is all for now. Peace, love, and do good things

Jimmy

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Your focus determines your reality

Last Sunday: Trying to hitch a ride out of Tete city with my friend Patricia. Patricia is on the road trying to flag down a car and im hiding off the side of the road...

We just recieved a short ride but we still have about five or six hours of traveling back to Chimio. Tomorrow im going to head out to climb the highest mountain in Mozambique. It is a day hike to the base of the mountain than a day hike up and down. So ill be off the grid for three days...

Ok so my travel days are my new designated blog writting time. Enjoy the random updates. Just scored our last and very comfy ride. We had been chillin with some local kids the last hour or so. We were jammin and playing in the tree. This ride now makes it well worth the wait.

Last night we stayed at a volunteers house in Tete and went dancing at this club. It was a private party and this eighteen year old kid got us in. It was ok. One of my friends was so drunk, she reminded me of my cousin Amanda. Haha, she was elbowing guys on the dance floor and just out of control. It reminded me of being back home. Waiting for all my drunk friends so we could go home.

Before going to Arielle's site in Tete we hiked up to these rock paintings outside of Chimoio. It was a nice easy hike. There is this "old witch" that you are suppose to pay before going. People here believe in voodoo, ghost, and stuff like that. Even the people that are well educated. Some locals told us if we didn't stop and pay her she would put a curse on us and change our sex. So we snuck by her. On the way down we intended to stop and pay because we figured she would probably use the money in the community and not on drugs and booze. But we didn't cross her path on the way down and we needed to get back before dark. So we pulled a fast one on the old witch.

TODAY: Random highlights over the past few days. Our chapa broke down going to Tete. So we hitched a ride. Our ride was so awesome. It was comfy, fast, they bought us lunch, and even went out of their way and took us all the way to Arielle's house because it was getting dark. I was hanging out with a fun group of girls all week before hitting the mountains. They remind me of all my crazy cousins in Cali. Seen some hippos in a river. Seen this crazy homemade electric guitar and amp. Played TI's "Whateve you like" for a crowd of people in Tete. Ate Mexican food twice.

The last three days i was hiking in the Chimanimani mountain range. It was just what i needed. It had been too long since i had been hiking up and down through the mountains. I went up to Mt Binga, its the highest point in Mozambique. I met a Canadian, Phillip, on my way to the park. That worked out great because he had a two man tent and i had nothing to provide shelter. Phillip has been traveling Asia and Africa for almost a year. He was an interesting person to hike with. I carried his pack about half the time to earn my stay in his "home". Today was a long day, still traveling in a truck. Yesterday was a very strenuos day of hiking. So im due for some rest. Hopefully this weekend on the beach i'll catch up. There are probably some cool things i missed but im tired and it is hard to see because this truck and road are really bumpy. Peace love and do good things

Jimmy

There is always a bigger fish

Quick update. I hope to write more soon. Still living the dream! I just hiked to the highest mountain in Mozambique yesterday. I'm tired now. And need to hit the road soon. I loaded new pics of Facebook. Ok im trying to download some of Jake and Kier's music. Peace and love


Jimmy

ps Mom im still alive