Arrived Safe in Maputo!

It’s Friday night here in Maputo and after 3 days of travel I can finally get another good night of sleep in a comfy bed. The Peace Corps has us booked in Hotel Cardoso (a sweet, high-end hotel located on top of a hill overlooking the bay) until Saturday, when we leave for Pre-Service Training, or PST.

A view at Cardosa's pool from my room's balcony.

Luis, an soon-to-be Education PCV, passed out by the pool.

Dov playing his violin during some downtime

The past several days have been a blur… after saying a final goodbye to my friends on Monday night, my family and I woke up at 4:30am on Tuesday morning and drove to the Gainesville airport to make my 6am flight. We got there a little late, but still with plenty of time to make the connection to Atlanta. When we got to the check-in counter, however, the attendant informed us that I would have to be bumped to the 12:40 flight. Although he never explicitly said that I couldn’t get on the 6am flight because it was full, my mom and I read between the lines and inferred that I was simply the odd man out when he informed us that there probably wouldn’t be room on the 7am flight because it was overbooked by 4 people. After a little struggle, we took my luggage back out to the car, loaded up, and drove home.

After the initial disappointment of missing the early flight subsided, I quickly realized there were a lot of benefits to it: I got to sleep for a few more hours, my goodbyes were delayed slightly, and the experience of my flights was changed (even though I wouldn’t realize it for the better until later in the day). When I showed back up at the airport at 11:30am, I checked in my luggage with ease and waited for the security check point to open up. As I said goodbye to my sister and dad, I was gladly surprised when I noticed that Alvaro, Ricky’s dad, was standing a few feet away from me and ready to board the same connecting flight to Atlanta that I was. As I waved goodbye to my family from the other side of the security checkpoint, I was comforted by Alvaro who enthusiastically talking about how great my upcoming journey would be. Although we weren’t able to sit together on the plane, Alvaro’s presence calmed me as the plane left the ground and ascended into the sky. As I looked out the window, I choked back the tears as I said goodbye to Gainesville and all the people who make it sooo special. Alvaro and I said a quick goodbye in the Atlanta airport as we headed our separate ways (he was going to a different terminal to go to California).

When I got on the next flight I was pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by a relatively empty flight that left the empty seat between me and another man empty. After the flight took off I started up some small talk and we quickly established why we were boarding a flight to Philadelphia. When he heard about my trip to Mozambique he grew very interested because he had just recently arrived home from a church mission trip to Mozambique and wanted to tell me about the experience that lay ahead of me. Overall, the trip to Philadelphia was a great success! Although I missed the flight and arrived very late to the Peace Corps Staging orientation, the two plane rides and their benefits definitely outweighed the negatives.

When I finally got to Philadelphia I was able to hit the town with a few Mozambique Peace Corps volunteers and chow down on some Phili Steaks before hitting the hay for 1 whole hour. The reason we got so little sleep was because the very next day we had to wake up at 2 am and take a bus to New York to catch our flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. The flight was pretty uneventful. I tried to adjust myself to the new time zone waiting for us when I got off the 15 hour flight by trying to sleep according to the new time, but it was a super fail. I ended up going to sleep almost immediately once I got on the plane and then being unable to sleep during the “night time” of the upcoming time zone. Gah!

When we finally got to Johannesburg it was a great feeling! My feet and legs were ridiculously swollen from staying so immobile on the flight, but that didn’t stop me from doing a little jig when I finally touched ground in Africa for the first time. The flight from Johannesburg to Maputo was quick and easy, but as we made our final descent and looked out at the country that I would be living for the next two years I couldn’t help but tremble in anticipation and feel so much excitement about what lies ahead.

Since being in Maputo we’ve pretty much just chilled in the hotel and gone through long days of meetings and vaccines. They interviewed us today to see how our Portuguese was going and I think I did alright… we’ll see! Tomorrow we’re leaving Maputo for the training village and I can’t wait to meet my host family who I’ll be staying with for the next 10 weeks!


The Moz 14 PCT group!!!

I gotta go, but I’ll be keeping you up to date about things as they come around.

One Love,
Michael

P.S.- I will be getting a cell phone WITH INTERNET in like a week or two and you should be able to call me from skype or I might even be able to call you from skype! Who knows! Crazy that I go to a “third world country” and become more technologically advanced with my cell phone capabilities… :-)