I still cannot write the actually name of "My Town" because chances are that somewhere out there amongst my thousands and thousands of loyal readers there is someone so repulsed by my audacity to continuously publish a public journal about ME and MY LIFE that revealing my exact location would only put a bulls eye on my back for that someone to come here and put an end once and for all to the Fresh Prince of Mozambique. I can't allow it. The show must go on. Please be warned, if you are not related to me or even if you [View Full Entry]

---

---

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, this would in fact be my second blog entry within the last 10 days. It must be due to that holiday magic that finds a way to touch all of us, even those of us in Mozambique. I was telling my mom that Thanksgiving is just absolutely HUGE here!! You wouldn't think it, but the streets were just overflowing with Mozambicans wearing pilgrim style hats, dressing up like turkeys, and of course bars become packed with everyone in town who has gathered around to see the Detroit Lions play football on the television. It [View Full Entry]

---

---

Why hello there! How have you been? Oh, me? I’ve been good thanks, pretty busy though. Whats that? Well yes, I believe I have lost a little weight, thank you for noticing! You actually look a little fatter to be honest. Its ok, that happens to a lot of people after high school. What? Yeah, you’re right, it has been quite a while, I apologize ….I believe the last time we talked, I had a full head of hair, my name was Jimmy Schneidewin_, I was 23, I had only run one marathon in my life, the President of the United [View Full Entry]

---

---

If you read the comments from the last blog, you will see that we made some omissions and errors. Personally, I think we weren't too far off on the parrot, at least it has a green back. We could have called it a purple-headed dove or something :). Thank you to John and Roger for setting us straight and hopefully they will continue to correct us on our bird mistakes. The biggest omission was the hippo! How could we forget about sitting on the back of a hippo! (Okay, not exactly sitting on it's back, but pretty close!). One of our [View Full Entry]

---

---

I am in the Peace Corps. I serve in Mozambique. Or is I the other way around? Peace Corps Mozambique is the name of my program. Within Peace Corps Mozambique, there exists a powerful and wise organization called The Peer Support Network (PSN). This organization is made up of only the wisest and most powerful volunteers, a network of peers, if you will. These are volunteers who have won the right to go through intense special training that will allow them to offer assistance, guidance, and advice to their fellow volunteers during this particularly stressful time of their lives. Homesickness, pr [View Full Entry]

---

---

Mt. Namuli is the second highest mountain in Mozambique, tipping the scales at 2419 meters. It also happens to be located in my province, right outside of a town called Gurue, which lies only about 5 hours from the city I now call home. Naturally, I had to climb it. Two other volunteer friends joined me, one, a health volunteer who lives in my province, and another who is a teacher in the province directly south of Zambezia, and was on break between the 2nd and 3rd trimester terms. We all made the trek to Gurue, where we would begin our [View Full Entry]

---

---

So I spent so much time with those other entries today that I have very little time to write this update. I am training for a marathon. The race is November 2 in Soweto South Africa. Training in Africa is harder than training in Michigan. My hair is still growing. I will include a picture of how ugly I have become. I am almost done with my original name on my Peace Corps name countdown. I will include a picture. I am happier than I was last month, and I was happier then than I was in July, and happier in [View Full Entry]

---

---

Everyone’s getting ready to get the heck out of dodge. Today, all we had on the schedule was to take the bunk bed parts to Dondo, assemble them, and spend the rest of the day cleaning, packing, and preparing to go. Our vehicles were all gone, either in the shop or in use by other Care for Life people. All we had was a small covered pickup. So we had to pack the beds tightly in the truck to take them out to Dondo. The truck was way beyond bottomed out. And we strapped a bunch of mattresses to the [View Full Entry]

---

---

We’re coming into the homestretch of the trip. This morning as I was getting ready the lady who cleans the place mentioned that it was her last day. I said yep. She said she had a favor to ask. I said what. She said he son doesn’t have shoes and could I give her some. I thought that was a little forward but of course it’s impossible to say no under the circumstances. And she’s a nice, poor lady. So I said sure, and gave her the choice between my sandals and my running shoes. She took the sandals. I [View Full Entry]

---

---

A couple days ago, Ryan received a text message saying that Care for Life had won 85,000 metacais (about $3,500) and a motorcycle from the phone company. We figured it was probably not legitimate, but it didn’t have any of the normal earmarks of a scam. It wasn’t asking for money, and it told us to go to the phone company rather than some other address. So we thought it was worth checking out. That’s what we did this morning. Unfortunately, it wasn’t legit. While we were out we visited several places looking for a Mozambique t-shirt. We saw a [View Full Entry]

---

---