Made it!

Hey everyone,

Well you can all breathe a sigh of relief, at least Mom can anyways, because I have arrived safely and soundly in Mozambique. The journey was incredible, especially flying on Emirates Airlines. To put it briefly - did I ever think I'd see smoked salmon and shrimp cocktails, widescreen personal tvs and an LED-light ceiling that mimicks the sky outside like hogwarts in an airplane cabin?... in coach??!!!! Nope, but that is all exactly what happened.

I met up with the rest of the students and our professor in Johannesburg. It was nice to see some familiar faces. It was funny because almost everyone went a different route - some through Atlanta, Chicago, London, Paris and even Senegal. We came over to Moambique on the afternoon flight and landed on the runway. We scooted off the runway about twenty yards and then the plane just parked and opened up all the doors, rear and front and everyone jumped out in less than thirty seconds. It was pretty efficient. The airport reminded me of the airport near Tikal in Guatemala, but about half the size. We waited for almost an hour to change our money into meticais because they had run out of money. Yes... they ran out of local currency at the airport!

We then made it to our housing arragements. We are staying in a nice neighborhood for Mozambican standards. Most of the members of the group who served in nicer areas in Brazil or Portugal were a little shell-shocked, but I feel right at home. We live in some apartment buildings, the boys a couple of blocks from the girls. I am teaching my fellow roomates how to live without running water (it comes in the morning for an hour or two - you just have to make sure you get as much as you can and then plan how to use the rest of the day). We have to buy our own food and cook it too, which is fun because I have a bit of experience of living from the food of a three-shelf market.

I am so happy to be here. We weren't able to make it into the school where we will be working today - we spent the day chasing after passport copies at the embassy and facilitating the guy that took six or seven hours to put in hooks for our mosquito netting, but now all is done. We have our first mozambican poetry class tonight. Our professor, Dr. Williams is renowned among Mozambican poets and has done most of their translation into english. (He published the book we are using.) He has many great connections with people of the literary community here, and we'll be meeting some of the prominent poets.

I feel like I am back on my mission, but with much less responsibility and am thrilled that I get to walk around in shorts and my new mozambican sandals and shades. We can chat with whomever we please without feeling guilty for it, and can even watch all the soccer on tv that we can stand! Thanks for your prayers. I feel safe and happy.

Mike