I really started to feel comfortable and accepted today. And it scared me.
I know that I'll have to do it all over again when I get to C---, but it's a nice feeling, being able to walk around and feel secure at night.
However, this feeling seems to be mutually exclusive with missing people. I found that the more I integrate into the community, the less lonely I feel and the less I miss my friends from back home.
However, I haven't been able to communicate very much lately, so it could also be a product of the relative silence.
I had a cultural breakthrough today. After having a very frustrating language class, during which we went over the tests we took, which were "misunderstood" by almost all of us when it come to comprehension, I came home and had a nice discussion with Sr. B.
The conversation came to beggars at the market, after I brought up terms of respect for elders. Most of the beggars tend to be elders, so it's hard to draw a distinction between who you respect and who is truly a beggar.
They are always asking for pao (bread), so I retorted that we have a phrase, from all over the world, "Give a man a fish..." and so on. Well, Sr. B finished the maxim for me, roughly the same. It was great to hear such a universal truth halfway across the world.
Apparently, there's a way to get books and other supplies to Mozambique with the help of PC. If you go to peacecorps.gov and look for something like "gifts in kind" or just about sending books over, you should find more info.
Peace
John
