The roosters here will cock-a-doodle-do any time of the day, but usually get quiet at night.  Starting around 3 am they begin to wake up and figure everyone else should, but only a few of them at this time.  By 5:30 am there is an orchestra of roosters and they can be really loud if they decide to walk by your window.  A lot of the animals just roam around nearby areas and people seem to know which animals belong to who.  So my bed is nothing more than metal springs covered in a thin piece of cloth.  As you could imagine this is not productive for sleeping and being in a strange new place doesn’t help.  With nothing more than a few hours of sleep I got out of bed around 5:30 and worked on organizing my room. I went outside and mama Celeste already started chores for the day.  Soon as she saw me she told me to get my shoes and we were off with empty water jugs, I was pretty sure I knew where we were going then.

As we walked down past the only house behind ours, we followed a path through a large open field, trees lining one side and a large hill on the other.  We snake our way a little further and I can hear lots of voices, of course not saying anything I can understand.  Then out of nowhere is the local water hole, literally.  The area has been built up a little with walls and a large cement basin where people were washing their clothes.  Just “upstream” of that there was a rock wall with a small opening at the bottom where everyone was filling up their water jugs.  The area where the water comes out is only a small trickle and large enough to fit small water pitchers, similar to a juice or ice tea pitcher.  The women, as Junior and I are the only guys there, use the pitchers to scoop the water from the small collection area and pour it into the large jugs using the top of plastic one and half liter bottle upside down as a funnel.  We wait our turn to get water and it’s a slow process, just like everything around here is.  Once the jug is filled, another woman helps lift the large jug onto mama Celeste’s head and we walk back to the house, Junior and I were carrying smaller jugs.  If the women have been doing this for a long time, like mama Celeste, they don’t even use their hands to balance the jug once it’s in place on their head.  We walk back to the house and now close to the house just below ours, there is a goat tied to a tree.  It was just eating some of the dry grass and “baaaaah”ing at us.  Rainy season is just getting ready to start, the underbrush is dried out and beginning to be burned to allow for the new growth.  Most of the water taps right now are dry but after a few good rains should be able to be used.

When we got back I had to take a bath, eat breakfast and get dressed for church.  There is a large Catholic church, old and aged, made of stone, near the center of town.  We got to church a little late, as is common around here, and it was already packed.  There was an upstairs balcony where all of the children are kept and teenagers look over them, this is where Junior was taken when we got there.  The church was so full we were sitting near the entrance on plastic lawn chairs.  Once there wasn’t any more room for chairs to be placed around, people would just stand in the door ways.  Church service is given in half Portuguese and half Changana, the local language, of course I don’t understand either one.  The bible passages would be read in Portuguese then the signing would be in Changana.  There was dancing at the front of the church be I was too far in the back to see it.  Mama Celeste would grab my arm when it was time to stand up.  I was tired from not sleeping much the night before and was dozing in and out, there were a couple locals that were fully asleep there.  Another culture shock moment that I was fully warned about was breast feeding in public, this includes church services.  There were a couple ladies that just pull down their shirt, pull out the boob and start feeding their babies right there.  It is really cute how the babies are tied to mothers in slings everywhere they go.  Sometimes the babies ride in the front, other times they ride in the back, either way they are happy.  There were a number of PCTs there for church, as we were advised to go to the first church service even if we didn’t want to and then our host families would most likely be okay with us not going any other time.

After a three hour service, the usual around here, Junior and I were sent to the mercado, which isn’t far from the church.  I had to buy flip-flops, they are considered house shoes here and everyone has to have them.  I was fully relying on Junior to make sure I didn’t get ripped off, since I don’t know the language at all.  I found a pair that fit and paid for them, 90 Mtc, which I later found out is a huge ripoff, well done Junior.  On our walk around the mercado I ran into one of the PCVs that are here for training.  It was good to be able to actually talk to someone.  When we got back to the house mama Celeste called the PCV that lived with her two years ago, she’s getting ready to COS, close of service.  She had said that she had a hard time during PST with the living arrangement but that everything got better when she got to site.  The neighbor PCT hadn’t been to the market yet so I took her there to show her where it was.  We ran into a few more PCTs while we were out and a couple of the PCVs also.  One of the host mamas took us to her house to talk with her PCT, and the house was very nice.  They had a nice big TV with satellite and fed us popcorn and juice, which is awesome to have around here.  We made our way back home for the evening and mama Celeste sent us back out with Junior to get wine and coke.  Mama Celeste showed us how she drinks wine with coke, about a two to one mixture.  It was quite a relief to see other PCTs and just have a chance to communicate.