My Mother is a silly goose. You need your sleep. Trust me, I am tired enough for the both of us by way of jet lag. In fact, I have found out two things about airplanes: A. They are crazy fast and the best way to get from Utah to Africa. B. Going north to south is fine, but going west to east screws up your internal clock. In other words, jet lag sucks, and I swear it wasn't my fault when my body decided it needed to sleep during church.
So, to get it out of the way, you are going to hate me. Psh, I am not too proud of it myself, but I left my camera back home. Yup, your wonderful little boy cannot send you pictures this week because he's a scatter brain. So, I am so sorry.
Well, ya'll probably want to hear about how I'm doing over here in this completely insane place, so I might as well tell you a bit about my last few days.
Well, after two days of flying and sitting for 12 hours in London, I arrived in this little airport in a little place called Maputo Mozambique. Wow! I can definately say culture shock is getting to me. I came off the plane, went through customs and security, found out my big suitcase was on the next flight(don't worry, I have it now), and left to find Pres. Kretly and his Wife along with the APs waiting so patiently outside. Pres is great, his Engilsh is good. I had absolutely no problem understanding him(in English).
Pause. My watch just sang for me. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope it's great! I sent a card from the MTC(one for you and one for Jo[by the way, Happy birthday Jojo!]) I hope you got it. You are a great guy. You deserve a great birthday.
Well, I spent my first day here completely wasted from jet lag(so forgive me if I don't remember right). We went to the mission office, in the picture of us with pres, then to the mission home. Pres has a NICE house, and we got to stay there the first night.
Hm. My first meal. Ah! That's right. We went out to eat at this little chinese place. It was good. They had shrimp in the rice(not so impressive. I don't get why people go crazy about shrimp). They also served noodles and chicken in some yummy sauce. Twas good.
Anyway. Most of the first day is lost to my tired mind(once again, I hope jet lag wears off quickly.). The second day we went to the store. Wow, like a small Walmart like thing. Just a normal store. A lot of the products are in English-they get a lot of stuff from South Africa.
Speaking of which, you probably want to know what we have over here by way of food. Well, we have yet to go to ShopRite today, but I have been told they have mostly the same stuff as the US does with a few exceptions(like sour cream). THEY HAVE PEANUT BUTTER! Didn't you say, Josh, that Argentina didn't have peanut butter? Oh, but they don't have root beer(so thank you, I will enjoy that bottle of concentrate later on in my mission when I am missing home). They have 7 up and Fanta. In fact, they have more than just orange fanta. They have grape fanta and pineapple fanta and coca cola. It's all in different packaging(tall, not wide bottles), but it's the same stuff.
Speaking of food and stores, the Medico is weird. That's our money. Nosso dinheiro. The medico or plural medicais. Weird. I walked into the store(called game) with pres and saw sign advertising stuff for only Fifty medicais! Wow! ONLY! Hah! I saw a sign for baby bum powder and I think it said 150 medicais. It's worth a lot less than the dollar.
Ah, probably would like to know about my home. Well, we have running water and electricity. The water is cold. So if I want a hot shower, boil some and mix with the cold. And, yes, we have a washing machine. It's nothing fancy, but it cleans clothes.
Come to find out, it rains a lot in my area. Or at least it has the whole time I have been here. My umbrella has become very precious to me. My comp...oh...I haven't even talked about him yet. Yup, me comp is named Elder Awbrey. He is from Luisiana! He told me that I am his first companion that speaks English, so he was happy about that. He's a great guy. He is a little taller than me, white, and has an american accent. Normal. Except for the fact that he won't let me share my unbrella with him. Psh, he's getting one today.
The area I am in is called T-3 B. The little town, or bairro, is called T-3 and me and my comp are in charge of half (the B half). The only paved roads are the main roads, everything else is sand. The people live very poorly. I do not know how they do it. They live in these little huts usually made out of gray brick and would be considered run down and unlivable in utah. I feel bad. My house isn't stellar, but it is enough. These people are crazy poor. There are so many funky things I see here that I would never see in Utah just because people are SO poor here. We live amongst them, but our house is alot nicer.
Psh, everyone has commented on my orange bags. "You might want to tie something to that so you can find them!" or "OH, you'll lose those in two seconds flat" or "I'll buy you a satellite so you can see them from space." Which reminds me. I have to consolidate down to my one big suitcase for my whole mission. We fly for transfers and the planes only let fifty pounds and a carry on. I will be fine.
Yes, recipes would be great. I could probably find all the stuff to make them here. My only problem, make them simple and quick: we don't have lots of time just to cook and our kitchen is rather small.
I love you and hope I don't sound too weird(I am still suffering from jet lag-nine hours is a lot).
Give each other hugs for me.
Yo bro and crazy boy on the other side of the globe.
Elder Christopher Andre Wartena
P.S. My name is hard to pronounce for the people. They usually say Watena. They delete the R. Even then, they slurr it. The accent is so weird. I can't differentiate one word from another. I'll get the language though. It's coming slowly but surely.
Signing off for now,
The Mama
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