Hello from my friend Paulo

My friend Paulo and I run together some mornings, and I wanted to send along a hello from him, and tell you a bit about him. This can help you understand what it’s like to be Mozambican.

Paulo is 26 years old, and lives with his mother and young sisters. Most Mozambicans live with their family until they are married. Paulo’s mom works in factory, and his sisters go to school. He is taking care of his sisters because his dad has died, and he hopes to help them someday attend college. He lives outside the city in some of the housing I showed you pictures of.

Paulo studied tourism and English after finishing high school. He now is training at a hotel, but unfortunately in Mozambique, it is very difficult to get a job that pays money, so he is just a volunteer until he becomes higher skilled. There are very few jobs in Mozambique at all, so he lucky for this opportunity, though it is difficult at home sometimes.

Paulo loves to watch sports, to learn new information, and practice his English. He already speaks Portuguese and his family language Makua, but he is teaching himself English, too! I try to help him, and he is helping me learn Portuguese. He is a much faster learner than I am, though, so now his English is much better than my Portuguese. He also really likes to learn new information. He doesn’t have a computer or the internet, but he goes to the library before his job on most days and accesses their public computers, where he can look up new facts about the world.

Paulo loves watching American basketball right now, and his favorite sports teams are the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, and Detroit Pistons. His favorite current player is Kevin Garnett, but he also loves Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, and some others from the “good old days”. He enjoys watching T.V. in the neighborhood with his friends.

Paulo has enjoyed watching Michelle and Barack Obama on television, and he corrected me this morning when I couldn’t remember the name of Obama’s daughter Malia!

Paulo feels pretty lucky to live in Mozambique, because the World Cup will be coming to South Africa in 2010, and many tourists will stay here in Mozambique. Mozambique is of course his team, but if they don’t make it into the tournament, he will cheer for America! He tells me that his biggest dream, what he hopes to do before he dies, is come visit America. Sometimes I wonder if he is telling me that because I am American, but I think he his genuine…

Paulo and his family don’t have much money, but he is proud about how they get by on what they have. He explained that they don’t buy fancy things like new clothes, but they saved their money so that Paulo could go to school.