Written September 9, 2012

Good morning!

Another Sunday, another week has come and gone. In under 30 days I’ll be moving into my permanent house across town, and a month after that I’ll be at our reconnect conference in Maputo. Its kinda crazy to think that I’ve been gone for almost 4 months now. . since May 28^th. My my, how the time is flying.

Friday turned out to be a delightful day, the morning started a bit slow, so I decided to walk into town. I stopped in one of my favorite shops to talk with the owners, a really lovely couple who has sort of taken me under their wings. I can usually kill a few hours there talking with them about any topic. They are educated, and enjoy talking with me about politics, religion, and stuff back in America. It helps me with my language, and there is always good food involved. Which leads me back to my Friday afternoon. I went to chat around 11am, was invited to lunch around 1, so I did my errands, and came back. So happy I accepted the invitation – we had salad, brown rice, and this delicious goat-meat curry. I’m telling you the meat just fell apart in your mouth.

Most of Moz’s food doesn’t use or require a lot of spices, but this couple loves to use spices in their cooking (they are the family I spent the final night of Ramadan with). So needless to say, things are always very savory, and well prepared. We talked about all sorts of things, and I ended up spending most of the day with them. Returning back to my little house around 4pm. I spent the evening watching a movie, and drinking red wine from a box. Classy stuff I tell ya. What can I say, sometimes on a Friday night a girl just has to let loose haha.

Yesterday I had a verrrrrry interesting church experience. For any of you who remember, and for those who don’t – I have decided that a good way of integrating into my community, is to attend various church services on the weekends. This weekend was “Igreja Adventisa do Setimo Dia” - 7^th day. It was a day-long event (something that I was not told ahead of time) literally. I was at church from 8am until 5:30pm. It was much more structured than the one I attended last weekend, there was a building, benches and plastic chairs to sit on, and an “altar” of sorts. There were still issues with seating, people talking, getting up and moving, power outages, and things not functioning as planned (basic life in Moz) but overall it was a much more structured church experience.

I don’t attend church in the states, so I am unfamiliar with passages, prayers, songs/hymns etc. so listening to it all in Portuguese is a bit tricky. But I got the most of it. There were groups that preformed hymns (some better than others) passages read and then life stories told relating them to everyday life (I found that interesting), and prayers. We broke for lunch around 1:30, after witnessing two baptisms – the people being baptized were in their late teens/early twenties. That was kind of a cool experience to witness, and of course, being the only white person there, everyone made sure I could see the event.

We broke for lunch, which people had both brought in picnic baskets, and cooked at church, families ate together, and the “higher ups” ate inside the church – I walked around and had a small sampling of everything. Many of my counterparts attend this church, so I knew many people there – and of course I had to make an appearance inside the church to talk with the pastors, and important big-wigs. One had actually just traveled to California, and experienced culture-shock etc. We had a really nice conversation about the differences between life here and in the states, and he wished me the best of luck in my PC service here.

Everyone was very nice, and again, nothing was forced upon me, and I didn’t have to participate in prayers/songs etc. they all encouraged me to return sometime, and I am sure I will (simply because Saturdays I don’t have much going on) but there was never once a forceful attempt to get me to participate or return.

After lunch, everyone returned to the church, there was more beautiful singing, more passages/life stories. I was introduced to the congregation, which was nice, a bit overwhelming to stand and have an entire church say hello to you. . but I suppose it happens. It amazed me how quickly time slipped by, before I knew it it was 5pm!

Oh did I mention that it rained the entire day? Not a light drizzle, a hard thunderous downpour that caused power outages and soggy feet. Walking home in that was a lovely experience, wet sand, and skin do not mix well for a mile long walk home. I have some lovely blisters/open cuts on my feet now (don’t worry I’ve cleaned and bandaged them) that are more annoying than anything.

I came home to find some lovely puddles around my house (apparently my roof leaks) including one on my bed. Slightly unfortunate, but what are you going to do. I changed into some dry sweatpants (even though everything was kind of damp inside my house) and watched a movie with some hot chocolate. Overall, it was a long day – eventful at times, but again I think it helped me with my integration into the community, and was an unforgettable life experience.

Today the sun has finally come out, after a week of clouds and rain. I’m happy to see it, and hope that things will dry out today. I made an egg scramble for breakfast/brunch, had some coffee, and have started a new book “Napalm and Silly Putty” by George Carlin. So far, its hilarious. If anyone has suggestions about some good books to read please let me know!

Well kids, my day is going to be spent reading, maybe watching another movie, and relaxing. Looking forward to my phone call with the family tonight – I encourage you all to send emails or give me a call sometime as well!

Hope all is good and dandy in the states – GO STEELERS!

Xoxo

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