I’ve been living in town for one week now (10 March) and
here’s how my life is different.
I’ve gone to the beach four days this past week. Most of the time the beach is fairly empty, I
might see two or three other people. So
I’ve also enjoyed praying there and seeking the Lord there. But Sunday afternoons is when the locals go
the beach and then there will be hundreds
.
I love being close enough to walk to grocery stores, the
bank, the bakery, the post office, the park, restaurants, schools, more
houses.
I’ve also enjoyed being in a more densely populated
area..its easier to meet new people who
in general, are more educated (more people in town go to high school and/or
have graduated from high school, unlike Ngalumwe).
I’ve enjoyed having more electricity-but its not exactly
what you’d call constant…in fact it just
went out two minutes ago. This past week
its gone out 4 days during the last week and outages can last anywhere from 30
minutes to a few hours. It’s so nice to
have more electricity than what I’d get from a generator for a few hours each
night. I can use my computer longer, things will actually freeze in a freezer,
etc.
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| This was the sunset on my last day in Ngalumwe. It was overcast most of the day so I pleasantly surprised by this beautiful sunset. But now, I can see sunrise over the ocean (if I get up early enough). |
There are less bugs here, which I’m not sure is necessarily a good thing. I kinda miss seeing some odd
creatures. Except for mosquitoes-there
are actually many more mosquitoes where I live in town than in Ngalumwe so I
have requested a box of my mosquito-eating friends: geckos. Typically I'll kill at least 5 mosquitoes daily. I've been working on a quieter form of killing mosquitoes.
I also miss the noisy song of the frogs in
the evenings and seeing a variety of exotic birds like those tiny red and blue
finches, king fishers or the birds with tails that are longer than the rest of
their bodies.
I like that getting transport is much easier.
The room I am staying in is bigger than the caravan I was
in. I no longer have to deal with rats
eating holes in my clothes or pooping on my bed J. It is newer and not falling apart like the caravan
and darker...which makes it easier to sleep in however I can’t sleep past 7am if I try. It is also theoretically safer as I have a
door with a lock now.
The down side is
there is no storage space in my room so I need to purchase a wardrobe, a desk,
and shelves. All of these items will
probably have to be custom made. There
is also not good air circulation so buying a fan was one of the first things I
did because I don’t enjoy sweating all night.
The bathroom hasn’t been finished so I am using the one in the house
which is not as nice as the one I had before.
It’s smaller, a mosquito paradise, and requires bucket showers.
I’ve also switched from living with a South African family
to a Mozambican family. So this will
improve my Portuguese as I have to use it every day. I am also trying to learn Xitswa- the local
African language which I find far more challenging than Portuguese. Fortunately, living with locals helps with
that too. So If I’m speaking English it’s
to myself unless I’m on the phone or something.
Eating Mozambican food every day is different too. I’ve actually had rice every single day since
I came back from South Africa on February 23.
Strangely, I’m not as tired of rice as I thought I would be.
There is less sand so my feet are typically a little
cleaner…although keeping sand out of my room is still impossible.
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| My room the day I moved in...it looks a little more homey now. So I want to paint it. |
Tonight (13 March) I ate matapa caranguejo for dinner or crab
matapa. Matapa is a traditional
Mozambican food that includes matapa leaves, garlic, onions, coconut milk,
water, tomatoes, peanuts and crabs (optional).
Looking at it might remind you of Green
Eggs and Ham as it’s a mushy green substance usually poured over rice or
xima. But matapa is very tasty and one
of my favorite Mozambican foods. Here’s
the recipe, more or less. First you
grind up the matapa leaves with a few cloves of garlic….we’d just use a food
processor in the States. From there let
it cook with some oil. Grate the
coconut then add warm water to make coconut milk. Add finely ground peanuts to the coconut milk
and add the coconut milk and crabs. Let
it cook for a while before adding onions and tomatoes…and then let it cook a
little more and its done. Serve with
rice or xima. In South Africa they call
xima pap, but in the States people don’t really eat the finely ground corn. And I can’t think of anything matapa leaves
are comparable to.
