I got in Mocuba late on Friday night, after the chapas stopped running. I'd been in a chapa since five AM and I'd shared my music with a beautiful Nigerian man, Samuel. The driver had told me that I speak really good Portuguese and (this is my favorite) asked if I was from Portugal. It was a pleasant trip - no breakdowns - but all I wanted to do was sleep in my own bed ("qualquier maneira"), so I went to the bridge to try for a bolea and ran into a few friends. I like Mocuba a lot more at night, it was quite pretty on the bridge over the swollen river. I had an excellent time hanging out with the boys; Teixera, Quadrado, Quadrado's brother Johnson, a few of Johnson's friends. Eventually, I caught a ride with an 18-wheeler and got back to Ile at nine. I stumbled in the dark with all of my things and felt my heart drop when I got home. Rene was not home, Roux was missing. Thank god for the missionaries. They took me in, and in the morning I paid someone to break into my house (fairly difficult, apparently, which is a nice consolation) and change the lock. Rene finally showed up the next afternoon with a convenient story which I don't believe, and - after convincing myself that he'd been poisoned - my cat hobbled in at night with a broken rib or two and a wild look in his eyes. He has the behavior of someone who has been starved and abused for a week, which is exactly what I think happened. He is on house arrest now, and I will not let him out until his behavior normalizes and his ribs heal. He is curled up on my lap at the moment.
I'm waiting for Eli to come back to let Rene go (how do you fire a part of your family?). Bryan slept over last night, and remarked that Rene has the decision-making skills of a fourteen-year-old, which is right on. He called me an angel for not yelling at him. This is a "last straw" sort of deal, and I love him - I really do - but he can't handle responsibility. It's going to be difficult to find someone new, because most people living in this situation would take advantage. The people that I trust are leaving Ile at the end of the school year, and it would be nice to find someone more permanent.
Bryan's visit was a pleasant surprise. He told me that Roux is the first cat that he's ever liked. Somehow, I have incredible luck being adopted by cats with great personalities. Eli and I would've been devastated if he'd been poisoned.
In the afternoon, we went over to the missionaries', and chatted with Pamela and Riley for a while. Sigi and Jens are holding a youth seminar for their church, and offered for us to eat with them. Since I have nothing to eat in my house, and Bryan and I recognized the look of hunger in each other's eyes, we accepted. Beans and rice! I sat with Felipe on a bench and ate it with my hands while the rest of the foreigners were at the table with silverware. I felt super Mozambican. While waiting at the bridge last night, hanging out with teenage boys (such is my life), I overheard two of the boys saying that I looked American but I acted Mozambican. I think that means they liked me.
The trip, the trip, the trip. The end of the trip - like the beginning - was amazing. At Doogles, Joy and I met two guys who work/intern for an NGO in Beira, Adam and Eric. We had a lot of fun talking to them and a Dutch woman, Mumu, and already had quite a few inside jokes after a night. They were headed up to Liwonde, where there are actual animals insead of just pretty red flowers, and I managed to convince Joy (by means of pity) to accompany them. We left on Wednesday morning for Liwonde. Adam and Eric were amused by our interactions with the locals; Joy was trying to learn the local language, and I was having a fantastic time bartering with the mini-bus drivers. I'm getting pretty good. When Joy and I were coming down from Nkhotakota, one of the Malawians asked for more money back from the conductor, because he saw that we'd paid less than him.
We ran into PCV Laura with her parents at the lodge, and she decided to stay the night to hang out with us. We took a canoe trip through the marsh and saw some hippos and a family of elephants hanging out in the water. When we came back, we - too poor to afford the $15 for dinner - pulled together what we had (Laura had onions, I had lentils, Eric had bread) and cooked a delicious impromptu dinner in the kitchen, where we met some Portuguese missionaries who were also too poor to afford dinner. After, we all hung out by the Portuguese's tent; we played guitar and sang until two AM. It was an incredible night. Adam forced me to play, so Laura and I stumbled through a rendition of Orphan Child by Emmylou. They were all amazing, and I was awful. But, I don't think anyone minded. When we came back, there were some issues with the beds. Laura was going to sleep on the floor, so I made her sleep with me. Africa destroys a person's concept of personal space. Twin beds are plenty big enough for two people.
In the morning, after three hours of sleep, Joy, Adam, Eric and I woke up to go on a morning drive. Fueled by coffee and what must've been adrenaline, Joy and I chattered away in the back. It's been great to get to know her better over the last week. We saw lots of deer-like creatures - impalas (striking, creepily sentient faces), water bucks, and antelopes; wart hogs; and baboons. The baboons were even more entertained by us than we were by them, if that's possible. They were sitting up in the acacias, watching us intently. I wonder what they know about us. We got out and walked into the veldt. We stood on top of a termite mound and stared across the golden flatness of the terrain. I stiffled an impulse to run into a herd of water bucks fifty meters away.
We left right after the drive, and they went to Tete and I stayed by myself in Blantyre for another night. I felt like I've known Adam and Eric for much longer than the two days that we spent together, and I'm rather sad that I'll probably never see them again. Maybe Eric will come up to visit, but Adam is leaving Mozambique in a month to go back to Utah. Adam said some really nice things about Joy and I, and he's the sort of person that I want to get to know. I think we would've been friends. On Friday morning, I left early, at 5 AM, and here we are, full circle around; in my broken house, with my broken cat, and I'm heart broken about Rene.
Tomorrow, the 3rd trimester begins.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment