Yesterday, we and the Canadians went to the beach and visited Catrina, who was very happy to see us! I got a sunburn, but from the ride more than the beach.
I was in the back of a pickup for a couple hours and we "picked up" some people trying to get to Maputo. There were probably about six people in the bed of the truck with me, and a little girl sitting on my lap. She was perfectly comfortable with this and even fell asleep a couple of times. The best part was when she was getting up to leave, she just had this look on her face like she wanted to say something but thought I wouldn't understand. So I told her my name in Changana, but she still had the blank look on her face - caught between conversation and confusion. She just kind of stared at me, looking like she was trying to comprehend that she fell asleep in a white person's care. I'm really curious to know what exactly she was thinking.
I got to see a lot of the countryside, and it's really spectacular. It's not that it's alien, it's just subtlely different from American countryside and conserved. There isn't any complicated network of roads and power lines scattered over the landscape, and houses blend into the spotty forest.
Now that I'm doing more work at school (read: making more lists), I have begun to wonder about my usefulness. There are tons of professors at my school, so what makes me any more qualified to teach Biology? I'm not fluent in Portuguese and I've never taught before. I know teaching is a means to an end, but I wonder how high expectations will be of me.
My writing is suffering because I hurt my right thumb closing a latch, so I might be writing less the next couple days.
Peace
John
