I went to Maputo this weekend. It was 4 hours down, starting at 6:30 AM. I walked to Shop-Rite (more on this), which took about an hour. Then I got myself to a hotel where other volunteers were, visited them and got ice cream, then went to the PC office and finally, just before sunset, got to the site where our host families are so I could eat dinner and spend the night.
It was fun spending some time with Bernardo, Antonio and the rest of the family, but it wasn't enough. The big change was that I know enough Changana now to have simple conversations with my host mom, Regina. Because of her lack of Portuguese, she now rattles things off to me in Changana. I catch less than 50% of it, but I know how to get the gist of what's going on.
Doing without electricity, running water or toilets is good for sleep, and I got the best night's sleep I've had in quite a while - about 10 hours! I just had to go 5 hours away to do it.
And because I was traveling so much, I'm tired and behind on work with a full day ahead of me. So I'll explain the Shop-Rite.
To the north of downtown, in the middle of nowhere, is by every appearance, a normal American shopping mall. As I walked up to it, dodging piles of fly-infested garbage and street vendors, I wasn't quite sure what was going on. This feeling lasted about the entire time.
For eight months now, I've been adjusting to a life devoid of any of the principles that go into a shopping mall. And here I was, dodging cars in a parking lot, staring at the chain stores in front of me. So I walked into the Shop-Rite and realized I could have been in any American supermarket. Subtly different, but there was nothing subtle about the dichotomy of this store set against Mozambique. I was a deer in headlights.
A worker had to stop me to tell me that I had to leave my backpack in front. I grabbed a handbasket and began going down every aisle, not quite sure what to expect. but it was all too familiar. The vacant expressions on people's faces, the fat children, the lack of people staring at me...and aisles upon aisles of stuff I didn't need but found tantalizingly useful. I was disgusted.
Going back to the US will be HARD!
Peace
John
