Hey everyone~
Well I am in Monapu, I am visiting friends and will be going to tthe Isle de Mocambique tomorrow for Christmas. So far everything is great. We have been in our town for 1 week and everyone there is awesome. We had a nice little welcome lunch and pretty much have met everyone in town. It is funny though, some little kids that are 1 or less see us and cry cause we are white. Its entertaining to say the lleast. Well we havenºt done much. WE have slept and walked and went out to the bar and discoteca. We live in an old colonial house that is huge. It is a guest house because our house is not ready for us. When we arrived they showed us 3 different houses and we chose the one that was in the bairro, bascially the center of where everyone lives and not one of the nice cement houses. We chose the dirt house. To get this house we had to compromise and we will be getting a girl that comes in from another town to go to school, she will live with us. We pay her tuition which is nothing, buy her notebooks and feed her. She in turn helps us cook, clean and get our water. It should be a decent trade off. They also tried getting us to hire a security person which we shot down. We donºt want to stand out anymore than we do. The girl living with us happens alot here, a lot of the teaqchers or wealthier people have the kids in their home as a way to help them and help the kid get their education. Traveling can be quite expensive and a pain in the ass, especially where we live. We are in the booniess, to say the least.
Lets see we have become good friends with this lady Ilda, she is a doll. She is 23 and works for the school. She lives with her 3 siblings, the youngest being 5 and she so fun to play with. We have also met the owner of the bar and discoteca which has opened her home and calls us her kids. Within the first 2 minutes of meeting her she showed us her house which is gigantic and she has a monkey. She has 5 kids and is a reeally good person. She has just been a real nice perosn to be around and her family is great. Her son speaks pretty good english which makes life a whole lot easier for me. I can actually carry on a real conversation with someone. Me and Helana are getting along great. PLus she is the way that I get through the days. I have depended on her portuguese a lot. Which I have to stop or I am not going to learn anything new. I just keep saying that it will come, in time.
So our town is small, we donºt have much available. We have basic things in our market like potatoes, tomatoes, riice, coconuts, beans onion. In the bar you can get beer, soda and stuff like that. We have very limited things to choose from, we can get fish which we have eaten a lot, chicken only once and i refuse to kill it and goat which neither of us will kill. So our diets will be rather bland, but that is ok. Our school is fairly big, relatively new and has a computer lab which is awesome. All the directors seem really nice and I canºt wait till school starts, doing nothing all day is really boring. I have made lots of jewelry and some curtains. I will make more when I return to town. We have went to the bar almost everyday, not to drink but to socialize. We have a housekeeper that really urks me cause we canºt have males that he doesnºt know at the house at night. Which sucks when you want to sit around and chat with friends. So that means we have to leave to do anything. He constantly wants to know where we are goiong and why and it is just annoying me. Anyway thats the only down fall so far. Me and Helana walked to the river which was a good 45 minute walk there just ot do something. Anyway I should go, this is costing me an arm and a leg. I will write more as soon as I can, aat least once a month. If anyone wants to call, my phone will work now. It should be on for the next couple of days, maybe till sunday. I donºt know about my battery cause the girls we are visiting dontºt have electricity to charge the phone. Other than that, i donºt know.
WEll I hope everyone has a merry christmas and a happy new year!!!!
Be safe
Love,
Shells xoxoxooxoxox