Sunday, May 8, 2011

Jet lagged.

We are still jet lagged. This is why I am wide awake at 6 am blogging. For those who know me well know this is NOT normal for me. 


We went for a walk on the beach Saturday morning. It was nice. It was my first time out walking on the streets since we've been here. I was nervous to say the least.  I was looking over my shoulder every time we passed someone. I asked Alex "are we ok?" about 20 different times. I don't know whats going on here! I need to get used to the Mozambican people and their ways. It was a nice walk though, the beach was beautiful. We saw a school of jelly fish washed up on the shore, I discovered how weird a jelly fish looks up close.
We watched the many fishermen fishing to bring home the bread. On the shore Alex was taken back by how some of them repaired their boats. It looked like the little wooden things were held together with glue and nothing more! We talked to a fisherman named Tomás for a little while. He looked to be about 60 years old or so and he lived nearby the beach. He wasn't fishing when we were talking to him, Tomás was walking along the shore with his fishing pole in hand and every few steps he would duck down and poke his hand in the sand and wiggle it around. We stopped him to talk, here's a little how the conversation went, (spoken in Português of course):
Alex: "What are you poking around down there for?"
Tomás: "Trying to collecting worms for bait, but the tide is too high."
Alex: "How long does it take for the tide to go down?"
Tomas: "about 4 hours."
Alex: "What are you going to do until then?"
Tomas: "Pass the time."
Me and Tomas the fisherman








Alex went on to teach him about some kind of technology that uses batteries and poles that go into the ground to make the worms come out of the ground. We are meeting with him again next Saturday to teach him this method. I guess we better research it more.

We came home and made lunch, we took some out to our guard and ate with him. The guards are always so bored, so they are so excited to have any company. His name is Emilio. I use him to practice portugues and he uses me to practice english. 
Eating lunch with Emílio the guard

The man finally brought us our car, at 5:00 pm. We were waiting around for him for hours, so we took a little snoozer on accident (due to jet lag). We woke up to sirens. Of course, I didn't know what was going on. When Roy got here with the car, minutes after the sirens went off at the end of our street, he told us what was happening. It turns out the people were killing a thief, and the policias were called.  The Mozambican people have no tolerance for thieves. Some one must have stolen and got caught.  They were apparently using machetes and chopping this guy up. I'm surely glad I didn't see any of it.  Mozambicans don't believe in the death penalty, but they believe in killing thieves or anyone who commits crime in public and gets caught. So, if we ever get into a little trouble all we have to do is yell "LADRÃO!!" and the population will be there to succor us. But it makes me feel a little safer, knowing that the Mozambican people are on my side, don't steal from me!

Saturday night we found out that we have an alarm system in the house. I was excited, it is another safe guard for us! So we set the alarm and went into our room. Alex left the room to do something, and a few minutes later we hear this siren in our house, the alarm was going off. I was panicked. We just learned about this alarm, is someone really trying to get in? Turns out Alex set the alarm off somehow. Not only did the alarm go off, but minutes later, a truck full of armed men come to our house ready for action. Alex kindly apologized, and they went back. But I guess we have a good line of defense for ourselves. I hope it doesn't get tested out in a real situation. 
Road by our house
Tree in the middle of the road. Weird.
Our house

Its Sunday morning now, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOMS!

Much love.

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