Maníngue Nice: My Name Is Liverpool.

The last two days have been EXHAUSTING. It is only 7:30 pm here and I am SO ready for bed. I can't give in though, I have to get my sleep schedule on Mozambique time. We'll see about that.

I went to church for the first time here in Mozambique. That was overwhelming. We had to stand up in sacrament meeting to be acknowledged. At the end of the meeting, everyone flocked to us to talk to the former Elder Spencer and to introduce themselves to me. Too bad I don't speak portugues already. I can speak enough to introduce myself and other small talk, but it is frustrating. They begin to think I speak fluent portugues so they go on and on about something, and then I just have to look at Alex because they speak so fast it sounds like jibberish. I just feel like an idiot. All throughout the meetings I am racking my brain to try to catch what is being said, my brain never rests. I end up tuning out every other minute, then Alex nudges me so I can tune back in. Lets just say I have a headache every night these days.

One teenager at church came up to me to introduce myself. It went something like this:

Teenager: Ola
Me: Ola
Teenager: Tudo bom?
Me: Estou bem. Obrigada.
Teenager: Como se chama?
Me: Meu nome e Chelsea
Teenager: Ahhhh... meu nome e Liverpool.

He thought he was so clever. I laughed. and said "a equipa robou meu nome". Which means the (soccer) team stole my name. He was laughing with all his friends and walked away. Those little punks...

Monday was the first day we did stuff for the humanitarian projects were working on. Goodness, EVERYTHING is so frustrating here. It takes hours to get things done. We were out for 10 hours today, and I don't feel like we got hardly anything done. For example, we went to go get cell phones. We walk in and there are two different counters you can go to. We go to counter number 1 first, they tell us to go to counter number 2. So we sit down with counter number 2 only for them to tell us to go to counter number 1. Somebody puhleaze help us to get a cell phone! We finally got one.

Todays weather was on the cooler side. When referring to the cooler side I mean in the 70s. So nice compared to the Utah weather we left. Its perfect actually. All the Mozambicans are almost freezing to death. Long sleeve shirts, sweaters, hats, time to bust out the winter clothes. All the babys are in snow suits, bundled in multiple blankets. Hilarious.

Driving here is absolutely crazy too. I've been to Mexico, I thought Mexico was pretty bad compared to the states. It is like a roller coaster riding in the passenger seat. Good thing Alex drove these streets for 2 years before I rode in his car, he is a professional driver here in Mozambique. The traffic is crazy downtown. People are walking out in the street right in front of your car. He is not afraid to honk that horn. This explains the time he honked at the pedestrians crossing on the crossing walk at home, I got so mad at him at that time, now I see why he honks. Totally justified. I would never expect this driving from Alex, he is not the best driver in the states. In fact, I always drive at home.