Turkey time...!

Lights aren’t on but somebody’s home… It was brought to my attention the other day that I have been a bit behind in correspondence. So tonight after catching a Grey’s Anatomy rerun (yes, they do have TVs in Africa), my plan was to sit down and catch up on unanswered messages. Two thoughts in and suddenly, my laptop screen became the only source of light in the house. I actually had to carry my laptop around the house so I could locate my cell phone – which typically serves as my flashlight during electrical outages (though attempting to locate eyeglasses in the dark with a mere cell phone light is no simple task…).

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving! How does one celebrate Thanksgiving in Maputo, Mozambique, you ask? Well to begin, I discovered butternut squash ravioli at the deli earlier in the week (tastier then you may think… though not quite up to pumpkin pie standards) and am presently enjoying the delicacy - albeit lukewarm and in the dark. Perhaps it’s to my benefit that I can’t see what I’m eating. Tomorrow though I’ll be enjoying the fact that I’ll be one of the few people in town on holiday, going horseback riding with a friend and her family, and ending the night with a motley crew of Americans. When it comes to holiday celebrations far from home, we're not too picky, any American is considered family on Thanksgiving.


Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

It's hot and muggy and... November?

I cannot believe November is here!  I remember when October arrived and I was in shock.  By the time year 2009 arrives, I'll be left thinking someone gypped me a few pages in my calendar. Though I must confess, I'll be elated when December arrives - for I have a roundtrip ticket home!  I'll celebrate my big 2-5 on Pearl Harbor Day here (quick, who knows their history?) and be on an Ohio-bound plane a week later.  I can't wait for the temperature shock.  I'll return to Moz just in time for the commencement of the rainy season (and the ensuing plethora of mosquitoes).

At present, someone is having a hey-day on the drums just down the street.  I should be excited about this cultural experience but should this last too much longer it just may interfere with my sleeping hours.  Unforgivable transgression.  Not sure what the occasion is either.  Even the pet pig and dog seem befuddled.  They don't celebrate Halloween here and I doubt an Islamic holiday (the predominant faith) is the root of all this commotion.  On random Fridays I've been seeing little parades but big enough to slow traffic.  These Mozambicans, they're always celebrating something, always making excuses to party.  Seriously.  Their Saturday nights last until they go to church the next morning.  Around 10ish or so they go to the discotheque, stay there 'til about 2am at which time they go to the after-party bar until 5am-esque (or maybe it's 7am...gives you an idea of my own stamina...), and then onto the after-after bar.  Then you see all of them out on the beach Sunday afternoon, drinking their cold beer, loitering around the chicken braai (barbecue), and catcalling poor unsuspecting white girls.

Everyone stoked for election day?!  Or perhaps stressed is the more fitting word.  I have sent in 2 absentee ballots just in case one gets clogged up in the African postal system.  The official absentee ballot was hand-delivered to me last week (courtesy of an American diplomat whose son I work with) and then I hand-delivered its return, directions read twice over to ensure I didn't lick in the wrong place (they're so particular with these things, one wrong step and it ends up in file 13 (that being the trash).  I sent in the backup write-in ballot 2 weeks back, at which time I informed my mail courier the importance of the letter "muito importante."  His response was saying "Bush" and making a machine gun gesture with his hands and then indicating "muito dinero" wiht his fingers.  So apparently this African who survived decades of civil war in his own backyard (lasting up until 10 years ago), thinks we Americans spend a lot of money on war.  How's that for insight?  The South Africans I work with were pretty impressed with the bona-fide absentee ballot.  I quote, "Wow, it's so official looking.  And you can actually vote when you're out of the country?  What an organized voting system you Americans have!"  I suppose Florida's "hanging chad" fiasco is relatively minor compared to Zimbabwe's politics next door.