I Smell a Rat

Hello Dears!

Monday, Mariana called to see if she could drop by for a visit. She came over and I was just getting ready to eat lunch, so she joined me. I miraculously had some celery (it's rare for the stores to have it) and was eating it, so I asked her if she wanted some. She had never seen celery before and didn't know what it was. So, I fixed her some celery and peanut butter. She thought it was weird but liked it.

I gave some to Isabel the next day and she hated it and thought it tasted awful. I love letting them try American food and seeing if they like it or not! 90% of the time they love it. 
Monday was also transfers so we made some trips back and forth from the airport.

Elders Thomas and Hatfield saying goodbye:


Getting their luggage Saran-wrapped so stuff doesn't get stolen. It costs $3.00 a bag - a good investment!


We got four Brazilians in. They have been waiting for their visas for a YEAR, so they're seasoned missionaries.  Here is Dad with two of them:

    I dropped and broke my nice U.S. flatiron :( so I had Hobsons buy me a  new one there in Maputo and sent money with one of the elders that was being transferred to Maputo. They sent the iron to me via one of the elders that we picked up that day. Since there's no mail, to speak of, it's kind of like the "pony-express" here. If you know someone is coming or going to Maputo, you get stuff together to send or have them pickup for you. 

    Tuesday, Isabel came to clean and brought her youngest daughter with her, Jessica. She is 4 years old and a little pistol. I got her some paper and crayons and a ball. But she got bored after awhile so I thought of my exercise ball. She LOVED that!! We had a four-year-old bouncing this giant ball around, but she was happy. I sat on the floor and we rolled it back and forth.

With her mom:

  Isabel told me that Mariana had been robbed on the way home from one of her English lessons and they took her phone and 200 metacals (almost $7.00 - a lot of money for them.) that Isabel had loaned her to buy some electricity. I was so bummed for her!  Just as she was getting ahead.....

    That night at my English class, I saw Mariana and asked her about being robbed. She told me that she was walking home and passed the marketplace downtown  (it's called "Go To" market, funny huh?) and some guys came out of the shadows, held a knife, and told her to give them everything. She handed over her phone and the 200 mtz.  They asked about her bag. She told them it was just her books, but they grabbed it and dumped it out. Then one guy, who she thinks was drunk, said 'Let's take her over there.', meaning out of sight.  But another guy said 'No.' and they left after that. She said she is fine and was pretty calm about it, but she is not teaching those two students anymore. They can only do it at night, after work, and the chapas quit running at 8:00pm so she would have to walk home at night and it's just not safe. So, she's lost 660 mtz a week from not being able to teach those guys. That's ALOT of money! It's about $22.00 but when the average salary is $1.50 a day, that is a lot of money for 6 hours of work.  Ooh, it frustrates me sometimes how careful you have to be here! At home, when I exercise outside, it's my 'veg out/relax' time. But here, I have to constantly be aware of what's gong on around me and literally look over my shoulder. I learned that the hard way when I got assaulted. I had gotten careless, wasn't paying attention, and he snuck up on me. It could be worse but it's definitely one of our challenges - well, mostly mine - they leave dad alone...:(

 

       I have had lots of "firsts" here - first time speaking Portuguese, riding a chapas, visiting an African village, preparing - and eating - strange foods, seeing crazy things, etc. 

On Thursday, I had a different "first."   

    Sandi and I took Isabel shopping for food for some weddings that were going to be Saturday. When we pulled into the grocery store parking lot, there were tons of people walking about. There are always a lot of people on the streets, but that day was insanely busy because there was a grand opening for a new store. Anyway, as we pulled into the lot, there were people walking close to the truck but they got (mostly) out of the way. 

    There was a guy that followed us and tried to get my attention through the window on my side of the car. I said 'no thanks' because it happens all the time with salesmen and beggars, so I waved him off. Sandi pulled up to the front of the store and dropped me and Isabel off while she found a parking place. As we walked in, we saw some elders coming out and stopped to talk to them.  While we were talking, I commented to Isabel that Sandi was taking a long time and that maybe we should go check on her.

   As we walked back to the lot, I saw some store guards by the truck but I didn't see Sandi. That made me nervous. While I scanned the lot, Isabel pointed to the opposite side and there was Sandi walking up. I asked her where she had been and then noticed a guy following her - the same one that had come up to my car window.

     She said that she had run over the guy's toe and was going to buy him some medicine and bandages. I asked to see it. When I bent down, I saw that it was just skinned up a little on the side. It was something that I would maybe put a band aid on if one of you kids had come to me. I told her that it was nothing and he didn't need anything. She said that he had wanted her to take him to the hospital and she had told him 'No' but that she would buy him medicine for it.  The two elders were still standing there and Sandi asked them to stay and translate for her, so they came into the pharmacy with me, Sandi, Isabel, and the guy.

      It takes a lot to get me mad, and I have never gotten mad at anyone here. I have been befuddled, bemused, frustrated, and disappointed but never mad.  

    But when I looked at the guy, I could tell that he was running a scam.  Something snapped and "Ba-boom!!" I lit into him. I told him that he was fine and he didn't need anything. I said if my child had that, I'd tell them that they were ok and send them back out to play.  I told him, "You know that you're ok. This is not right. What you're doing is bad - very, very bad." I wasn't very quiet about it.  He was sheepish and looked down the whole time and didn't say anything. I was so ticked off! When the people at the pharmacy counter brought out a bunch of things, I told them that we didn't need anything but a bandaid and pushed the stuff back to them.  Sandi said that Larry could use the disinfectant so she bought that and a small roll of gauze. I said I would bandage the guy while she paid for the stuff and proceeded to clean and wrap the dirtiest toe ever, shaking my head with a disgusted look on my face - not at the toe, but at what he was doing.  

    He knew I thought he was being a louse.  Isabel just sat and didn't say a word the whole time. The elders didn't do much, (I guess I didn't give them a chance! ;), but one took pictures of me wrapping the toe.

That's not blood, it's just the disinfectant. It really was just a scrape. Wish the elder would've gotten the guy's face. I'm holding the wrapping while they cut the tape. 

     Here's Sandi with the elders outside of the pharmacy:

After all the hullabaloo, we went into Shoprite and I wondered if Isabel thought I was hard-hearted and harsh with the guy because she hadn't said a word the whole time.  I asked her if that was normal to buy medicine for such a small scrape. She said something and it took me a couple of minutes to figure out what she was saying. It was this: "Sister, the guy was walking on the left side of the car so his right foot was next to the car.  But the toe that was hurt was on his LEFT foot.  The car didn't do that."

      Ah-ha!! I KNEW it!! My instincts were right - the guy wasn't just trying to get a 'sympathy payoff' for his little scrape but he was totally scamming us! I wish I would've realized that fact when we were in the pharmacy. I would've called him out and told him to take off.  It was the first time that I've ever gotten mad at a local person and I had wondered if I'd gone too far but when Isabel said that, I was like, "Holy cow! I was dead-on!!"

       When I told dad about it, I laughed and said that I guess my Portuguese is good enough, and I'm feeling comfortable enough here,  to chew out a 6 foot Mozambiquen man in a public place. Actually, my Portuguese was probably junk, but my tone said it all. ;). Just another day in Africa....

Loading 15 kgs of potatoes at the register - their are no conveyor belts so you have to put stuff on a little at a time. 

    Here we are at the second store (and I use that term loosely...) to buy rice and chickens!  Where you see the chain- link fence is the sidewalk. So, it's really just an 8x10 space with a couple of freezers and some rice and a few other things.

Isabel paying for it.

After we finished shopping, we took all the food to the church to drop it off. The elders were having a training meeting for the new elders that had just arrived.

    Sandi and I went home and I got ready for my English class. I taught a lot of concepts that night so I had them practice with each other and walked around to listen to them. I'm giving them a triple combination in English as a reward when they've attended 20 classes.  (Sticking with something is not their strong suit.). After class, Simao (one of my favorites and one of the three guys that had asked me to teach the class) came up and said "Sister, you need to mark the roll yourself and not pass it around because people mark it for their friends even if they're not here." The reward is scriptures!  Oh goodness.... So now I mark the roll.  Dishonesty is part of the culture and it's a hard mindset to change. 

    On my way out, Isabel asked me to take a cake home and out it in our frig cuz she had made five cakes and there wasn't room in the church's frig.  She decorates them by putting the frosting in a small plastic bag with the corner cut out. She spends a lot of time on them. Here it is along with all the women that prepared the food for tomorrow. 

     Friday I went walking by myself cuz dad was busy and four dogs up the street came after me. It scared the bajeebies out of me! When I stamped my foot, two of them backed off, but two others came after my leg. So, I hurried and looked for something to throw, grabbed a couple of rocks, and chucked them.  It worked. Whew!!  I guess I was in "feisty" mode this week...;)  Good thing - I needed the adrenaline!! Hahaha!
       The elders told me about a seamstress that they had used so Sandi and I went there cuz our old one, Manuel, takes 2 months to make something and it got ridiculous to go back five or six times only to be told that our things weren't ready. 
    That's normal procedure here, but he was extreme.  Anyway, we went to check out the new guy. Our directions were, "Across from the Chuhascarrea, down the alley by the red building, turn left by the bar, and keep walking until you see it."  
   We had to ask directions at the bar. (A bar here is just a small shack with booze and chairs (sometimes) set out front for people to sit and drink.)  After wandering a bit, we found it. The two seamstresses, both men, were sitting on the ground eating shima (corn mush) with their hands. We apologized for interrupting their lunch. We told one of them what we wanted and he took our phone numbers to call us (Wow!) and said he'd have it ready in 5 days (another Wow!!)  We'll see....   
   All the sewing machines are the old heavy treadles that they power with their feet. 

Getting fitted:

  Here you can see the whole "shop". It's really just a run-down patio with two tiny 5x6 foot rooms. The closest door is for the two seamstresses (both men) and the second door belongs to a guy that fixes electronic things. I saw a few VCRs - remember those??

   The weddings were Saturday. All went well except when we got to the church, Isabel was lamenting cuz the coils in the frig had dripped down on the cakes and ruined the frosting. She was trying to do damage control but she was bummed. :( 

     Here are the couples.

Me and the happy brides. ;) I know you can't tell from their expressions, but they thought this was funny...

   This little girl borrowed her dad's glasses. It was so funny watching her put them on! At one point, they were upside down. ;)

 After the reception, they changed their clothes and all got baptized. (Sorry, I can't find the picture...) 

    On the way home, we saw all these people by the side of the road wearing white.  I told dad that I thought they were having a baptism. So we circled back around and sure enough, a church was having a mass baptism in the ocean. They had laid out all the baptism clothes on the sea-wall. This particular church is called the "Good Day Church" and the women only wear white on Sunday when they go to church. They also wear a white hat that reminds me of the temple. It's very interesting.  And it was interesting to see their baptism after just coming from the one at the church. The women on the right has her baby on her back. 

    Sunday, one of the newer members blessed the sacrament for the first time. He and his wife have a little toddler boy. When the dad stood up to do the sacrament, the mom let the son down and he toddled over and held onto the dad's leg during the prayer. Not how it should be done but it was kinda funny to watch. 

     Ok, I'm signing off. Keep praying for us and we'll keep praying for you!!

  We love you so, so much!! ~mom