HEY SISTA...im fine an you

So this last week has been wonderful sitting on multiple beaches (running in the evenings with Sara (PCV), sometimes getting washed up my the tide… why not go for a swim after!?), eating minimum of one papaya a day, enjoying deep-fried street food (my new fav> mystery bean-cakes… like mini veggie burgers), meeting up with awesome people and sharing experiences with them. I have really been blessed with the hospitality these PCVs (Peace Corp Volunteers) have, since I met most of them only once and others never before. After Vilanculos, it was time to head back to Inhassoro. Looking back on my last long chapa ride in. I decided to apanhar uma balaya (hitch-a-ride). So I walked to the main hi-way with my pack and walked a little ways, flagged down a couple cars and before I knew it I was in the back of a red truck with another fellow on a delivery. His father, driving, claimed to be American when he first talked with me. Yes, he could speak English, but sadly his Mozambican accent was a dead give-away that he had never even been to North America. They dropped my off at a crossroads, where moments later a spiffy SUV stopped, and an East Indian man came out and a Mozambican, both very wealthy. In their clean, perfumed SUV I felt very dirty and smelly and felt much more at home in the back of an open dirty truck. They drove very fast and I prayed the whole time that no big pot wholes would send us flying in the air (if we had wings on that thing I am sure we would have been air-born). I was dropped off at the last crossroads and less then a minute later was picked up by a SUV of South Africans with some oil company. The AC was almost too much I felt I was back in the Peg. Once again feeling smelly compared to the trimmed and primed company in the car. Got dropped off right at my friends place. God is good, and has protected me. > My trip was less then half the time of the first and so much more comfortable.

As of now I am in Chimoio with Jenny and Joel from MCC. Made dinner tonight, is so great to have a kitchen to myself and cook with a familiar scene and appliances. Prayer here is MUCH appreciated because today, Nadia their 4-month-old baby was diagnosed with malaria.

I have a capulanah obsession. I don't feel like buying anything else because there are so many and they are all so beautiful. I got a great tailor, Tomas, in Inhassoro to tailor me 2 dresses, a shirt and a skirt. It cost less then 8 dollars US! Hah. So now when I see a nice capulanah, I start thinking of potential cloths I can have. I bought 2 new ones today. I can’t contain myself.
As I road my bicycle back to JJ’s (Jenny and Joel) home, a little boy asked for a balaya. I told him to hop on the back-rack and took him a ways to the main road. I felt pretty African ☺ although people still look at me with curious, big smiles and still do their regular greet of "HEY SISTA!"