trip to the market

Guapa (Francisco). 8 years old. Never been to the city part of Beira. Today was his first venture out of Manga area and into the Baixa where buildings rise overhead, chapas wiz by and smells of fresh bread. Stinky garbage and mystery items are abundant. At first we wondered why Guapa’s head turned at every shop we past so he could see what it beheld, and why he was so quiet and held my hand tight; but the older boys said it was his first time in the city. People looked at us probably wondering why a white girl has a cute little black boy. We took a trip to SHOPRITE, the big supermarket where one can get almost anything they need (if it is in supply > usually they run out of things like peanut butter or ice-cream and yogurt). His jaw was dropped, eyes popped and voice silent the whole time. I asked if he wanted to go down each isle, and each time he nodded his head eyes not able to fixate on one thing, hand still cusped in mine. The last isle we went down he took a sudden turn in front of me cutting me off and stood in front of some toy guns hanging beside jars of TANG fruit-juice. He stood there for a while not moving, then had the courage to stroke the plastic case that encaged his prize. He didn't smile or talk the whole ride home. Just let the sights, smells and sounds absorb.

Yesterday I held a sports/activity day for the boys. We broke them up into 4 teams and had volleyball tournaments, tug-of-war, egg-in-spoon-in-mouth races, mango-bobbing, bog-races etc. It was a success. We bought refrescos (cokes, fantas, sprite) for everyone and had chicken for dinner where loosing teams had to cook, serve and clean. Since Patricia left today, we had a little show to dispidir (say goodbye) her. Heather and I decided to participate. We did a duet of “lean on me” and then jokingly sung ‘you are my sun shine’ which we could not complete because of our intense laughing. Then for the faunally we out on some holographic glasses (sent from my mom back home) and did mock-tai-Kwando, bowed and walked off stage. Then had a dance party with the boys until midnight and mosquitoes were too intense to stay up any more.