pass the parcles

I have borrowed the next-door orphanages’ sewing machine that I fixed for them to make a large lounge-chair cushion for Heathers’ newly constructed lounge chair, and in the process I offered to sew up a boys ripped shorts… and well, before I knew it I was down to serious business… well could have been in business if I was charging for my work. Countless of ripped crotches, and armpits later, I decided to resign for the day > a sitting job, even if it is a creative and constructive job, seems to be a difficult one for me. So I went ‘passear’ing (passing time / strolling) with some boys. Through tall grass, rice patties, and local dirt roads, we followed the sound of children screaming and cheering. We came upon the excitement, which turned out to be a monkey tied to a tree! Standing on its hind legs, its head reached to my hip. This monkey was absolutely hilarious and scary at the same time. The kids had a kick and a half provoking it, going closer to it so it would run at them with outstretched arms and a kid would jump out of the way just in time so the rope would stop the monkey in mid-jump. This monkey is a clever little beast and would play dead then wait till the kids would go close and it suddenly would get up and attack, once clawing and almost biting a little kids leg and another time closely scratching one kids face almost their eyes! David (Dah-veed-ee)… our little rascal at KEDESH >He has this mischievous look on his face and his laugh adds to the ‘bad boy’ look. He has a reputation and is proud of it (e.g. before new years, he got a hold of fire crackers and threw it in a toilet tank, blowing it up). Being the sort of ringleader of the mob of children, he stood in easy reach of this wild, but tied up monkey. He must have some kind of bond or understanding with it, because it would pick up his toes, then feet, inspect them without biting them, then slowly climb up his pant leg and unbutton his track pants, then go back to attacking the other children around David. It is easy to see that the other little boys have almost a fear but great appreciation for David and his dear-devil ways.

It has been 5 months in Mozambique, and I still am seeing the way things happen here at the most simple and most complicated angles.
The understanding of the chapa system, and how one fills it up to its MAXimum capacity is a major part of everyday adventures. It is important to know to follow the same general rule of filling up the back seat first, then the next one up and etc. When getting off a chapa, personal space does NOT exist, and if you want to keep your place, simply shift your position so the person (not matter how large or old) in the far backseat corner can climb overtop everyone in the way and get out the side door.

Music is always blown to full potential, then cranked up one more notch to sound-distortion, so that all who want to hear (or not) are able. Some nights when sleep is needed, this generosity is less then appreciated.
Young boys wait and watch on the sidelines of the shaggy, hand-cut field to bear the ‘bling’ of older boys playing soccer. For the 90 minutes, the little boys take the opportunity to play dress-up and show off the goods the older boys entrusted then, weather a phone, dangly necklace, or oversized sandals.

Peeping around the corner of a shed and seeing boys congregating, young to old, splitting open a jackfruit with an enchada and sharing the sticky innards. This fruit and its strong distinct smell, as well as the laughing of on-going stories can only lure in more passer-byers’. After the peculiar but delicious fruit has disappeared, the passing around of petroleum to wash gluey hands is shared.

Food is a luxury. Wealth is not only seen from the pockets of a person, or the cloths that are worn but also by the size of… well their behinds. People, no matter how little they have, love to give. Gifts of appreciation. Usually these gifts consist of one or too ripe mangoes or other assorted fruits. For me, these gifts are always welcome and highly appreciated. My mouth has been opened to so many new tastes and tangs; each day thinking I have tried every possible thing and a new season starts and a whole new batch of flavors are discovered.

Kids know how to live the good life. Lately, I have been spending good quality time with the younger boys. Sitting on a cement wall under a giant, over-hanging jaca tree to our left and a mango tree to our right, with a mandioc and avocado plot to oversee in front of us. I go to join the sitting-wall line, and all watch curiously as I sit on the end position, but before I know it, the line is rearranged and I have boys on either side anxiously telling traditional stories of Mozambique and local old-wives-tales. A jackfruit passes up and down the line, each grabbing one parcel from the stringy, gluey carcass and passing it to their neighbor. After retiring for lunch I am given a lesson of Ndau as we sit on a bamboo matt making lemon aid (they like it STRONG > simply fresh squeezed lemon juice and sugar), passing the jar around and laughing at each other’s faces pucker up. Quality.

Zim Christmas

So many adventures have past before I have had any computer access. Our MCC group in Mozambique had our Christmas retreat at a chique place called SELVA. Gorgeous area almost touching boarder of Zimbabwe. Waking up in the morning going for runs in the fog-garnished mountains with the woman working in the fields. A little strange to have such a contrast from inside the ‘secluded’ resort SELVA and just over the fence a family is pumping water out of a well.

Heather, the British girl whom I am living with at KEDESH, and I made plans to go to Zimbabwe for Christmas and so she and Cody (a volunteer from Texas at another orphanage) picked me up from SELVA on the way to the Zim boarder. We arranged for the chapa to pick me up on the road on the way and I waved down the chapa she described for me and got on just in time. So we three began our adventures. The last time I had popped into Zim I made some friends at a local café so we dropped into the café to say hello and hinted at the idea of a trip to Vumba (known to be one of the most gorgeous mountainous regions!!!). The next morning we had a free ride up into the mountains. I could not believe my eyes, or my nose, or my ears… basically all my senses were overwhelmed with the natural beauty of it all. I have never been to Switzerland but I can imagine the rolling hills and valleys, various shades of greens and goldens, would be something of that sort (this only means that I am planning a trip to Switzerland, you know I have to follow up on these assumptions). We got up to the famous ‘Leopard Rock’ hotel (it probably has some big website > check it out!) and explored the frivolous grounds. WOW! Even Princess Diana and the Queen Mother stayed there! I asked for a tour and we were shown the honeymoon sweets and fancy rooms. We started walking down the mountain and the hot sunny day turned and began to pour on us. We hitched a ride by a delightful old white-Zim couple and they took us to Tony’s Café. This mans little cottage and chocolate-whiskey cake is famous in these parts (check it out online too). So we three shared a piece of this super-duper-chocolaty-chocolate-cake and could barley finish it. The tea we got came with everything and more, china cups, silver spoons and dishes for sugar and cream etc. our table was littered with the beautiful ritzy decor. The menu had a choice of 102 teas! I chose sticky-toffee, which Heather, being a proper English tea-drinker (regular black Twinnings, thank you very much), was absolutely aghast. After tea and chasing some baboons up a tree (it really was a thrill), we started up a somewhat manicured trail up a mountain. At the top we could see all the Vumba and the city of Mutare below. We walked a ways and hitched with 4 trucks on the way down.

So from Mutare to Harare we decided to hitch and save on time and money. It was a while until a truck stopped that was going exactly in our direction but we did get a ride. It was a security-delivery truck. We hopped in the hooded back. The back was separated into two parts with a cage. I crawled into the caged area and sat on top of a metal safe box. Four hours and many awkward positions later we were in Harare.

We stayed in a very well equipped home with a great host and tour guide, Taffy. It is so interesting to see the difference between Zimbos and Mozambicans. The education is outstanding here and makes a world of a difference. It is so easy to spot a Zimbo in a crowd of Mozys by the way they hold themselves and dress. They even use capulanahs to hold a baby differently. Zimbos do have more of a confidence about them. It really is a whole new world that side.

Again I went for runs in the morning to explore the local area. I came to the jumbo, mega church ‘Celebrations Center’, which is complete with a giant-entrance fountain, a café (that gives chocolate covered spoons with a coffee, and all foods are named in the name of the Lord e.g. Jericho’s Omelet), a soccer-pitch, skateboard park, AND a motor-bike race course (every church NEEDS one of those right!..???). The smells of the fresh flowers is astounding. Every street smells different. Now I know where the inventers of granny-type perfume get their floral scents that, when put on in large doses, give others that are stuck in a poor ventilated elevator, or the cramped in a city bus bad headaches, let alone nausea. But the floral smells are so pleasant when natural! I cannot help but take giant breaths through my nose each stride.

After our adventures in Harare, we headed down on a bus to Bulawayo. We were taken to the house of a friend of Heather’s’. After our hot bus adventures we took the liberty to dive into the back yard pool with lion-face-statues spitting water into the pool. Plush.

We explored the town going to a giant aloe-vera garden with a million types of aloes and other cactuses and green vegetation, having tea in the garden then going to swim in another pool and a tennis court beside. In the afternoon, we again had tea and pancakes in a courtyard of a castle called the ‘Nesbit Castle’. Men in penguin-like suits came to serve us. Having packed for about 3 weeks in one bag I did not come well equipped with pretty dresses or anything that would suit the castle setting. We all felt quiet scrungy in our over worn shorts and shirts, but the pancakes were delicious.

Christmas Eve: traveled to the Matopas to the Cunnihamm’s ostrage farm. The family that is hosting us (the Cunnihamm family) is the most welcoming people I have ever met. There seem to be a bunch of us outsiders from various areas of the world, (mostly from the UK). This family is into so much activity it is awesome! We arrived around 2 and the rest of the evening I went boating on the giant man-made dam (5 km long), knee boarding and successfully did a 360 first attempt!, swam for hours, almost got thrown off a horse and now have a massive gash by my collar bone and almost got my eyes scrapped out but by the grace of God I decided to wear a helmet and it protected me from the branches. We had a big BBQ or Brie (as they call it) on the rocks by the waters edge and sung Christmas carols under the stars.

Christmas Day: The only part that I can feel the Christmas atmosphere is when we are inside and the lights in the room and tree are lit up. Other wise the hot air and atmosphere is so strange to think it’s the Christmas season. The family opened their gifts and the 6 of us outsiders were also given little gifts of chocolates, soaps, books and things from the family. They are so hospitable. We had a big champagne breakfast then went out to the dam to canoe and motorboat to the other side of the dam and have tea and cake on the rock-wall. I swam about 4 km back! I was very parched by the end.


Wow. Before this turns into some large essay-type blog that no one enjoys reading I will begin the formal closing stages: In conclusion, (classic-end-of essay format, no?) I have learnt and done SO many new things this Christmas break, some of which include: shooting 3 bullets from a gun and killing 3 bats with each one. Not one bullet wasted. Bats are very peculiar looking, almost scary. The first one, Clive (he looked like a Clive), was definitely smiling at me. Body of a rat, arms of a teradactle. I began to practice the trick of unicycling (of which I did end up falling on my bum and hurt my tail bone > but did not let that inhibit the rest of my activities) and wave-boarding (a skateboard with 2 wheels), stood up with feet on the knee board (failed the 360 in this position though. note: very difficult to impossible), climbed some kopis, little mountains, and one of which had ancient cave drawings, and learnt how to role a kayak (one important skill I have always wanted to learn just incase sign up for some crazy game show like Survivor or FearFactor). Each full day of activities ended in an intense brain exercise with a couple rounds of Rummikub.
Back at KEDESH to celebrate the New Year. Fire works blew off in every direction and the boys were allowed to drink coffee to keep them up till midnight. HAPPY NEW YEAR!