Weeks 2 & 3

Typical Day

5:45 Wake up, iron my clothes, take a bath

6:45 Eat breakfast (bread with jam)

7:30 Portuguese class

10:00 Health class

12:30 Return home for lunch (either soup or salad)

1:30 Health class

3:30 Portuguese class

5:30 Return home; take bath; help with dinner

6:30 Eat dinner & wash dishes

7:15 Study Portuguese; do homework

8 Bedtime (usually relax for a bit in my room first)

I also have class Saturday mornings 8-12. We do get some breaks, though. A couple times each week we’ll go to a bar for a drink after class, and on the weekends we have time to pasear (walk around) and hang out.

My house

Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures soon, but my house is very nice. It is made of stones and concrete with a metal roof and has three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, a veranda, a back porch, and a garage. The living room is especially nice with multiple couches, a TV, and a stereo system. They have a car but it is rarely used and currently is in disrepair. Cooking occurs in both the veranda and porch. In the backyard there’s a latrine, a trash pit (trash is periodically burned), a clothes line, and some crops. My mom cares for various vegetable plants as well as banana, avocado, and papaya trees.

Cooking Moçambicano

Cooking is done in pots over a charcoal stove. Dinner typically consists of a sauce with vegetables, beans, fish, or chicken over rice. Often, the sauce primarily consists of various leafy greens, such as couve. A standard dish is matapa: a green sauce of couve and ground amendoim (peanuts) over rice. The amendoim is ground into a fine powder using a pilão, a giant mortar and pestle. Rice is often flavored during cooking with various ingredients, such as onions or coconut. The latter is done by using hot water poured through ground coconut to cook the rice. The result is so good it’s now one of my favorite ways to eat rice, and that says a lot, as I love me some rice.

The Circle of Life

I used to say that it was difficult to gross me out. I also used to be vegetarian. I officially resign my post of not being squeamish, but I am tempted to go back to vegetarianism. All thanks to Randall. Warning: the following is pretty gross.

This past Sunday, my mom announced that my sisters and I were going to cook dinner. When she called me out to the veranda to start, there was a live chicken chilling in a wheelbarrow. Already feeling a bit queasy about the whole situation, I followed Justina as she took Randall (yes, I named him) out back behind a shed (the stereotypical spot for killing animals). She stepped on his feet and wings to hold him down and chopped his head off. Yes, chicken bodies do keep moving after they’re decapitated. They convulse, in fact. She casually tossed Randall’s head in the trash pit, and I carried Randall inside, horrified. We then poured scalding water over him and plucked his still-warm body (I warned you). That was by far the grossest part and was the point where I admitted to being squeamish. My sisters noticed my discomfort, which they found hilarious, and repeatedly asked me, “Tens medo?” (are you afraid?).

Making Progress

This week, I finally felt some sense of accomplishment. Sunday, I was determined to do some household chores completely by myself. After running around like a chicken with its head cut off (too soon?) all day sweeping and then mopping with a rag my room, washing my clothes and shoes by hand, and taking a bath without being told, my mom was very impressed with my hard work. And I was excited to finally feel some sense of competence, although it quickly disappeared when I tried to cook with my sisters.

I am starting to feel more confident with Portuguese as well. Learning Portuguese is definitely a struggle, but my conversations with my family are getting better and better.