Sunday, May 25, 2008

My life the past month-ish:

Cultural spectacular. There was a lot of dancing, acting, playing of instruments, and singing. The majority of the performers were wearing capulanas, which is a much more traditional method of dress than I've seen at other performances. Some folks even had feathered headdresses! There were a lot of batukes, a drum set, keyboard, guitars, some handmade one-stringed instruments, and a 2 meter long xylophone. The whole thing went down in the school gymnasium, and it seemed as though all of Catandica (or at least all of the children of Catandica were there). It was somewhat strange to see kids there who aren't from our bairo (neighborhood). A lot of them still knew our names regardless.

As for our bairo. Escola Secundaria Armando Emilio Guebuza is situated in Bairo Mugabe (that's right, the very same Mugabe that currently has the attention of every eye in Africa). We're currently on the outskirts of the villa, though there is a heck of a lot of construction going on. The school farm is a 5 or 10 minute walk from my house, and the students have been working their derrieres off for the past few weeks. President Guebuza is coming to Catandica towards the end of June, and they want the machamba (farm) to look good. Recently, they have planted pineapple plants, of which I sadly will not get to taste the fruits. There is a rule that every student at our school has to be in charge of one plant... most of them have 4 or more. They have to water it and make sure it's growing well. This week, they've made an addendum: every teacher now has to have one plant as well. I planted my bananeira this afternoon. It has 1.5 years to grow large and produce bananas, or I'm going to cut it down before I leave. Before banana plants can produce fruit, they first have to give off a certain number of leaves- something like 28 or 38. Currently, I'm at leaf # 0.5... not sure if the pre-existing one counts, so I'll only give it a half.

We are friends with a group of little boys (most of which are from the same family and all of which come to our house to practice the alphabet, count, and speak a little English). The brothers are from a family of 10 kids. And their father is a corandeiro (a traditional medicine man, kind of witch doctor-esque, though there is another name specifically for witch doctors).

In the market 2 days ago, we stopped to talk to a lady who was selling different powders and such from plastic bags, all traditional medicines. A lot of them were for fertility purposes, but she also had some for head and stomach aches. She had the shell and spikes of what appeared to be a sea urchin (or porcupine). If you're really having a bad day or bad luck, she told us to break off a spine, stick it in your hair, and chew on a specific herb.

A few days earlier, we were walking around the outside of the section of the market that sells clothes, and a guy rode up on a bicycle with a MONKEY on his back! He bought a bib for the monkey, who was absolutely adorable, and we asked to take a picture. Afterwards, we asked what the monkey's name was... George Bush! Ha!

I've been going out walking/ jogging (which generally ends up being more walking than jogging because my lazy bum is not used to all of the hills around here... unless I'm headed downhill). I've been exploring a bit at the base of the mountains. It's so stinking pretty! Sadly, I haven't spent too much time exploring thus far, but I'm excited to take a day hike up there some day soon.

Still not really sure what's going to happen with the Zimbabwe situation. It's possible that we'll have to peace out of Catandica for a while if things get messy over there. There has already been a large influx in the number of Zimbabweans in the villa since the election. You can generally tell who they are when you get a blank stare after greeting them in Portuguese.

That's about all I've got for now. Até a proxima vez!