This Is Mozambique (T.I.M.)

This week I have been reminded of just how different life is here in Mozambique.

today some workers cut all the branches on the tress outside of my apartment building. hopefully it will take care of our mosquito problem! it was quite entertaining to watch as the men shimmied up the trees barefoot and chopped the branches with a hatchet. no buckets to lift them up or ropes holding them in case they fell or other "normal" safety measures taken. they didn't even block off the road to pedestrians so i just watched them running as branches fell. i was planning on taking my car to work today so that i could get the dent (see next story) looked at but my garage was completely blocked by the tree branches. T.I.M.

yesterday, i parked my car outside of the church i work at in the city. the church is on the bottom few floors of a tall apartment building. as i was walking back from my portuguese lesson, the church guard called my over to look at my car. there was a large dent and white marks above the front wheel. he then began to pick up pieces of this "rock" that had fallen out of the window of an apartment above. the "rock" was actually sea coral and was knocked out of the window by a gust of wind. we eventually found the man who lived in the apartment with the falling coral. he takes no responsibility. . . says he rents the apartment and the sea coral belongs to the landlord so it's her fault. T.I.M.

after the falling coral incident, i went to matola, a city about 20 minutes outside of maputo. there was a bad accident on the road. I eventually just turned off my car and sat for 45 minutes doing portuguese homework. they finally opened up one lane of traffic. there was an 18 wheeler carrying bags of cement involved in the accident so they were cleaning up all of the spilled cement. it took me 2 hours to get somewhere that should have taken 20 minutes. when i headed back to the city a couple of hours later, they were still cleaning up the accident!! the rush hour traffic was backed up for miles every chapa (public bus) stop was packed with 50 to 150 people waiting to get a chapa home. the woman who works in our house said she didn't get home until 9:00 last night and she left our house before 4:00! T.I.M.

this is normal life in mozambique. and i do love it!!!

addition to TIM: i took one of the boys, naldo, to the doctor today. he got stabbed last week and had to get 8 stitches. we were supposed to get them removed today. at the local health center, they told us to come back tomorrow because they didn't have any of the supplies they needed to see patients today. T.I.M.