09/10/09

This morning I saw a gecko-type animal on the wall in my room. It’s the first living thing I have seen in my room—as long as there are no cockroaches or scorpions I am happy (one of the current volunteers who has been helping with training the past week says she has to shake her shoes out every morning and has had a couple scorpions fall out). There is also a small hole in the roof of my room but it hasn’t rained yet so I suppose I will cross that bridge when I get there! One of the side effects of our malaria medicine is nightmares. I have not had any nightmares but I woke up last night thinking “that was the weirdest dream I have ever had!” A lot of crazy dreams. It’s also pretty common to wake up multiple times during the night on this medicine so between that and waking up completely tangled in my mosquito net, I haven’t necessarily been getting the greatest sleep. There is litter everywhere here. Broken glass, wrappers, paper—trash. Everywhere. Yet in many ways Mozambicans are meticulously clean. They sweep their yards (there is no grass here, just the red dirt) every day. And even if your shirt has holes in it, it is expected to be clean and ironed.