15/10/09

Today my host brother asked his mom for a pair of skates and a puck so that he could play hockey too. I played soccer with them a little bit before dinner but I couldn’t get them to stop using their hands! After classes today a bunch of us met in a field to play Frisbee, kick around a soccer ball, throw around an American football, and just socialize (because health and education people only see each other once or twice a week!). A group of kids were intrigued by either the balls or the Americans and before we knew it we had a group of 40ish grade school kids watching us play catch and before long we were basically playing 40 person monkey-in-the-middle. Every time the ball was loose there was a 15 kid pile-up. So for about an hour there was complete chaos in the field with two footballs and three Frisbees in action at any given point.
You probably think of French fries as a staple American food. I always did. Little did we know that fried potato slices are also a staple Mozambican food! At lunch every day without fail probably half of us have fries. And here fries aren’t necessarily the side order to your burger, but I have been served a heaping plate of fries. The Mozambican diet seems to consist of mostly carbs (white bread, rice, xima, and pasta), a little bit of protein, and every once in a while some fruits and vegetables. Many of us, myself included, have had to specifically ask for more fruits and vegetables. So now every night after dinner I peel an orange (with a knife, of course) so I can offer slices to everyone. Especially for my cousins, this may be the only fruit they eat all day.
My host brother and cousin call me “sister” in Portuguese.