13/12/09

Today I got completely unpacked and moved in. I realized it’s the first time in my life I am moving into a place where I expect to be for more than 9 months. The head sister here is Portuguese but has lived in Mozambique for 36 years which I merely thought was neat until Ann pointed out today that that means she chose to stay during the gruesome civil war. That’s pretty incredible.
One my very first day here on Friday we sat down for lunch about 20 minutes after my arrival. I was spooning the soup into my bowl when I realized that the spoonful I was pouring included a chicken foot. But it was too late, my only options were to scoop it back out of my bowl or keep pouring, so I kept pouring. I had an awful moment of indecision. Was I just going to suck it up and eat the foot, which still had one of the claws? Then I decided that, at the risk of offending, if my Mozambican host mom won’t eat chicken feet then I don’t need to and I don’t need to set a bad precedent the first day. So I asked if anyone wanted my foot, they all laughed and someone took it. Then, later in the same bowl of soup, a fly dive-bombed my soup and died in it, causing a huge commotion. I quickly scooped it out. Not wanting to appear too finicky or embarrass them by acting disgusted, I made as if to finish my soup. But then they acted disgusted by the idea that I might eat my soup after that, and frantically told me not to finish it. Ah, life’s awkward moments.