25/05/10

Yesterday I cracked an egg into the frying pan on my electric stove and a was electrically shocked by the current that traveled back up the egg—apparently an extremely good conductor—leaving me with that all too familiar tingly feeling in the back of my scalp.
Today we celebrated the day of Mary our helper (the Virgin Mary), even though it was actually yesterday. We didn’t have classes today, but instead everyone, teachers and students, from the primary and secondary schools here at Laura Vicuña and from the Salesian priests’ professional school across the street congregated at 7am outside the mission. Of course, everyone was running at least an hour late. We formed a huge processional line, first the altar servers carrying a cross, then the primary school kids, arranged by age, followed by important townspeople. After came an open-bed truck carrying a statue of the Virgin Mary and the sound system from which people led songs and prayers the whole walk. After the truck, the students from the secondary school and the professional school. We walked down the national highway (we had one lane while police stopped and then guided traffic through the other lane) for about a mile before making a loop through the front drive of a restaurant and then returning, this time turning into the Salesian priests’ mission for mass on their outdoor basketball court. A full mass was said, followed by dancing by a couple of different groups, but I wasn’t able to see any of it because there were too many people and I didn’t have the energy to push my way through everyone. After all the dances lunch was served in the orphanage dining hall for important townspeople and all people who work for the Salesians: teachers, gardeners, janitors, etc. Lunch ended at 3:30pm. Like many things in Mozambique, the celebration was quite nice, but lasted about 3 hours too long.