19/06/10

Aside from the beautiful beaches I got placed in close proximity to, the orphanage where I live with all the girls I love, and the great school where I teach, all Mozambique PCVs got incredibly lucky because the people here are incredibly nice. And even though I can get frustrated by the people who plain stare at me or insist on ripping me off because I am white, the people here take good care of each other, myself included. Emma and I went up to Inhambane city today to do some shopping. When we got off the chapa we both had to pee, so we asked a woman working at a little drink shop where we could find a bathroom. The next thing we know she is leading us back behind the shop into what we realize is her house (not technically inside a building, but into the fence of her family’s compound that consists of many small huts—the common housing setup here). When we are finished using her personal bathroom Emma asks how much we should pay. The woman just smiles and said “nothing! When I come to your land and need to use the bathroom you will let me go in your house without having to pay right?”
Later I asked a boy selling things how much something cost and he told me 75 Meticais. I said “okay” and then turned to Emma and said “it’s only 75 mets, what do you think?” For some reason the boy wrote 75 on his hand and stuck it about 2 inches in front of my face. I turned to him and snapped “I understood you, you know that I clearly speak Portuguese. I just wanted to talk to my friend, is that okay with you?” But because I am white and some people think everything a white person does is funny, he just scoffed at me. But then the middle-aged man selling things next to him started yelling at him, “she clearly speaks Portuguese and understood you. how incredibly rude of you to stick your hand in her face like that, were you raised by dogs or something? Show some culture!”