08/07/11

For the entire second half of my run this morning I had at least part of a rainbow in front of me. A few times it was a complete semi-circle. And a couple times I swear it was a triple rainbow, is that possible? Gorgeous.
A little while later I was sitting at my desk working when either a very tiny mouse or medium-size cockroach ran across my floor. I’m pretty sure it was a mouse. Shoot. When you poison a mouse, they tend to crawl into some difficult-to-find-or-access corner to die, so you’re left trying find them once they start to stink. I bought rat poison this afternoon, but I am afraid that it won’t die until after I leave for a month on Thursday, and then it will just rot in my room for a month. I suppose it wouldn’t smell by then though…so maybe that’s better.
Yesterday afternoon Ann and I ran some errands and then got a beer at some outside tables near the market/center of town to wait for Buck. We usually sit and drink a beer at less-public places, but on a Friday afternoon it is totally acceptable for us to be seen drinking beer, so I suggested we sit outside. I immediately regretted it. A group of girls standing about 10 feet away from us kept staring at us, talking about us and laughing. I reprimanded them and told them they were being really rude. That shut them up. Then a truck pulled up with a woman in the cab who wouldn’t stop staring at us, even when we called her out on it. We reminded her that here in Mozambique we always greet each other first, and then if she doesn’t have anything else to say, it’s rude to just stare. There were some girls in the back of the truck, one of whom took a picture of us with her phone. When I saw her taking the picture I yelled at her. Ann got up and walked over to them, demanding to see her camera. After she deleted the pictures and scolded the girls she came back. “That is so annoying.” I said, “This is OUR town, who do they think they are? And I would have expected that from guys, but from girls? Ugh, so rude, you should have just chucked the phone across the street.” Ann laughed, “and that’s why I went over there and not you.”
While Stephanie and Sarah were here at one point a coin fell on the floor. And when I picked it up I found myself hit by a sense of nostalgia, sentimentality, and a little sadness. Apparently the pennies have changed since I left America.