05/01/12

Back in Mozambique.
I got home yesterday and was extremely relieved (and perhaps a little surprised) that the dog was still alive and our house hadn’t been robbed. The good news and the bad news is that the only beings that entered our house during the month we were gone were rats. I was fully prepared to come back and have things robbed, so I guess I can handle washing rat poop and pee out of things. Amendoim (our dog—means peanut in Portuguese) is a great rat killer, this I already knew, but he really proved himself by killing seven rats in the past two days. I got the eighth myself. And now I understand why dogs like squeaky toys.
My trip back to America was wonderful. So wonderful, in fact, that I wasn’t too excited to get on that plane to come back, but I am looking forward to starting my new jobs. I found that America wasn’t as full of culture shocks as everyone and I expected, but small things that I had forgotten about, that really thrilled me or kind of annoyed me. I think the material things I miss most are the notion of customer service, the fact that there are relatively clean bathrooms everywhere, and free potable water everywhere.
I’ve spent the past two days settling into our new house here and trying to unpack everything and clean out the rat poop and dead bugs from everywhere. This is a really nice house with separate rooms, as opposed to my one room that past two years which served as a bedroom, kitchen, and living room all in one. The one thing I miss most about running water is being able to wash my hands easily and whenever I want to.
I was only in Maputo to sleep since my plane landed at night, so I haven’t seen anyone since being back. It’s a strange feeling though, the same places, the same people, the same smells—but now somehow everything is different. The memorial service for Alden and Lena will be on Sunday in Maputo.