Brincaring. All the time.

My family loves to joke around. A lot. Actually, all the time. Which is good but since everything is done so differently here I really can’t tell the difference between major cultural divergence and them just giving me a hard time for a good laugh.

Earlier this week, after seeing my sunburn t-shirt lines my irmao told me that the pink skin looks better than my pale-beyond-pale skin, and to even out the sunburn I could either (1) walk around town naked (2) or hang myself up on the clothes line for an afternoon. Supposedly his wife was once as white as me and he just hung her up in the sun for a few days.

Wish it was that easy, then all the neighborhood kids wouldn’t yell “malungo” at me everytime I walk down the street. It’s not really said in a derogatory way…. more of a statement of observation… I like it better when they give me shy smiles and try out English phrases.


Today I was a part of an impromptu dance party in a friend’s living room (boom chica chica) with a herd of primary school age boys. Unfortunately I was unable to bring out the dance moves I learned from my host sister and niece— I need more practice and am not even sure I even have the joints/muscles to do the things they can do. I’m convinced Mozambiquans are born with extra bones or something. THEY CAN DANCE LIKE NOBODY’S BUSINESS. The boys today had different moves than my host sister… more thematic (?) moves. There was the Magician, where one person lies on his back on the ground and moves his limbs up and around according the wizard-like direction of another person standing over them; Rope- climber, using invisible rope to pull yourself straight-up from the ground; Guitar Player, air guitar with one leg being the guitar; Wind-up Doll, etc etc.… the list goes on. . . .

….. someday …..maybe I’ll be as good

…. maybe enough potatoes will give me the extra joints. After one trainee calculated how many fish he eats per week here (about a small school of fish), I realized I could to an analogous calculation with my consumption of potatoes, which comes out to a grand total of 25-35/week. I not sure what can be converted to in terms of bushels but I conservatively put my monthly potato consumption at about two acres worth.

Good thing I like potatoes.

Side note: I guess this wasn’t clear in the last post… but the girls who live in the house with me are part of my Mozambiquan fam fam. PCT don’t live together.