Birthday

I had a fantastic birthday last Friday! Thousands (or at least so it felt) of birthday wishes on facebook and a great night in the company of my friends in Pemba. We started the evening with a sundowner and dinner at Kauri and then went on to – of course – Russell’s Place. I had fun :)



Training has been a bit up & down this last week. Mostly down unfortunately. It started last Thursday and hasn’t improved much since. But I guess that’s just how it is, some weeks are strong and others just crap… I’ve been staying up a bit later than usual this week as well, so maybe that affects me more than I thought it would.

Catisha, my embregada (maid), has been sick so I had to wash my own dishes a couple of times this week. Imagine how horrible my life has been these last days ;) Luckily she’s ok again and came back to work today. Unfortunately I can’t afford a maid in Sweden, so I guess it was just good preparation for coming back home. I will miss her.

Today I went to see Louisa – my new Mozambiquan friend. She moved to Nanhimbe a couple of months ago and she speaks English. She was born in Lichinga, Niassa reserve, and has lived in South Arica 13 years. There’s where she learned how to speak English.

She told me she met her husband, who comes from Nanhimbe, when he was working in Lichinga 2 years ago. He asked for her telephone number and then it took a whole year before he called. And said he liked her and wanted to marry her. But before anything was settled he came back to Lichinga to visit her and her family. She also went to Pemba to see what it was like before the wedding. They got married in Lichinga in the end of September and the next day she moved to live with him in Nanhimbe. Quite a bit different from our way of doing the same thing…

She also told me her sister gave her one of her babies to bring to Nanhimbe. Louisa has a son herself, he is 19 years old and is studying agriculture in Lichinga. Her sister has 3 children and the youngest went with Louisa – also a bit different from what I’m used to! But from the way she talked about it, it felt like the most natural thing in the world. Since I don’t know her good enough yet I didn’t want to inquire too much. Maybe next time. Her sister is 20 years old and has been married since she was 14. Louisa got married the first time when she was 16 and had her son when 17.

She is an accountant and is looking for a job at the moment. She doesn’t like to just sit around the house. Like her “sisters” in Lichinga she wants to work. But she thinks the women in Pemba are very different and lazy. She doesn’t think they are interested in working and only want to marry because they want money and nice things. I really can’t say I know anything about that. I can see that almost all women stay at home, at least here in Nanhimbe, but if it’s because they can’t find a job or they don’t want to find a job I don’t know.

It was really interesting and nice to hear a bit more of a woman’s life in Mozambique. I’m sorry I haven’t learned enough Portuguese to have the same conversation with my neighbors.

Christmas time in Pemba

For me it’s a bit surreal that Christmas Eve is only 2 weeks away. The shops in town are decorated with all the glittering stuff and the staff is wearing Santa Claus hats. The sun is beaming from a clear blue sky and summer is definitely here. I’m sweating 24/7 again since both temperature and humidity is climbing again. Very strange feeling to say the least!

I must admit that I would love to go home for Christmas! I will miss my family tons on Christmas Eve and, even if I will be in good company, it’s just something special with Christmas and family. It’s the first time I’m really home sick on this trip actually, which is not too bad since it’s not too long until I’m going back.

Yesterday I woke up to a horrible stench – the rat I’ve being trying to kill a while now finally did die! Probably a couple of days ago, considering the smell… And he decided to put himself to his last rest just above my bed, on top of the ceiling. Thanks to Frank I could go to bed breathing fresh air in the evening => he crawled up under the roof and threw the rat away. What would I do without him?!?

And today Anne Laure and I ran as usually Thursday mornings at 05.00. It was a bit strenuous today for some reason, so we decided to walk the last bit. But that’s ok, we gotta have mornings like that as well.

Fan

Isn’t it amazing how a simple thing as a fan can improve life so much!?! A friend of mine said, when she found out I have been sleeping without one until now; you’re even tougher than the Africans! I don’t know about that, but it has been kind of hot from time to time. The worst part for me, sleeping in a single bed, is to lie as far out on the sides as possible in order to find some cool space when turning. But now I have my fan :) If we have electricity that is… It’s been a lot of the “power on/off” lately, and I really hope that’s going to change soon!

Last week turned out to be a bit of a party week => Nelson’s good bye party Tuesday evening, Pieter, Amaya and Megan leaving Friday so we had to do something about that Thursday night and Saturday birthday party… I was a bit tired yesterday :/

This week will be all about training instead! It started good with a 10 km run this morning followed by a session of Pilates. Feeels great!

Now Internet at Russell’s again – my mobile Internet at home turned out not to be the big success it seemed last week :( It will probably work really well from time to time, but I can unfortunately not rely on it.