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.