Weekend at Ann’s

We spent the weekend at Ann’s, hanging out and eating delicious food. (Ann, a Peace Corps Volunteer and a friend of my sister, lives a few kilometers up the road in the town of Inharrime.) Friday, right after lunch, Ann and I headed into town from the mission. You can easily walk the distance in about forty-five, but sometimes you can catch a “balea” i.e. a free ride. Hitchhiking is very much part of the culture here and you can usually flag down a driver for a ride unless they’re particularly rude or South African tourists (which are essentially the same thing anyways.) We got a ride in the back of a pickup truck with several other people. There was an almost cinematic difference between Ann’s lively, laughter-filled conversation with an elderly woman and my awkward conversation-fail in which me and the man sitting across from me managed to communicate nothing but the fact that we couldn’t understand each other at all. After the third handshake, we gave it up.
In town, we went to the market and bought produce from the PCV’s favorite vendors, Sandra and Linda. When we had all the ingredients we’d need, we walked up the hill to Ann’s place where we were greeted by Amendoim (“Peanut”), Ann’s dog. (Interestingly enough, Mozambican dogs tend to be racist. It makes sense though; locals are used to feral, aggressive dogs covered in ticks and fleas and so they fear them and often act hostile towards them. Contrarily, American PCV’s, who are used to domesticated dogs, are much kinder to the animals.) We started to get dinner prepared, cutting up vegetables and lighting Ann’s coal stove outside. Ann does have a propane stove with one working burner but her gas tank was empty so we couldn’t use it. Staying at Ann’s definitely made me appreciate just how comfortable my living situation is at the Laura Vicuña mission; her reed house is cozy but pretty primitive in comparison. No internet access just a few minutes away. No running water, just a basin under the kitchen table. No bathroom, but an outdoor latrine. (To the B’s, she has the same kind of solar heated shower bag as you guys!) Staying there makes you realize just how much you can do without (although I realize staying there for two days is a lot different from actually living there.)
When my father and sister arrived, Scooter and Ann made a hummus dip appetizer, pad thai for the main entre, and a no-bake cheese cake for dessert. It was all wonderfully delicious.
My sister had a meeting at the mission the next day so her and my dad left early. After we got up, Ann and I passed the time by talking leisurely, making egg sandwiches, and watching Modern Family on her laptop. We also prepared the beer batter for tempura that we were going to make that evening, as according to Ann, the batter only get better the longer you let it sit. To get beer, we walked to a nearby “banca” (kind of like a reed hut convenience store) and I realized it was one of the stops we had made with Filipe on his delivery route – more specifically the stop with the little boy who says “hullo” to me. Turns out this same kid bursts into tears whenever he encounters Scooter or Ann.
That evening, my sister and father had returned and we all hung out in Ann’s front yard. Scooter was making vegetable tempura on Ann’s coal stove in her yard and I was ralar-ing coconuts (you sit on a stool with a protruding grater thing on one end that you use to scrape out the meat of the coconut – pretty fun you just have to be careful not to ralar your fingers) when Erin (another local PCV) and her father arrived. While our father’s got to know each other, the rest of us (mostly the girls) prepared the rest of the food. When I was done with the coconuts, we soaked the meat shavings in hot water and then squeezed/strained them to get coconut milk for the curry. Another excellent meal. No one gave us a balea on the way home that night but it was a nice walk anyways.