The last while I apologize for not having the time to write but seriously its been hectic. Since I last wrote a proper entry in January we have been kept quite busy with a deselection of a South African participant and a string of sick participants, two of which had to be hospitalized. Believe it or not! As a result there were numerous trips to and from Maputo, where
Marciana and I would take turns getting meals for our sick ones. My host family was always confused as to whether I was coming or going, as I would be back and forth, sometimes staying the night while most times coming back the same day from a trip to Maputo- which was extremely tiring!
All in all, I have been pretty tired and was always looking forward to the odd day off here and there. One of my only days off last month was spent at a Wedding, oddly enough I was pretty much the Maid of Honour. It was pretty funny how it all came about, but very randomly I ran into this couple I knew (Pamela is from Canada, Michelle Hannah's room-mate for the past two years in
Penticton and
Richardino is Mozambican -a past participant from three years ago). The wedding ceremony was pretty simple, like many things in Mozambique, and was held at the public marriage registry downtown. There were many relatives and friends who came to witness the ceremony, many of which dressed very nice in formal dresses and suits. I ,was of course, the only white person in
attendance. After the ceremony we travelled around the city in a couple of cars to take wedding photos near the sea, and at the beautiful public gardens. After we went to
Ricardino's house and celebrated with champagne and homemade donuts. Then I travelled back to
Manhica to return to my host family and the team.
The second day I took off this last month was with
Marciana, my counterpart. It was pretty hard to convince her to come and take the day off, as I practically had to force her to go, since she insisted we still had so much to do before the program ends. Of course this was true, but we still have our sanity to preserve and according to my contract I am entitled a minimum of one day off a week and since we both realized that this would be the last day off we could potentially take off until the end of the program -as from that point onward it would be full on, work through until the end- we decided to treat ourselves, rest a little and thus no better place to do that than the beautiful beach of Mozambique. We went to
Macaneta Beach, where we spent the night and returned the next afternoon. It was REALLY nice to go, to just relax for the one day. Once we arrived and Marciana
nearly fell asleep instantly on the bed, and it was at that moment that she realized just how much she ( or WE) needed the trip! It was beautiful, we just hung out, swam in the sea, ordered room service for chicken and fries, watched Brazilian soap operas and all in all just took it easy and surprisingly enough the cell phone didn't ring!
