Sorry, everyone...you got Susanne again...not much mixing it up now. It`s allllll up to the one being able to stay up late at night now.
It`s been so busy and we are getting up so early that any extra time writing is hard to find. those of you that know me well know that I can usually find extra time in the wee hours...so here I am: 2 a.m. but really keen to share our last three days.
I also need to apologize for my awful spelling. I am actually writing from our new temporary digs in Maputo today..of course the Internet is broken in this hotel, but through some crafty digging, I found a ``2 bar`` wifi network of some neighbouring hotel and am not in such a rush to write. so I had a chance to go back over the last blog to see where I left off....and yikes....not only did I misspell, I think I missed words here and there. No time for proof reading :)
The problem is that everything shows up in Portuguese when you first log into gmail accounts and such and the spell check is also set up that way, so I don`t have the benefit of the red lines....you allll know which ones I mean. Never knew how helpful they really were...
also: for those of you following along, thanks so much for the comments, we love reading them all and love them, so keep `em coming!
Ok, here is what we did Monday
We started doing the inside of the homes. it`s funny, we put the bricks up so fast for the three homes in about two days for the main walls that everyone thought: geesh, we`ll be done in no time. other builds I have done have basically have brick walls and roofs only. these houses have a lot more detail. the speckling outside was one thing. now we had to add a layer of cement to the inside which would be patched on with trowels, then a 2x4 made it more smooth and then we basically sanded it with these rectangular things....takes a long time but looks awesome when done.
I think I mentioned before that our hotel is on this magnificent beach which has crazy waves, so that you basically can`t swim there, but my gosh, what a view and sound all the time. waves crashing and the colors of sunsets and sunrises here are amazing.
when getting home from work, kids were selling paintings and shell necklaces and some other art. they were quite polite actually and as always, US currency rules if no local currency is available (some of us had run out of exchanged cash)....we exchanged some money today and discovered that in the run of a week, the Moz currency increased by 10 percent compared to the US dollar....wow. you used to get 30 meticash for a dollar, now it was only 25. well, it was 30 for $100 bills, and 28 for $20`s and less. Older bills are not accepted...took us forever to do the currency math in our heads before, now it comes easy.
Did I already mention how incredible the women are here? They are amazing, I have such great admiration for them. Physically strong, they get water, hoe the fields day in and out, look after chickens, pigs and whatever else might be running around the yard...they pick the fruit from their yard (bananas, oranges, lemons, some have papaya, cashew trees, mangoes, and then corn, corn, corn, and tomatoes for veggies). They get water, wash, cook over an open fire and they often carry little ones on their backs doing all of this. They are loving Moms to what seem to be 3+ kids on average (sometimes 4, 5, or 6) and have the biggest smiles. They love to hug, are hearty laughers and are sporting lovely prints on their skirts, head wear, and blouses....so colourful, and absolutely beautiful people.
The hotel staff is great and we are trying to guess meals by rotation now...seems to be fish, meat and chicken....all great. After one week, we are now in the routine. Hand keys to cleaning staff on way to breakfast, make a cup of Nescafe (yes, Mom, your favorite..)..well, made my Nescafe. Eggs (omelette or fried), the usual salad which is served with all meals (tomatoes, onions, lettuce), bread, bread, bread with some jam, little bananas. the backpacks come out and off to work we go like a little assembly line piling into our vans which start over the bumpy roads. once there, we get the ``runners``...we get the waves from those that see us coming, but there are a few kids who start yelling and laughing and run toward and sometimes alongside the bus. we know where they live and which path they take when darting down the little sandy roads in their bare feet. and they are super fast! ....greatest welcome ever!
Gloves come out, sunscreen, bug spray....funny. This group knew very little about the work site a week ago and they are pros now. Love `em dearly already, my mighty Canadian group!
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