New Years!

January 1st, 2011

Happy New Year!!

Since I couldn't leave my site for New Year's, I rang in the new year...well....asleep.

Yeah. I slept through it.

Everyone thought I had left the town for the weekend, so no one thought to invite me anywhere. I thought people had left for Lake Malawi, so I didn't think to call anyone to hang out with them. My landlord and I were supposed to go to church...but I fell asleep. Turns out, he fell asleep too...

Oh well.

This was the first NYE in a while that didn't involve the "usual NYE activities". Actually, I tried to stay awake...but I couldn't. I woke up at 12:06am because people outside were playing music, singing, and cheering loudly. I said a prayer, thanking God for allowing me to see another year, put in my earplugs, rolled over and went back to sleep.

Today, my landlord invited me for lunch at his father in law's house. We walked over, and entered the quintal to this gorgeous...estate. We walked in the main house, and I was immediately shocked....

Did I feel...AIR CONDITIONING?? I sure did!!!

I sat on the couch and noticed how large the house was, and how nicely furnished it was. It was almost...unnecessary....

The front room is a livingroom. It had a table in the middle, which looked like a dining table, but it wasn't where we dined....and there were two TVs. And both were on. Playing two different stations. And some people were watching one, and some were watching the other. Oh...and they had cable TV....

Then there's the next room, which was also a livingroom, with more couches and things....and two MORE TVs....those weren't on though...but why would someone need 4 TVs? Then there was the diningroom. Where we ate our lunch....and were waited on hand and foot by the domestic help...

Something I've noticed here in Mozambique is that they make use of domestic help WAY more than we do in the States. Maybe its because we have more appliances to make life easier, so we can just do it ourselves...I don't know. But my house in Namaacha had an empregada. Here, my house has Miguel, who is pretty much performing the empregado duties until they hire a new one. And in this house, there was a guy who was pouring my drinks the entire time, like the butler. There was a girl and a guy serving the food. And there was the cook-who got yelled at for burning the meat right in front of everybody....talk about awkward.

(I didn't think it was burned, I actually thought it was pretty good)

I felt like I was the only one saying "thank you" whenever "the help" poured my drink, or served me food. Once they served us, they stood there...and watched us eat....and as each person finished, they rushed to clear the plate and serve the next course. I pretended like I was comfortable
But I wasn't.

After lunch, we got up and returned to the seating area. No one really said anything to me. We just sat there. Thankfully, one of the TVs was on the station from Malawi, so it was all in English. Much to my amusement, it was like a Malawian version of BET, so I was watching music videos and concerts and things.

Anyway, after lunch, we just sat. I was bored out of my mind....and I had no clue WHY we were still there....no one talked to me, and the other people were speaking a local language. It was just me, watching TV, playing with my cell phone, and getting googly-eyed glances from the little boy (who I've since learned has a crush on me. He's like 6years old...) After a few hours of watching Malawian BET, the other people asked my landlord a question, he responded and I knew they were talking about me.

(I've become really good at figuring out when people are talking about me in local language)

Anyway, turns out that these people were from Malawi (duh! THAT'S why the TV was on the Malawi station!!). This whole time, I could have talked to them in English, but they don't speak much Portugese and thought I was Brazilian, and I don't speak much Portuguese and thought they were Mozambican.

So we finally started a conversation, and then I found out why we had been waiting that whole time.....it was time for dinner! We ate again, then we finally left.

Oh yeah...the food was FANTASTIC!

And that's how I spent my New Years. Yeah I know...nothing special.