Todays post is brought to you by the letter "b" (or "m" in portuguese)

December 13, 2010

There are two things that I got entirely too much of today. Breasts and Bugs. (In Portuguese "Mamas e Moscas")

(Yes. One of the words for breast in Portuguese is mama. Not to be confused with mama, which is what you call your mother...)

Breasts-

Today I arrived at my office and started the day with another meeting with activistas. All of them were women with one of our CBOs. Understandably, some of them had to bring their children along. Whenever the child cried-breast whipped out, shoved in child's mouth. Most of the time in mid sentence. The woman who was sitting directly in front of me was the main culprit. I'm pretty sure her son was too old to be breastfeeding anyway, but that didn't stop her. She sat right in front of me, breastfeeding the boy, switching to the other breast, adjusting, putting it back, pulling it back out....not to mention that everytime another one of the activistas talked, she massaged her breasts. Only when she spoke...and she spoke way more than anyone else. I don't really know why she was massaging her breasts when she spoke...it was just....awkward....

I tried not to stare...but she was also right in front of me.

I've been here for a little less than a week, but something about today...there were breasts everywhere. I mean..there are usually one or two per day, but something about today.... As I walked down the street, women were breastfeeding. We visited the hospital...women were breastfeeding while waiting. Half the time, the child would just grab it an pull it out, and the woman would just let it happen. Other times, the child would finish, let it go, and if the woman was in a conversation, she would just let it hang out for a while.

Breasts don't bother me. But a visual overload is a bit uncomfortable. Today, I was well over the "comfortable amount of breast exposure" threshold....

Bugs-

It's mango season. That means two things: there are mangos everywhere. And there are flies everywhere.

The flies are absolutely obnoxious.

ABSOLUTELY OBNOXIOUS.

Everyone says that once mango season is over, they'll go away...but there are so many... My landlord wanted to sit outside and have lunch and talk for a bit. We spent the entire time swatting flies. It seems like the second I step outside...here they come. Flies bother you if you're sweaty and smell bad. Flies bother you if you're freshly showered and smelling good. They don't care...they're so annoying. I waited while the nurse from my org accompanied a woman on a doctor visit at the hospital. Of course, there is no "waiting room". In Mozambique, you wait outside. With the flies. So I sat there....swatting flies, while women breastfed and babies cried.

In addition to flies, there are also these other bugs. I'm not quite sure what they are, I've gotten different stories...I've heard termites, flying ants....whatever they are, they're disgusting. They come out at night, they're attracted to light, and they're huge with giant wings that fall off when they mate. So in the morning, you wake up to all of these wings laying on the ground. Oh, and did I mention that people eat them? Yeah...people roast them with salt and eat them. Disgusted yet? I am....

I was walking through the market with the nurse and she asked me if I knew what it was that one of the women was selling. It looked like insects to me...but I assumed it was some bean or spice I had never seen before. She said the word in Portuguese...I had no clue what it was, so I smiled and nodded, and we went on. Once we got back to the office, she picked up the wings that these disgusting, annoying bugs leave behind, and said "this is what she was selling. Here, we eat them.". And sure enough, later that day we were walking down the street, and a woman came up to the nurse with a tupperware full of these bugs, and she took one and ate it...and said "hmm..needs salt".

Then she offered me some. I quickly (and probably offensively) declined...

In addition to the random flying things and the flies, I found a baby scorpion in my bathtub today. And the other night, I killed a giant cockroach-the biggest one I have ever seen in my entire life. (I swear it was like the size of my index finger....) Not to mention, the top of my mosquito net is hosting a collection of various dead insects...mostly flies. Its gross, and I have to figure out a way to clean it without touching the bugs and without them falling onto my bed...

I am so over insects.