A little bit about my lovely, extended birthday celebrations. I’m so happy I got to have a Maputo-style birthday.
On Thursday, after work, I went shoe shopping with Nasti and Hanna. It had somehow been decided that all the girls were going to wear heels on Friday. I wear heels a lot and I was still worried about the potential injuries Maputo’s streets could cause! Nasti had already bought some and I had tried on a million pairs without success; they were either too small (all the ones they sell on the street are really nice, but really small), too expensive (the ones in the shops are insanely priced, one pair, which I doubt were brand new, were marked £106 pounds! Nice, but not that nice), or too impractical (fluorescent pink suede doesn’t really fit with my volunteer’s wardrobe). I finally found some, as did Hanna. They are cheap shoes so I was fairly sure my feet would hurt in all of 5 minutes, but we had already decided that Matt, unbeknownst to him, would carry the bag of flip flops, so it was ok.
In the search for shoes I have noticed a trend in Mozambican vendors; if you try on a shoe and tell them that it’s too small, they will say, ‘No, it’s not too small.’ You can protest all you like, you are wrong. The same goes with clothes, it is not too small or too big, it fits perfectly and nothing you say will change their mind. If you then request a bigger shoe, for example, they will mutter about how it can’t possibly fit when the other one fitted perfectly! I am no longer assured of my shoe size, my dress size, or my ability to tell if something fits, as I am, always, ‘wrong’.
In the evening, Chris, Nick, Jan, Mario, Bito, Silje, Nasti, Kamilah and I went to InterThai for supper. We were 2 men down as Chris had to work late and Matt had to take his sister to the hospital. Silje and Bito bought me a bottle of wine and a gorgeous headband and nail varnishes and Nick and Chris bought me a big bunch of flowers! I made the right choice in sitting next to Chris, who ordered everything! We had Thai prawn green curry, fried rice with beef, prawns (the size of lobsters) in black bean sauce and pad Thai (and a few Captain Morgan and cokes)...and they were all delicious. I then got a birthday banana split...which Mario proceeded to eat most of; I’ve never seen him so happy!
As I’d already been wished ‘happy birthday’ in more languages than ever before, Chris made it his mission to have it wished in even more and through Facebook, managed to wish me happy birthday in at least 10 languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, Norwegian, Dutch, German, Shangana, Arabic, Afrikaans, Russian, French, Thai, Hindi, Farsi, Nepalese, Turkish and Greek!
It was a really lovely meal and the perfect end to a brilliant birthday. The most amazing thing was, the package which had Mum sent on Tuesday, with birthday cards, presents and sweets, arrived on Thursday, on my birthday!
I re-arranged the spa from Friday to Monday, as I knew that I would be stressed about organising the flat for the party and wouldn’t be able to enjoy it. So I spent the morning tidying the flat, and the afternoon, mentally preparing myself...
Nick was an absolute hero and as well as making all the food and my amazing cake, brought a table, so unlike at Mario’s; we didn’t have to eat off the floor. The food was so good! We had samosas, spring rolls, crab tartlets, cheese balls, Asian chicken rolls and a chocolate cake with chocolate dipped strawberries (Pictures to come) Thank you Nick!
It was great; the flat looked far less like a crack den than usual, with balloons and the food and mats laid down, we had music, courtesy of Jan and it was such a random but good mix of people, which is exactly what I wanted.
I got such lovely presents as well. Jan, Mario, Hanna and Nasti bought me an amazing wooden box, compartmented inside so I can keep jewellery in it and a beautiful carved tortoise, with the Big 5 painted on its back. Jennifer bought me a rose and a chicken ball (I can’t remember the Brazilian name); they are the best things in the world (well, one of) and my favourite snack. Matt bought me a really nice capulana. It turned out that the bracelets I had wanted to buy in the art market, which the girls told me had been sold, hadn’t and had in fact been bought by Gabby, Lea and Anjuli for my birthday. (Pictures to follow of me smiling like a loon) Thank you all of you!
The only downside of the night was that I felt really poorly. I hadn’t felt well in the afternoon but was determined to get on with it, potentially a mistake! I woke up on Saturday and felt like I had been run over. I had a 38.2oC temp and sweaty doesn’t even describe it, especially as on Sunday it was 42oC outside! Luckily I think it was just flu and although I felt horrible on Sunday and Monday, I feel better today. However, it’s getting steadily hotter and I fully expect to now sweat continuously for the next 7 weeks! I will embrace it as much as possible and everyone else better get used to it!
I finally bug sprayed my room yesterday. Last week a cockroach had run over my leg whilst I was sitting on my bed, nearly giving me a heart attack. I thought, at least, that I would be safe under my mosquito net, but no, on Saturday night, a cockroach got into my bed and crawled over my pillow. Chasing it around the room with a flip flop did nothing to help my fever! I was paranoid that another one would get in on Sunday as I could hear them scuttling around. As I said, the bug spray could kill a horse, so after spraying, when Vovo told me ‘to shut the door, or nothing would be killed’, I refused as the can said to let the room air. She shut the door anyway, and the windows, and so my room now probably resembles some kind of gas chamber...I can’t wait to sleep in there tonight!
I think I may be going to a Mozambican wedding reception this weekend which is exciting. Not having an extended family means that Nasti and I miss out on the family parties, birthdays, baptism etc.
My friend George, who is on my course at Uni, was supposed to be coming out for 3 months in November but is no longer coming which is a shame! I was looking forward to having someone to show around Maputo and someone to reminisce with when I got home!
I am off to Johannesburg next weekend which I am really excited about. I need to renew my visa on the way back...not sure how I go about that, but I’m working on it!
I will try and put up some birthday pictures, when I can get near a good internet connection!
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