May 9
When I last left you I had just returned from the JOMA conference, I was not bathing and I had just been robbed. I am now almost four weeks into the second trimester of school, and still not bathing (as the weather continues to get colder).
The second trimester is turning out to be better than the first, mostly because my Portuguese has improved. I am also currently teaching about trends in the Periodic Table (which is about as exciting as it gets in ninth grade chemistry over here).
I got a chance to go to the beach last weekend, which was fun. The beach town of choice was Vilankulos, which is at the northern end of Inhambane Province (pronounced in – yam – bahn – ee) and hence, extremely far away. Long distance travel here is on par with my vision of hell, however, I did get to pass through the town of Mexungue (Mesh – oong – gway), which I think must be the cashew and pineapple capital of the universe (both were plentiful, cheap and delicious). Vilankulos itself is really a very sad little town; millions of dollars (for tourism) pass through the airport on the way to the offshore islands known as the Bazaruto Archipelago while the town continues to go on without development or basic infrastructure. Apparently all the money spent on tourism follows the South African and Zimbabwean Lodge owners back to their countries. The beach was nice, though, and I went swimming, ate seafood (I don’t really even like seafood), and saw lots of people whom I had not seen in a long time.
My roommate and I have started playing a new game with our neighbors (most of whom are children) called mata-mata which literally means kill-kill. The game is a complicated version of pickle/dodge ball that involves turning over flip-flops. The bottom line, though, is that I get to peg little kids with a ball made out of a plastic bag and grass. If you are having trouble visualizing this I would suggest a viewing of Adam Sandler during the dodge ball scene in Billy Madison. If you are still having trouble, just picture a 6’10” guy throwing a ball at small African children.
