Wednesday, February 9, 2011

First hospital visit in Mozambique

Let me first start with the past weekend. On Friday I went quite early to bed, as I didn't feel very well. On Saturday I waited 5 (!!) hours for my brother to go out. Let me explain this in more detail.

In the afternoon I went to the gym which is in the neighborhood, it couldn't be better. The gym is not comparable to a gym in Europe or the US but I really enjoy being there. Also, a friend of mine is the owner of it which makes it even better. In the gym I meet all the people who live in my zone, which is very comfortable too.

After the gym, I talked to some neighbors and went upstairs to get ready as my brother was supposed to pick me up at 4:00 pm. I waited for half an hour without thinking about anything (I'm living in Mozambique where the clock is not always as important as in Europe...).. waited for another half an hour. The hours went by and I knew he's still in another town. At around 7:00 pm or 8:00 pm I was ready for some alcohol. I never waited that long for someone! My sister and I went for a walk to buy a coke nearby. Fortunately I met some friends at the shop Baiana, in the middle of the zone where people just meet. When I came back, I decided to stay with them and drink a beer. As my brother didn't show up I drank some more and decided to go with another friend to a Jazz Bar, called Gil. Before that we went to a restaurant called Piri-Piri and ate chicken. Gosh, since I am here I am so thankful whenever I can eat a piece of meat. The bar was nice. There was one guy with his guitar who sang really nice... it was more chilling and hanging around but I loved it.

Later on, a friend of mine called. He needed money as police stopped him, intoxicated. Now I will let you know a little bit about the police. He had way too much, police took his driver license and asked for 1,000 Meticais. For us this may not sound too much, as it's about 20 Euros but for a person living in Mozambique it's a lot. So I helped him out, as he promised me to give it back to me.

Some other experiences I already had with the police... I walked together with Anne in the Baixa, as police stopped us, asking for our visa. As I showed one police officer my passport including the visa, another police officer whispered into my ear: "Amor, amor". I couldn't do anything as they were very aggressive and also made fun of us. This is the best way you can handle the situation. Here it's normal to give money to the police, but in this situation I did not see any reason to give them money. Since this event I am kinda afraid of the police...

Well, back to my weekend story. At around 4:30 we walked back home, I met my brother in the appartment. We went straight to a party at his friend's place and came back at about 6:30. We didn't want to go straight to bed as this is about the time when our mother goes to church. Therefore we went up to the roof. I need to take a picture of the gorgeous view we had up there. 

On Sunday I met with my neighbor Simba. He took me to his wife's house and I got to know his two sons and the rest of the family. Then we went to Bairo Malangalene to Lola's place where we ate meat and Chima and hang around the whole afternoon. I really enjoyed it.

Yesterday I had quite a bad day. The day before I went with a friend to Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). I was happy like a child when I ate chicken with fries. Oh, I forgot to mention that we took the meal to the beach and ate it there. But yesterday my stomach felt quite weird and all of a sudden I had to puke. I was lucky that not all of the kids watched me, but some did.

One of the tias took me to the hospital in Massaca, were they made a Malaria test. Luckily, I'm negative which is good cause I already had about 20 Mosquito bites since I am here. The doctor gave me some medicine and I think it already helps a bit. At work I was able to sleep a bit over lunch time, which i was very thankful for. It still feels a bit weird, but it gets better.

The gym is something I really enjoy after work, I have been everyday so far. It's 10:00 pm right now and in the small bar next to our building they celebrate very traditional a birthday. All of them are singing. Sounds like they have a lot of fun.

My plans for the upcoming weekend is a breakfast at a friends place- he has cornflakes and milk!!!!!!!! Yiiiiha... and hopefully finding a post office (didn't imagine that it could be that difficult) and hopefully I'll make it this weekend to the beach!

Love, Melanie

1 comment:

  1. Hey! That sounds like lots of fun, Melanie!
    I found this blog a while ago. It is really interesting.

    You are in Mozambique with your sister and brother, right? It is amazing.

    I have a bad feeling about the police. The police in Japan doesn't ask money, but I cannot be able to like the police because they sometimes use their authority in the wrong direction. I could not bear behaviors of the police in Mozambique if I were there. But I agree that your way is the best.

    Anyway, I sincerely hope your safe and happy life continues from Japan!

    Toshi

    ReplyDelete