Mama Maria Invades Mozambique!

When I picked my mom up at the airport in Nampula at 1AM, after a long stretch of flights, she was clearly tired but had a big smile and hug waiting. What a tough lady. She would soon be riding chapas, avoiding panty-selling street venders, running from rats, charming babies, and swatting mosquitos with the best of them. I let her get a good night's sleep and then we started out the next morning for Mozambique Island to do some touristy stuff. It was actually pretty cold and rainy when we were on the island, but after we crossed over to Chokas Mar and waited a day, Mozambique finally showed her it's beautiful face.
Since we were there in the middle of the week, we had miles and miles of beach to ourselves and the beach vendors had no one else to sell their trinkets to. We were like sitting ducks...until...

...Humper came to the recue. Mozambicans are very afraid of dogs, so after Humper started hanging out, we got a little more peace and quiet. Humper was left behind by some PCVs in a nearby village, so he is rather attracted to Americans...a little too attracted at times. We liked having him around until he started living up to his name... ewwww.

Awwww. My mom, me, and........Humper who came out of no where and went straight for my leg.

After our little vacation excursion, it was time to see my site, Angoche. My mom finally got a taste of the Angoche chapas, I'm sure one of her best memories. not. Here we have one of the more popular stops along the way where venders love to shove assorted fruit and goat heads in your face out of either sheer excitement, wanteing to get a reaction, or thinking the pushiest person will make the most sales.
So first things first. Parade around town and visit everyone who will be pissed at you for not introducing your mother when she comes to visit. Stop #1 is always Fabiao, our lovable adopted papa at the post office who so diligently sees to it that the professoras brancas recieve packages from you all in America. What a guy! When he saw my mom he asked me why I didn't have pretty eyes and hair like my mom. lol Thanks Fabiao. Oh the honesty.

Mom also got a nice taste of the local cuisine. She had Alexi and Xirene's special spicy coconut pumpkin beans and rice, matapa, squid, shrimp, lobster, and tons of street peanut sweets.
We also took her across the swamp to our nice lil beach to get a feel for the boat chapa and also relax a bit.

What better way to spend your 25th birthday than with your Ma in Mozambique? I was lucky enough to have her around for a great birthday party!

And then, the grand finale...Mama Maria came to school with me. If there had been a contest for show and tell, I would have won easily. When I was preparing my students and colleagues for her arrival, I told them that she doesn't speak Portuguese. One of my colleagues suggested that I just get her a bunch of capulana clothes made. As if that would help the language barrier. At first, I thought this suggestion was another dose of silly logic. Language barrier-->solution-->capulana clothes. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that sometimes capulana clothes do communicate more than whatever language. Anyway...I digress, we did make capulana clothes for her and they were a big hit.

She helped me teach that day. We talked about our family in English and the kids got to interview her about her life and American culture. They also prepared gifts for her as well as songs and dances.

Wheres Whitegirl?
Mussa is one of my lovable indisciplinados (trouble makers). The lovable ones are the worst, the kind that make you laugh while your yelling at them. He put the moves on my mom right away.
Alright, this is getting to be a really long post. Thanks so much Mom for coming. Everyone who met you and spent time with you says I get my best qualities from you. Angoche loves you. I love you. And I miss you all!