Ana lives in a cinder-block home surrounded by a walled courtyard with several fruit trees and an outhouse. She had her clothes hanging up on a line that she had washed by hand early that morning before making the trek to our place to work.
They don't have electricity or running water set up. But she had a large cement tank to catch run-off rain water from the roof during the wet season.
Wesley enjoyed the morning playing on the "estera" (mat) in the shade. She is used to having the run of the house and crawling and climbing wherever she pleases (what with our western culture of bleaching everything and 'baby-proofing' our houses)--but out in the "bairo" the surroundings are not so child-friendly. Typically all the food preparation and cleaning is done at ground level which allows things like hot coals, knives, etc. within easy reach (not to mention a plethora of broken glass, sharp metal, and other trash lying around). I've always been amazed at how Mozambican babies seem so content to play on a mat and sort of thought my rambunctious and curious babies wouldn't do it that well. But I found with a lot of re-direction, she eventually learned her boundaries and spent over an hour playing with a lemon and her water bottle...of course she did get a lot of attention from Ana.
After making the long walk to Ana's house, I wasn't really sure how long we would stay. But upon arrival, Ana sent her brother out to buy four little river fish...and when he came back and started cleaning them, I realized we were expected for lunch!
He and Ana prepared a simple and typical Mozambican meal of grilled fish seasoned with lemon and garlic and "xima" (cooked cornmeal).
Ana served our meal on plates with a side of water to wash our hands in throughout the meal whenever they became too..."goopy"...with the xima and fish. It was delicious! Unfortunately I had forgotten my water bottle...and after that 45 minute walk in the hot sun, a few hours of sitting around in the Mozambican heat, and eating a salty meal I was completely parched. So I braved a glass of water too. (To be honest, I think SHE was more concerned about me coming down with something from the water than I was--over the last few months she's worked with us she has picked up on how germ conscious we are--comparatively speaking--and I think she was convinced that within a few minutes my "weak" Western body would be in convulsions. We were both pleasantly surprised that there were no ill effects from the water).
3 comments:
Sounds like a fun excursion. Too bad only two of the pictures can be seen....
you are invited to follow my blog
it really looks like Bahia, here in Brasil
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