Thursday, April 27, 2006
I´m out of shape
Thats true. I´m really out of shape, and it´s really obvious because I´ve started playing basketball every evening at the ferroviario- the local basketball court. There´s pick-up games that usually have 10-15 guys playing for 1.5 hours. It´s fun because they always let me into the games right away, and even when we´re rotating teams and my team is out they often let me substitute and play in. The only thing is I´m really bad compared to them- they all play every night and I´m ready for a break after 4 laps around the court.
Still its been fun, and a really good way to meet people. A lot of the guys are my age or a little older, and really friendly. They all want to learn english, and try to say things to me during the game, which can sometimes be funny, although sometimes they´re not so funny... like when they tell me, at an apropriate moment- ´white men can´t jump.´ Yes, its true.
Everything else is going well. Monday is a holiday (May 1st) and maybe tuesday is well, although apparently we don´t know for sure yet, or why. We just had our bathroom retiled, which was nice, and got a peep hole thing put into our door. $1 for the peep hole, $1 to get it intalled. And I demorrared (delayed) because I was worried about the price. It comes in handy when we have people knocking on our door in the middle of the night, trying to sell us makonde art (the carved black wood stuff that I´m addicted too buying- ask Eli for details, she would love to talk about it :-). They also sell lots of things made of Ivory and tortoise shell here, which I´d love to buy, but can´t imagine supporting something where they kill animals, especially since I´m a ´biologist´. I´m having a chess set made and I really wanted peices made out of black wood and ivory, but couldn´t bring myself to do it.
We´re going to Nampula this weekend to meet the parents of our Macua teacher. We may stay the night at his house (?) we don´t know yet. But it could be a very interesting experience. Then I´ll be in Nampula on sunday to go to the craft market, where they sell lots of makonde art cheap :-)
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paul
Still its been fun, and a really good way to meet people. A lot of the guys are my age or a little older, and really friendly. They all want to learn english, and try to say things to me during the game, which can sometimes be funny, although sometimes they´re not so funny... like when they tell me, at an apropriate moment- ´white men can´t jump.´ Yes, its true.
Everything else is going well. Monday is a holiday (May 1st) and maybe tuesday is well, although apparently we don´t know for sure yet, or why. We just had our bathroom retiled, which was nice, and got a peep hole thing put into our door. $1 for the peep hole, $1 to get it intalled. And I demorrared (delayed) because I was worried about the price. It comes in handy when we have people knocking on our door in the middle of the night, trying to sell us makonde art (the carved black wood stuff that I´m addicted too buying- ask Eli for details, she would love to talk about it :-). They also sell lots of things made of Ivory and tortoise shell here, which I´d love to buy, but can´t imagine supporting something where they kill animals, especially since I´m a ´biologist´. I´m having a chess set made and I really wanted peices made out of black wood and ivory, but couldn´t bring myself to do it.
We´re going to Nampula this weekend to meet the parents of our Macua teacher. We may stay the night at his house (?) we don´t know yet. But it could be a very interesting experience. Then I´ll be in Nampula on sunday to go to the craft market, where they sell lots of makonde art cheap :-)
Mpaka logo
paul
# posted by Paul and Eli @ 9:52 AM 
