~ We've been hearing more vuvuzelas (the long horns that you hear at World Cup) in our neighborhood. If an African team or Portugal or Brazil is playing you will hear them when there is a goal. Then the people yell and the dogs bark and everyone knows a goal was scored.
~ We see lots of people bundled up for Mozambican "winter." If it gets down to 50-60 it's really cold. I bundle up too, as there's no heat in the houses, and the windows don't shut properly. It's even worse if you live in a caniso (reed) hut with cracks in it like this one.
When we tell them that real winter is the temperature of the freezer they look at us like we're crazy and solemnly affirm that they would curl up and die.
~ We heard recently that some "curandeiros"(witchdoctors)advise people with AIDS that the only way to be healed is to give the disease away to as many people as possible. This is very discouraging because people listen more to curandeiros than they do to organizations like ours that teach the truth.
~ Speaking of curandeiros - yesterday our friends were having a child weighed at the local hospital. To do this they have to have all their clothes removed. They said almost all the children had strings around their waists or wrists to ward off the evil spirits. A Christian friend was encouraging them to get this done for the child they care for as well. True Christianity "with no strings attached" is sometimes hard to find.
~ We've heard of some Mozambicans preaching to their own people to leave behind their traditions when they conflict with the Bible. He said "capulanas" (wrap around cloths) are a tradition, but how many of you are wearing capulanas? They laughingly admitted that they were not, so he pointed out that they have changed that tradition, so they can also change some other traditions such as their ceremonies for the dead, etc.
~ We have been laughing a lot with the antics of the 17 mo. old baby that lives at our house. She is just learning to crawl, to wave bye-bye, to walk around furniture. She has come a long way from the baby who was malnourished and hardly made a sound 6 months ago.
~ We laughed recently at our friend Sybil who could not find her water bottle. Then she remembered--it was on top of her head! Actually, that one wasn't as big as the one below:
~ We have been reminded lately that sometimes cultural adaptation takes a long time -even longer than 5 years and sometimes it's a good idea to not take things too seriously and just laugh. It's as good as medicine!
