Thursday, 18 April: Last Full Day

Today we headed back to Masana for the last time. Once again we took a chapa to get there. Both Christina and I thought that today was another soccer day, so we were surprised to find out it was another beach day instead. This meant I had worn my shoes instead of flip flops. On the ride to the beach, we learned about the explosion at the fertilizer plant in Texas.

At the beach, I took my shoes and socks off to go onto the beach. Fortunately I didn't cut my feet when I walked across the broken bottles and rusty bottle caps.

I spent a lot of time playing with some of the boys. They had a tennis ball and a pair of plastic rackets. After that Christina and I helped to bury three of the boys in the sand. They thoroughly enjoyed this.

Me eating my "lunch" from our previous trip to the beach.

Since we weren't prepared for the beach, we decided to get out of the sun for a while. There was a low cement wall where we sat and watched a couple of the older boys play checkers. Their version of checkers is much different than what I was used to. You could jump an opponent's piece both forwards and backwards at any time. You were also required to jump a piece if you could. This was helpful for setting up ambushes. If you moved your piece to the opposite side and got kinged, it could jump multiple spaces (similar to a bishop in chess) and capture more than one piece at a time.

A fight broke out between one of the boys playing and another boy who provoked him. It was broken up by the leaders. This was another reminder of the violent reality these boys live with day-in and day-out.

We returned to Masana. Then Christina and I left early. Sonia had left a message for Christina asking her to pick up the kids since she didn't think Hasse and she would be back in time.

We said our goodbyes to the boys. It was especially hard for me to say goodbye to boy who liked playing with my watch (unfortunately I never learned his name despite asking a couple times). He understood English enough to know that I wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. He gave me one of the biggest hugs for being such a little guy (It rivaled the hug Christina had given me at the airport!).

Masana was really an eye-opening experience for me. When Christina told me that she had scheduled for me to work with the street kids for the entire week, I was skeptical at first. It really took me out of my comfort zone to be around these boys, especially given my limited knowledge of Portuguese. This made it harder to build any sort of relationship with them. This is why I took a special interest in teaching the boy who was interested in my watch how to work it.

Christina is really good at taking me out of my comfort zone, and I really appreciate this about her. In the end, I learned that most of the boys are just looking for someone to take the time to play with them, let them be a kid again, and show them the love they so desperately crave.

The time at Masana was also especially meaningful for Christina too. It really served as a confirmation of her decision to apply for the job in Lesotho.

Heading back to the house, we got onto the most crowded chapa we had ridden on all week. There were easily more than 15 people crammed inside. Since we were going to one of the last stops, we had to get off multiple times to let others out.

Back at the house we ate leftovers for lunch. We also watched the video of the explosion at the fertilizer plant. The explosion was ferocious and caught both of us off guard. The Perssons got back in time to pick the kids up, so Christina and I had some free time before her English lessons that evening.

We headed to the artisan park to look for some souvenirs for my family. As we entered the park, we met the lady with the leatherworking stand. Christina had befriended her the last time we were in the park and she stopped to talk with us.

Christina and Mama Julieta.

After learning that I was visiting from the United States, the woman asked Christina if I was her boyfriend. She told her that we were just really good friends who have known one another since we were very young. The lady then went on to say how she often sees couples in the park who end up getting married. Christina explained that we have to marry who God wants us to marry.

In the park I had some success (though limited). I found a handbag for my sister and got some ideas for the rest of my family. Christina found a gift for her grandma that she liked better and also bought some handmade reed postcards. We then headed back to the house to drop off the stuff we bought.

Christina had to go to the English lesson she was teaching at her church. Since it was her first one, she wouldn't let me come to it. Instead, she challenged me to go on a walk by myself through Maputo. As we walked to her church, she directed me to the Avenida Eduardo Mondlane and gave me a goal of reaching a certain mosque.

We parted ways and I began my solo venture. The mosque wasn't that far and I reached it after only 10 minutes. I thought it would be farther so I continued walking. I made it to Avenida Vladmir Lenin (The streets in Maputo are named after socialist leaders from all over the world.). Then I turned around and headed back to the house. The entire walk took me around an hour.

The most interesting part of my walk (other than almost being run over in the stampede to get on the bus at the bus stop) was witnessing the door of a chapa falling off its hinges while driving down the road. Fortunately no one fell out of it since it was full of people.

Back at the house I spent some time journaling and relaxing while I waited for Christina to return from her lesson. She returned with Max, one of the members of the worship team. We decided to go to Mundo's and were joined by Valesia (the Mozambican living in the Perssons' house) and the Swedish contingency (a group of Swedes from the Perssons' organization we all there).

Mundo's was super busy since it was Thursday night (it was trivia night) and we waited a long time to get a table. When we finally got one the service was good, until we needed to get the check. In all, we spent nearly two and a half hours there. We returned back to the house and went straight to bed.