Election Day

So today is Election Day. Not nearly as big as an event as the US 2 weeks ago but still a public holiday none the less. Like all public holidays in the UK the bar out side the compound was rammed with people well men to be exact. No I wasn’t joining them (nor was I even tempted!) but merely out buying credit for my phone.

The hairdresser was open which for a holiday seems strange but after all this is Mozambique and there are no rules. Women sitting under those massive blow dryers in the heat I felt ready to pass out just thinking about their core temperature.

So off I toddle to the studio for my days editing and mixing… when will I learn that this is Africa and never expect to get done what you want to do in a day. I get there and the boys have borrowed half the computer over night. I am left with the main computer but no power cables and only a keyboard…. Deep sigh and a looming deadline. Hunting them down was impossible.

It seems I never learn and I like to give myself a challenge. I trained as a sound engineer in a time when it really wasn’t “appropriate” for women to be in the sound industry I do think in the last 10 years that has changed slightly. (Hence the soundgirl name – I got fed up with all the lads talking about soundmen in my presence). Anyway it seems that there is a similar way of thinking about women in Mozambique, so I am going to have to gently convince the lads that this sound girl does actually know what she is doing…well within reason. Hopefully tomorrow evening at church we can get things in place.

So that left me with a day which I had to fill. Not too hard really head to the baby house and nursery for feeding time. I really need the washing machine working again as this feeding thing is NO joke. Today I am on my 3 t-shirt. 2 of the kids refuse to eat and so spit it back at you. Well there is more of their food on me than went into the stomachs. At one point it took 3 adults to feed one baby. I was exhausted.

For those of you who know about my nappy changing “skills” you will be glad to know that I have successfully completed my first nappy change this morning. I am glad to report baby, I and surrounding furniture have survived.

I seem to have reached new levels with my language today. I confidently walked up to one of the boys and spoke to him in Portuguese only to have him answer me back in English! This type of game I don’t get. It felt a little like being in Paris when the French waiters reply in the opposite language to the one you have made the effort to speak to them in. It is weird to have the babies I fed on my first visit now talking to me and say Bye Bye as I leave. Bless them is all that can be said.

Well tonight for the first time I got to see the stars. No rain tonight and a lovely African star filled sky. So I am off to bed hoping to be sleeping alone tonight and no little creatures in the mossy net with me.