Day 3

Day 3 Sunday – Domingo (11^th May)

Today was a weird day. I was so tempted just to stick around and catch the blue panther bus north, but I didn’t think I could afford the one extra day. Last night I got a taxi to come by this morning and he was bang on time. That’s what I love about Isaac. It was worth the money because we all had some bags. Isaac was wonderful though and made sure to find the bus that would take us to Maxixe and leaving soon. We were the lasts ones on the bus and maybe waited about 20 minutes in Junta for it to leave. That’s record time! But the trip still took 7 hours to go 450 kilometers or 280 miles. Oh I’m going to love coming back to the West when you can go 700 kilometers (437 miles) in about 7 hours. That’s for next year. Sam and I were next to each other on the bus and Noel was a row or two behind us. We all had jump seats though (read not comfortable.) We were on the road at 5:30 in the morning though and got into Maxixe around noon ish. Alex from Chicuque had been there and she greeted us getting off the bus. Off we went on a trek through the sand to my house. We paused half way through because walking in ankle deep sand when you are not at the beach is not easy. Pictures abounded and then we made it home. Scott was sitting on my front wall. He had texted asking about his debit card, but I didn’t expect him to come to my house so quickly. The boy was desperate for cash though as most of us are when the 3^rd month of our pay period comes along. We hung out at the house for a little bit and I taught them the way to use a latrine and how I take a bucket bath. It’s funny how much you forget you had to learn coming here as well. After a chat, some baths and a lock down on the house, we were off to campismo of Maxixe. The camp grounds run by the city are like my second home. Everyone that works there is a wonderful person, the owners are some of the nicest people in the world and it’s just a wonderful atmosphere there when you need to go and relax and or possibly vent out some of the troubles of the day. I finally got to show my friends from here some of my family from home. It was a weird meeting of two worlds but something I really enjoyed doing. I think all my friends enjoyed meeting my family and Noel and Sam enjoyed meeting my friends. On the way home, we went to drop my friend Anne off because of a little incident on her road last week and passed by the Homoine sign. Noel recognized the name and once I get some pictures up on the internet, you’ll be able to see a little fun time we had trying to get a picture of me and of Homoine.

Oh yeah, today was Mother’s day, not something I’ve made a habit of remembering over the years. Jess did though. She sent a text saying, ‘aren’t you supposed to wish me something?’ I may not remember the day but I can take a hit. Luckily, last week I had bought 600 Meticais worth of telephone credit and that allows you to set 3 friends numbers in the States or abroad to a 25% discount. Jess was one of those friends I set. So we all called and yelled HAPPY MOTHERS DAY and said hi very quickly. Then all of us were so tired and wanted to sleep so we went to bed with a little help of melatonin.