It’s in the way you say it.

I’ve been living here for 3 years and seem to be understanding Mozambique less and less. My Portuguese seems to be getting worse and I just seem to be in a constant state of anger. I even wrote this article for the newsletter here about how Africa has brought out the angry side of me.

I want to get one thing straight. I do speak Portuguese and if I were in a country like Brazil or Portugal, I would be understood. I don’t speak Mozambican Portuguese though so I’m screwed. Referring back to the title of this piece, it is really about the way you say it. I was at a little café the other say and saw two white people who needed some language help ordering at the café. They just wanted a tea and a coffee with milk on the side so they can put it in themselves. Fresh milk on the side to put in by you doesn’t seem to hard right? Well, they only got their order oh about 30 minutes later. This was after the waiter came back 3 times because he was confused. I explained, my friend Shaun explained and finally we said bring a coffee and a tea and a glass of milk. That worked. WHY????

Something else just happened to me. The office cleaning lady just came into my office and started saying something. Her Portuguese is mumbled and garbled at best and I usually don’t have much to say to her because she hasn’t studied. She used to come up to me with questions to help her with her homework for English class. (Make sure you read there that she used to ASK ME to DO her homework for her.) The only word I here from her is that the floor is covered in xixi (pee) and I’m supposed to come look. Oh well. I mean this bathroom is disgusting normally and now the running water doesn’t work in it. They run a hose in from the outside tap and fill up the bath tub. You’re supposed to pour water into the cistern and then flush the toilet. This is what I did. She said I peed on the floor and tore into me for a good few minutes. I tried to explain myself but she wouldn’t listen. She just thought it was me peeing on the floor. I probably dripped some water in from the bucket on the floor which is already yellow. I hate people that don’t listen!!!!! I’m trying to rid myself of that horrible trait as well. Please anyone that sees me not listening, smack me HARD!!!

The last thing along these lines that gets me is the lack of education. I know it is no fault of theirs. 2 and a half years ago I put up with the “are there blacks in America?” or “it’s not cold in your country?” all because everything was new and exciting. Now I just try not to hang out with people who I don’t like or don’t need to get to know. Yesterday I was at the market after church and went to by bread. The market lady said that bread was 10 meticais even though I knew it was 7 meticais. I know the difference of 3 meticais shouldn’t be something to worry about (it’s 12 cents) but I’ve come to this lady so many times and she still tries dumb shit like that. I’ve just really had it with the fact that no one thinks it could be possible that white people don’t have money. After all, I only need enough to pay for the 12 hour bus ride it takes to get to America!