Language, the border and mail

Cheers from Maputo. As well as learning Portuguese these days we are picking up local phrases from the Brits around town. We often laugh (as did some of you) about our “accent” or bad English. We are having daily Portuguese lessons for two hours every day and it seems to be a great answer to our question, “Will we EVER learn this crazy language well?” The consistent lessons and practice really seem to be cementing things in our brains, but we still have a ways to go. We are trying to spend an additional hour studying everyday and using our language on the streets with locals, at the market, with our guards and other Mozambicans. We had a friend tell us that we must be uncomfortable in order to learn this language. So we are forcing ourselves into uncomfortable situations in order to practice. The locals are gracious and try not to laugh too hard when we stutter strange sentences like, “Want I the bananas yellow not green good for price now” or “Much how costs the more big juice of oranges want me buy better”. Fortunately it’s usually not until we walk away and replay the conversations in our head that we realize what huge and comical grammatical errors we make! Ah the humility that comes from being a grown-up learning new skills!

So as many of you know we took a trip to South Africa this weekend. There is a town about 3 hours away called Nelspruit. We go there and feel like we have gone back to the states. There are big, beautiful grocery stores; a shopping mall with a movie theater, lots of great restaurants and everyone speaks English. We stay at a lodge that is clean and the grounds are inhabited by Peacocks, horses, warthogs, deer, bunnies, chickens, birds and other natural wildlife. They have a swimming pool, a trampoline and lots of walking paths. We all love going there for lots of reasons, but mostly because it’s a great way to be together as a family with no distractions (phone, work, people) and have some fun. It also really helps me to refuel for life in Maputo – a little mental vacation to remind myself that I haven’t actually fallen off the earth, I’ve just moved South a bit.

As we’ve mentioned before the boarder is always an interesting experience. There are often lots of people pushing and shoving their way through the line, mass chaos, unnecessary papers to fill out, money to be paid and passports to be stamped. Often there are corrupt border officers looking for a bribe, which is always intimidating. This time through the biggest hassle we had was a two-hour wait at the Mozambican side before crossing into South Africa. It really has become less intimidating the more we do it, but it’s just one of those places in life where you feel guilty and nervous even when you haven’t done anything. Last time Steve went through he had quite a hassle and had to end up spending the night in South Africa before he could come through. Good topic for the next post!

Well hope all is well in the good old US of A! We plan to head to South Africa again very soon to check out the goodies in our PO Box. We can’t wait! Just remember on those days when you’re annoyed by the junk mail in your mailbox we drive an hour and a half, cross through the boarder, and get our passports stamped (twice) all in the hope of having some mail! It’s SO worth it!