The Norm

Sometimes I forget that friends and family at home are not acquainted to life in Africa and although I am used to it now and it feels like the norm, im sure not everyone could say the same.  For instance the norm in Moz is… 

Goats tied to the side of the road, chickens everywhere, cows crossing the road stopping traffic.  Women carrying things on their heads like 5 gallon buckets of water, cases of soda, bundles of sticks or brooms.  Little girls practicing carrying things on their head with smaller buckets of water or water bottles.  Woman carrying a capulana with them everywhere, women wearing a capulana wrap over jeans or skirts.  People not wearing shoes including kids, men, women and elderly people. People asking complete strangers if they can use their bathroom.  Hitchhiking is a mode of transportation, people make hand signals in which direction they are going and the driver is expected to stop and or hand signal a different direction, explaining why they cant provide a ride.   Riding in a chapa or bus/big van where people sit 4 to a row instead of 3.  Chapa drivers will wait as long as they have to until the entire chapa is filled up before leaving.   While your waiting on a chapa venders will come up to your window with chips, cookies, bread, tangerines, phone credit, CDs etc  If there is no more room to sit in a chapa people will still pack in and stand up in awkward positions for the entire ride.   Chapas can also be the back of a pickup truck with im guessing up to 15-20 people at a time.   Kids make their toys out of different pieces of trash such as bottle caps, wire and bottles, the toy cars are pretty sweet!  Roosters crow here at all hours of the night and day… I guess they didn’t get the break of dawn memo.   Everyone has American music which they blast at all hours… theres nothing like taking a bucket bath bumpin to lil’wayne.   Mozambicans love Celiene Dion, Jean Claude Van Dam, and Brian Adams.  A mud house with a really loud stereo.   Mozambicans believe that everyone in the Peace Corps were neighbors in the states before coming to Africa and if there is a white person in town they must be our friend.    Women breast feed EVERYWHERE like on the street selling cashews or through my entire supervisors conference… I mean everywhere!  During my last meeting a young mother was obviously not breastfeeding correctly because an older woman in a business suit insisted on giving her a live demonstration.  Sometimes they forget to put their boob away and just act like its completely normal to have one tittie out during a conversation lol  TMI ?  People selling American DVDs and CD on the street, I think my homestay dad had more American rap than I do.   Phone credit is sold by street boys with the phone company vest on and you whistle for them to come over.   Hissing is the common way to get someones attention in Moz.  Children greet you at all hours with “good morning, how are you, I am fine, thank you” as one whole phrase.   Men will kiss at you and say “hey baby” as a cat call.   Venders will say “my sister” “I give you a good price, the best price” to try and get you to stop and buy something.  Street venders sell used clothes, shoes, phones and accessories, food, kitchen wear, DVDs, CDs etc.    There is no running hot water … not that I have seen so far.   People testing positive for HIV and living in denial, not telling their family or friends or starting treatment.   If you take someone’s photo they will definitely want to look at it.   People sweep their front yard every morning with a small broom made of sticks, moving all the trash and leaves to the side of the house instead of in front of it.   Trash everywhere!!  There is a specified trash hill next to the soccer field in my town and in Namaacha my family had a trash hill next to our house.    There is no drinking age in Moz, its not uncommon to see people drinking in the morning or while driving.  Cats are only to keep the rats away and dogs are only used as gaurds, there are no domesticated animals here.   You never shake or accept things with the left hand because it could be someone’s wiping hand when using the bathroom.   A very good chance that there is no toilet paper in public bathrooms.   There are no disposable diapers, only cloth. Tampons are only for city people… again maybe TMI lol  Weddings are a 2-3 day ceremony and the groom is expected to pay for everything.  The wife goes to live in with the husband and his family.  People greet each other with a touch of both cheeks or a kiss on both cheeks.  The most common greeting is tudo bem? which translates to everything good? and the response is tudo… everything.   Im sure there are many more things that I take as normal but cannot remember at the moment.