Pastilha de AMERICA

I recently got a care package from two of my wonderful girl friends, Sara & Samantha. It was full of goodies including some delicious gum. I haven't had gum in a really long time. They sent me this gum called "5", the "React" flavor. It's in this fancy black package with a pretty purplish-yellow design on the package. Even the gum sticks are wrapped in little black wrappers. It really is fancy.

My American gum has gotten a few reactions from Mozambicans. When I opened my care packages, one of my friends was with me. I made sure to not show any of the goodies because I was being greedy and didn't want to share any of those. But I did lend a stick of gum to my friend. He was taken back by how fancy it looked. He picked up the stick of gum and sized it up with his eyes. Pulled back a little bit of the wrapper and sniffed it. He did all of this with caution, as if he was waiting for the gum to come to life or something. I told him if he was going to treat my gum like that and not eat it, then to give it back to me so I could put it to use. So then he tore off a piece of the stick of gum and slowly raised it to his mouth, then looked at it again, then finally put it to its destination once I told him it was ok, it was just gum from America. Once at ease, he thought the gum was delicious. He then folded the wrapper shut and secured the gum then placed it in his pocket for later.

I was in line at the bank with Emily today. We were waiting and I reached into my bag for something and saw the pack of gum. I pulled it out and showed it to her. She said whoaaa where did you get that?! I said well, it's Stateside...I got in in a care package. Fancy, eh? She declined my offer but what I thought was humorous was the look on the young mozambican girl's face as she saw me whip out the pack of gum. She was looking at my pack of gum with great wonder and she was practically silently screaming for a stick of it. So I handed it to her and said, Here, do you want some gum from America? Her face lit up and she looked at me with the look like those women get on Oprah's show when she gives a bunch of stuff away. Yeah, this girl was really excited. She started laughing and smiling and turned to her friend in front of her and said "I have gum from AMERICA!!!" Em told her that she should share the gum with her friend. She just looked at us and kept smiling then looking at the gum cradled in her hands like it was fragile. Gum from AMERICA!!! She kept saying. She just kept laughing and laughing and we asked her what was so funny. Gum from AMERICA!!! I told her the gum was delicious and that she would like it. Instead of immediately indulging she carefully placed the stick of American gum into a pocket.

I'd like to send out a BIG thank you to Sara and Samantha for the care package! I miss you girls!