The day I ate pork...

Wow! It's November! Sorry I haven't posted anything lately. I don't have any excuses. Ok SO, where to begin..It's the end of the year and the PCVs from Moz 13 (the group of ppl that arrived a year before me) are getting ready to leave and return to the States. This past weekend I went with a few other volunteers to Chimoio-in central Mozambique- for a conference. There's this group called Future Business Leaders of Mozambique provided thru Peace Corps. It's a good opportunity. PCVs along with local counterparts get a group of people or a whole class and offer business courses. At the end of the course, participants prepare a business plan and submit it to be judged to receive funds to start their business. FBL is funded by PEPFAR. So, I went this past weekend to the "handover" meeting, in which the former Moz 13 leaders of FBL "handed-over" the responsibilities of the group to us Moz14ers (there's 5 of us managing it now). Chimoio is about 12 hours from Xai Xai and we traveled by bus.

Thursday morning Pete and I met in Xai Xai. Pete and I were supposed to meet at 7:20 am but of course I didn't leave my house until 7:30 because I was late due to writing a letter to my dear friend Brandy. So, at 7:30 I headed to the bus stop near my house. I hardly ever catch chapas that early in the morning. This chapa rolls up and it was FULL of people. I thought people were about to start getting out but no, the cobredor just opened the door. All I saw were butts of people sticking out the sliding door and he was like, go on, get in! At first I said ummm...I dont know, maybe I'll just wait for the next one, where am I going to fit?! Then he said, just get in! So, I got in. I had my over-the-shoulder purse and my back pack. I threw my purse in the lap of some kid sitting and told the cobredor to take my back pack. Then I was hovering over this kid, my chest and head above him as he was sitting down and I was also leaning to the side over this other kid and then the cobredor was directly behind me. Awkward, yes. So I'm standing there trying not to fall as we start moving, holding on to front seat passenger chair. It's a bumpy ride from my neighborhood to the paved road. There's hills and the road is uneven so it makes the car slant as your driving. Really not fun when your standing up/hovering/holding on. I will never complain about anything ever again in America. Not really sure what happened to my back pack, I couldn't see it during the ride. I was supposed to meet Pete at the market but I decided to get off a few blocks early because my legs and arms started to hurt from trying to hold on and corners of chairs poking me and I can only stand such small spaces surrounded by people for so long. So I got out and found my back pack in the lap of someone behind me..Hopefully all was still in it. If not, oh well..everything that mattered was in my purse. Exiting early worked out for the best because then Pete called and said he was close to where I was. So the chapa he was in pulled up next to me on the side of the road and then we headed off to Maxixe, Inhambane. The morning started out great. Pete had some bread and badgias, my fave. We picked up Erica outside of Xai Xai so we could all travel together.

Like every other chapa in the world, we stopped...alot. Every time we stopped people rushed up to the windows trying to sell bananas and oranges and what...shish-kabobs!!! Yeah, so this kid comes up to my window with meat on a stick. I asked him what it was, he said pork. I declined. The chapa went on and as I was jamming to my ipod I started thinking if I should try the stuff on a stick. I don't eat pork or red meat-long story- but during the chapa ride I decided that I'm going to ditch that decision and go ahead and allow myself to eat it next time I get the chance. It was a shish-kabob!

Eventually the chapa stops again. This other kid with meat on a stick just happens to be standing next to my window. It was meant to be and I could use some protein. I didn't ask him what kind of meat it was...I asked him how much. He said 10 MTS per shish-kabob. Pete wanted one, too. I asked him for two. During this transaction I was fumbling around for change- of course I couldn't find any when I needed it and I was expecting the driver to drive off mid-transaction. No worries, somebody shoved the change into my hand. Sweet, so I got 2 shish-kabobs. He had about 4, either light meat or dark meat. He tried to hand me 2 light meat shish-kabobs. I took one light meat and one with dark meat. I figured one was chicken the other was steak. Wishful thinking. I wanted the one I thought was steak, so I gave the light meat one to Pete. Once again, I didnt ask the kid what it was.

I bit into the meat on my stick and...well...I'm still not sure what it was. I hope it was pork. In my opinion, it was absolutely foul. I hated it. But, I ate it anyway because I wasted 10 MTS on it and I didn't have hardly any money left for anything until Inhambane. Pete said it may have been a different part of a cow that we're not used to eating. Whatever, it was gross. I pulled a chunk off the stick to get a better look. Then I thought it was an animal snout. Oh no, wait, that's just the hole from the stick. Whew. I don't know but I've heard about Mozambicans eating cats and rats (I've seen the rats...I'll have to have another post just about food...)It didn't help that the other day I had been talking to Emily and she was wondering if it was possible that she'd ever eaten dog and didn't know it-maybe it's been sold as street food? Anyway, Pete's shish-kabob was good. His "light meat" was basically animal fat filled with grease. It was good, at least it got the mystery meat taste out of my mouth. Note to self: no more meat from the street.