I awoke to about 5 sets of children’s eyes peering at me. Half of the kids at Tamane go to school in the morning and half in the afternoon. No breakfast is served at Tamane. The first school group put on their new clothes and strutted off to school with nods of approval and smiles from Isabelle and Zaura. The remaining kids sat by the fire trying to warm themselves. Luci and Flor pulled their mat out to sleep in the sun after a restless night of sickness. Flor was very animated and energetic yesterday so we nicknamed her Sassy Britches. She had been so sick through the night and as a result was listless this morning. We were concerned about her little bloated belly and the possibility of dehydration. Through our translator, we arranged to walk to a clinic with Flor and Lucy. Eric serves as the pastor and director of the orphanage; he agreed to take us.
As we waited for Eric I was driven mad by the flies. If anyone stood in one place for a couple seconds a dozen flies would land. The kids seemed to be used to the flies and often did not swat at the bugs even when they crawled in an eye or nose. I could not stand the devilish creatures on my skin even for a second.
Katie put Lucy on her back and our translator, Ignacio, put Flor on his back for the walk to the clinic. We walked about 400 yards to the school where Eric told us he needed to get papers. The school was a simple concrete building with open windows and doors. The rooms were filled with children, but they were so quiet we would not have known they were there. We waited and waited and waited. Recess began and the kids spilled outside. A game of futbol formed on one side of the clearing while a group of girls gathered on the other. The girls began to sing and dance. I joined the girls and tried to learn some of their dances, but they were too complex. One of the boys misbehaved so a teacher came over and swatted him on the head-I guess they are okay with corporal punishment in Mozambique.
Eric returned with papers but informed us that the clinic would be a 10 mile walk one way. We decided it would be better to wait until Jaco could drive us to the clinic due to the sun and heat. So we returned back to the camp site. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the kids, coloring, painting nails, and I mended some clothing. When the second group got home from school we made a big pot of pop-corn. The kids always give us kernels of corn from their corn cobs roasted over the fire, so we wanted to share our version of corn. The kids were shy at first in taking the pop-corn, but they quickly got over the shyness and had handfuls at a time. By the end mouths were covered in grease and the kids eating every last bit down to the kernels.
This afternoon some women had gathered under the shade of a tree with Zaura and Isabelle. They had spent the morning constructing a “bathroom” out of sticks and grass. There was no hole in the middle of the structure, so we are still not sure how it was to be used. Joy made some coffee for the women then we sat to enjoy the shade. Katie had a bag of bras that Maria asked her to give out. We were a little nervous about giving them out thinking the women may be embarrassed. Katie asked Tim to leave then discreatly opened the bag and pointed to the bras. The women squealed with laughter then each of them grabbed a bra. Isabelle took her bra and put it on over her shirt right away and danced around with it on. The other women followed her lead and put the bras on over their clothes. They were full of bright chatter and laughing as they checked out their new undergarments. Isabelle disappeared into the tent. A few minutes later she came skipping out of the tent with a huge smile, just her bra and skirt on. By this point all of the World Racers were laughing with the women. But then, they pointed to each of us. Isabelle went over to Becca and pulled open the neck of her shirt to look down in. They proceeded to pull each of the girls shirts open then they laughed and commented. Katie and I looked at each other and just laughed to think that we thought they would be embarrassed. This was definitely one of my favorite World Race moments.
This evening we were blessed with more music before heading off to bed. I spent another restless night tossing and turning due to the hard ground and cold temperatures, but I knew it was my last night sleeping in these conditions, so I was able to look forward to my comfortable sleeping pad and warm tent.
