The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; nowI am the master

Ok I am done! I visited my host mother yesterday and like always it was great to be back home. My Mozambican home as my host mother says.

I have more things to add later but for now I'm in a hurry to get out of Maputo. Happy Thanksgiving


Love Jimmy

Someone has to save our skins. Into the garbage chute, fly boy.

Helen brought to my attention that my blog is too negative and serious. So before I start complaining again; I got something lighter.

Helen comes from a more traditional family where she should live at home until she gets married for example. One of the nights when I was visiting Helen, she was talking to her mom. Since they speak Korean, I didn't know if Helen told her I was there. If she did, I wanted to greet her from the background.  I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote, "Can I say hi to your mom?" 

I showed Helen. As I showed her, I noticed it kind of sounded like I wanted to talk to her mom on the phone. Which I did not feel like we were at the point yet. I quickly took the paper back. I scribbled how I don’t want to talk on the phone, but simply want to greet her from the background. I was not in time. Helen read my new note and looked shocked.

"You do not want to talk to her?" Helen said as she covered the phone.

"No," I said no.

"I already told her you wanted to!" Helen said.

"Okay, give me the phone." 

I stepped up. After handing the phone back to Helen I felt like it was a good conversation. Helen's mom asked me some questions about Tete and Helen. I told Mrs. Yang that Helen's house was nice, her school was nice, her students are very nice, and how everything is very nice. Over the next couple minutes all I hear is Korean and laughter. I wondered what they could be laughing about??? Me of course, haha. Helen already told her parents that I was a Marine, who are commonly known as jarheads. Helen was laughing because her mom made a comment about my overuse of the adjective "nice." I kind of confirmed, minus the kind of, my jarhead stereotype in that short conversation.

I find your lack of faith disturbing

Not a whole lot going on in Mabalane. Shortly after Forrest left three weeks ago, I went and traveled around for a couple weeks. I finished my grades and bounced before the students had much time to beg me to change them.

I left Mabalane at 4:30am and pushed all the way through up to Tete City where I meet Helen at about noon the following day. 30 hours from Mabalane to Tete City, that is a very impressive display of traveling. I had a little rest at a police station in Inchope for about 90 minutes in the middle of the night. Once it was a more reasonable hour, about 4am, I instantly found a ride to Tete in a semi truck.

Tete is very hot and very dry. Helen lives in this newly built resettlement village named Cateme. It reminded me of a flatter 29 Palms with a more dead looking vegetation. The miners kicked the people of Cateme out of their previous village so they could mine it and moved them to this flat and dry area with nothing. Pretty standard operating procedures for greedy foreigners taking your land. Luckily for Helen it hasn't been too bad for her, my words not hers. They have energy, and two or three times a day running water. In addition it is pretty easy to get into Tete City. Because there are many Brazilians and South Africans in Tete working the city has a lot of westernized stores and products.

I don’t like how these foreigners are here taking advantage of the locals, paying them crap wages for dangerous work. But that is what our species history looks like, people with power taking advantage of those people without it. Maybe I’m not much better; I like to think I try though.

Frow Cateme we took a short trip to Blantyre in Malawi. It is a nice city. Cleaner and less crowded than many of the cities in Mozambique. It has decent roads and sidewalks, a shopping mall with a movie theater, and a verity of restaurants. I bought a basketball rim for our hoop in Mabalane and two snicker bars. We ate Indian and Ethiopian food.

After a couple days at Helen’s we went to another friends site before wandering towards the beach for a going away party. I don’t know the name of this beach but it is about an hour outside of Beira. We rented two vans to take 30 something of us 30 miles down a dirt road then hopped a boat across this bay to an island resort. We rented a house and most of us camped out in the yard. We pretty much had the island and beach to ourselves. It was pefect. We packed in lots of food and beer. Then split up all the cooking and cleaning duties for the weekend. It worked out great. Saturday we had a Halloween party and the rest of the time we chilled and enjoyed paradise.

After the beach I had another long travel adventure home. Which included lots of discomfort and sleeping outside in the dirt. But I made it home and was relieved to walk into my dirty house.

Before Forrest left we found out that there is an American at the prison in Mabalane. I was skeptical until Forrest went down there to meet Travis. He is American and was sentenced to 14 years for smuggling drugs. I didn’t talk to him about what happened but Forrest said he was tricked into bringing a bag for someone on his way to the World Cup in 2010. So he has been in Mozambique a couple months longer than I have. I went to see him yesterday and take him a few things. Helen gave me a bunch of candy from her last package for him, I bought him a toothbrush, took some fruit, a couple books, and Forrest left some shorts. Forrest also took him food, books, clothes, and gave him his ukulele before he left. So yesterday I went to see Travis. We just talked about random things for maybe an hour until the guards said it was time. 

I can’t stop thinking about Travis. He sits locked up in this cell with several others all day. The cell only has a small window and poor air circulation. There is a toilet that they try best not to poop in, but I can imagine how bad it smells in there. Before Forrest took him some books he had nothing. He just sat in this cell looking at the walls. When I asked him what he did, he said sometimes he would just sit there crying. The prison is an agricultural prison but Travis cannot leave to work in the fields yet since he was just transferred last month. Maybe he will get to work in the field once the guards get to know him. The prisoners only eat one meal a day consisting of unflavored beans and cornmeal porridge. 

Travis talks to his mom sometimes because the guards allow him to use their phones. Forrest took a photo and short video that we sent to his mother. I called her too. She seemed grateful we were there, but also very frustrated. Forrest and I have been emailing her. She sent me a package last week and I hope I can get it to Travis before I leave Mabalane.

As I walked home from meeting Travis, I thought about how much time Travis has to think about the mistake he made. How must be hard. With all the time in the world to think about what you did and how long you have left. How alone? He was locked up not knowing any Portuguese. I remember how overwhelming my first days were in my sheltered Namaacha home. I care to find out how difficult it was for Travis I love solitude, but I'll pass on spending it in a prison like the ones in Moz. I guess that is why Forrest and I want to help him out a little. If we complain about life here being able to travel and getting a couple hundred dollars every month, how must Travis feel?

Travis hopes that after four years he can make a deal to buy out the rest of his time in prison. Or he hopes that he will get out on good behavior after 7 years. But even then he would have to stay in Mozambique until his 14 year sentence runs out. Mozambique is a corrupt country and the rules and laws are funny. So who knows what will happen . If Travis was from a rich family he would have probably been home a long time ago. But if he was from a rich family, he wouldn't need to smuggle drugs. To make matters worse he has received little help from the US embassy or anyone else.

Be grateful for what you have! Some people are stuck in dark, stuffy, and crowded rooms that smell horrible with neither anyone to communicate with or help them. Peace, love, and do good things

Jimmy