Before I left for Mozambique I attempted to lose a few LBs, to no avail, unfortunately...or was it?
<====REWIND====>
So, my first day in Namaacha minha mae (my host "mother") and I were talking--or trying to given that I hadn't really begun my Portuguese training yet...ANYHOO!!!--I could understand only fragments of the conversation about my family in the states. She asked if I had kids???? Do I look like I've had kids!?
I had to take a deep breath and realize that in her culture the fact that I was 23 years old meant that I could/would/should have already begun to have children. It had nothing to do with my weight. In fact a lot of people here in Moz think that I am "bem gordinha" (loosely translated to thick...i guess lol)
***Update***
August 2012
I've been in Mozambique for a full year and some change and thanks to a healthy diet, lack of preservatives (ha ha) and more rigorous activity i.e.; walking everywhere! I have lost a fair amount of kgs. I'm quite happy with my transformation, but people in town are beginning to worry. I get asked everyday why I've lost so much weight. The locals have suspected everything from me missing home so much that I don't eat to me being sick. My personal favorite explanation for my weight loss by a Mozambican was that I was missing "lubrificacao biologica"---yup---biological lubrication. It sounds like exactly what you think it is! This man told me that I was missing that certain something in my life and that I needed to find a "friend" to "play with" so that I wouldn't lose weight. The nerve!!
That's Mozambique for you! Where a girl can lose weight and it be seen as a bad thing!!
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