New Year's 2011

I decided to spend New Years with a friend and the family that she lives with to meet some new people and see the way the Mozambicans ring in the new year. I spent the day with here walking around town and greeting people as we went. Most people in her town speak Changana, the local language, so she has been learning it with the help of a local teacher and I was SO impressed! She carried on simple conversations very well and Mozambicans are always thoroughly impressed when you come out with a phrase in their local language, let alone an entire conversation like she was able to do. In the afternoon on the 31^st we were sitting in the shade of the cashew tree in the family’s yard and just before 5 o’clock, the father of the family decides it’s drinking time. He invites us to drink with him and since it’s new year’s eve, why not? The man goes into the house and brings out a table, a bottle of whiskey, and three glasses. My friend asked what we would be mixing with the whiskey and he said that he didn’t mix anything with his whiskey, just drank it as it was. So that was that. The three of us relaxed in the yard, chatted, and sipped on some scotch.

The family had indicated a pig in the yard earlier that they would be killing for dinner that night and my friend and I said we wanted to watch when they killed it since we had never seen anything like that before. I can’t say that I regret the decision to watch the pig killing because now I know how it’s done and what it’s like, but I can definitely say that I would prefer not to watch one again. If anyone is on the fence about being a vegetarian, this will make up your mind. The short version is that two men tied the pig’s front legs together, back legs together and it’s snout shut, but that pig knew what was coming. The entire time it was squealing as hard as it could, kicking, biting, and it was tougher to watch then I thought it would be. They then took a big knife and slit is throat so the squeals and growls from the pig slowly sounded like gurgles as the pig took its last breaths. (Sorry if this is morbid, but I feel the need to share the full experience). I stopped watching around there, but it was a sad and scary sight to see that pig’s eyes as he fought for his life in the last few minutes. I will not personally be killing a pig during my stay in Mozambique.

My friend and I returned to our spots in the shade and continued to chat and relax as the food was cooked and the hours passed. [Note: I’ll probably talk about this in a later post too, but Mozambicans have perfected the art of sitting in the shade on hot days for hours and doing, well, nothing. This is a skill that I have yet to fully attain because I prefer to be moving around or talking or doing something, but I’m sure I’ll have it down after two years.] Anyway, we sat, and sat some more. We each received phone calls from loved ones at home, coincidentally at the same exact time, and then resumed our spots once again in the shade. While dinner was being cooked, my friend and I were each served a bowl of what I was told to be cow innards. I’m pretty sure it was cow liver and intestines, but I’ll never really know. That part of the cow is the best part to the Mozambicans so normally it would be served to the male of the household, but since we are outsiders and I was a guest, we were given this honor. In short, it did not taste good, but to be polite we ate as much as we could. My friend actually finished her bowl and I got pretty close, but the taste and texture with only whiskey to wash it down was a little too much for me.

Soon after, we ate a meal of rice, xima, pork, beef, and wine. The family had brought their television outside so that we could watch the countdown in Maputo on TV as the new year hit. During the evening, instead of watching the Brazilian telanovelas that they show on TV, the family put on a DVD of music videos by a Mozambican artist who goes by the name “General Musica”. The music videos looked like they were made by a kid who had just discovered photo shop. They included many fake backgrounds including one of him dancing in front of the White House, and lots of scenes of “General Musica” replicated five times dancing to the camera. It was pretty amusing and held our attention for a while, but we were exhausted. Remember, our schedules here in Mozambique are dependent on the sun so most nights I am in bed by 8pm and up in the morning around 5 or 6am so staying up until midnight was a task. We only sort of made it and ended up taking a nap in my friend’s bed from 10:15 to 11:30.

At midnight we rung in the new year with a countdown on TV, ate some grilled pork and cake, and then I went off to bed soon afterwards because I was exhausted and knew that I would be up with the sun again at 5:30am (which I unfortunately was). It was one of the tamer new year’s celebrations that I have had in recent years, but I must say that it was one that I will never forget. Happy 2011!