Bye to Jacquie and Helene

Me (left), Helene (centre),
and Jacquie (right).

Yesterday was another lazy Sunday. I went to an interesting take on an American/Mexican restaurant with Helene and Jacquie because it was their last day.

Today on the other hand was very eventful. I was able to book

Mozambique embassy in Mbabane

the last spot for the Mozambique trip, so we went to the embassy today to get visas. Wawa, our guide, said it didn’t matter what we put on the visa application forms, and they change their rules each day. So when we handed in our application forms, the embassy staff said we needed to redo them all. We did, and it worked the second time.

We got back from the embassy around 11:00. Wawa said we had 10 minutes to make our lunch, and we would be off to the cultural village tour. Instead of making lunch I said my last goodbyes to Helene and Jacquie. It was sad to say goodbye to them, but now I have a reason to go to Germany or Australia.

Singers in the cultural
village

We went to the cultural village which was very interesting, but I am

always a bit uncomfortable in places like that. The guide said that people actually live in some of the houses, so I feel like touring them is putting the people at the same level as zoo animals.

After that we went to Mantegna falls, which is right next to the cultural village. Some people went to swim in the water, but most of the others, myself included, couldn’t be bothered to. The view was too wonderful to be spoiled by hypothermia.

 We then went to the Mozambique orientation. Roland gave a long PowerPoint presentation, and it looks like Mozambique will be really cool. When the orientation was over, Wawa was in his van with all of our passports. They had fancy new visas from Mozambique.

My fancy new visa

When we got back home, the room was completely cleaned out. Jacquie and Helene were gone, and the cleaning woman had visited our room for the first time since I got here. On my bed was a wonderful goodbye note from Jacquie and Helene, as well as an assortment of gifts that ranged from leftovers to inside jokes. It made me happy.

I now have two new roommates; Ben from England and Tessa from The Netherlands. They arrived here at the same time as me, but they were staying in a tent until now. When I got into the room everyone was laughing hysterically for no particular reason. I eventually joined in. It continued for about 15 minutes, and into about the first two paragraphs of this post.

Well, that's about all for now. Mom, I hope the photo at the top is adequate. Tata!