Never know what you might run across in Mozambique...

On Sunday, I hiked with a few friends to the Cascatas again.  We were smarter this time and decided not to go at the hottest time of the day and planned a picnic for some much needed relaxing time on our day off.

On our hike back, we encountered something I never thought would happen during my Peace Corps adventure….we happened upon a photo shoot!!  I’m not kidding! Walking along, suddenly we saw a girl in a long glamorous green gown, complete with peacock feathers.   There at the base of the Cascatas was a second model in the middle of a photo shoot, posing glamorously atop a large boulder with her gown draped elegantly across the rock.  The photographers saw us six Americans watching and urged for us to join the model!  (I don’t know who was probably more surprised, us on seeing a photo shoot, or them on seeing six American girls.)  Though definitely not in our proper modeling attire and quite sweaty and not feeling any bit glamorous, especially next to this gorgeous Mozambicana model, we eagerly jumped at the opportunity and the photographers clicked away on their cameras.  Apparently they work with a Mozambique designer  and these gowns are going to be featured during Mozambique Fashion Week in December.  (Who knew they have fashion week in Mozambique?!)

But my favorite moment of the day above being a model for a few minutes, was dinner.  Mary and I decided to make tacos for our families.  Her five siblings/cousins joined my sister and cousin for a fabulous taco night.  It was one of my favorite moments ever sitting around the table with them, chatting in Portuguese, having them laugh and correct my Portuguese, and them even trying to teach us Xangana (the local language).  They loved the tacos and I was amazed at how much Mary’s little brothers could eat!  It was a simple moment, but one of those moments where I thought to myself, this is why I am here, for moments like this J.

On Monday, we went to an orphanage here in Namaacha and played with the kids there a bit.  The orphanage was started in 2006 by two nuns and has about 60 children.  The kids don’t live there, but do receive food, learn all the things a parent would teach them like how to wash dishes and clothes or how to take a bath, and receive some tutoring.  If the kids make it through 7^th grade, the nuns pay for them to go to boarding school which is quite a gift and hopefully serves as some motivation for these children who do not come from very promising circumstances or backgrounds.  We were only there for an hour or two, but played games like duck duck goose, ride that pony, jigalo, red light-green light, taught them the song “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes” and they taught us a couple games.