Day 5 of Captivity

Still stuck in Tete City in our tiny hotel room, not being able to go home and not knowing how long we're going to be here, Szasha and I are going slowly insane. We take long walks in the mornings, accomplishing the pointless items on our to-do list (Yesterday: Ride a tuk-tuk: Check. Find calamidades, used clothing market: Check.) By the time we've done everything we can think of (with some extra aimless wandering added in), we eat a long lunch at our favorite falafel restaurant, always ending the same way.

"What do you want to do now?"

"I dunno."

[Prolonged silence]

"Wanna go take a nap?"

"Yeah, why not."

So we go back to our little room and try to sleep some hours away. The afternoons are spent lying around, reading, trying to keep abreast of the most recent news, and lying around in the fetal position, saying "I wanna go home. I wanna go home. I WANNA GO HOME!"

Pro: New dress!

OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. We've had some victories.  We found a place that makes delicious milkshakes and waffles. Our super-friendly and awesome modista finally finished our capulana dresses and they came out really well. We bought some fun new clothes and capulanas at calamidades.

Even so, this state of limbo is enough to make anyone crazy. We can't go home until the safety and security officer finishes surveying the region to determine if it's safe to return or not. This means that by Tuesday we could be back in our homes, but it also means that he could determine that it's not safe to go back. Nobody really knows what will happen in that case.

I am of course hoping that by next week I'll be back in my village -- hanging out with my neighbors, playing with the kids, and prepping my students for their end-of-trimester exams. However, from what I've seen, things haven't been getting better. Every day in the city we see more truckloads of armed soldiers and riot police. Every day there are more rumors of shootings, re-arming of rebel bases, and attacks. Every day, average Mozambicans get more worried.

Fingers still crossed.