Things I Miss

When I made the decision to move to Chimoio, I knew that I would miss a lot of things from "home". The strange thing is, you can never really anticipate what those little details will be. When I lived in Rio de Janeiro in 2000, I developed an insatiable craving for peanut butter. When my mom came to visit, she brought a family size jar of crunchy Jiffy and I ate it all in about 3 days. Straight from the jar, on bread, spread on apple slices - I couldn't get enough. Oddly enough, I never used to eat peanut butter back in the US and never in my wildest dreams would have anticipated a jar of Jiffy being the product I missed most from home.

A similar phenomenon is at work here in Mozambique. I find myself missing the oddest things...

I miss being able to make a shopping list. All of our groceries here come from Shoprite, a South African chain store that is surprisingly like a US supermarket. However, all of the products that make it to Shoprite Chimoio are rejects from the South African stores. You find the most bizzare items, most of which are already expired, and there is no consistency in terms of product availability. One week you find pretzels from Austria, lentils from India, and Cadburry's chocolate bars. The next, none of these items are available and in their place you find litchi juice, England's equivalent of Gatorade, and Pringles chips. It's literally impossible to plan out a meal in advance, much less create a list of necessary ingredients. You get what you can, and that's that.

I miss having an oven. Right now our kitchen is only equipped with two electric burners, severely limiting my culinary abilities. I must admit, though, that we are pretty creative when it comes to cooking. The other day I actually made flour tortillas from scratch and improvised the rest of the ingredients for a taco dinner!

I miss ready-to-brew Chai tea, Luna bars, Diet Coke, green chile, and pre-packaged tortillas. I really miss being able to go to Zen and get good japanese food to go. There are only a couple of restaurants in Chimoio, all of questionable quality.

I miss washing machines and dryers and dishwashers and hot water heaters. Predictable things to miss in a poorly developed country, but oooohhhhh do I long for a hot bath and fluffy towels!

And, of course, I miss having high speed internet access 24 hours a day in the comfort of my own home. Access here is precarious at best, and I'm having to learn new ways of keeping in touch without constant access to e-mail and unlimited cell phone minutes.

Most of all, I have realized that half of the things I brought with me on this trip are totally useless in Chimoio. I knew it would happen, but I am now kicking myself for not having been more practical in deciding what to bring and what to leave behind. Take, for example, the purse dillema. Having the right purse for the right outfit was *so* important in Austin, even more so in Rio. I struggled for hours trying to pack my suitcase; letting go of even one purse seemed like such a sacrifice. I finally narrowed it down to 6 purses, of which I have used 2 thus far. Truly ridiculous...