Interlude

I am working on the next installment in the Hugh Marlboro saga. It is intense writing, but good, as it forces me to think back and analyze everything that happened over the last few weeks.

In the meantime, life goes on and I admit that I am struggling a bit to come to terms with the fact that I am once again adrift in the sea of consulting. Until the wedding in July, I will likely do a few odd contracts, make a lot of jewelry and continue doing translation jobs for the World Bank. I suppose I have the luxury of waiting to figure out what I want to do with myself in terms of a career or whatever until the festivities are over.

I really liked my job at the Banana Empire (correction: I really liked the idea of what my job was *supposed* to be), and it is proving to be a hard transition back to semi-structure-less, work-from-home, live from hand-to-mouth life again... Meh.

I am trying to counter the mild depression with lots of good friend time, and by trying to take advantage of all the things I missed while working commercial hours at an office in Matola. I've cooked a lot, including a delicious almond fig cake yesterday. I've been hanging out with my super-awesome new friend A., who just moved here with her husband last month. She is also struggling a bit with being without a day job, so we've bonded and are intent on keeping each other sane along the way. We went to Pilates together on Thursday, then drove through the border to Komatipoort to go to the grocery store and have lunch at Wimpy. It was a great road trip, even though Spar was the highlight, though that might tell you something about my life at this point. :)

Today Rico and I met a very nice guy and good contact who will move here with his family next month - they have been in Pakistan for the last 6 years. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant, then met with friends for beers in the afternoon.

I had plans to go for beers with Ahmed, Paulo and Raimundo in the early evening, but plans got changed a bit. Ahmed picked me up and we drove to Matola, then on the way to get Paulo, he was like, "Oh, you don't mind if we stop quickly so that I can do a little job, do you?"

"No," I said, "Not a problem."

Little did I know, said job involved driving to some random industrial lot full of half-dismantled semi-trucks where we waited for 30 minutes or so while some men unloaded bags of potatoes and onions from one canvas-covered flat bed truck. Ahmed finally got his radio fixed, so instead of the one Bob Marley cassette that was stuck inside his previous stereo, we were able to listen to some cd's. I honestly didn't mind the detour. It reminded me of the afternoons spent at the warehouse with the boys...

When the truck had been unloaded, we all went out for a drink, then I met up with Rico and our friends back in Maputo at Mundo's. The we went out for Indian food, which I ate with my hands. I only realized this has become second-nature when eating curries with apas when I saw that everyone else at the table was going at it with forks and knives, somewhat awkwardly as the food is really more suited to using yoru hands.

Hope you all are having a good weekend... Tomorrow I have a busy day ahead of me, starting with breakfast with a fellow jewelry-making girlfriend who I haven't seen in ages.