I spoke too soon in my last post about a few things. First, the house is not such a fortress, as it turns out. I feel like all I am ever writing about are break-ins, but I have one more to report. One night when we were not there, and while our guard was I can only presume to be sleeping, some guys took off the metal sheet that is our roof, and climbed in through the hole in the roof. So that was pretty much the last straw with the Chicuque house. We are now living with a Mozambican roommate in a nice house in Maxixe. This new house has a TV with speakers and 2 stoves and a huge refrigerator and freezer and is a 2 minute walk from pizza and ice cream, but it’s still a really tough adjustment. I don’t like living in the busy city. Even though there are kid neighbors here, they are not as cute as my Chicuque kid neighbors. I can’t sit around the house here without my new roommate thinking I’m being antisocial. Oh well, I’m thankful that I’m still able to teach at the same school and I feel safe in our new house.

Secondly, you know that super cute doggy in the last post? A week or so after we moved into our new house, she disappeared. Asking our new neighbors if they had seen her, they replied with a nonsympathetic ‘Oh, she either got stolen or run over by a car.’ Haha, silly Americans that care about pets! So in summary, I am 0 for 2 on dogs in Mozambique. I need to stop.

In exciting news, my parents came to visit! It happened really quickly. Just as I was thinking they were never going to get around to visiting, they bought plane tickets and 2 weeks later, I was picking them up in Swaziland! This was my 3rd time in Swazi (I’m kind of obsessed with the place) so I feel like with this visit, I had perfected the Swazi trip. We stayed in the wildlife sanctuary in Mlilwane where we went hiking and horseback riding. We did a day safari thing in Mkhaya where we saw a 4 day old baby rhino, got super close to a bunch of elephants and even saw the elusive black rhino. We also used the rental car to our advantage, and did a lot of craft shopping, to my dad’s delight. We spent the last night in the cutest bed and breakfast ever. After 5 days of tranquil, beautiful, easy transportation Swaziland, I thought my parents were ready for Mozambique. We took a bus to the border, had lunch with my host family, and we boarded our first chapa. It is one thing to describe a hot, overpacked, legs crunched up chapa experience, but it is another to experience it. My parents had a pretty legitimate first trip as we sat in the back and watched them repack the dozens of crates of eggs and sacks of rice and then the people over and over again before leaving. From the capital, we took the fancy bus where you are given a snack box back to my site. Having my parents come to school was really fun. Everyone was excited to meet them and practice English with them. I gave a test one day. I thought my parents presence might discourage some of the cheating efforts, but no, they were able to see the many cheating techniques in practice. After one thorough day of teaching, we were ready for break, so we went to Tofo beach for a few days. Unfortunately, it rained a lot, but they did get at least one nice beach day before heading back to my site. I taught a little bit more, we visited my neighbors and friends in Chicuque, and before I knew it, 2 weeks was over and I was saying goodbye to my parents for another 6 months. Overall, it was an incredible trip and I am sooo happy they were able to visit and see for themselves what my life is like here. And I am very proud of them for trying new things (thank you dad for not spitting out the young coconut), the great attitudes they had the whole time (even when certain park employees won’t let you our certain gates because you don’t have your pink slip and you almost miss your safari) and their immune systems for not getting sick. Even if they whole trip had gone horribly, it would have been worth it just to be with my parents after 1 year and 8 months of not seeing them.

Oh, and I found out I am done on Nov 22!