The Medicine Man aka My Uncle

My uncle is a man of medicine, cures, treatments, language, culture,and knowledge.

My uncle claims to know 27 languages, and when asked to list the languages he knows he lists two, gets side tracked, adds three more to his list and then gets side tracked again. I am not patient enough to wait for the entire list of languages and I doubt he actually speaks27 languages. Often times I catch him talking to my mom in English when she is speaking to him in Portuguese. News flash- my mom does not know English!

The first time I met my uncle he talked to me for four straight hours. I had just gotten back from class and stopped in the kitchen to say hello to my mom. There he was, waiting like a lion excited to jump on his prey. He talked, and talked, and talked mixing Portuguese, English, and some other unknown languages into four painful hours.

I forgot to mention, he is also a financial advisor and during our four hour conversation suggested that I invest in a chicken processing factory in Mozambique. Here is a summary of his advice, "you are a white woman so you must know a lawyer, an engineer, and a health inspector". (He was right about two of those associations, but I will have to meet a health inspector before finishing the trifecta).  Still contemplating the chicken processing factory business venture, I can see the headline already: "Ex-vegan Gone Wild in Mozambique"!

This weekend, my uncle decided to grace us with his presence. He had just walked 100 miles and needed to show off his magical discovery. He found the plant that has the ability to cure AIDS, reverse paralysis, and aid in weight loss. The treatment involves eating the roots... enough said. My uncle is the medicine man!

Before eating, my uncle demands that he washes his hands, because he must teach the white woman how to act. We all roll our eyes at him as he puts on a giant performance for the white woman (and then I realize that I am the white woman that he is acting for). He insists on using a separate plate and separate silver wear for the different "courses" of our meal. Now that I'm writing this, I am realizing how common that is in the United States. To clarify, in Namaacha, everyone in my family gets a spoon and a plate with raised edges (I get a spoon and a fork when we have soup). If we have soup, you eat that first, followed by rice and whatever the curry is for the night. We do not use knives (we only have two knives in the house and one of those two is the chicken butchering knife) and we do not use separate silver wear for different courses- it is a one spoon does all household!

During dinner with my uncle I tried to explain why one of the male volunteers was wearing a dress (it was Halloween). I asked my uncle what the word for "holiday" was in Portuguese and he kept shouting, "yes, holiday, holiday" in English and not in Portuguese. Sadly, my mom does not speak English so she still does not understand the significance of Halloween (she thinks it is a night for men to wear female clothing).

I am hoping that everyone can enjoy the tales of my crazy uncle and get a good laugh out of these stories.

Training Update: I will be heading to Boane on Saturday for site visits. Boane is one of the three Peace Corps sites located in the Maputo City Province. I am looking forward to a five day "vacation" and hoping to take a day trip to Maputo for shopping at the art market!

Ate logo!