Crickets & Floods. Scene Set.

As I write this, I am sitting at my desk in a dimly lit room beginning my juicy green apple. It is raining outside. The time is 00:07 on the 21st of January 2013. Scene set.

We have kept you in the dark for quite some time now. It’s not just our laziness that has prevented us from writing posts, but also the lack of internet. Unfortunately it hasn’t been working for the past few days; hence why I am posting this about a day (or four) after I have written it. However, this hasn’t prevented Tom and I from doing things. In fact is has rather helped us in doing things if I might add. The internet is somewhat a hinderance at times. Apart from continuing with our normal responsibilities, we have been preparing to go to South Africa for the third time to renew our visas. It was our plan to head off yesterday to begin our trip. We would first house ourselves with the hospitable Jimmy & Linda in Matola, and from there make our way to South Africa today. But due to problems with our visa admittance letters, it has turned out that we will in fact be leaving late this morning for Matola, and later this afternoon for South Africa. It is because of this that I am now sitting in my dimly lit room and finishing my juicy green apple.

Now that I have given you a bit of context, I can tell you a bit about what has been going on for the past two and a half weeks. If you’re a regular reader, and you read our posts eagerly, you will remember that my last post finished with a short clip about a noisy cricket. It is true that lately, just as Tom has had his trouble with cockroaches, I have had mine with crickets. Before you question me, I will inform you that these are not normal crickets. The largest amongst them are roughly about the length of a fully grown mans finger and a half more. If it’s not annoying enough to have something of such size jumping around and on you, the noise it makes is enough to push you off the edge. More than once I have lain in my bed wide-eyed trying to keep my cool. Unfortunately for the crickets, I did not, and many of them have died at my hand.

I hope that you enjoyed watching that video as much as I enjoyed making it. Thankfully, I haven’t heard from the crickets again, and if I do, I shall double my defences.

When I began writing this post, you will remember that I was in my room during the night eating an apple. But thanks to a number of circumstances (tiredness and a bit of a fever), I never finished the post. Since I began, quite a lot has happened, and I am now sitting in an internet cafe in South Africa writing this. The window before me opens out into a large shopping centre. I can see a cinema, a sweet shop, a Nando’s (hallelujah), and an arcade called ‘The Fun Company’ which I can tell you now is not much fun. The air conditioning is on in here. Tom is next to me talking to someone on facebook, and I am now sipping my coke. Sip. The time is 16:10 on 22nd of Janurary 2013. Scene set. Again.

Since I have covered the topic of menacing crickets, I will now move on to the next and tell you about the menacing waters we have had to deal with. For those of you who keep up with the news and affairs of the world, you’ll be aware that recently there have been some pretty big floods in Mozambique. These are some of the biggest floods for over a decade – when even larger and deadly floods swept accross the country in 2000. Fortunately, these were not as bad, but many people have been affected, and sadly a small number of people died also.

It was quite a normal day to begin with. We had just caught the shoprite bus before it left, and were ready to buy food and eat it all on the same day – as we often do. Tom and I made our deductions from the clouds, much like, say, Legolas or Aragorn. They were anything but friendly. Our suspicions were confirmed whilst we were shopping. The roof of the shop suddenly began to make a loud noise, much like the tearing of velcro. This was such a noise as only very heavy rain could make. After purchasing my items, there I stood, under the shelter of the shop, looking out towards the bus in the car park. There I stood, in the bus, eyes red. I needn’t have dried my clothes after removing them from the washing machine the previous day. Now I am sorry if you are becoming wary of my videos, but this event it worthy of one. For now, however, I will leave the internet cafe. I only have 5 minutes remaining of my allocated time. See you shortly, and enjoy the video:

Unfortunately (or more likely – fortunately), videos cannot convey reality, and so what you saw was nothing like what actually went down. The rain was too intense for a camera lens to handle. I think many of the wonders of rain are meant only for first hand human experience. But that is the best I could do.

If you recall, this post has been scripted so far in two different places: my room, and an internet cafe in South Africa. Now I write from Mozambique again; a bit of a sandwich for you there. I am currently sitting in Matola in the house of Jimmy & Linda. I think this room is called ‘The T.V room’. Tom is sitting opposite me on the long curved sofa playing a sword fighting game on the Nintendo Wii. I am in the single armchair below a slowly rotating fan. The time is 22:09 on the 23rd of January 2013. Scene set. For the third and final time. Since I have reached the end of my post, I will also say goodbye for the third and final time. I hope you’ve enjoyed my attempt at updating you and enlightening you on recent topics. Hopefully, Tom will soon update you all on our recent trip to South Africa; a post I eagerly await. But until my next post, take care, good readers.

Note: For those concerned, I am soon going to write a post regarding the donations from the girls in Dunamis with lots of media for you to see for yourselves. Just so you know.

Note II: I’d like to take this opportunity to say hi to Jonny considering that the both of us have very odd and limited internet times which rarely coincide for a chat.

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