Smoking is Bad for Your Health
It was a pretty weird week. It felt like nothing and a lot happened at the same time. Either way, we worked hard and it went well.
Last Monday was pretty interesting. I looked our window and there was tons of people walking on the streets. It was super strange how many people there was and it couldn't have been like that before. But I had never really paid attention to this before, so maybe it was like this every morning. Well, we went down and asked our security guard (he protects our water tank, which was stolen 2 transfers ago, long story), apparently the chapas were trying to increase the price for a ride from 10 meticais to 20. But the people ain't dealing with that so everyone just walked that day. This in turned forced the chapas to go back to 10 or nobody would ride. So everyone who used to ride chapas was walking so there was tons a people out. It makes sense but was very strange.
Another weird thing here is cigarettes. Every single pack of cigarettes has in big black letters: smoking is bad for your health (in Portuguese). The advertisements have this too. It is pretty bizarre. I think less people smoke here in Mozambique than in the states. A big factor is that smoking is that comparatively, smoking is super expensive here. A pack costs about the same as the states but when you make a lot less money, smoking is a big investment. Money is probably a big reason a lot of drugs aren't popular here. But another influence albeit small is that every single pack and ad reminds you that smoking isn't good for you.
The work was good. We had a lot of problems with lessons falling through this week though. It would go like this: we would call in the morning and schedule a lesson, the investigator was pretty happy and interested in a lesson. We would also plan to meet at some major location (like the church or a school) and go to their house after (because we don't know where it is). Then we would get there and call them to let them know, but their phone wouldn't work or they wouldn't answer. Then they wouldn't show up and we would suddenly be lesson-less. It is super annoying but we tried our best to work around it.
We also made a goal to visit some ward leaders this week. One of them was actually the stake president who lives in our area. Well, he also lives super duper far away. It is in our area but it is at the end of a chapa line (a 40 minute ride) and then another 15 minute walk after that. We also got lost so 1 hour commitment quickly became 2. Then almost the same thing happened with our bishopric 2nd councilor. We thought it was like a 15 minute walk and turns out it 45 minute walk (one way) and most of it was in another area. We even had to cross a river (fortunately I brought my boots). Then when we got there he wasn't even there, but we talked with the wife and kids and it was solid.
The week was honestly a little rougher than usual, a lot of lessons fell through, our ward still needs a lot of help (though it is better), and we did a ton of walking. Still at the end of the week a lot of people were at church and I had fun. So things are pretty solid here.
Last Monday was pretty interesting. I looked our window and there was tons of people walking on the streets. It was super strange how many people there was and it couldn't have been like that before. But I had never really paid attention to this before, so maybe it was like this every morning. Well, we went down and asked our security guard (he protects our water tank, which was stolen 2 transfers ago, long story), apparently the chapas were trying to increase the price for a ride from 10 meticais to 20. But the people ain't dealing with that so everyone just walked that day. This in turned forced the chapas to go back to 10 or nobody would ride. So everyone who used to ride chapas was walking so there was tons a people out. It makes sense but was very strange.
Another weird thing here is cigarettes. Every single pack of cigarettes has in big black letters: smoking is bad for your health (in Portuguese). The advertisements have this too. It is pretty bizarre. I think less people smoke here in Mozambique than in the states. A big factor is that smoking is that comparatively, smoking is super expensive here. A pack costs about the same as the states but when you make a lot less money, smoking is a big investment. Money is probably a big reason a lot of drugs aren't popular here. But another influence albeit small is that every single pack and ad reminds you that smoking isn't good for you.
The work was good. We had a lot of problems with lessons falling through this week though. It would go like this: we would call in the morning and schedule a lesson, the investigator was pretty happy and interested in a lesson. We would also plan to meet at some major location (like the church or a school) and go to their house after (because we don't know where it is). Then we would get there and call them to let them know, but their phone wouldn't work or they wouldn't answer. Then they wouldn't show up and we would suddenly be lesson-less. It is super annoying but we tried our best to work around it.
We also made a goal to visit some ward leaders this week. One of them was actually the stake president who lives in our area. Well, he also lives super duper far away. It is in our area but it is at the end of a chapa line (a 40 minute ride) and then another 15 minute walk after that. We also got lost so 1 hour commitment quickly became 2. Then almost the same thing happened with our bishopric 2nd councilor. We thought it was like a 15 minute walk and turns out it 45 minute walk (one way) and most of it was in another area. We even had to cross a river (fortunately I brought my boots). Then when we got there he wasn't even there, but we talked with the wife and kids and it was solid.
The week was honestly a little rougher than usual, a lot of lessons fell through, our ward still needs a lot of help (though it is better), and we did a ton of walking. Still at the end of the week a lot of people were at church and I had fun. So things are pretty solid here.
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| Picture of all the people walking due to the chapa price change |
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| Map from our apartment to the Stake President's house |
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| Mountains on the way to Stake President's house |
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| Mountains on the way to Stake President's house |
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| Fields on the way to the 2nd councilor's house |
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| Fields on the way to the 2nd councilor's house |
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| Fields on the way to the 2nd councilor's house |
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| Fields on the way to the 2nd councilor's house |
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