California Duerme

*Like before, the lack of internet access has delayed my posts so that they are no longer real time. Being in the Monte Carlo this evening with quick internet I am trying to get all of you as up to date as possible to that we can go back to real time*

The flight in itself wasn't long... but the fact that there was not an empty seat on the entire plane and I was wedged in between a generously large and overflowing, grumpy man and a lanky man who resembled Jaffar from Aladdin but with worse teeth – made it seem endless. It gave a whole new meaning to the word 'uncomfortable'. I finally broke the ice with Jaffar (I later found out his name was Ferdinand) when the in-flight-meal was served. Part of what they served was a sketchy smelling coconut jello pie item... after taking one small bite I noticed Jaffar was wolfing his down. So naturally I offered mine to him – he was thrilled and we were instant friends. After a long broken conversation riddled with bits and pieces of Portuguese, Spanish, and English – I learned this man was a Catholic missionary from Argentina. I told him I was from California... and to my surprise he immediately perked up. “Oh!,” He said with a smile on his face, “ I know the song, 'California Duerme'.” What he really was getting at was the song, 'California Dreamin' by... now I forget. An older band. Anyhow, I have this remix of the song – with a bit of techno beats – and told him to listen. He loved it! An hour and some small talk later we landed... Thank the good Lord we made it to Maputo. Now the only other variable we needed to come through was our bags. I waited, and my father and David went to go look for Sybil... 10 minutes go by, no bags. 15.. no bags. 20... no bags. Less and less bags are trickling in, and people are shuffling out of baggage claim. Ends up, there was a weight problem on the flight (likely due to fatso next to me) but they couldn't put any more bags on the plane. And our bags just happened to be in the select group that got screwed. Only in Africa :) Oh well though, what could we do. It ended up that Sybil had a driver pick them up the next day, and we got them last night. What a day.

- I included the photo of the gecko just cause I think they are so cool. I have been trying to catch one ever since we got here but they are way to quick