Day 7. One whole week in Africa!

Day7. One whole week! Today was Sunday. Jessica stayed up almost all night last night and the chior was singing in church so we needed to be there early for the last practice. Jessica's mom wanted me to sing in the choir. We were singing Secret prayere, which would have been fine except it was in french. So Jessica slept in and I practiced the pronunciation with her mom. We were a tiny bit late for practice but I think it was okay. I didn't end up singing with the choir, I just didn't want to mess up the dynamic and a quick runthrough of the pronunciation was not enough for me to feel confident that I could sing it correctly.

We went to the branch in pheonix today. There are two branches on the island and a couple of groups. Sacrament meeting and 3rd hour were in french, but there was an english sunday school that we went to. We talked about the higer law, it was very good. And it was ward conference so the district president was there and taught third hour. And actually the branch president gave his talk in english and french during sacrament meeting.

After church there was a bring and share (what they call a potluck) and Jessica's parents had a lot of appointments so they left and we got a ride home with John and Kristen. Jessica spent the afternoon on the beach after church. We walked down there and it was lovely. Jessica's mom found us on the beach and invited us to dinner at one of the member's house.

We went to dinner and the missionaries were there, as were the wife's brothers who are not members. So I attended my first missionary discussion! It was about the plan of salvation. And they said everything in french, creole, and english.

So here is the deal. I hate besos. Handshakes are much, much better. Especially when strange men insist on giving you besos and you can't say no because it is impolite. But I even don't like them from women, because literally every woman insists on giving me besos even when I have no idea who she is and we never even speak a word to eachother. Basically besos are just a socially accepted way for people to get up in my space and not allow me to do anything about it.

After my first week I have to say I love it here. I couldn't live here forever, I like air conditioning, no cocroaches, wide roads, cinnamon toast crunch, smart phones, and fast internet way too much. But I am so grateful to be able to spend a month here. The fruit is amazing. We eat an array of them every single morning. Every sunset is beautiful. It's so green, and the air is so clear. The ocean is calm and warm. All my acne is gone. I haven't felt even slightly ill since I got here. And I am sleeping less even without my 44oz of mountain dew. It really is a magical place and I will cherish it in my soul forever.

Day 6

Day 6. Today was a Saturday. We went to [city name that I cannot remember] to have lunch with Shaw. Let me tell you a little something about having meals with people on this islad. "Having lunch" does not mean going there, eating, chatting a little and then leaving. It is more like going, chatting for an hour before food is even mentioned, then waiting while food is prepared, then eating, then chatting some more, then dessert or drinks, then chatting some more. The whole affair is a three or four hour thing. Shaw is about my age and Jessica's parents lived right next to her family when they first got to the island. She was very nice and they had woken up early and spent all day cooking our lunch. We were an hour late to lunch which was sad because her parents had to leave before we got there. Luckily, we were there long enough that we were still there when her parents returned. Her mother offered us warm milk when she got there. I said I would like some which might have been a mistake because things were winding down at that point and this prolongated the lunch even further. Not really an issue except Jessica was very sick and needed to go home. But let me tell you, the warm milk was delicious!! I don't know if you guys have ever had warm milk, but you should definitely try it. It probably wont taste as good because the milk here is way better than the milk in America to start with. That is probably the most important thing that happened on this day.

Day 5

Day 5. Today was a rainy day. We didn't leave the house, not even once. But Jeewansing came over for dinner and after Jessica's parents went to bed he played some games with us. I brought one of my favorite simple games called love letter, but Jessica and Jeewansing didn't really catch on how to play. The goal of the game is to end the round with the highest card in your deck. The princess is the highest card, but when Jeewansing got dealt the princess, he played her on his first turn which is an automatic loss. That's when I decided we should play a different game. So we played spot it instead, which I also really love.

Day 4

Day 4. Today was Chinese New Year! First we went to the beach with John and Kristen and the Caine family. President Caine is the branch president here and he is from South Africa so he speaks english natively. His wife is a professional opera singer from Germany. She is giving Jessica singing lessons which is paying in part for Jessica's parent's piano that they are selling to the Caines. And Jessica is singing in the branch the Sunday before they leave. My flight actually leaves Saturday night so I might not be able to see :(. But Jessica hates singing lessons because she does not like people looking at her and noticing her, and also because we have to work our other plans around them. I am really jealous though, I would love to sing for an hour with a professional german opera singer. And Jessica can tell that she is making big improvements. She practices her song at home and she really does sound beautiful, her voice is so sweet and clear and she has the most etherial vibrato. We definitely have to use her as a singing character, Devin. And, as she points out, she looks just like a princess.

Back to the story. I bought a snorkle on the way to the beach because that was the planned activity. J and K had these awesome full face snorkels that they had let us try last time we were at the beach and they were amazing! But, alas, you cannot buy them here and they are very expensive so I just got a normal one. For lunch, President Caine suggested that we get kababs from Gloria's (one of the food trailer/shacks on the beach). It had to be Gloria's because they are the best and everyone else just "stole" the dish from them, accoriding to president (even though kababs are all over the island) ;). He also suggested that we all get them with extra meat and extra cheese. So that is what we did. This is the first time that I definitively ate meat. I'm still a vegetarian, but I have decided to be flexible on the island to both experience the culture, and avoid being rude or unnecessarily burdensome. Plus Kebabs were Helaman's (Jessica's older brother) favorite food when he was here last summer. We topped off the meal with a pineapple and a canned sparkling apple juice. It was perfect!

That afternoon, Jeewansing and Emit came to take us to the China Town in Port Louis for New Year. Once we got there, however, everything was totally shut down. I swear there was never a china town more devoid of people than this one. The street was littered with confetti and firecrackers. That is when we made the connection--we don't celebrate New Years on January 1st! The chinese are no different! So we had missed Chinese New Year. But Jeewansing acted like he knew this would be the case... I don't know why we didn't communicate better. Se we kept driving. At first I thought that we didn't have any other plans and we were just driving around aimlessly. We stopped at a restaurant, but we went upstairs to a bar that was right on the beach and ordered drinks. There was a little bit of push back from Emit when we ordered virgin drinks, but I think it became clear pretty quickly that it wasn't something we were going to budge on. Jessica got a piña colada and I had a strawberry daquiri. We were there on the beach for dusk and it was beautiful.

At this point we did some more driving but I don't really remember it because I kept falling asleep. Jeewansing bought us a pizza and then drove us up to a lookout point next to an old english fortress that they now hold concerts in! The veiw of Port Luis at night was wonderful. The pizza was also the best I've ever had, but that may have to do with how hungry I was.

Day 3

Day three. Today we went on a bus with one of the members Stephane. He is a computer genius and I guess he has a crush on Jessica. So he took us to Curepipe where we went to the crater where the volcano that created the island used to be. The crater itself was amazing. So green and so deep. There is a little lake at the bottom. There is a trail to hike to the bottom but Stephane is a worrier and he said that it was very unsafe to climb down. But because the crater is in the very middle of the island the trail around it lets you see to the ocean all around the island. The veiws were perfect and it was an awesome experience. 

After that Stephane took us to one of his favorite places. It was a public park but here they call them botanical gardens. It was so beautiful, and there were little frogs hopping around everywhere! They are actually all over the island, but this is the first time I noticed one. I caught one and kissed it! And then I caught another one for Jessica to kiss. There was also this giant tree that had been uprooted and fallen into another giant tree that made it perfect for climbing :) I got up in the tree and then told Jessica she had to come up. Stephane was so worried about us getting hurt, but we couldn't let that hold us back from adventure! 

Lastly we rode the bus to the shopping district and shopped around. There wasn't really anything worth buying. Cheap Chinese Sh** as Jessica's mom says. But Stephane did buy me a blingy ring for 150 rupees. We ate amazing Indian food at a little restaurant, and another recent convert, Ridi, joined us. It took us a while to get home because we got to the bus stop right as all the kids were getting out of school. The bus took us to Jumbo which I guess is kind of an equivilant to walmart, but it also has a mall attached. Jessica's mom met us there and bought us all frozen yogurt. I got blueberry flavored. We got home around 3 in the afternoon and I went to sleep for the rest of the day.

Day 2

Day two. Today we went to the beach. We went to a more touristy one that Jessica doesn't go to as often. It was really nice. The ocean is the PERFECT tempurature. The ocean is clear, the sky is blue, the sand is white, and it's paradise. I brought a little battery speaker so that we could listen to music and I showed Jessica T Swift's new album. She liked it, of course. We ate at some beach stand and I tried to order vegetarian, but it was unclear if I was eating meat. They have mini pineapples here that they peel in a spiral and you can eat it like a popsicle! I don't have a picture, but I will get one. At some point John and Kristen met up with us. They are an adorable american couple who moved here two weeks ago because she is starting an american university here. We stayed there for 3 hours in the heat of the day with no sunscreen so you can imagine that I got pretty roasted (jessica had gotten her bad burn the week before so her skin was already tan). Jessica's mom was so mad when I got home! She made me go take a cold shower immediately and then keep frozen rags all over my skin for the rest of the day. I think it really helped though because most of my burn turned into a tan by the next day and only a little bit even peeled. I think this is the first summer that I will be tan!! The african sun is a doozy. Then I went home and slept for the rest of the day. Jetlag plus just being me. At some point I met Jeewansing. He is important to the story and our trip here. The best way to describe him is as our landlord/driver/adopted son/suitor/general mauritian sage. Anything we need, Jeewansing arranges it. He brought with him his friend Emit who owns a pub in england. 

Day One... In Africa!

Friends! I promised I would keep you apprised of my trip but, the truth is, I am horrible at chronicling my experiences. So these posts might be few and far between, and long-winded by the time I actually get around to writing them. But I promise they will be full of adventure, heartache, and self-discovery. Here it is.

Day One. I landed in Mauritius at 7am on Monday morning. Mauritius is 11 hours ahead of Utah, so where you guys were it was still Sunday. I had boarded my first flight at 11:30am the previous Saturday, then I had a 1 1/2 hour flight to LAX, 2 hour layover there, then 12 hours to paris, 4 hour layover, and another 12 hours to Mauritius. Most of you know that I have a [yet to be diagnosed] sleeping disorder that causes me to sleep often and for long amounts of time. Usually it is just a big problem, but it turns out that for long international flights it actually becomes a super power! Thats right , I slept the entire way here! Every flight, every layover, I didn't read a single page or watch a single movie. It was the most painless travel experience ever. Plus, I had made myself a super comfy travel scarf (complete with hidden pocket for passport/wallet/cell phone) and wore the most functional and fashionable footwear--socks with sandals.

As soon as I stepped of the plane I could tell I was on a tropical island. It was the smell, the air just smelled so humid and clean. The mauritius airport is pretty small and was basically empty on the terminal level except for the passengers of my flight. I had already filled out my forms on the airplane and I got to the customs desk pretty quickly, expecting to be out of the airport in a matter of minutes. Not so. The customs forms asked for the address in Mauritius where I would be staying. I had left it blank because, even thought I have traveled internationally before and should have known I would need that, I neglected to ask Jessica for the address. Apparently that is not an optional field. So I was stuck at customs for a little while. In the end I gave them Jessica's parents' names and they were able to look them up in some database and call the number on file which was miraculously the correct number.

Reunited at the airport

When I got downstairs, there were more people. I was looking for Jessica, but she saw me first and called out my name. She was wearing a leapord print skirt that I gave her for her mission. It was my favorite skirt at the time and it was a big sacrifice to give it up, but she really liked it and needed clothes for her mission and I am glad that I did, she got good use out of it :). I was thinking on the plane that I might not want to hug her because she had told me earlier that she had gotten lice, and I didn't want to put my head close to hers. But once the moment came that I saw her for the first time in over a year and a half, not hugging wasn't even an option. And anyway, I had already pretty much come to terms with the lice thing. 

I wasn't really sure what to do with the sugarcane

On the way back to our house from the airport, Jessica's step dad pointed out all the mountains and beaches, and we were constantly surrounded by cornfields. Actually I just thought they were corn fields, actually they are sugar cane fields!! Randomly her mom pulled off into one of them and told us to go knock one down and eat it! It was basically like what you would imagine chewing on a corn stalk is like, only
sweeter. It was also Shivratree that day. It's an Hindu holiday where everyone builds little floats that they have to carry to the highest point of the island. So they leave on friday after work and walk all weekend so they can make it to the top on Monday. This island is very culturally rich, and they recognize every holiday for the Hindu, Muslim, Chinese, and Christian cultures. Basically there are a lot of days off of school and work, and there is always some kind of celebration going on. 

One of the Shivratee floats

I realize at this point that I am being really long-winded, but I just don't have the heart to leave any of the details out!!!

Okay so I went home, took a shower (I do that sometimes), and we were off to Casela park to pet lions!!! First we had lunch at a place called Walnut in Time with the sister missionaries. (Jessica's parents are missionaries here, that's why they live here.) The restaurant had a jar labeled "American Style Cookies" that they were selling. I guess those are very rare here. Can you believe the whole world doesn't enjoy chocolate chip cookies on a regular basis? 

Petting the lions was 1400 rupees but it was worth it!! We went into a fenced area with seven or eight lions just laying around or playing. There was a group of about 10 of us led by the guides. I thought that it would be scary but it wasnt. The guides were very cautious about keeping us together, staying between us and the lions, only letting us pet the lion from behind, never crouching down, and we all had to hold a stick to "protect" ourselves. Actually the level of caution was a little annoying, and the guides didn't follow it at all. They played with the lions, and let them lick them and everything. I guess the lions must know the guides and that is why. The lion that we pet was named Matata. The park had a couple other things to do, but we came pretty close to closing so we went on a little safari to see the zebras (Jessica's favorite) and then went home. Plus I was getting a really bad headache. I think it was just because of all the traveling I had just done/jetlag/getting used to the heat. 

So I went home, Jessica's mom rubbed my feet (we are super into reflexology) and then I went to sleep. And that is the end of day one :)