The many happiness of the Chinese shop.
The Chinese shops that have popped up over the last two years in Pemba have greatly improved my quality of life, selling, as they do, a fantastic range of cheap, useful and useless items. Most of all, they provide moments of unexpected levity. At Christmas, I bought the traditional pair of underpants for Paulo's stocking. This one came with blurb that promised, amongst other things, that these pants "give a man a direction". Today's offering, in a small green bottle: 'Sod milk'.
All other lettering in Chinese, so I remain unenlightened.
Labels: Pemba life
Guest blogger: Sebastian
Hello Sebastian, what would you like to tell us about?
S: This is a picture I drew at school yesterday. It's a hedgehog.
Very nice! Why did you draw a hedgehog?
S: We read a story. Biff threw a ball, Floppy chased it. He found the hedgehog and pricked his nose.
And Floppy is...?
S: A dog, of course!
Of course. What do you like best about this picture?
S: His big nose. Hedgehogs have little teeth, like this. That's why I drew them. And teacher gave me twelve stars.
Well done, I love it!
Guest blogger: Joaquim
Hi, it's me again. I've been doing lots of cool stuff and I want to tell you about it. First of all, I am a karate champion. I won two gold and a silver medal at the Pemba karate championships and they look soooo cool.
I took the medals to school the next day to show my friends, and now I've put them in my treasure box. The gold medals were for the juniors championship, I did a really good demonstration - I've been practising at home - and then I had to fight this mean little kid. He kicked me in the neck - which is against the rules - and made me cry, but I got up again and kept fighting and then won. We shook hands after the fight so it was OK. Sebastian, Eva, Mum and Pai were there to watch, and we had grilled chicken and chips to celebrate afterwards.
S: I love chicken and chips.
Then there was a cowboy party. Sebastian and I looked cool and dangerous. There was a horse, but I didn't get on, it was really big. Sebastian did though.
S: I wasn't scared.
Then there was another karate thing, a graduation this time, and our teacher was really tough on us and made us work really hard in the sun for hours. But I got my next belt.
S: I got a bit bored and took lots of photos, but we had more chicken and chips afterwards. I love chicken and chips.
And then, there was a fund-raiser at school, International Day. Everyone had to go dressed in a national costume. Sebastian chose French, Eva and Mum went Chinese, Pai wore a silly straw hat, and I was an English Country Gentleman and I won a prize: PIZZA AND A SOFT DRINK! Awesome! Mum also won a prize with her cupcakes, for the prettiest cake. I thought they were pretty delicious.
S: I liked my moustache.
Hmmm, that's about it. We're going on holiday in 10 days, which is soooo exciting. Sebastian and I are crossing the days off on the calendar. Pai and Mum seem to be quite excited too. Eva is too little to know.
S: It's MY turn to cross it off today.
Byeeeeeee! Joaquim xxx
PS: This is Pai looking silly.
Labels: holidays, Joaquim, Pemba life, Sebastian
