Caranguejos

Sometimes, the experience of learning a new word

 helps me with remembering words in Portuguese. Today, I learned a new word, that I probably won't soon forget. I was coming home

from a trip in a chapa, a minivan that is used as public transportation in Mozambique, when I felt something

tapping the tip of my shoe.  Breathing heavily, I asked if there was a chicken on  the chapa and everyone said, "No."

I thought that I must have been imagining the tapping. So I stretched my legs as much as I could in the compact vehicle.

 About two minutes later, I felt something running on 

the arch of my foot like a pianist running her fingers across black and white keys. I screamed and said, there's some kind of animal down there. Right then, the woman next to me started screaming as well, claiming that she felt it, too.

The man next to me, moving slower than molasses, looked down at his feet and said, "Acho que os meus caranguejos saíram da minha pasta.  'Ta bom.  Só são caranguejos."

After he explained that his little friends escaped from his bag, he said that I can put my feet down and he'll get them.  I said that my Portuguese isn't the best and I didn't know

 what caranguejos were and until I knew what they were, I wasn't 

letting them use my feet as a playground. Biting my fingernails, I wondered, "Are caranguejos tarantulas, a type of mouse, or could they be baby alligators?"

 The woman on the other side of me explained, "Sabe, vivem na beach.  E tem..."  She then formed her hands into a claw.  Half relieved and still a little scared, I said that caranguejo probably meant crab in English.   About four other people and I laughed at the fact

 that because I didn't know one word in Portuguese, I was afraid and confused

because I had no idea what had escaped.  Then someone asked the man next to me in Portuguese, "Why the heck do you have a basket full of crabs, anyway?"

He explained that he just got back from the beach and he was surprising his family with caranguejos.  They were for dinner.

Naturally, I'm learning a lot of

Portuguese since I have to use it every day with co-workers and community members and I learn new words all the time like caranguejo.

Anyway, it's been awhile since I last posted a blog and I just wanted to share this story with you. This is just one of many examples of 

awkward and silly encounters I face as a someone who isn't a native Portuguese speaker or knowing any of the local languages here in Mozambique. 

Further, I just wanted to check in to say that all is well here and I've been very busy teaching and with secondary projects.

Also,  my basketball team has a game next week and perhaps I'll write a blog about the meninas, girls.  Até logo!