America, where the streets are paved in...pavement!

This summer break (mid-December to mid-January) I was so lucky to be able to visit with a very friendly, welcoming family in America! I experienced firsthand the customs and daily life of Americans. It truly is a land full of wonders and technological ways of preserving meat and shredding papers.

When I first arrived at the airport, I was greeted by a large group of people holding buckets, but strangely, the buckets were empty, and everyone was carrying them with their hands instead of on their heads.

I just noticed that this picture is beautifully bordered by restroom signs.

The family has a big house with handy amenities. They wash their clothes without even getting their hands wet! You put your dirty clothes in a big white box, then it gurgles and splashes and shakes the house for an hour, and your clothes come out clean!

I didn't ask the subject of this highly flattering candid for permission
to put it online, but it's my only picture of a washing machine.

With my newly de-dirtied clothes, I attended a wedding. Everyone dressed themselves in traditional American garb. We attended the ceremony and then danced the night away to live music!

I also went to a dentist. Can you believe there’s a doctor just for teeth? People go one or two times a year, even if their teeth don’t hurt. The dentist poked a sharp thing into my gums. Then she took pictures of my mouth that only showed my bones, which were very flattering, but I wouldn’t choose them for the yearbook.

Not only did I go see a movie, I actually sat inside a movie. I swear an arrow whizzed by my shoulder at one point – but I think it was meant for Gandalf or Bilbo, not me. We had to wear dark glasses to see the movie, probably to protect our eyes for when the characters started fighting.

One day there was cold cotton floating down from the sky. We strategically formed an army of small men made out of packed balls of white, in case the owner came to claim his cotton, since we didn’t want to give it back. We also made one very large white-balled figure, who stood silently and forebodingly outside the living room window.

Lastly, someone who dares to call herself my friend wrapped me in a plastic blanket and took a buzzing robot to my scalp, and when she freed me, all my hair was gone! Oh wait, we have buzzers in Mozambique, too. Whenever the electricity is turned on (once every two months) everyone suddenly is nearly bald the following day.