(I wrote it at the weekend as promised, but I didn't have a flash drive to take it to the office. I'd have gone home at Monday lunch to pick it up, but our chapas pulled a perfectly timed strike. The well-known issue continues to simmer. I'd also hoped to have a few more photographs, but this computer is too tired to recognise my camera.)
Mookxie's comment last week reminded me it's high time for an update on progress on those 101 tasks I set myself back in January, as people keep swinging by here from the link on the 101 things site. I won't mention every task which is in progress, but a few of them deserve comment.
1. Finish drafting and revising City In Spate and start sending it to publishers or agents.
74,000 words, at the moment. Far from finished.
6. Read the Bible, other than 1 Chronicles and Psalms.
So far I've read Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Hosea, Jonah, Nahum, Habukkuk and Zechariah.
I used to spend the chapa ride each morning reading work-related material, but last year, having no reports to hand, I grabbed instead the copy of The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius which was lying on the dining table at the time. Commuting amid blaring gangsta rap with strangers' crotches pressed (in all innocence) against my shoulder, I read: "Art thou angry with him whose arm-pits stink? Art thou angry with him whose mouth smells foul? What good will this anger do thee?" And so forth: a great deal about how to endure provocations with equanimity.
It struck me then that the chapa ride to work was the correct place to read devotional literature. Anyone can love one's fellow humans and feel close to the divine in the privacy of one's room. The difficult task is to do it in the thick of worldly annoyances and blandishments. So it's become my practice to read spiritual texts on the morning chapa. This is fine for, say, the Dhammapada, which teaches the transcending of worldly experience - "exercising the utmost restraint, possessing inner delight, composed, solitary, and content". But I swear I'll never read the Old Testament on the chapa. All that smiting and destruction and dashing the little ones against the stones – I'd do murder every morning under that influence.
Having said that, all that Old Testament violence and hatred makes me appreciate what a revolution Jesus must have been. Probably most of us are so familiar with the injunction to love our enemies that it's lost a lot of its power. It must have been flabbergasting to the first-century Jews when they first heard it from that young teacher in the synagogue, after all that smiting they'd previously been taught.
18. Buy one of those gorgeous glass pendants from Ngwenya glass in Swaziland for my mother.
Done, but photographic evidence won't be posted until my mother has seen it.
The other purchase of interest in Swaziland was a bundle of candles from the wonderful Swazi Candles. For item 11, I hope to be in India during Deepavali, which means giving gifts of lights.
37. Go to the Museu da História Natural.
Done. See last week's post for photographic evidence.
45. Find my super payout from DSS.
46. Take care of that other super.
I occasionally need to email a Mozambican government agency – most often the notorious Telecomunições de Moçambique, the carrier that can't explain why it frequently drops our lines for ten minutes at random intervals, and whose técnicos were last year completely unaware that the satellite link between Maputo and Quelimane had been replaced by a fibre optic cable until two months after the event. I don't have a very high opinion of their competence, but they do at least reply to emails – which more than Ausfund or the Australian Department of Human Services have done. Follow-up emails were sent last week.
47. Keep my living expenses to less than 60% of my take-home salary.
Done. Shortly after posting these goals, I did a personal budget for the first time in my life and was pleasantly surprised to discover I was within an ace of this anyway. I trimmed back sufficiently by preparing my own lunches instead of buying a prego no pão (steak sandwich) or frango grelhado (grilled chicken) every day – there isn't much else available, unless you don't mind dobrada (tripe) with your feijão (bean stew). That was before a recent modest pay rise. Some of that rise will go to Dona Luisa the empregada and Sr Micas the guard, and I have to mind the value of the American dollar because I have the infernal inconvenience of paying my rent in dollars even though my salary is in meticais. But I think I'm okay, budget-wise, for the foreseeable future - pela graça do Deus.
50. Clear my wardrobe of clothes I don't wear anymore.
Done. Had Dona Luisa not been defeated by the chapa strike, she would have found a good-sized backpack stuffed with clothes sitting next to the kitchen garbage on Monday morning. She is always far more stylishly dressed than I am so I doubt she'll be adopting any of my cast-offs in a hurry, but most of them are good enough to sell to a second-hand vendor for a bit of extra cash.
52. Get rid of all old papers I don't need anymore.
Done. It's a shame I didn't think of taking a "before" photo, or better still a "during" photo, when paid water bills and boarding passes dating back to 2005 had been sorted into heaps all over the living room floor. It could have been an inspiration to all.
67. Give away all the books on my shelves which annoy me.
There's a new café in town – or, it was new to me; every other foreign female with pretensions to knowing her macchiato from her mocha seems surprised I didn't know – which not only packages its own fair-trade coffee, but which maintains a book exchange. It was entirely English-language when I checked a couple of weeks ago, as I dropped off a couple of unwanted gifts. It will take a few more trips to unclog my shelves completely, but this should be done in a month or two.
The other point I like about this café is that it stands on Rua Beijo da Mulata, a mulata being a woman of mixed race and an a beijo being a kiss. It wouldn't be allowed in Australia.
76. Get involved in the Maputo Professional Women's Network.
I mind the database for this group, but I'll mark this as done after I've participated in (and posted more details about) our first event, which is set for 12 March.
101. Be able to find and name 100 stars.
I'm typing this at 20.00 in my living room on a Sunday night. I was hoping to go out onto my balcony and check that I can remember what I've learned, but the night's come over cloudy, so I'll have to do this from my imagination.
Standing on my living room balcony – facing west by north-west - on a clear night I can look up and see Orion. The red star in the lower right corner is Betelgeuse. Clockwise from there, the other points of the rectangle are Bellatrix, Rigel and Saiph. The leftmost star in Orion's belt is Mintaka. Between Orion and the horizon, the bright reddish star is El Nath, and the sparkler off to its left is Aldebaran, both in Taurus. To the right of El Nath is Castor and Pollux in Gemini. The brightest star in the sky is Sirius, to the right of Orion. Sirius and Betelgeuse make an equilateral triangle with Procyon. Canopus is somewhere above my roof, but I can't check it from here.
From my kitchen balcony I can see the Southern Cross, which is easy, because the three brightest stars are called Acrux (the lowest star on the Australian flag), Becrux (the left arm) and Gacrux (the uppermost star on the flag) – but if you are a poetical snob like me, you can call Becrux Mimosa. Everyone should know Alpha and Beta Centauri if they don't – at least those who reside in the southern hemisphere. More or less on the opposite side of the celestial south pole to Crux, the big sparkler is Achernar.
At this hour of the evening I can't recognise a single star from the balcony of the spare bedroom – facing north by north-east - but when I struggle out of bed at 4.30 in the morning I can see the constellation Scorpio. The red star on the scorpion's back is Antares, the brighter of the two stars in the sting is Shaula, and the fainter of the two is Lesath.
I just checked the above in my star charts. Twenty stars, until I can be sure of Canopus.
The names of stars and constellations are poetry to me, but I'm aware that to many the preceding paragraphs must be the most boring in this post. To them I say: be grateful I'm not giving you a similar account of what I'm learning from item 8, reading Economic Literacy.
Showing posts with label 101 things. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 101 things. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Rushing through life and puzzling my friends
As I seem to be playing to a very small audience here, I feel free to do something possibly embarrassing. ("If no one ever did anything silly, nothing intelligent would ever get done" - Wittgenstein.)
Late last year, in the torpid internet surfing I was doing at the end of each day, after my brain had slowed down too much to do anything safely on the servers but before Chimoio branch managed to get its tills closed (Dona Fernanda at Chimoio is a notoriously slow and careful counter of cash, and pre-Christmas is as busy for us as it is for anyone else) - I ran across the internet meme of 101 things in 1001 days.
This notion had me very much in two minds. Looking through a random sampling of other people's lists, I marvelled at the seeming trivia which filled so many people's hopes and dreams. At the same time, my own list of seeming trivia simply wrote itself. The time and energy I put into writing a novel must surely mystify aspiring sky-divers or hair-dyers as much as their passions mystify me.
There's no doubt that writing and publicising a list such as this greatly improves the chances of the items on it being accomplished. Already I've spoken to friends about a weekend trip to Quissico, which I probably wouldn't have done if I hadn't been thinking about places I wanted to include on my list. The other reason to post the list here is that I can use it to post here a bit more regularly. Adventures in getting a necklace made (of which more later) probably wouldn't have blipped my blogging horizon without a prior mention here.
Having said that, I've been here long enough to appreciate the farcical aspect of this - hence the title of this post. This list has brought home to me how completely exotic an animal I am in the Mozambican environment. Nothing about children, for a start, but that's merely the tip of the iceberg. There's arrogance and peril in making such demands from life - which I attempt to defuse with the very Mozambican phrase at the end of my list.
But perhaps it's the sheer lack of practicality in so much of this that is most bewildering. I imagine my Mozambican friends and colleagues reading the list and thinking, what's so special about the waterfall at Namaacha? You can get just as wet in the swimming pool at Hotel Cardoso, and they bring you drinks there. Why do you want a walking safari when it's so much safer and more comfortable in a vehicle? A trip to Bhutan is over in a month. Why don't you buy a nice car that'll last for years?
Why not, indeed? A week's accommodation in Maputo, close to restaurants and transport, for anyone who can give me a good answer.
Then there's de-cluttering, a completely foreign concept, but I'll save that for later.
In fact almost the entire list turns out to be Mozambican-themed, sometimes in subtle ways. Item 9, for example, is a challenge because internet-based bookstores don't accept my Mozambican-issued credit cards. I'm going to have to ask around to find the best way of disposing of the old medicines mentioned in item 51, given the way my garbage gets picked over at every step of the disposal process. As for item 81, yes, Mozambique is a place where you can get to middle management of a bank without ever wearing a suit.
I hemmed and hawed about the absence of less trivial goals - like being a better friend, say - but after some thought realised that much is embedded in the trivia. I can't travel on my own to all those Mozambican locations, for example; most of them require wheels, which means organising trips with friends and making myself a desirable travelling companion.
The office crept in at point 88, but this is otherwise a leisure-time list. There are a sight more than 101 things to do at work, and most of the more exciting ones are confidential. I will mention my over-arching workplace resolution, CULTIVATE EQUANIMITY.
I'll explain all those exotic place names when I post about being there, but a few other items may need quick explanation:
12 and 13 - I'll have to write this list and post it, so that those who plan to visit me can make their choices.
35 and 36 - alfaiaterias are tailors or dressmakers - or (now that I've checked the dictionary) possibly the shops in which they ply their trade. These items, like the other de-cluttering items and reading the Portuguese-language novels listed from 56 to 59, are tasks which I've been meaning to do for years.
37 to 40 - I come to the embarrassing admission that I've lived in Maputo for five years without having visited any of these. I did once go to a buffet lunch in the gardens of the Museu da História Natural.
Item 100 - I thought of censoring this out of fear for my father's health. Please be assured that the mattress strayed because of my misanthropy, not the opposite reason. I sleep on my landlady's mattress, which is better quality, anyway.
I first put the list in the sidebar - and it may yet go back there - but right now the thought of being confronted by it every week when I post has me intimidated. The sidebar is so damnably permanent and judgemental. I'm printing it out and sticking it to my kitchen wall for my own reference, but I post it here as a temporary thing, invisible to the rest of you after a month. If it serves no other purpose it shows what was important to me back in January 2008.
1. Finish drafting and revising City In Spate and start sending it to publishers or agents.
2. Finish drafting Azeviche.
3. Finish drafting Snake.
4. Send drafted chapters to Beck and Luanda Laura.
5. [Censored]
6. Read the Bible, other than 1 Chronicles and Psalms.
7. Read the Koran.
8. Read Economic Literacy. Argue with Valentin about anything I don’t understand. Argue with Valentin about anything I do understand. Cook him breakfasts to make up for the arguing.
9. Buy and read The Healing Hand by Guido Majno and Admiral Rogers’ book on galley warfare.
10. Visit Luanda Laura's cottage in Bulgaria.
11. Visit Bhutan with Minati.
12. Visit a place from my “interesting places in Africa outside Mozambique and South Africa” list.
13. Visit another place from my “interesting places in Africa outside Mozambique and South Africa” list.
14. Walk down Table Mountain.
15. Wine tasting in Stellenbosch.
16. Walk in the Drakensberg.
17. Caving in Swaziland.
18. Buy one of those gorgeous glass pendants from Ngwenya glass in Swaziland for my mother.
19. Visit my family in Australia.
20. Walk up Mount Gorongosa.
21. Sail in the Quirimbas.
22. Walk around Ilha de Moçambique.
23. Watch a sunrise over the Cahora Bassa lake.
24. Walk in the Manica escarpment.
25. Walk in the Parque Nacional de Limpopo.
26. Spend the night in Quissico.
27. Spend a weekend revising my MS at that place on the sandspit opposite Marracuene recommended by American Laura.
28. Circumambulate Inhaca.
29. Circumambulate Xefina.
30. Get wet in the waterfall at Namaacha.
31. Visit Minati’s project.
32. A walking safari.
33. Bookshelves.
34. Curtains.
35. Get six shirts made by an alfaiateria.
36. Get that cloth bag from Melbourne copied by an alfaiateria – at least three times, so I can fearlessly wear two of them to shreds.
37. Go to the Museu da História Natural.
38. Go to the Museu da Revolução.
39. Go to the Museu da Geologica.
40. Go to the Museu de Moedas.
41. Go to the latin dance classes.
42. Chapa research – take the chapa to the end of the line, just to see where it goes. Do this with the Malhazine, Zona Verde, Benfica and Drive-In lines (the lines that take me to the office every day, but I hop off at Malanga).
43. Do twenty pushups in a row.
44. Skip rope 100 times in a row.
45. Find my super payout from DSS.
46. Take care of that other super.
47. Keep my living expenses to less than 60% of my take-home salary.
48. Find a way to put 10% of my take-home salary into my nest egg.
49. Put another 10% of my take-home salary into long-term savings.
50. Clear my wardrobe of clothes I don't wear anymore.
51. Get rid of the old medicines and cosmetics.
52. Get rid of all old papers I don't need anymore. Don’t keep more than the batik-covered box full of papers. Burn or shred unnecessary papers regularly.
53. Buy two of those much-praised bedspreads from that project here in Maputo.
54. Learn enough about electricity to understand what happened when all that hardware fried at Sede.
55. Write up the conjugations for fifty useful Portuguese verbs and post them in the kitchen (not all fifty at once). Learn them. Use them.
56. Read Harry Potter e a Pedra Filosofal.
57. Read Rosa Xintimane.
58. Read Neighbours.
59. Read Vinte e Zinco.
60. Read volume one of UEM’s history of Mozambique.
61. Get back in touch with Eric and Cindy.
62. Legalise my music.
63. Post something to PostSecret.
64. Post a review of Mavelane Airport on www.sleepinginairports.com.
65. Post comments on twenty blogs that have helped me, expressing my appreciation.
66. Install Linux on Delilah.
67. Give away all the books on my shelves which annoy me.
68. Frame the old map of Mozambique American Laura gave me.
69. Find a way to put my postcards on my kitchen wall without them curling up and falling off.
70. Find a way to print my digital photos such that I’m satisfied with the results. Print photos for my kitchen wall.
71. Give chickens and soft drinks to the guards on Christmas and New Year's Eve.
72. Cook a tranquil dinner for tranquil friends on New Year’s Eve.
73. Act in a public production by the Maputo Players.
74. Write or adapt a piece for performance at the Maputo Players.
75. Host a Maputo Players meeting.
76. Get involved in the Maputo Professional Women's Network.
77. Borrow a sewing machine and turn the black fish capulana into cushion covers. Turn batiks into cushion covers. Convince the batik vendors that I really don’t want to buy any more batiks after that.
78. Make the apartment's dining table and chairs go with my furniture.
79. Make a necklace out of one of the mother-and-child earrings which I don’t wear because they’re too heavy.
80. Make a will.
81. Buy two suits and a dress suitable for formal dinners.
82. The 21-day no-complaint experiment.
83. The 21-day no-fidgeting experiment.
84. The 21-day no-monotone experiment.
85. The 21-day no-passive-aggressive-attitude experiment.
86. The 21-day no-envy experiment.
87. The 21-day no-worrying-about-what-other-people-think-of-me experiment.
88. Empty my work and personal Inboxes.
89. [Censored]
90. [Censored]
91. [Censored]
92. Buy decent field guides to southern African birds and southern African trees.
93. Buy a pair of binoculars.
94. Hem those two dresses which have been rolled up in my sewing kit for years.
95. Handle a snake.
96. Let a spider crawl over me.
97. One outing with the ladies-of-leisure early-morning bird-watching group.
98. Figure out a recipe for Amarula fudge.
99. Put up mosquito nets in both bedrooms.
100. Get my mattress back from wherever it is. Buy some decent pillows and blankets.
101. Be able to find and name 100 stars.
PELA GRAÇA DO DEUS
Late last year, in the torpid internet surfing I was doing at the end of each day, after my brain had slowed down too much to do anything safely on the servers but before Chimoio branch managed to get its tills closed (Dona Fernanda at Chimoio is a notoriously slow and careful counter of cash, and pre-Christmas is as busy for us as it is for anyone else) - I ran across the internet meme of 101 things in 1001 days.
This notion had me very much in two minds. Looking through a random sampling of other people's lists, I marvelled at the seeming trivia which filled so many people's hopes and dreams. At the same time, my own list of seeming trivia simply wrote itself. The time and energy I put into writing a novel must surely mystify aspiring sky-divers or hair-dyers as much as their passions mystify me.
There's no doubt that writing and publicising a list such as this greatly improves the chances of the items on it being accomplished. Already I've spoken to friends about a weekend trip to Quissico, which I probably wouldn't have done if I hadn't been thinking about places I wanted to include on my list. The other reason to post the list here is that I can use it to post here a bit more regularly. Adventures in getting a necklace made (of which more later) probably wouldn't have blipped my blogging horizon without a prior mention here.
Having said that, I've been here long enough to appreciate the farcical aspect of this - hence the title of this post. This list has brought home to me how completely exotic an animal I am in the Mozambican environment. Nothing about children, for a start, but that's merely the tip of the iceberg. There's arrogance and peril in making such demands from life - which I attempt to defuse with the very Mozambican phrase at the end of my list.
But perhaps it's the sheer lack of practicality in so much of this that is most bewildering. I imagine my Mozambican friends and colleagues reading the list and thinking, what's so special about the waterfall at Namaacha? You can get just as wet in the swimming pool at Hotel Cardoso, and they bring you drinks there. Why do you want a walking safari when it's so much safer and more comfortable in a vehicle? A trip to Bhutan is over in a month. Why don't you buy a nice car that'll last for years?
Why not, indeed? A week's accommodation in Maputo, close to restaurants and transport, for anyone who can give me a good answer.
Then there's de-cluttering, a completely foreign concept, but I'll save that for later.
In fact almost the entire list turns out to be Mozambican-themed, sometimes in subtle ways. Item 9, for example, is a challenge because internet-based bookstores don't accept my Mozambican-issued credit cards. I'm going to have to ask around to find the best way of disposing of the old medicines mentioned in item 51, given the way my garbage gets picked over at every step of the disposal process. As for item 81, yes, Mozambique is a place where you can get to middle management of a bank without ever wearing a suit.
I hemmed and hawed about the absence of less trivial goals - like being a better friend, say - but after some thought realised that much is embedded in the trivia. I can't travel on my own to all those Mozambican locations, for example; most of them require wheels, which means organising trips with friends and making myself a desirable travelling companion.
The office crept in at point 88, but this is otherwise a leisure-time list. There are a sight more than 101 things to do at work, and most of the more exciting ones are confidential. I will mention my over-arching workplace resolution, CULTIVATE EQUANIMITY.
I'll explain all those exotic place names when I post about being there, but a few other items may need quick explanation:
12 and 13 - I'll have to write this list and post it, so that those who plan to visit me can make their choices.
35 and 36 - alfaiaterias are tailors or dressmakers - or (now that I've checked the dictionary) possibly the shops in which they ply their trade. These items, like the other de-cluttering items and reading the Portuguese-language novels listed from 56 to 59, are tasks which I've been meaning to do for years.
37 to 40 - I come to the embarrassing admission that I've lived in Maputo for five years without having visited any of these. I did once go to a buffet lunch in the gardens of the Museu da História Natural.
Item 100 - I thought of censoring this out of fear for my father's health. Please be assured that the mattress strayed because of my misanthropy, not the opposite reason. I sleep on my landlady's mattress, which is better quality, anyway.
I first put the list in the sidebar - and it may yet go back there - but right now the thought of being confronted by it every week when I post has me intimidated. The sidebar is so damnably permanent and judgemental. I'm printing it out and sticking it to my kitchen wall for my own reference, but I post it here as a temporary thing, invisible to the rest of you after a month. If it serves no other purpose it shows what was important to me back in January 2008.
1. Finish drafting and revising City In Spate and start sending it to publishers or agents.
2. Finish drafting Azeviche.
3. Finish drafting Snake.
4. Send drafted chapters to Beck and Luanda Laura.
5. [Censored]
6. Read the Bible, other than 1 Chronicles and Psalms.
7. Read the Koran.
8. Read Economic Literacy. Argue with Valentin about anything I don’t understand. Argue with Valentin about anything I do understand. Cook him breakfasts to make up for the arguing.
9. Buy and read The Healing Hand by Guido Majno and Admiral Rogers’ book on galley warfare.
10. Visit Luanda Laura's cottage in Bulgaria.
11. Visit Bhutan with Minati.
12. Visit a place from my “interesting places in Africa outside Mozambique and South Africa” list.
13. Visit another place from my “interesting places in Africa outside Mozambique and South Africa” list.
14. Walk down Table Mountain.
15. Wine tasting in Stellenbosch.
16. Walk in the Drakensberg.
17. Caving in Swaziland.
18. Buy one of those gorgeous glass pendants from Ngwenya glass in Swaziland for my mother.
19. Visit my family in Australia.
20. Walk up Mount Gorongosa.
21. Sail in the Quirimbas.
22. Walk around Ilha de Moçambique.
23. Watch a sunrise over the Cahora Bassa lake.
24. Walk in the Manica escarpment.
25. Walk in the Parque Nacional de Limpopo.
26. Spend the night in Quissico.
27. Spend a weekend revising my MS at that place on the sandspit opposite Marracuene recommended by American Laura.
28. Circumambulate Inhaca.
29. Circumambulate Xefina.
30. Get wet in the waterfall at Namaacha.
31. Visit Minati’s project.
32. A walking safari.
33. Bookshelves.
34. Curtains.
35. Get six shirts made by an alfaiateria.
36. Get that cloth bag from Melbourne copied by an alfaiateria – at least three times, so I can fearlessly wear two of them to shreds.
37. Go to the Museu da História Natural.
38. Go to the Museu da Revolução.
39. Go to the Museu da Geologica.
40. Go to the Museu de Moedas.
41. Go to the latin dance classes.
42. Chapa research – take the chapa to the end of the line, just to see where it goes. Do this with the Malhazine, Zona Verde, Benfica and Drive-In lines (the lines that take me to the office every day, but I hop off at Malanga).
43. Do twenty pushups in a row.
44. Skip rope 100 times in a row.
45. Find my super payout from DSS.
46. Take care of that other super.
47. Keep my living expenses to less than 60% of my take-home salary.
48. Find a way to put 10% of my take-home salary into my nest egg.
49. Put another 10% of my take-home salary into long-term savings.
50. Clear my wardrobe of clothes I don't wear anymore.
51. Get rid of the old medicines and cosmetics.
52. Get rid of all old papers I don't need anymore. Don’t keep more than the batik-covered box full of papers. Burn or shred unnecessary papers regularly.
53. Buy two of those much-praised bedspreads from that project here in Maputo.
54. Learn enough about electricity to understand what happened when all that hardware fried at Sede.
55. Write up the conjugations for fifty useful Portuguese verbs and post them in the kitchen (not all fifty at once). Learn them. Use them.
56. Read Harry Potter e a Pedra Filosofal.
57. Read Rosa Xintimane.
58. Read Neighbours.
59. Read Vinte e Zinco.
60. Read volume one of UEM’s history of Mozambique.
61. Get back in touch with Eric and Cindy.
62. Legalise my music.
63. Post something to PostSecret.
64. Post a review of Mavelane Airport on www.sleepinginairports.com.
65. Post comments on twenty blogs that have helped me, expressing my appreciation.
66. Install Linux on Delilah.
67. Give away all the books on my shelves which annoy me.
68. Frame the old map of Mozambique American Laura gave me.
69. Find a way to put my postcards on my kitchen wall without them curling up and falling off.
70. Find a way to print my digital photos such that I’m satisfied with the results. Print photos for my kitchen wall.
71. Give chickens and soft drinks to the guards on Christmas and New Year's Eve.
72. Cook a tranquil dinner for tranquil friends on New Year’s Eve.
73. Act in a public production by the Maputo Players.
74. Write or adapt a piece for performance at the Maputo Players.
75. Host a Maputo Players meeting.
76. Get involved in the Maputo Professional Women's Network.
77. Borrow a sewing machine and turn the black fish capulana into cushion covers. Turn batiks into cushion covers. Convince the batik vendors that I really don’t want to buy any more batiks after that.
78. Make the apartment's dining table and chairs go with my furniture.
79. Make a necklace out of one of the mother-and-child earrings which I don’t wear because they’re too heavy.
80. Make a will.
81. Buy two suits and a dress suitable for formal dinners.
82. The 21-day no-complaint experiment.
83. The 21-day no-fidgeting experiment.
84. The 21-day no-monotone experiment.
85. The 21-day no-passive-aggressive-attitude experiment.
86. The 21-day no-envy experiment.
87. The 21-day no-worrying-about-what-other-people-think-of-me experiment.
88. Empty my work and personal Inboxes.
89. [Censored]
90. [Censored]
91. [Censored]
92. Buy decent field guides to southern African birds and southern African trees.
93. Buy a pair of binoculars.
94. Hem those two dresses which have been rolled up in my sewing kit for years.
95. Handle a snake.
96. Let a spider crawl over me.
97. One outing with the ladies-of-leisure early-morning bird-watching group.
98. Figure out a recipe for Amarula fudge.
99. Put up mosquito nets in both bedrooms.
100. Get my mattress back from wherever it is. Buy some decent pillows and blankets.
101. Be able to find and name 100 stars.
PELA GRAÇA DO DEUS
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