Mommy

Just a funny story:

I crossed Inhambane Bay to go to Maxixe to develop film for the Photography Club yesterday. After the boat breaking down 100 meters from the dock, a 10 minute panic session, more than a few attempts to start the motor again with a ratty piece of string, and finally a sucessful pull, I got to the other side of the Bay. As I was walking through a maze of street sellers peddling anything from bootleg films and music cds, to fruit, to boiled peanuts, to cloth, to sunglasses, one of the young guys that sells these colorful, mostly Chinese products, greeted me with a repeated, "Mommy, mommy, mommy." He was trying to get my attention, but my coping mechenism in situations like this is just to ignore and keep walking. As a kept walking he kept calling me that I I couldn't understand why. Then it hit me that perhaps he was trying to use the ever popular latino term of inderearment "Mami." His pronunciation just sounded more like how a 3 year old child would say it!