I was lucky enough to arrive on one of the busiest weeks of the year in terms of public events because of the 4^th of July holiday. On Thursday all of the interns worked to prepare and decorate the ambassador’s house for the annual evening celebration. It was to be quite a party and I was fascinated by how much thought and time went into every little detail. My official job once the event started was “house minder” which meant that while mingling, eating and drinking, I had to stay inside and keep an eye on a few rooms with valuable items on shelves. I also had to make sure that nobody went upstairs into the residential part of the estate. Suffice to say, I will happily sign up to be “house minder” anytime in the future – it was a great gig. I know that other staff were rolling their eyes at having to be at “just another fancy evening event” but for me it was super exciting and I had to hold myself back from taking too many pictures.

The purpose of the event was to invite Mozambican dignitaries to celebrate America’s Independence Day together and thus not every staff member at the embassy was invited because space was limited. Thus, we interns were thrilled to be able to go even though we had to “work”. The evening started with an elaborate receiving line which escorted guests outside where drinks and hours d’oeuvres were being served. They couldn’t find a chef who would do American cuisine so we had French food with an American twist (think bbq crepes – an interesting combination, to say the least). After both national anthems were sung and the flag was raised by the Marines there were speeches by Ambassador Pittman and various representatives of Mozambique. Everything was in Portuguese and I was impressed at the Ambassador’s commitment to and quality of the language. After an impressive amount of food and drinks, the party ended promptly at 9 pm. After cleaning up everyone who still wanted to hang out headed back to the interns’ house, which is the informally designated “after-party” location of sorts. There are people hanging out there at all hours and I’m so grateful to have my own room so I can escape the chaos if I want to.

A day later, on Saturday, the embassy hosted a community 4^th of July picnic at the American International School. My job was to sell food and drink tickets which was fun because then I got to meet everyone who came for the event. Besides serving lunch (hamburgers, hot dogs and grilled chicken) and drinks (pop, beer and sangria) there were lawn games, a bounce house, basketball and volleyball, a chili cook-off and a bake-off. There was also a DJ who played American music for the entire event. I had a great time especially because I got to meet and talk to Ambassador Pittman and his husband. The Ambassador is from the South and calls everybody “sweetheart” which initially caught me completely off guard as I haven’t spent much time in the South. Probably the most interesting part of the day was chatting with the regional security officer of the embassy who was making change for the tickets I was selling. He had spent a lot of his career in Brazil before being placed in Mozambique so we had a lot to talk about. At the end of the day they gave all of the interns a goodie bag for helping out and it had a bottle of wine, red, white and blue Mozambican printed ties and bows, pins, stickers and pencils. Once again, everyone came over to the interns’ shared house to continue the celebrations. I usually make it until about 10:30 or 11pm at which point I climb into my mosquito net and put in my ear plugs. Happy 4^th of July!