Michael Jackson in Mozambique

So, there are some really strange things here with the culture that caught me off guard. It wasn't the food, or the language, or behavior. It was the fact that everybody I run into thinks that I'm a DJ (not TJ) and wants to hear if I know about Michael Jackson.

I tell them "Yes, I know. He's dead." And that's where the fun begins. For whatever reason, people over here believe the strangest rumors about absolutely anything. Everybody I talk to has heard a different story on what happened to Michael Jackson and they're all the funniest things ever. Most of them revolve around the fact that he is not dead. So far, best I can tell (because my Portuguese is still coming along), here are my favorite Michael Jackson rumors:

• He has 365 bedrooms in his house - one for every day of the year.


• There was a trap door in the bottom of his casket and he escaped during the funeral.


• There was a trap door in the bottom of his casket and he's living in an underground cave below the cemetery.


• He got trapped inside the internet (most the internet here is on mobile phones, so everybody has been able to download Michael Jackson music now).


• He escaped to Brazil to get plastic surgery and is now a new music star in Brazil (I forget the name they told me of the new singer they think is really MJ).


• One person I talked to says that her sister saw MJ in Maputo (the capital of Moz.) and he was there on his way to hide out in Tanzania to get plastic surgery.

The funniest part is that people are deadly serious about this, and Christina and I just get to comiserate because we think its the funniest thing ever. For more on the lighter side of life in Mozambique, tune in next week