Didn't I say I had grand plans to travel? Boy, did I do that. So here
is a summary of my 2 week vacation. I basically traveled the entire
country, 7 different provinces, in 19 days. Here's what I did:
Day 1: (Buzi to Sussundenga) Left the house at around 9 AM and
traveled all day by chapa to arrive at my destination at around 5:30
PM. Met my friends, cooked and ate dinner, and then off to bed.
Day 2: (Sussudenga) This is the site of my friend Dov. He teaches
Chemistry to 9th graders, and today, he is having a science fair for
his students. This is a school level fair, where winners will be
chosen to attend the regional fair. I was very happy to have been
there. I had my fair a couple of weeks ago, but it was not nearly as
successful. I only had 6 participants, and their projects were not as
creative as some of Dov's students. He had 15 participants, with a
great panel of judges and a lot of participation from the audience. I
was very proud of him. The turn-out of the fair rests entirely on how
hard the Peace Corp volunteer works, and judging from the many people
that showed up, he worked very hard. It's always amazing to me how
these students can come up with these different experiments with
resources available in their towns. How can they think of these
different things when some of their teachers don't really know how to
teach, when their libraries have no books, and when they cannot go
online to do research? Shocking.
After the fair, we ate with our country director, who also attended,
and then said good-bye to him. Then Dov and I climbed a little hill
and walked around Sussundenga. I LOVE visiting other volunteers'
sites. It makes you appreciate your site so much more, and it makes
you feel less alone. Sussundenga was a really beautiful site. The
drive into the town is full of endless land and mountains, and because
of the higher elevation, it was nice and cool. The town was large
enough for him to get a lot of what he needed in terms of food, but
was also small enough that you could walk all the way through in 1 to
2 hours. ( I should know. I got lost and did end up walking almost the
entire town). Suss was also only 45 minutes from the large city,
Chimoio, so he had no problem traveling. Though it was very beautiful,
it made me appreciate my site a lot, too. I was so happy that I have
an indoor bathroom, so that taking morning showers outside with the
cold breeze was not a problem. I'm also grateful to my neighbors, and
I'm also happy that many of the people in Buzi know who I am. They're
used to having a foreigner around, so they don't make fun of me as
much.
Day 3: (Sussudenga to Chimoio) In the morning, we walked around Dov's
site some more so that I could look for clothes to buy. A lot of mine
are starting to have holes in them, but we were not successful in
finding good clothes. After lunch, we headed for Chimoio. We were
planning on taking the 4AM bus from here to the next site, Quelimane,
a 10 hour trip away. Well, when we got there, the tickets were already
sold out, so we had to stay at another volunteer's site, and find a
ride the next day. So, we called up Trineise, a health volunteer,
whose site was Chimoio. She had a very nice house to herself, but I'm
not sure about having Chimoio as a site. Although it's a very nice
city, my favorite by far, it's too large. Nobody knows your name.
People don't come to your house to visit. You can't really walk around
at night. Dov and I got lost and walked around for almost an hour
looking for our pizza restaurant. I much prefer the small town feel of
Buzi. She was very nice to put us up. It's awesome that we can just
crash at people's houses without having to pay for a hotel. With all
that money we saved, Dov and I decided to splurge on pizza for dinner,
and damn, it was sooooooo good.
Day 4: (Chimoio to Quelimane) Since we missed the bus that would take
us directly to Quelimane, we had to get up at 5 to catch a chapa out
of Chimoio to another town where we could catch another bus to
Quelimane. Luckily, we made it to Inchope and by 7:30 AM, were on our
way on a bus. The bus ride was from 7:30 to 4:30. That was 9 hours!
The distance is not that far, but with the roads being bad, the bus
not being very fast, and us having stops every couple of hours for
people to pee in the bushes, it took us forever! Good thing we hadn't
slept that well the night before and I had a book to read. When we got
to Quelimane, we had 3 options: paying for a hotel, staying with a
volunteer, or sleeping on the bus. Staying with a volunteer meant that
we had to get a hold of her, and neither of us have yet to meet this
girl. Paying for a hotel meant spending money, so that we didn't want
to do. The other option was to sleep on the bus. We had to buy our
ticket to our next stop, Nampula, that night anyway, and in this
country, you can just sleep on the bus until it leaves early the next
morning. I didn't really like this option because sleeping on the bus
meant having to deal with mosquitoes buzzing in your ear the whole
night, not to mention having to sit up. We were so lucky to have
gotten in contact with the volunteer there, Sarah, who totally hooked
us up with a place to stay. Peace Corps volunteers are the best! Even
though we'd never met, she offered us a mattress, and her house had a
friggin' shower! I was so ridiculously happy after that 10 hour bus
ride.
My thoughts on Quelimane as a site. Though Sarah had a bombass house,
I did not like her site. The city was a very large city, larger than
Chimoio; I think the 4th largest city in Mozambique. It was filthy in
some parts, and crowded. Walking to dinner that night, I was afraid of
getting mugged. Again, you don't get to know people and they don't
know you as well. Something about being in a city makes me lose that
feeling of comradery and tranquility that I have in my little town.
Day 5: (Quelimane to Nampula) So, I went from Chimoio, central, to
Quelimane, a little more north, to Nampula, which is basically the
north. Dov and I had to wake up 4:30 AM that morning to catch the bus
to Nampula. Good thing we bought our ticket the night before. Though
the first bus ride was also long, this bus ride seemed worse for some
reason. I didn't like that they packed so many people into the bus.
All the seats were already sold and occupied, yet we kept making stops
along the way to pick up more and more people. There were tons of
people sitting in the bus isle and towards the front where the door
was. It made it way difficult to get out and pee, and it was so hot.
Dov and I got really bored, too, so we ended up playing 20 questions a
lot. We did not arrive in Nampula until 3 PM, the 3rd largest city in
Mozambique.
This city houses our Peace Corps office for the northern regions, but
not sites for volunteers. Therefore, Dov and I had to walk around with
our Lonely Planet book looking for a place to stay. We finally found a
place that was cheap and gave a tiny discount to PC volunteers. When
we got to our room, it had an odor to it. The shower did not have hot
water, and though it advertised AC, there was none. I didn't care too
much because I was happy they had any kind of shower, period. We were
unpacking when Dov opened a drawer, and we saw something furry with a
tail. It was definitely some kind of animal, but he immediately shut
it. I don't know why, but he opened the drawer again, but the animal
had disappeared. But being Dov, he tried the drawer to the left of it,
and found nothing. I warned him not to open the one to the right, but
he did it anyway, and the damn rat leaped out the drawer and scurried
across the room under our bed. WTF! I was really freaked out, but what
could we have done? So we just went to dinner and then went to bed.
Stupid cheap hotel. Dinner was really good, though, cause I got to eat
Lebanese food and met up with 2 other volunteers on their way through
Nampula, as well. Yum! It's funny how there are volunteers everywhere.
Day 6: (Nampula to Muecate) We got out of that rat-infested hotel
early and headed over to the Peace Corps office to meet up our friend
Diana, who we were going to travel with the rest of the way. After
that, the 3 of us walked around Nampula for a bit and then had lunch
with another volunteer from our group Margaret, a health volunteer
from the North. Lebanese food, and I got ice-cream. Damn man. You
don't appreciate ice-cream until you never get to have it, so that
even the soft-serve stuff like the kind from McDonalds would make you
orgasm in your pants. I LOVE ice-cream! Then we walked to the chapa
stop to travel to Diana's site, a small town about 1 hour outside of
Nampula.
Diana and her roommate Rebekah, both from my year, had a wonderfully
huge house. It was so cute! But the girls did not get along with the
director of their school and the town was brown and dusty. I'm sure
there is real beauty to it, but it made me miss Buzi a little since
our site is so green and the buildings are somewhat colonial looking.
It was nice to catch up with them.
Day 7: (Muecate to Ilha de Mozambique) We left around 5:30 AM by chapa
and arrived at Ilha around lunch time. Thank goodness that wasn't too
long a ride. Finally made it to the goal of my travels.
Fucking Ilha… It was such a wonderful site! Did you know that it's a
World Heritage Center? Not in many places can you find this
combination of Indian, Chinese, African, and Portuguese culture. This
island was discovered by Vasco da Gama around the same time America
was supposedly discovered by Christopher Columbus. The Portuguese then
proceeded to transform it into this huge trading spot, and since the
Portuguese also had territorial claims in Macau and India, they
brought a lot of that influence over to Ilha, as well.
Ilha is actually an island that's connected by a 3km bridge to the
main land. The town is actually divided into 2 parts: the stone town,
and the Mecula town. The stone town was the Portuguese part, where
houses were made mostly of stone. The Mecula town was the African
part, where houses were made of mud, reeds, or concrete, the normal
way. Most of the people lived in the Mecula part. The stone part is
where the tourist hotels and restaurants were, the hostpital, and the
school. My friend Meagan was lucky enough to be placed in Ilha, and
had a house in the stone part of town, so again, free lodging for us!
When we got there, we ate lunch at a nice café owned by some Eurpeans.
As we walked through the town earlier, I'd already felt like we'd left
Africa from all the stone houses, but eating at this nice café made me
feel even more like I'd left the continent. In the afternoon, we went
to the beach. My first real beach in Mozambique! The water was clear,
the sand white, and only a few tourists around. What more could I have
asked for? We sunned and swam, and on chilled on the beach. Later in
the afternoon, more of the locals came around to swim, so it felt a
little more like Africa again, but a more beautiful and relaxing
Africa.
On our way back to Meagan's house, we saw a guy carrying 2 giant
lobsters in his hand walking down the street, and we bought one for 6
bucks. It was about the size of lower arm, from fingers to elbow. WE
boiled that baby up and lemon-butter sauced it. Soooooo good. My mouth
is watering as I write this. YUM –EE. Nothing like fresh lobster. It
was so funny cause Diana had never had lobster before, and she loved
it. No one knew how to cook it, but leave it to the girl from Texas to
represent. Then we were still hungry to so went for beers and dinner
at the local restaurant. More fresh fish curry, Mozambican style. I'd
died and gone to seafood heaven.
Day 8: (Ilha to Chokas) The next day, we'd wanted to leave Ilha for
another island beach off of Ilha called Chokas Beach, but it rained,
so we decided to do the museum tours of Ilha and look at the oldest
fort in Sub-Saharan Africa first. I took a tour of the old governor's
house. Before Mozambique got its independence 35 years ago, it was
controlled by the Portuguese, who decided that Ilha was the capitol of
Mozambique. They'd built this huge house for their governor, and I got
to tour it. They'd brought over a lot of furniture from China and
India, and I think these two cultures also had a very large influence
on the way the people lived and navigated the waters around
Mozambique. I also got to tour the church and saw how they designed
their stone houses to collect water. It was awesome! Then we went to
the fort. It was really pretty and well-laid out, but I was toured out
by this time, so I just took a whole lot of pretty pictures.
Then we ordered egg sandwiches to-go and since the weather got so much
nicer, we headed off to Chokas Beach. Okay, so Chokas, hands down, is
the best beach I've been to. If you're the type to like beaches with
nice resorts, top-of-the notch hand and feet service, lined with bars
offering all types of good drinks and food, and hot men and women in
skimpy bikinis to look at, then Chokas is NOT the beach for you. But
if you're like me, and you like the white sand, the clear, calm water,
the breeze blowing through your hair as you sit bathing in the sun,
and the sound of the waves hitting the shores, then Chokas is the
beach of your dreams. It's exactly that. We'd found a shack to stay
in, with no electricity nor bathroom. I had to sneak into another
house to use their bathroom, but atleast it was cheap. The guard of
the shack was also our chef, since we just bought fish, octopus, and
clams fresh off the beach and let him cook it for us. We'd tried to
walk down a little ways to the only restaurant in sight to drink, but
it also didn't have energy for a long time. Good thing the beers were
cold.
So if there was no electricity, and no "scene", why did I adore Chokas
so much? I guess because of the tranquility of it all. It was so
shocking to me that there still existed places undiscovered by man
that were so gorgeous. When we got there, there seriously was no one
on the beach except the four of us. The shacks and houses were up a
little ways, so you couldn't even see them, so it was almost like
being on a gorgeous beach on a deserted island. We swam, we read, and
we just laid there listening to the ocean. No music from some bar up.
No children screaming. Maybe because I'd been cooped up in my little
village for too long and was too ecstatic at the sight of a beach.
Maybe because I was awed by the fact that this dreamy beach has not
been polluted with human existence. Who knows. I was really happy.
Day 9: (Chokas to Ilha to Carapira) That night it was really cold and
uncomfortable to sleep cause the house with no energy had no mattress
as well. I didn't bring a sleeping bag, and the breeze was very strong
at night, but that awfulness washed away with the waves as I watched
the sun come up. And then I took my IPOD and walked along the shores
for an hour before swimming in the morning ocean. Damn…. THAT's the
reason you ought to join Peace Corps! Not to help people, but for the
chance to visit places like this! Haha… just kidding. But seriously,
if I had not joined PC, I never could have imagined a beach like this.
Too bad we only had 1 day there, and had to head back to Ilha the next
morning to travel some more. We showered at Meagan's and ate lunch on
Ilha before heading off to visit another volunteer's site in Carapira,
Amanda's site.
Carapira is a very, very small town, but it's located right along a
highway, so it's not difficult to travel from there. Amanda's school
is a technical school, which meant that it was for students who wanted
to become agricultural workers or carpenters. She only had 3 to four
turmas a day, with the class size ranging from 16 to 25 students. Can
you believe that?! I have 5 to 6 turmas a day ranging from 50 to 70
students. Her students pay around 2500 meticais a year to attend,
whereas my students pay 300 meticais a year. So ofcourse, the
facilities were a lot nicer. She was very well integrated into her
small town.
See what I mean by each volunteer having a completely different site?
That's why you can't really enter into training and expect to come out
prepared cause there's no way the training staff can prepare you for
the range of sites available. I always wonder why people would quit
during training. All you need to do is stick it out a couple of months
and your life could completely change. Well, anyways, we walked around
with Amanda a little and had a great dinner.
Day 10: (Carapira to Pemba) We left the next day around 7:30 AM and
caught a ride on an 18-wheeler to arrive at Pemba at around 5 PM.
Starting here, the lodging just gets better and better. So…. Pemba is
boasted to have one of the most beautiful beaches in Mozambique. We
arrived on a Sunday, and the beach was packed. You can imagine my
disappointment after being on Chokas, but people assured us that it
was only Sunday traffic. They're usually not that packed. Because of
the beautiful beaches, there is a lot of foreigners in Pemba, just
like in Ilha. That made it cleaner, more expensive, and safer to walk
around, mostly. Very touristy. Our lodging is called Russel's Place,
which is basically a camp for backpackers. I never knew what it felt
like to be a backpacker until I joined Peace Corps. I gotta say, it's
pretty awesome. You pick yourself a guidebook, pack some clothes, a
tent, and a sleeping bag and get on the road. Follow the directions in
the book and show yourself around. It's awesome. Sometimes, the tent
is not even necessary cause at Russel's, they provide you with a bed
and sheets, very much like a dorm situation. The bathroom is communal,
and it even had hot water, which felt so good. You can go eat at a
restaurant or you can just buy food, make yourself a campfire and
cook. When you have time, sit around the bar and drink and meet other
backpackers and hear their story. Unfortunately, we already had our
own group so we didn't do any mingling, but if I were to go by myself…
shit… I'd talk to other people. We were also so tired from traveling,
all we could do was eat and then we went to bed.
Day 11: (Pemba) It rained this day, so all we did was find a
restaurant on the beach and vegged out. So relaxing to listen to your
ipod and read a book on the beach. Then the sun came out, and we went
tide pooling. You know me, I love science and biology, so it was so
fun for me to go into the tide pools to look for funky sea creatures.
I found some really cool sea urchins, starfishes, eels, snails, all
kinds of things. Then we met up with Sara, a health volunteer that
works in Pemba and went to her house. Remember how I said every
volunteer has a different experience? Well, Sara lives maybe 5 minutes
from the beach and walks along the beach everyday to get to her
workplace. There are tons of foreigners and ex-patriots in Pemba so
she has lots of foreigner friends. However, everything is also more
expensive in Pemba, so she can't really save money and doesn't travel
out of site that much, unlike me, who likes to get out every chance I
get. Things are also way cheaper in Buzi, and since it is so in the
middle of nowhere, no one ever comes to visit me. Sara, on the other
hand, has a visitor every month, which I wouldn't think is too great
cause then you'd have to play host on a low budget. Not too fun. Damn.
Okay so I'm just gonna post this now but I still have more days to
describe and one more beach to rate, but that'll have to be for next
time.
