March was quite the month. My family
was here in Mozambique for nearly 3 full weeks. We stayed in Nampula
city (the city they flew into) the first 2 days to give them a chance
to relax and lets be honest- to not have complete culture
shock. I think they were pretty shocked anyway. I saw them as soon as
they stepped off of the airplane. Well, I saw a white man with a
safari hat and large fanny-pack and figured it had to be my dad. I
walked around and met them outside of the luggage pick-up. We were
immediately swarmed by taxi drivers and airport staff looking for a
quick tip by carrying bags. I'll never forget the drive from the
airport to our hotel. My mom and sister were screaming at literally
everything. Completely mundane, everyday things. “Look at that man
standing in the back of that truck!” “Look at those tires on the
side of the road!!!” And my personal favorite, “oh my gosh,
you're really speaking Portuguese!” I mean, really? I've lived here
for 2 years! Of course I'm speaking Portuguese to the taxi driver.
Its pretty surreal having your family in the place that you've come
to think of as home and suddenly realize that they know next to
nothing about what your life is like.Probably the greatest thing I learned from their time here is just how much I've learned living in Mozambique.
Our time in Nampula was fairly
uneventful, from my end at least. My mom and sister were able to do
some souvenir shopping and I took full advantage of the meals we
enjoyed at restaurants I normally can't afford to eat at. I was a
nervous wreck walking around the city with them and all the
valuables- tons of cash, iphones, video camera. To this day they
don't realize how dangerous Nampula can be. I'm so grateful they
didn't witness it in person while they were here. Our closest call
happened at the Sunday market, a place where you can buy anything
from baskets and jewelry to furniture and chickens. The Sunday market
is always jam packed with locals (few tourists brave the crowd) and
some punks took advantage of the environment to try and pick-pocket
my dad. One of the kids pretended that my dad had stepped on his foot
and while he was distracted another kid went through his fanny pack.
Thankfully, there was nothing in it.
We had planned on leaving Nampula for
Monapo early on Monday morning. Long story short, our driver was
completely incompetent and we left 7 hours later. This would be their
first lesson in a very important aspect of Mozambican culture- no one
is ever in a hurry. The phrase “Estou a vir” or “I'm coming”
can mean the person will be there anywhere between 10 minutes and 3
hours. I knew they were freaking out, so I tried my best to assuage
their anxiety. “It's gonna be ok guys- TIA (This Is Africa).”
We arrived at my house in Monapo about
6:30pm. It was pitch black out but that of course didn't stop my
neighbors from hearing the car pull up. I knew how excited they were,
knew that they'd been waiting all day for our arrival. The kids
helped unpack the extremely full car and we set up the mosquito net
for the extra mattress. Its difficult having additional people in
your house (with no running water and spotty electricity and bugs and
dust like you can't imagine and a cat and 3 kittens...) but it's even
harder when those 3 additional people are Americans who have never
before been to Africa. I was expecting the worst.
The 3 days we spent in Monapo flew by.
We would wake up early and before you knew it, it was getting dark
outside and we were deciding on what to do for dinner. We spent the
majority of the days out in my yard playing with the neighborhood
kids and talking with some of the adults (rather they talked and I
just translated). When my dad wasn't doing yard work, he was sitting
under this shaded structure in my yard writing in his journal or
acting out charades with my neighbor. My mom brought tons of toys
for the kids and jewelry for the adults. Everyone was pretty wild
over their gifts!
Later in the week we left Monapo for
Chocas- a touristy little beach town that is very difficult to get to
and quite possibly my favorite place in Mozambique. The road isn't
paved and gets pretty messed up during the rainy season. My family
was completely freaked out but I kept reassuring them, “Don't
worry! This road isn't even that bad! I've been on ones MUCH worse!”
Needless to say, we have some entertaining video of the trip. Once
again, TIA. Carrusca, the resort we stayed at in Chocas, is an
additional 3km outside of the town. Other than a few locals and
fisherman that pass through, the place is pretty isolated. Except for
Saturday and Sunday, we were the only ones on the beach for as far as
the eye can see. This part of the trip is what I'd call a typical
“vacation”. Sleeping in, enjoying breakfast on the veranda of the
bungalow, laying on the beach, taking a nap in a hammock, getting
dressed up for dinner and then coming back to star-gaze and drink
wine. One morning Janine and I took a dhow boat (wooden sailboat) to
an island just off the mainland. It wasn't my first time to the
island but it was still beautiful. Little tide pools full of sea
creatures and beautiful shells everywhere. I think we saw at least 15
big, bright starfish. But you must not forget, this is Mozambique and
of course is not without its challenges, even when you're on
vacation. Our first night in Chocas the electricity went off around
6pm and we ate dinner by headlamp-light. There is no bank in the town
of Chocas (ie- no ATM) and the credit card machine at the resort's
restaurant wasn't working. So we really had to watch our money to
make sure we'd have enough to get out and move on to our next
destination. Janine and I woke up one night to a mouse crawling
directly above our heads on the palm-thatched roof of our bungalow.
That was a long night. And finally-the restaurant serves seafood and
chicken, so when your body starts to reject the rich and buttery
lobster, fish, clams, shrimp and squid, you're left with very limited
dinner options.
I knew they'd be excited to move on to
the tourist-friendly Ilha de Moçambique
(Mozambique Island) as there are more sightseeing activities, shops
and restaurants. There's also a bank! Ilha was once the capital of
Mozambique so it has a unique history and rich culture. We toured the
museum and were shocked by the lack of security for the items on
display. By the end we couldn't help but joke- “This carpet we are
walking on is definitely from the 1500s.” On Friday the Peace Corps
Volunteers were having a beach party for St. Patty's Day so we went
and had dinner and drinks with them. It was nice to have my family
meet some of my friends here. The next night Janine and I went with
the others to the island's discoteca or dance club. It's just an
ocean-front area with tables and chairs and a small cement dance
floor. But we don't need a fancy space to have a good time. We danced
until 2am and ended up being the last out of our group to leave. We
walked the whole length of the island to get back to our hotel and
less than a minute away from the hotel's front door, my purse was
stolen. This kid just ripped the body of the bag off the strap (the
purse was made out of braided plastic bags). Luckily, I only lost
about $4 and a fancy lipgloss. The hotel, unfortunately, lost a key
to their front door and our guest-room. I had absolutely no
confidence in the police to patrol the surrounding area and prevent
the thief from coming back and coming inside. TIA. And, because we
were the hotel's only guests, I moved my mattress out to the hotel's
lobby and my dad sat on a couch with a hammer. I guess we can both
cross guarding a Mozambican hotel off the list. The rest of our time
was less eventful. We would walk around the island during the day
taking pictures of the unique architecture and beautiful people, then
go back to our rooms to wash up and go out for a fancy dinner. I go
to Ilha de Mozambique quite often but I normally only allow myself
one fancy meal out (and one fancy drink to go along with it). So it
was quite the luxury ordering anything I wanted at the fanciest
places on the island and a glass of wine on the side!
We
spent a couple of days back in Monapo before their flight out. We
brought back fish from the island and helped my neighbors to make a
delicious fish dinner. Besides playing with all the neighborhood kids
we also visited some people my family didn't get to meet the first
time. There
is an American missionary family with 4 small kids. They regularly
invite my sitemates and me over for incredible home-cooked, American
dinners. And colleagues stopped by to meet in person the people that
I so often talk about. Overall, I was super impressed by how well my
family did during the trip. Living here sure ain't easy but what many
people don't know is that “vacationing” in Mozambique is
challenging as well. The good together with the bad results in three
weeks that will definitely stand out from my approximately 116
week-long service. Saying goodbye to my neighbors was hard for my
family but also very difficult for me. A wake-up call to the fact
that I will be doing the same in a few months. We parted ways in the
Nampula airport but it wasn't too hard to say goodbye. For as hard as
it will be to leave Mozambique, I have family and friends waiting for
me, and the wait is over in just 4 months.
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