Mozambique

This past week was my first business trip (!!) and the destination was Tofo, Mozambique. On Monday morning Christy picked me up bright and early at 6:30 AM to make the long drive 11 hour drive from Swaziland. About two hours into the trip we arrive at the border in Goba and the contrast was quite striking. In Swaziland, the customs building is this beautiful modern wooden structure and the Swazis greeted us with warm smiles; the border in Mozambique was on the dumpy side and nuttin but stern looks as we get shuttled around from station to station (Christy has informed me the process changes each time she crosses the border). About an hour later, we cruise through the capital of Maputo and begin the 8 hour drive through the country... which makes Stow, Mass look like a booming metropolis. There were no rest areas on this route, and Christy had each bathroom stop carefully planned. I decide going forward that nature will be my rest area as my L.L. Bean flip flops are not getting near those bathrooms. We get pulled over twice by police, one that insists she has crossed the center line and Christy warns me that corruption is a problem and bribes are common... it's late and we have a quick bite to eat (calamari for me) at Tofo Tofo down the road.

(Tofo is pronounced Tofu and it's very very hot.)

On Tuesday we are getting ready for our ocean safari (!!) and have a quick meeting with the owners of the dive center. I'm a little bit nervous about this new adventure, not because I'm about to swim in the open water, but because [quite frankly] I'm not sure I can get my arse into the boat. I was pretty confident going into the trip, but then I find out once your in the water, you have to get back in (which in retrospect makes total sense). There's about ten of us on the ocean safari and we walk down to the Indian Ocean to meet our ride... which is really like a big rubber dingy. We push and push and then the ladies are instructed to climb aboard, which means you jump as hard as you can over the side, reach for the foot strap (with your hands!) and then very ungracefully you fall into the boat with your white bum held high into the air. We cruise at pretty high speeds to whale shark territory, sitting on the side of the boat holding on for dear life... and it such a rush! On this particular day we find a few humpback dolphins, some manta rays (which I sadly did not see), and a whale shark! I have had a little crush on the whale shark for years, and it was quite a special moment to be swimming alongside my new friend. (I will spare you the embarrassing details regarding how I got back into the boat.) Following the safari, we had lunch at Dino's with our Coordinator... then we went on the turtle conservation walk... and that was that.

On Wednesday, I spent the day with the Assistant Coordinator. A few of the volunteers had to get their visa extended so we made the trip to Maxixe (pronounced Mashish) which sounded easy enough to me when I first heard the plan. First we took the shoppa to Inhambane.... a 45 minutes drive on a minibus that far extended its capacity. It was hot and it was smelly. Then we walked to the waterfront and boarded a "ferry" to Maxixe. The ferry was basically a dingy, again filled past capacity, that managed to get stuck on a sand bar and smelled like the live chicken in the bag sitting next to me. About two hours later we arrived and I was sweaty. We waited about an hour at the immigration building, went for breakfast, and then eventually made our way back to Tofo after a few errands. Let me also add that I spent the way back on the bus to Tofo with a sack of potatoes that were not mine. That afternoon it was time for English club at the local school... Christy was on my bad list today because she did not give me fair warning. DEAR LORD... I would guess the walk was 2-3 km through a jungle of palm trees in the blazing sun in 4-6 inches of hot sand. We arrive at the school, heart palpitating and sweat dripping from every single pore, and walk into a stand alone classroom made out of straw. The room was filled with 20-30 of the cutest students I have ever seen (which made me less angry at Christy) and one of our volunteers conducted the English class today. Imagine all these young Mozambiquans reciting in unison "My grandma is a woman." SO FRIGGEN CUTE and the walk from hell was completely forgotten. That night we went to the whale shark talk delivered by our research director and had dinner with him and his lady friend that evening.

On Thursday it was another day with the Assistant Coordinator and that morning we visited two of the orphanages. The first one was in great shape with nice buildings, great staff, and the cutest kids you have ever seen. As we walked across the campus, they dangled from any part of my body they could latch on to and I fell in love over and over and over again. The second orphanage... not so much. This orphanage was significantly more run down, less desirable staff, and some orphans with some pretty significant issues. One of the girls had diabetes (or so we think) and her foot had started to rot... which now makes me feel like I should complain less about my life. We then went grocery shopping for the volunteers which took a while because the groceries were not nicely bundled in one air conditioned store (imagine that!) ... basic groceries in one store... the bread in another... and the produce in yet another. (And tonight I am going to write a proposal to Shaw's.) That night the research director had a meeting for his association in which conservation type stuff was discussed.

After a long week in the blazing soon and getting acquainted to doing stuff the Mozambique way, Friday was lazy day! I continued to read "Power of One"... which I have been meaning to read for YEARS... and then chilled at the volunteer house for a while. The volunteer house is right on the ocean and is BEAUTIFUL if you can ignore the fact that the steps are falling apart and the water does not work every day. Our new intern arrived from Portugal that afternoon and we had dinner at Tofo Tofo (calamari again).

Saturday we were departed at 6 AM and it was back to Mozambique. Packed tightly in the back seat was our luggage and one of the volunteers... he had finished two months in Mozambique and was heading to the conservation project in Swazi for another two months. Another long trip back and that night we had a Braai at the lodge and I was able to secure Tent 8 with Susie for the next month and that made me very happy.

As I reflect upon the last two weeks, there have definitely been plenty of ups and downs. Some days I feel that my head must be broken for moving to Swazi and there are other times where I feel extraordinarily lucky... like last night when we were all hanging around the three picnic tables on the porch, finishing our dinner, and one of the volunteer set up "It's Complicated" on the big outdoor screen. We all settled in to the movie, laughed together while weird African critters made noises in the background... then I went to the bathroom and noticed that my nicely manicured eyebrows are now completely overgrown ...