It’s hard to believe that I’ve
already taught 2 trimesters of the 6 I will teach in my two years here. Time sure does fly. With the end of every trimester comes a short
break that education volunteers tend to take full advantage of. Lee, a health volunteer in Gurue, has named
these breaks PCV tourist season because as soon as school lets out, we are all
on the move.
For this two week break, Mireya and
I planned a packed trip. First
destination: Gurue, Zambezia. Of course,
getting anywhere is always an adventure.
Mireya and I had an unusually difficult time of getting to Nampula this
time around but after two buses (one of which broke down…), a truck, two
personal pick-up trucks, and 11 hours later (mind you it normally takes less
than 6 hours to get to Nampula from Montepuez) we finally arrive in
Nampula. The inconvenient thing about
Nampula is that it is expensive, a little dangerous, and there are no PCVs to
crash with. Even after 11 hours of
travelling, we still had to continue on to Morrupula to stay in a PCV’s house. So we met up with Derek (who had much better
luck than we did getting to Nampula) and caught the last chapa out of Nampula
to Morrupula. Finally, 3 more hours of
riding backwards on the tiny ledge behind the driver seat and locking knees
with an old man, we arrived at our first pit stop.
The volunteer in Morrupula was
actually in Maputo the night we came to stay so she had left her keys with her
new Brazilian neighbor. Some of the most
interesting people I meet here aren’t actually Mozambican but like me, somehow
ended up in this country almost completely randomly. We took her out to dinner and, although
tired, resigned ourselves to speaking Portuguese for a few more hours. Well into the conversation, she reveals that
she speaks English! I’m thinking, well
geez, why have I been struggling to spit out broken Portuguese when she speaks
English? Of course, she speaks English
only a little better than we speak Portuguese so the conversation continued flowing
smoothly betweeen English and Portuguese as we saw fit to express whatever it
was we were trying to say. For me, those
bilingual conversations can be the most fun.
She had to raise the bar, though, when she admitted to going to graduate
school in Germany and therefore also spoke German fluently. The United States needs to get it’s act
together because from what I gather, we’re the only ones who really only master
one language… My students speak
Portuguese plus whatever dialect they speak at home plus they are learning
(though not that successfully perhaps to no fault of their own…) English and
French in school.
Anyways, back to our trip. We woke up early the next morning and caught
a ride to Alto Moloque. Crossing the
river into Zambezia, everything was immediately greener. Then, as we climbed into the mountains in an
open back from Alto Moloque, it became obvious we were a long way from sandy,
rocky Cabo Delgado. When we finally made
it to Gurue… just, wow. If I combined
the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to, it wouldn’t compare. Zambezia is the most fertile province in
Mozambique and Gurue certainly exemplifies that. Even though I think I can spit more than the
rain we’ve gotten in Montepuez since May, Gurue was damp and muddy. Maybe you have to live somewhere as dry as
Montepuez for a while to appreciate sloshing around in the market. Maybe the insane variety of cheap produce in
the market made me think I liked the mud, who knows. What I do know is that we went crazy over
carrots (a kilo in Gurue was probably about 20 mets when in Montepuez it’s
100!!!) The most striking things,
however, are tucked away in the mountains just outside of Gurue. Tea plantations, eucalyptus groves,
waterfalls… a runner’s/hiker’s dream.
I’ve dedicated another post just to pictures from Gurue. Seriously, paradise.
 |
| Mireya, me, and Derek snug as bugs in a rug. Yes, Gurue was cold enough for a big fuzzy blanket. It was delightful. |
 |
| Me, Patrick, Patrick's sister, Derek, and Mireya, hanging out in Gurue. You can't see it but Patrick's sister is sporting one of our REDES bags!!! |
After a few days, Derek, Mireya and
I begrudgingly said goodbye to Gurue and made our way to Cuamba, Niassa. Cuamba is really just a huge
intersection. Pretty much the only way
into or out of Niassa is through Cuamba, not to mention it’s on a popular route
to Malawi. Cuamba really doesn’t have
much scenery to speak of and is notorious for being DUHUHS-TY. You can see the dustcloud over the city from
miles away. However, what Cuamba lacked
in hospitality, our PCV host Zackaria made up for. We spent an entire day relaxing, eating
chocolate and homemade hummus, and watching new media. Well, Mireya, Derek, and Zackaria did
anyways. I unfortunately had to spend my
relaxing day hugging a toilet and battling a fever. But that’s just how it is. In anycase, I chose an awesome house to be
sick in as Zackaria has running water, a tiled bathroom, and even a working
shower!
Luckily I was feeling better by the
time Mireya and I continued on to our next destination: Lichinga, Niassa. I’ve seen some bad roads in Mozambique but
almost nothing comapares to the road connecting Cuamba to Linchinga. Apparently, that ride is not complete without
at least one person getting motion sickness and throwing up (great when you’re
recovering from a stomach bug). Our ride
was no exception and we scored seats in the splash zone. Actually it wasn’t that bad. It was just about 10 seconds of chaos as the
woman started to get sick while Mireya and I shuffled everything in the cramped
backseat of the chapa to simultaneously take her baby (now covered in vomit but
somehow still adorable and cuddly) and dig out a plastic bag and some water.
Lichinga is a strange place. It’s cold almost impossible to access yet it
seems to be the only place in Mozambique that can support cows. This was exciting. I ate a hamburger for lunch and the next
morning, we went out for fresh yogurt!
In Lichinga, we met up with Grisha, Victor, Ella, Jade, Matt, and
Stephen all from my training group, probably the biggest Moz 19 reunion I’ve
been two since the Reconnect conference three months ago. We ate s’mores over a campfire in Jade and
Ella’s backyard and more importantly, Mireya and I went capulana crazy. I bought three capulanas in Lichinga! They’re just so pretty I couldn’t help
myself.
To get home, we needed to return to
Cuamba, take the train to Nampula, and then find our way back to Cabo Delgado
from there. Our second pass on the
Cuamba-Lichinga road merits its own blog post and after writing it, I never,
ever want to speak or even think of it again.
So fast forward to Cuamba where
again we got to enjoy good food and showers.
This time we even decided to try our luck at a poker game. I’ve never played but I’ve always wanted to
give it a shot. My first thought after
playing is how on earth people can have weekly poker games that obviously start
in the evening??? Our game went SOOOO
LOONGG! Good grief. By the end we were doing all in just because
we were tired of playing. But guess who
won the whopping pot of 200 meticais (less than $10…)? I did.
Guard your wallets, folks.
The train leaves Cuamba at 6:30am
which means Mireya and I had to start our 7km walk to town well before
sunrise. The thatched neighborhoods we
had to pass through don’t have any organization to speak of so trying to find
our way through them in the dark almost ended in disaster until we realized
that the majority of the people up and moving at that time were also going to
the train station and we needed only to follow them. When we finally did make it to the train
station, we couldn’t figure out where we were supposed to go and a group of
jeering men were absolutely no help as we paced up and down the cars looking
for 2nd class. When we
finally found our cabin and plopped our bags down to claim our bunk beds, we
were greeted by a Mozambican girl about our age.
The conversation started in
Portuguese until she suddenly just started speaking English with and American
accent! Turns out she had received a
scholarship through a church organization to go to college in Texas. Not only that, but she’s actually from
Montepuez. She landed a job as a
secretary/translator for Rubing Mining Company which runs out of
Montepuez. You will probably be hearing
more about Susanne in the future.
Anyways, Mireya and I weren’t the
only lost souls Susanne collected on the train.
She had found a Swedish college student, Alex, the day before in the
line and had helped him purchase his ticket.
Mireya and I were fully prepared to spend the 10 hours on the train
alone in our cabin staring out the window at the Nampula countryside, but
instead we had an extremely pleasant time in the food car chatting away,
drinking cokes, and playing cards… in English!
 |
| Alex, Susanne, Mireya, and me on the Cuamba-Nampula train |
Joining Peace Corps has probably
been the most adventurous spontaneous (so spontaneous it took only a year to
get in…yeah…) I’ve ever done. I
struggled to decide what to pack in the two suitcases I was allowed and fretted
about how I was going to keep in touch with everyone back home. Then Alex comes along completely alone with a
tiny backpack, no Portuguese and no phone half-way through a 2 month trek
through southern Africa. Even after my
Peace Corps experience, I don’t think I could travel by myself half a world
away with no language skills and just sending an email once in a while to my
mom to tell her I’m still alive…
Well, now I’m back in Montepuez
while school supposedly started this week, it should come as no surprise now
that it, well, didn’t start. I won’t be
fooled, though. This is only a slow
start to what is bound to be my busiest trimester yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment