That's More Like It!

Visiting exotic places with good friends is how I'd imagined passing the bulk of my days here in Mozambique. For those of you that read my blog regularly, you'll know my expectations were a little off. Instead of camping and wild nights dancing, my experience here thus far has involved lots of time at a desk in front of a laptop and not so many friends or nights out. Part of this is due to my own reclusiveness and introverted tendencies as of late. Part of it is due to the fact that I've found it tremendously difficult to find "my people" here. You know...the artistic, slightly nutty, adventuresome, worldly, intelligent, nature-loving, open-minded, fun, here for the long-haul kind of people. Slowly, however I'm managing to create the kind of life I want for myself.

In a post a few days ago I mentioned that I could literally count my friends here in Maputo on 2 fingers. Well, one of them is a woman named Tracy. She's also an American and we often work together on projects. She is in charge of a fund at the IFC that invests in small and medium local businesses. I am often on the consulting team hired by the IFC to put together the strategic plans and financial models for said local businesses.

It's been great to get to know Tracy, not only because she is someone I enjoy hanging out with but also because she has validated so many of my feelings about being an expat in Mozambique. We've had similar lonely, isolated, overworked experiences, struggling to make meaningful connections with people here yet at the same time really enjoying the good points this country has to offer.

Last Sunday Tracy and her boyfriend Sergio called me up and invited me to go to Macaneta beach with them for the day. Of course I jumped at the chance to get out of the city and go for an adventure. And what an adventure it was!

It started out with a 30 minute drive north of Maputo to a town called Marracuene. This place was hit really hard by the civil war and is basically in ruins now, but still very beautiful. The Inkomati River runs next to Marracuene, however there is no bridge so to get across you must take the batelão (ferry). This thing is basically a floating platform that can hold up to 6 cars at a time. I've been on a similar batelão going over to Espungabera where we had our tea project last year, only that one was propelled by 2 huge guys turning a cog wheel. This ferry was modern in that it acutally was equipped with a motor!

In line waiting to board the ferry across the Inkomati River.

No life vests? No trained personnel? Over capacity? No problem! Things like this in the US would never fly...

Tracy and Sergio waiting for our turn to ride.

Once we made it safely across to the other side of the river, we were faced with adventure #2 - soft sand tracks that everyone generously referred to as roads. There were vehicles stuck everywhere - good ones even, equpped with 4x4 - so we were a little concerned about making it the 4km down to the beach lodge where we were supposed to pass the day. Mind you, we were in the middle of nowhere. Times like this I actually feel like I'm in Africa. There were mud huts with straw roofs, little kids running around doing anything possible to make a buck (my favorite was the little guys that made model helicopters out of banana tree stalks), goats all over the place and lots of sand and sun.

And this was the good part!

We stopped on the only remaining piece of asphalt from a road built who knows how long ago and strategized. I remembered tips from an off-road driving guide Rico had bought back in Chimoio and left in the bathroom as toilet reading. I told Sérgio to take some air out of the tires and that he should constantly wiggle the steering wheel back and forth as he drove so that we wouldn't form a rut in the sand. Between my tips and the fact that Sérgio just gunned it down the entire length of the sand road, we managed to make it down to the beach. We were all pumped up with adrenaline when we arrived, so we ate some sandwiches and ran down to the water.

I'm somewhat of a sissy when it comes to swimming in the ocean - I don't like strong currents, big waves, cold water or places where there are jellyfish / sharks / sea snakes / sewage / trash messing up the water. That said, Macaneta was unfortunately not the beach for me. It was clean, but the waves were gigantic and it was apparent that there was quite the rip tide. The water was also freezing and full of blue box jellies. Needless to say I didn't get in. But we did have a good time walking along the sand and soaking up the rays.

Windblown and intimidated by the ocean, but very happy to be away from our desks.

Daughter of a South African friend uses her flip flops to catch crabs.

Unfortunately, this photo was moments before this little one got stung by a jellyfish. It hurt, but she was okay in the end.

The oar on this fishing boat weighed at least as much as I do. I could barely budge the thing!

Obviously we had a great day at the beach. Good thing I have friends who invite me along on these outings because it's the kind of thing where you 1) must know your way around the rural areas, 2) must be skilled at off-roading, and 3) must have access to a vehicle. None of which I do. Hopefully there will be more outings like this in the near future. After all, for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere, it's SUMMERTIME!!