Our long summer
break has ended and my second year of teaching is about to begin. I can't say
I'm not depressed about this vacation coming to an end but it has definitely
been a crazy adventure. I began my travel with a trip up to central Moz to
Chimoio in the province of Manica. Prior to November this trip wouldn't have
been allowed due to the ban on overland travel through the province of Sofala.
Since my arrival here there have been attacks on the main road there and the
only way to pass through was in a military caravan. Thankfully peace accords
have been signed by the leaders of the two major political entities (FRELIMO
and RENAMO) here and attacks have since ceased. This also meant that I got to
spend Christmas with volunteers and friends from the north and central parts of
the country whom I normally never see. The trip is about ten hours usually but
I made it in eight with a nice ride from a CDC worker and his friend who's
apparently built the road that goes through Panda. On the way we saw aftermath
from some of the attacks that happened, including a burned down trailer and bus
and a bridge destroyed by explosives. After arriving I spent some time at my
friend Thelma's house in Vanduzi, a mountain village about 40 minutes outside
of the city. Her site is home to the farms of a big fruit company here, so she
can get fruit like grapes, plums, peaches and apples (fruit that is normally
exported from South Africa and very expensive) for cheap. We headed to the city
for Christmas Eve and cooked a dinner of lasagna, mac and cheese, pigs in a
blanket, hummus, pita chips, glazed carrots, and plenty of dessert and sangria.
Volunteers came from all over the north and central regions to celebrate
together and we definitely had a great time.
After our
celebration Thelma, Matt (another PCV) and I began our long trek to Cape Town.
We had great travel luck and made it to Maputo, the capitol city, in one day.
The next morning we hopped on a bus that took us to Johannesburg where I met my
best friend Sarah who came all the way from Georgia to hang out in South Africa
with me. After a night in Joberg spent catching up we all boarded a plane for
Cape Town on New Year's Eve. I can honestly say this was the best NYE I've ever
had. We crashed a yacht party, watched fireworks for the first time in a year,
and watched the sun come up. Cape Town I always a blast and we definitely took
advantage…plus when Sarah and I are together we always have a blast. It was the
highlight of my year getting to spend an entire week with her.
The rest of the week was spent mostly relaxing
on the beach, eating delicious food and generally enjoying the beautiful land
of beautiful people. We also played with spider monkeys, hiked to the Cape of
Good Hope where a baboon stole my Camelback, and I finally got to dive with
Great Whites! The shark diving was the most exciting thing I've ever done in my
whole life. We went out on this two deck fishing boat into one of the harshest
tides in the world. We hadn't been out there but five minutes when the first
person started to look a little green. Our guide was standing there saying it
could be hours before we see a shark, and before he finished his warning of the
possibility of not seeing a shark at all the skipper yells out "shark in
the water!" I looked over and saw a dorsal fin and then a set of jaws come
up for the tuna head bait in the water by the cage. I snapped a picture and ran
down the ladder to pull on my wetsuit so I could get into the cage first. I
made it in first along with three other people and we watched the shark thrash
and breach around us as they teased him with the bait up top. It was awesome.
We had about 15 sightings in all, the largest about 5 meters, and I got two
hours of cage time since about half of our group was hanging over the edge too
sick to even think about the Nat Geo grade fun the boat veterans were having on
the other side of the boat. Never have I loved my iron stomach more.
When we headed back
to Moz we had about ten days before our midservice conference, but Thelma and I
decided it made no sense to go back just to turn around and come back so we set
out on another adventure. We visited some friends in Gaza province and slowly
made our way up to Vilanculos where we spent my birthday on the beach. My
friend Lisa was house sitting in a house right on the beach there, and some
other PCV's came out to celebrate with us. It was the perfect end to our
vacation and from there we headed once again down to Maputo for our conference.
While the actual conference was tedious as conferences go, it was the first
time my group was all together since we left training for our respective sites.
Needless to say it was a great time. By the end though, even though I didn't
want to leave the air conditioning and delicious food, I was ready to get back
home to my own bed.
Yesterday I arrived
from a solid month of travel and adventures to find my house completely taken
back by nature. The spiders and roaches are much more abundant and much less
shy than before I left and there is a solid layer of dirt and sand covering every
surface. Our yard looked like a desert last month but there must have been an
obscene amount of rain because it now looks like a jungle of weeds and I need a
machete to Indiana Jones my way to the latrine. It's not all bad though because
in addition to the weeds our okra and pumpkin plants are crazy big….the pumpkin
vine even has two decently sized gourds growing on it! Must be that fertility
is in the air because I also returned to find Lua extremely pregnant. I expect
our house to be filled with puppies in about a month, which I can't decide if
I'm excited for or dreading. Vamos ver! One of the things I realized at the
conference is that I'm ready for whatever this next year throws at me. It's
been a long year filled with ups and downs, some very extreme, but it's gonna
be an adventure this time around. I'm already feeling like my time in paradise
is slipping away too quickly so I've got to take advantage of the rest!
