Where to begin? For starters, I’m back in Moshupa and let me tell you Mozambique is a tough act to follow! There is something to be said about how nice is to be on a different continent and feel like I have a home to go to at the end of the vacation and there’s a sense of accomplishment and pride in that thought alone, but on the other hand returning to Moshupa means my vacation is over. Mozambique was a vacation with little to no sleep. We ate fresh coconut almost everyday and indulged in delicious and ripe mangoes. We went to the beach and markets, roamed the streets, drank the coffee, and spoke a little Spanish along the way.

The whole trip was just Britt and me. We alternated between taking and posing for pictures for the entirety of the trip with only a few documenting us together. There are, however, a few occasions where the self-timer came in handy and we were both included in the photo at least for documentation purposes. The trip started with a ride to Johannesburg, which was surprisingly longer than I anticipated. We crossed the border into South Africa and the landscape didn’t change too much. Along the way we saw some of the more interesting housing situations I’ve seen. There were these vast and smooth green, treeless hills with these really concentrated areas of shacks and shanties that just processed along the hills at a consistent density. Just beside the housing would be this very definitive, stark ending point as though the open expanse beyond that line was uninhabitable or just yet to be built on. I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t want to spread out within that space or at least make a little elbowroom between shacks. Of course all the houses were made of mixed pieces of corrugated tin and scrap metal, making for some interesting textures, colors, and patterns, also in contrast to the smoothness of the greenery around it. I wish I had stopped and taken a photo of this because my words feel rather inadequate to really explain the whole setup.

Once in Johannesburg, we arranged to meet with a Couch Surfer, Alexandra, to pass a few hours of our layover. This was my first Couch Surfing experience and it turned out to be a great one. For those not familiar, through Couch Surfing you can arrange to meet with people in various cities around the world, either for coffee and lunch or even to sleep at their home on the couch/floor/extra bedroom, what have you. She was a GREAT host with a great love for her city. She drove us around in her cute little sedan, listening to some great music. I felt I was immediately in the company of a close friend, like old times in my former life. We went to a perfect restaurant where I enjoyed a delicious salad with roasted peppers and sweet balsamic dressing. I also indulged in a fancy fresh (and DELICIOUS) glass of carrot juice. If the visit had ended there I would have been equally as contented with my time in Johannesburg However we proceeded to 12 Decades, a hotel with 12 rooms, each room’s décor from a different decade. There were also some apartment units within and the communal space served as an art gallery. My favorite was accessing the roof for a spectacular view of the city just after sunset. We didn’t stay long enough to enjoy a full evening in Jo’burg/Jozi…but I will be returning. I’ve also heard even better things about Cape Town and Durban, so you can imagine these cities are quickly rising on my to see/to do lists.

On to Maputo: Upon arriving in the capital city, I was running on adrenaline and couldn’t nap, particularly knowing I only had two days in the city. SO what’s a girl to do? ON TO THE MARKETS! Oh, what a great market we found nestled in a quaint park with stalls upon stalls of textiles and carvings, key chains and bracelets, bags and shoes, spoons and bowls…I imagine this is where Anthropologie sends its buyers. Before even getting to the market, we wandered the city and began what would become a daily indulgence of espresso. Sidewalk cafes abound and I didn’t hesitate to reintegrate that into my day’s agenda.
Maputo went something like this: café to market, market to café, walking on sidewalks along the way! (Finally! Sidewalks!) We also saw the old train station designed by Gustav Eiffel, the same guy that designed the Eiffel Tower. So much of the architecture and layout of Maputo was so intriguing and just so different from anything I ever anticipated it being. We tended to stay on Communist Lane wherever we went, turning from Ho Chi Min Road to Vladimir Lenin Boulevard. Much of their architecture was art deco with some interesting textures and styles. Maputo proper was also filled with high-rise concrete apartment buildings, each unit draped with clean laundry on the balconies. In Maputo we stayed with another Couch Surfing find. He was a British ex-pat with a great apartment located right in the middle of the city. He has lived in Maputo for some years teaching English at one of the hotels there and tutoring in his home. We slept on his living room floor and his window seat. He introduced me to the Mozambican dark beer (Laurentina Preta), which we enjoyed one afternoon just siting in the market place at a little restaurant amongst fruit and vegetable vendors. We managed to incorporate mangoes and coconuts as well as espresso into our daily routine in Mozambique.

Then we took a fabulously lavish and luxurious 8-9 hour bus ride to Inhambane. By lavish and luxurious I mean being nestled in amongst toilet paper and bags of potatoes, feeling the sweat trickle down my legs, smelling the fragrant body odor of 40 different people (oh they don’t like the windows open too much either), and the incessant puttering bus engine masked by the Rihanna/Lil Wayne/Beyonce mix that played on repeat for the duration of the trip. People climbed out of the windows at bathroom breaks (because it was easier than accessing the door). While the trip was long, our destination was well worth it. This was the small town vibe we felt more accustomed to coming from our respective lifestyles in Botswana. It was funny to feel the need to get away from the city and the chaos of an urban center (including all of its amenities), whereas in the States and my other vacations I am chasing the next big city, writing off the back roads and the farmlands as merely a means to an end. In Mozambique, these “back roads” were really our only roads, and they gave us the opportunity to see the sporadic villages along the way with the thatched houses shaded by the tall trees. Inhambane was the situated bayside on this peninsula that juts out on the coast of Mozambique. We took the public transportation in a combi from Inbambane to Tofo (bayside to ocean access). You could tell that not many tourists used the public transport with a few people interesting in talking to us, inquiring about where we are from and all. I was really grateful for to feel relatively comfortable in using transport with the locals, knowing to anticipate little to no personal space in a vehicle and just going along for the ride. While I thought Botswana was bad in how they crammed people onto the buses and how vehicle was not considered full until there was literally no place to stand. Well Mozambique takes all. A vehicle is not full until there is literally no space left to sit, stand, squat, or lay, and the door does not have to be fully closed. We got some kind of close with the locals on these excursions.

The landscape and visual culture was so different, and such a welcome change. Mind you, they still had my absolute favorite food available in Southern Africa (probably all of Africa): maize cooked over an open fire, slightly charred and lightly salted. In Inhambane we found what we think is the greatest café in all of Southern Africa, where they sold hummus, falafel, milkshakes, and veggie burgers?!?! They also had olive oil there that was the most fragrant olive oil I’ve had in a long time. Needless to say, we went there on a couple different occasions. Well, it seems food is a huge component to my vacation.

Mostly I loved that it was comfortable for us to walk along the bay at night with streetlights and sidewalks. So many of the teenagers hang out at water when the tide comes in. They spend all evening swimming, playing music, and barbequing. It was a bit of a nuisance, having to hear all of that from our hostel, but in many ways I was grateful to see a healthy social scene with youth. In Botswana, recreation feels very limited and doesn’t cater much to the younger populations in rural areas, particularly considering it’s often alcohol related. (Not that that always stops them.) Also, Britt and I totally basked in the anonymity of Mozambique. Because it is such a touristy hotspot, they are accustomed to seeing foreigners, namely white folk. Passing people on the street and in the market, no one really cared. When we were asked to purchase things like cold drinks and chips, a simple “no, thank you” was sufficient. There was no badgering and begging. It wasn’t like we were ignored, and if we wanted to engage in conversation, they were fully receptive and actively engaging. We were just one of them in the city. Because they spoke Portuguese, I was able to get by just fine using my Spanish. Some spoke English, but it was a drastically smaller population than the number that speaks English in Botswana. I have missed feeling that reliance on using another language. Parts of my vacation in Mozambique felt like a pseudo-European experience with the cafes and the high-rise apartments, dense living, and bustling city life. I also found myself practicing my Spanish in my head in hypothetical conversations, particularly as I approached someone needing directions or negotiating prices at the market. In Madrid, I was always so nervous to have to go buy credit for my cell phone and would recite my number in Spanish over and over before entering the store. Here, it was similar, but not such an anxious nervous, but more so an excited nervous. I will say that I also felt like I understood more of the conversations on the bus and noise around me in Portuguese than I do with hearing the Setswana in Botswana. Anyway, I can’t tell you how great it felt to not feel like I had to be on my toes for every single interaction and passing stranger on the street. I could approach a conversation when I felt ready for it. This may sound silly, but sometimes it takes a bit of mental and emotional prep to initiate and maintain a conversation. That is something I miss from the States, the anonymity of a city and the ability to move about with no one even noticing. It seems I got a little taste of that familiar feeling (and convenience) in Mozambique and it was so refreshing. It seems I sometimes fail to be the persevering extrovert I desire to be. I’m getting to be ok with that, learning to navigate social settings and going with what makes me comfortable.

In many ways, it felt like Mozambique was the Peace Corps experience I anticipated when signing up. Truth is, I didn’t know much of anything about Southern Africa before this all started. I’m happy to have the insight and experiences that I have now and even being in Botswana gives me the chance to access theses places relatively easily. I am not entirely disappointed with my time in Botswana, but I am about to reach the one-year mark and I have a good understanding of my life here in terms of work and recreation. I am just going through a lull and experiencing frustration with the systematic side of things and feeling under-stimulated in some ways. Part of this is my own fault and I have to remind myself that not everyday is going to be a “come to Jesus moment”. I also think that maybe even with the visual stimulation and social atmosphere of Mozambique, there are probably some really pressing issues that would make Peace Corps service there equally as trying. That’s the nature of Peace Corps though; you agree to be flexible and to go wherever they send you. You make the most of it, discovering many things about yourself and the world around you. I am at least grateful for exposure and access to other countries if only for a quick glimpse. Botswana was actually in the African Futbol Cup, their first year to qualify. They played this past Saturday and I had a beautiful moment watching the game with Batswana at a local pub. I was standing with them as they sang their national anthem. It was so beautiful to see everyone so excited and passionate about the occasion. They lost miserably 6-1 to Guinea, but the first half proved to be a pretty interesting match. The 2nd half, not so much.

With the holidays over, it’s back to the usual with life here in Moshupa. I am in the process of looking for funding for a GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Project. I’m still waiting on furniture in my new house, but hopefully that will all be resolved by the end of February. Fingers crossed. More later, my friends.