As it turns out, the Batswana do not celebrate Halloween so it has been a very tame October 31st for me and my fellow Americans. Altho some international students tried to organize a toga party (which is made twice as awesome because all of our sheets are stamped with "PROPERTY OF UB")but I abstained because 1) I think I stand out enough among the locals without inexplicably dressing up in bedsheets on an october night and 2) because I went out the night before and woke up with a case of food poisoning at 3am (cold chinese takeout food, poor choice) Food poisoning when hungover....shudder (probably on top ten list of miserable life experiences) As I spent the day delicately sipping 2 liters of "oral rehydration fluid" (read: nastiness in a bottle)I decided to go to bed.The only thing I really missed was the candy. There is woefully little chocolate in Gaborone, partially because it is so sunny and hot that it is impossible to keep it in a solid, edible form and I am seriously missing the snickers concept.
On the bright side of things, we did get to meet a traditional spiritual healer/ aka witch doctor who told us how the ancestors instruct him in how to heal people. He was mostly an herbalist who treated headaches etc but he also sold medicines that would help someone get a better job or increase their social standing. I was thrilled to hear that he frequently refered patients to the hospital for injuries and complex diseases but also alarmed because he believes in treating early-stage HIV/AIDs with laxatives. (I will post a pic of the guy another time because the internet is demon-infested right now and needs to be exorcised). I liked talking to the guy and I figure that if I carry through with my desire to work in medicine in third world countries I will come into contact with such traditional figures a lot and it is good to try to understand them now. If you want to purchase a curse, by the way, send me a check and I can see what he'll do.
After the healer we went to the game reserve and our advisor, Batsi/ Black Jesus (as he is frequently called) served us a lunch guaranteed to treat the homesickness borne of a missed holiday. We ate mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, steamed veggies and doritos (all of the things that are hard to find in Botswana) and did Americans proud by how many carbs were consumed. All the while we were observed by a large group of monkeys who I was convinced were plotting our destruction in order to steal the lunch. I tried to bring one home but his brethren resented the kidnapping so I backed off. Good times were generally had by all. I hope everyone at home had a happy halloween, and that they got miserably sick from too much candy so that I don't feel totally bummed for missing it. I'll again try to post the picture of the traditional doctor after seeking a healing from him for the demons from this laptop but do not hold your breath. Until then, peace out!
PS Ouch!: My politics prof (the angry one) was ranting about team allocations for FIFA in the UK (who is suddenly 3 countries and gets multiple teams while all of Africa gets 6) he said, and I quote, "The US doesn't split itself into its 53 states!" We looked at him quizzically and he responded, "Oh, sorry, is it 54 now with Iraq?" ZING! Want some ice with that BURN!? We didn't ask him what the other 3 states were for fear he'd have an answer. (altho later that week on the teacher evaluation form I explained that, "I was afraid to ask questions because he might kill me...with his mind powers" I wonder if they will be able to guess who's eval it is?)
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Sorry Al Gore
I just had the most interesting taxi ride since coming to Botswana, it even beat the one where the driver asked me if I like Botswana men. This particular driver for some reason decided to quiz us on history (because one of us was from Europe was hsi explanation...?) He asked us "What happened in 1945?" I just stared, not really knowing where to start, and he pointed at us americans and then the japanese girl and said "you dropped a bomb on her country! See! you don't know anything about history! A Motswana has to tell you" Bring up a sore subject why don't you..... He then asked us who invented the internet and when we answered al gore he said "No! the Nigerians!" and proceeded to tell us that Japanese 10 year olds had laptops in 1945 and that is why the US is so behind Japan. Wow; way to go nigerians I guess, first to invent the internet and the email scam.
In a similar history lesson, after telling my friend about the book "A thousand Splendid Suns" that I had just finished which describes life for women under the taliban, my friend told me "but those are just stories! The taliban did not do any of that, the US government just tells those stories after 9/11. Sheesh! look at some independent news sources once in a while." My head did not explode, altho it came close, and I think what eventually came out was no no no no no no no no no....... The conversation did not progress because another student said "Tali who?" and I just put my head down. I still really don't know how to deal with that; this friend is really smart in science classes but apparently does not believe that the taliban made women wear burkhas and forbade them to work. I'm going to go cry now. (By the way, not a reflection on Botswana, her family is from a different, more politically touchy culture) Uh , yeah, sorry, not a funny post.
(PS Beth and hubby, I don't know how to respond otherwise but I wanted to let you know I appreciated your response a lot and it was really sweet! I wish I could show you zimbabwe too!)
In a similar history lesson, after telling my friend about the book "A thousand Splendid Suns" that I had just finished which describes life for women under the taliban, my friend told me "but those are just stories! The taliban did not do any of that, the US government just tells those stories after 9/11. Sheesh! look at some independent news sources once in a while." My head did not explode, altho it came close, and I think what eventually came out was no no no no no no no no no....... The conversation did not progress because another student said "Tali who?" and I just put my head down. I still really don't know how to deal with that; this friend is really smart in science classes but apparently does not believe that the taliban made women wear burkhas and forbade them to work. I'm going to go cry now. (By the way, not a reflection on Botswana, her family is from a different, more politically touchy culture) Uh , yeah, sorry, not a funny post.
(PS Beth and hubby, I don't know how to respond otherwise but I wanted to let you know I appreciated your response a lot and it was really sweet! I wish I could show you zimbabwe too!)
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Cucumber and Peanutbutter sandwhich
I have reached an interesting point in my dietary experience here in Botswana. As it is impossible to buy food on campus around 3pm on a weekend and as I ran out of groceries I just ate a peanutbutter and cucumber sandwhich. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and it actually was for the most part. I kinda liked it (Altho that could be the sun getting to me)
Speaking of the sun, it is bright, hot, and omnipresent here. Today, however, I discovered that the pool near my dorm is free and really cold. I went there with friends and then got stared at for sunbathing in a bikini. Believe it or not it was not the bikini that did it, not surprisingly (altho it had never occured to me) people do not sunbathe in southern africa as there is no point. Unfortunately the pool did not allow pizza and margueritas to be delivered to the premises so I eventually did leave.
In other news, I had a professor tell the class that half of us failed the test, and the other half that did not fail only got 50% because she felt bad for us. I just sat there and stared, thinking that I never thought I would so desperately want a curve in a class. Turns out I did not fail but I did get a lesson about American grade inflation.
As promised, here are a few more zimbabwe pictures.
First here is a shot of the decorative stonework in the great enclosure. The chevron pattern represents fertility.
Here is a shot of the tower inside the great enclosure that Europeans tore apart, convinced that there was gold inside, only to discover that it was a solid tower meant to represent male fertility (very freudian society)
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Here is the group inside the holy worship chamber. I don't know what we were laughing at but I am sure it was inane.
Here is another inexplicable HIV/Safety campaign that we encountered at the border. I don't know how you get AIDs driving but it doesn't sound safe
This is me sitting on the floor of the bus, where I remained for 8 hours. Yes, I am wearing plastic pineapples on my ears. I bought them from a man on the bus for 75cents (best purchase ever)
Alright, I have to go finish an essay critically analyzing Bots' parliamentary system, which is awkward, by the way, when one is a foreign student writing to a native teacher. Until later, sala sentle!
Speaking of the sun, it is bright, hot, and omnipresent here. Today, however, I discovered that the pool near my dorm is free and really cold. I went there with friends and then got stared at for sunbathing in a bikini. Believe it or not it was not the bikini that did it, not surprisingly (altho it had never occured to me) people do not sunbathe in southern africa as there is no point. Unfortunately the pool did not allow pizza and margueritas to be delivered to the premises so I eventually did leave.
In other news, I had a professor tell the class that half of us failed the test, and the other half that did not fail only got 50% because she felt bad for us. I just sat there and stared, thinking that I never thought I would so desperately want a curve in a class. Turns out I did not fail but I did get a lesson about American grade inflation.
As promised, here are a few more zimbabwe pictures.
First here is a shot of the decorative stonework in the great enclosure. The chevron pattern represents fertility.
Here is a shot of the tower inside the great enclosure that Europeans tore apart, convinced that there was gold inside, only to discover that it was a solid tower meant to represent male fertility (very freudian society)
Here is the group inside the holy worship chamber. I don't know what we were laughing at but I am sure it was inane.
Here is another inexplicable HIV/Safety campaign that we encountered at the border. I don't know how you get AIDs driving but it doesn't sound safe
This is me sitting on the floor of the bus, where I remained for 8 hours. Yes, I am wearing plastic pineapples on my ears. I bought them from a man on the bus for 75cents (best purchase ever)
Alright, I have to go finish an essay critically analyzing Bots' parliamentary system, which is awkward, by the way, when one is a foreign student writing to a native teacher. Until later, sala sentle!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Uhhhhh.... Hey Mom, remember when I said I would NOT visit Zimbabwe?
Zimbabwe pretty much rocked! I don't know if any of you remember (or were listening) but last year I would not stop talking about the cholera outbreak in zimbabwe- one of the most developed countries in sub-saharan africa. I was furious about the politics in Zimbabwe last december and went on a rant around hopkins about politically-caused plagues (to be fair I also bombed an o-chem test that day and might have been channeling rage). When I found out that zimbabwe also had some HUGE ancient ruins that rivalled Machu Pichu and were only beat by the great pyramids in African pre-colonial structures, I was sold. Cholera and ancient civilizations? I'm there!
For my concerend family: No worries, the cholera outbreak was limited to the capitol, where I did not visit, and is now over; plus I only used bottled water. Furthermore, politics have settled a lot and as the country is pretty desperate to revive its once-thriving tourism industry and the official currency is the US dollar right now, as long as one says NOTHING about politics while in the country you are treated VERY well. In fact, everybody on the bus was so friendly and concerned about us that they spent several hours drilling us in safety tips (all mostly common sense) and arranged for a taxi to pick us up and find us a bus to our final destination.
Some thoughts about Zimbabwe: Zim was fascinating for several reasons, the population is maybe ten-times that of Botswana and it is readily apparent when you are driving around that the development is significantly higher than mozambique or even botswana. Zimbabweans are very proud of their country (rightly so, it is beautiful) and the Zim dollar was at one point equal in strength to the USD. Last year the country fell apart thanks to a certain political jerk (understatement, but I want to be allowed back into the country) and inflation reached over 3000%. They gave up on the currency when a coke cost 3 trillion Zim Dollars and a ton of Zimbabweans fled into Bots. The frustration of the populace is tangible and when you talk about the country with a zimbabwean they want to tell you how beautiful it is and they all say, "just the politics, in a few years it will settle..."
Because of the Zim situation, it is in fact impossible to plan a trip to the country because the hotels or businesses listed online or in guidebooks either have different phone numbers or no longer exist. So, on the advice of a local we just headed to Zim and assumed we would be able to find something once we got there (grammy ann and papa max, slow down....breathe..... I am alive). After a 13 hour bus ride from Gaborone across the border to bulawayo- during which we did not in fact have seats and I sat on the floor for 80% of it- we managed to get on a bus to Masvingo (read: the zimbabweans on the bus found out we didn't have concrete plans, flipped out, and the driver found us a taxi to get us a meal and take us directly to the correct bus).
We finally arrived in Masvingo (after the bus broke down and we attempted to hitchhike 40km but found another bus instead) and could not find somewhere to stay untill these random guys on the street said they would drive us to an inexpensive lodge outside of town for $10 USD. Uh...yeah, sketchy. Turned out that one of these guys just graduated with a degree in marketing right before the economy collapsed and they were desperately trying to start a small tourism business that catered to small groups of foreigners just like us. They actually had a van with seatbelts and the name of their company printed on the side (most legit thing I have seen in southern africa by the way... seatbelts!)and they do not usually pick up people off the street but they were at the grocery store and saw a golden opportunity as we walked by. We bargained with them and in the end agreed that they would drive us to and from the hotel, Great Zimbabwe monument and to the botswana border the next day for $30 USD each. I am pretty sure that they outrageously undercharged us with the hope that we would bring them more business. As they were awesome and convenient, here is my plug for struggling entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe: "Stone Tours and Adventures" (stonetours@yahoo.com) if you are going to Zimbabwe, give them a call because they pretty much salvaged our trip and were awesome.
The reason I am gushing about these guys is because they took us to this hotel where we had really nice double rooms surrounded by tropical trees and flowers overlooking a lake with super polite staff and room service....for $15 USD a night. (I calculated that I could stay there for less than rent in a crummy apartment in Spokane) I was served a huge continental breakfast (for $5) by uniformed staff on a verandah with this view:
Yeah, forget Mozambique, I'm moving to Zimbabwe.
The next day we went to the Great Zimbabwe Monument (the entire reason for the trip that I "organized" and dragged along five of my friends). These ruins are only beat by the great wall of china and the eqyptian pyramids. They are the remains of the capitol city of a sprawling empire that stretched from tanzania to south africa and namibia to mopzambique. They think that 25000 people lived in the city at one point, including the king and his 200 wives. No mortar was used to build the place and the walls stretch to about 32 feet at their highest and 18 feet at their widest. It actually beat Machu Pichu as my favorite ruins!
This picture is of the hill complex where the king stayed. The walls incorporate these huge boulders resulting in this sprawling complex that from a distance looks like nothing. Above me is the balcony where the king could stand and see everything in the city- and yell for his favorite wife.
This is a view of the great enclosure where the queen lived. The smaller buildings in front of it are the homes of the 199 other wives.
This is a shot of an opening in the wall for drainage just so you can appreciate what 18 feet thick walls look like
The great enclosure: this is a very narrow entrance for defense purposes leading to the initiation chamber where the royal heirs would be taught the ways of adults; a chamber that appropriately includes a lot of freudian symbolism.
More photos of the great Zim to come including astrological observatory, steven the quirky guide, the tree that "helped" the king with his 200 wives, and a discussion of good-natured/ scary corruption in Zimbabwe
Bottom line: Zimbabwe is so AWESOME!!! Buy a plane ticket, come visit me, and we will go to Zimbabwe
For my concerend family: No worries, the cholera outbreak was limited to the capitol, where I did not visit, and is now over; plus I only used bottled water. Furthermore, politics have settled a lot and as the country is pretty desperate to revive its once-thriving tourism industry and the official currency is the US dollar right now, as long as one says NOTHING about politics while in the country you are treated VERY well. In fact, everybody on the bus was so friendly and concerned about us that they spent several hours drilling us in safety tips (all mostly common sense) and arranged for a taxi to pick us up and find us a bus to our final destination.
Some thoughts about Zimbabwe: Zim was fascinating for several reasons, the population is maybe ten-times that of Botswana and it is readily apparent when you are driving around that the development is significantly higher than mozambique or even botswana. Zimbabweans are very proud of their country (rightly so, it is beautiful) and the Zim dollar was at one point equal in strength to the USD. Last year the country fell apart thanks to a certain political jerk (understatement, but I want to be allowed back into the country) and inflation reached over 3000%. They gave up on the currency when a coke cost 3 trillion Zim Dollars and a ton of Zimbabweans fled into Bots. The frustration of the populace is tangible and when you talk about the country with a zimbabwean they want to tell you how beautiful it is and they all say, "just the politics, in a few years it will settle..."
Because of the Zim situation, it is in fact impossible to plan a trip to the country because the hotels or businesses listed online or in guidebooks either have different phone numbers or no longer exist. So, on the advice of a local we just headed to Zim and assumed we would be able to find something once we got there (grammy ann and papa max, slow down....breathe..... I am alive). After a 13 hour bus ride from Gaborone across the border to bulawayo- during which we did not in fact have seats and I sat on the floor for 80% of it- we managed to get on a bus to Masvingo (read: the zimbabweans on the bus found out we didn't have concrete plans, flipped out, and the driver found us a taxi to get us a meal and take us directly to the correct bus).
We finally arrived in Masvingo (after the bus broke down and we attempted to hitchhike 40km but found another bus instead) and could not find somewhere to stay untill these random guys on the street said they would drive us to an inexpensive lodge outside of town for $10 USD. Uh...yeah, sketchy. Turned out that one of these guys just graduated with a degree in marketing right before the economy collapsed and they were desperately trying to start a small tourism business that catered to small groups of foreigners just like us. They actually had a van with seatbelts and the name of their company printed on the side (most legit thing I have seen in southern africa by the way... seatbelts!)and they do not usually pick up people off the street but they were at the grocery store and saw a golden opportunity as we walked by. We bargained with them and in the end agreed that they would drive us to and from the hotel, Great Zimbabwe monument and to the botswana border the next day for $30 USD each. I am pretty sure that they outrageously undercharged us with the hope that we would bring them more business. As they were awesome and convenient, here is my plug for struggling entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe: "Stone Tours and Adventures" (stonetours@yahoo.com) if you are going to Zimbabwe, give them a call because they pretty much salvaged our trip and were awesome.
The reason I am gushing about these guys is because they took us to this hotel where we had really nice double rooms surrounded by tropical trees and flowers overlooking a lake with super polite staff and room service....for $15 USD a night. (I calculated that I could stay there for less than rent in a crummy apartment in Spokane) I was served a huge continental breakfast (for $5) by uniformed staff on a verandah with this view:
Yeah, forget Mozambique, I'm moving to Zimbabwe.The next day we went to the Great Zimbabwe Monument (the entire reason for the trip that I "organized" and dragged along five of my friends). These ruins are only beat by the great wall of china and the eqyptian pyramids. They are the remains of the capitol city of a sprawling empire that stretched from tanzania to south africa and namibia to mopzambique. They think that 25000 people lived in the city at one point, including the king and his 200 wives. No mortar was used to build the place and the walls stretch to about 32 feet at their highest and 18 feet at their widest. It actually beat Machu Pichu as my favorite ruins!
This picture is of the hill complex where the king stayed. The walls incorporate these huge boulders resulting in this sprawling complex that from a distance looks like nothing. Above me is the balcony where the king could stand and see everything in the city- and yell for his favorite wife.
This is a view of the great enclosure where the queen lived. The smaller buildings in front of it are the homes of the 199 other wives.
This is a shot of an opening in the wall for drainage just so you can appreciate what 18 feet thick walls look like
The great enclosure: this is a very narrow entrance for defense purposes leading to the initiation chamber where the royal heirs would be taught the ways of adults; a chamber that appropriately includes a lot of freudian symbolism.
More photos of the great Zim to come including astrological observatory, steven the quirky guide, the tree that "helped" the king with his 200 wives, and a discussion of good-natured/ scary corruption in Zimbabwe
Bottom line: Zimbabwe is so AWESOME!!! Buy a plane ticket, come visit me, and we will go to Zimbabwe
Monday, October 12, 2009
The Shocking, the Predictable, and the Shockingly predictable; Part II
I decided it was time for a second installment of misc stories.
First the shocking: Apparently the Independent Electoral Commission in Botswana, in charge of overseeing the national elections that are taking place this Friday, used the same misguided advertising firm as the stop aids campaign and is also represented by a slightly creepy, over-sized rabbit that is overseeing a cartoon ballot box..... yeah, that is inspiring confidence in the democratic process.
Also, on a more inappropriate note, the english major in our group who is irritatingly (and occasionally naively) positive about life saw a salon called "head job" and said "I wonder if they do manicures?"
Predictable: We recently read in a Botswana guidebook that a village outside of Gabs called Molepolole (awesome name) has beautiful flowering aloe trees this time of year. We had nothing to do on a saturday so we took a 1.5 hr busride out to the village to see the trees. Turns out that Molepolole is a sizeable town (50-60,000 people I'd guess- very pretty area actually) and showing up at the bus stop vaguely inquiring about trees gets you nowhere but laughed at (to be fair, the locals would point at the nearest trees when we asked). Oops. We ended up wandering around molepolole and walking towards general greenery in the distance (note we also did not know what aloe trees looked like) We did, however, find a really sketchy bar (see picture) and the forest from Dr. Suess' "the Lorax" (coincidentally we think these might be aloe trees) Good times were had by all despite our incompetence.
Shockingly Predictable: The Botswana Socialist society was selling T-shirts n Friday for outrageously cheap prices and several of us quickly headed over to the booth to stock up on commie-wear. Unfortunately the shirts were all odd and inconvenient shapes and sizes and those sizes they did have were all completely mislabeled- awesomely appropriate (especially as most of the shirts were either olive green or drab brown). A series of socialism jokes ensued from our econ-major friend such as: "do we need ration coupons to buy these?" "Oh, I think we need to wait in line first." I bought one, it has a black fist and "power to socialism" on it and it is awesome. We also agreed to only refer to each other as comrade while wearing the shirts. If I end up on a black list and am no longer welcome in the states, however, you'll know why.
By the way, sorry it took so long to post this blog, the internet has been out for 4 days (shockingly predictable). I ended up battling a polar bear with my pocket knife in order to get to IT to complain about it and eventually the network was back online.
First the shocking: Apparently the Independent Electoral Commission in Botswana, in charge of overseeing the national elections that are taking place this Friday, used the same misguided advertising firm as the stop aids campaign and is also represented by a slightly creepy, over-sized rabbit that is overseeing a cartoon ballot box..... yeah, that is inspiring confidence in the democratic process.
Also, on a more inappropriate note, the english major in our group who is irritatingly (and occasionally naively) positive about life saw a salon called "head job" and said "I wonder if they do manicures?"
Predictable: We recently read in a Botswana guidebook that a village outside of Gabs called Molepolole (awesome name) has beautiful flowering aloe trees this time of year. We had nothing to do on a saturday so we took a 1.5 hr busride out to the village to see the trees. Turns out that Molepolole is a sizeable town (50-60,000 people I'd guess- very pretty area actually) and showing up at the bus stop vaguely inquiring about trees gets you nowhere but laughed at (to be fair, the locals would point at the nearest trees when we asked). Oops. We ended up wandering around molepolole and walking towards general greenery in the distance (note we also did not know what aloe trees looked like) We did, however, find a really sketchy bar (see picture) and the forest from Dr. Suess' "the Lorax" (coincidentally we think these might be aloe trees) Good times were had by all despite our incompetence.
Shockingly Predictable: The Botswana Socialist society was selling T-shirts n Friday for outrageously cheap prices and several of us quickly headed over to the booth to stock up on commie-wear. Unfortunately the shirts were all odd and inconvenient shapes and sizes and those sizes they did have were all completely mislabeled- awesomely appropriate (especially as most of the shirts were either olive green or drab brown). A series of socialism jokes ensued from our econ-major friend such as: "do we need ration coupons to buy these?" "Oh, I think we need to wait in line first." I bought one, it has a black fist and "power to socialism" on it and it is awesome. We also agreed to only refer to each other as comrade while wearing the shirts. If I end up on a black list and am no longer welcome in the states, however, you'll know why.
By the way, sorry it took so long to post this blog, the internet has been out for 4 days (shockingly predictable). I ended up battling a polar bear with my pocket knife in order to get to IT to complain about it and eventually the network was back online.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Blatantly Stolen Photos
Turns out that I am not a great photographer when it comes to "capturing the moment" (I get distracted by funny signs, colors, shiny objects, and forget the big picture) Luckily another girl in our group, Hayley, is a great photographer, so I stole her pics off facebook and posted a few here: (This first one is actually mine) 
This is the sunrise over the Indian Ocean, for which we woke up at 4:30am 
A Dog on the beach decided it was my friend...despite my calm explanation to it that I did not like canines. The awesome person next to me is Mark with the worst farmer's tan ever; to be fair he actually did work on a farm in Ireland this summer. 
No explanation needed 
This is "the gang" back in Maputo; we are being watched over by the intersection of commies again. 
I did, in my opinion, capture the big picture through a short video Not gonna lie, wish I was in Tofo rather than classes at UB right now.....
This is the sunrise over the Indian Ocean, for which we woke up at 4:30am 
A Dog on the beach decided it was my friend...despite my calm explanation to it that I did not like canines. The awesome person next to me is Mark with the worst farmer's tan ever; to be fair he actually did work on a farm in Ireland this summer. 
No explanation needed 
This is "the gang" back in Maputo; we are being watched over by the intersection of commies again. 
I did, in my opinion, capture the big picture through a short video Not gonna lie, wish I was in Tofo rather than classes at UB right now.....Monday, October 5, 2009
The Good, the Absurd, and the Sketchy
I had a dilemma when starting this post because I just went on a 10 day vacation through southern africa and I didn't know where to start. As I hate telling stories in chronological order I decided to group random stories into three categories: good, absurd, and sketchy with the hope that these snapshots will give a general idea what the vacation was like.
The Good
The Beach: This was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen (continue reading this post and consider what the beach looked like after the bus ride from Maputo to Tofo). Incidentally, our motivation to leave it was completely shot after only one day (one meaning of the word "tofo'ed: complete lack of motivation) so we stayed for 5 days and drank cheap beer, sun bathed, and body surfed.
Maputo (the capitol city where we went after Joburg and before tofo) has a great vibe. There are still remnants of the colonial era but mostly it is just an explosion of color. A lot of the streets reminded me of New Orleans- there were even horrible road conditions. My only complaint was that there are no garbage cans in the city and consequently there are piles of trash everywhere in the street.
This picture is of the hostel (Fatima's) where we stayed in Maputo at the beginning and end of our trip. Awesome vibe, there are even hammocks on the roof.
8 years of spanish NOT wasted: turns out portuguese and spanish are "close enough" so I was able to talk to the locals and be a semi-translator. (just add a "shh" sound wherever you can in spanish) Unfortunately, when I returned to Botswana I had forgotten most of my setswana as a result.
Busting out peruvian vibe: Speaking of spanish, bargaining is a hard-core activity in Mozambique. (PS, don't let a cabby lock your bags in the trunk before you have agreed on a price or they will hold them hostage until you pay triple...oops). What was really neat about Maputo though, was that EVERYTHING you could possibly want was being sold on the street by some local. (actually, this was more a sign of the unemployment rates and extreme poverty in the city, I think, so it was actually a depressing sign of desperation) In any case, there was a HUGE tourist market by the seawall where we all got some fast lessons in deal-making. (PS, most of you are getting mozambiquean gifts...they are cheap)
The Absurd
In which Sarah is sat on by a large man (Between Tofo and Maputo, part I): The busride from Maputo to Tofo was about 6 hrs (it was so long partially because the roads were so bad- thankyou 30 years of civil war) The bus was a mix between a 15-seater van and a school bus (and tetanus. There were normal, semi-padded seats and an aisle but there were also tiny fold-down seats in the aisle-with 8" backrests- where I fortunately got to sit (It was like being stuck at the kid's table for 6 hrs. There was also a bag at my feet so my knees were almost at my chest) This would have been all well and good but then one of the bus employees who collects the fares saw the attractive girl next to me and proceeded to sit on me, with the assumption I would move, so that he could get to know her the rest of the way. It was a safe assumption, I was very alarmed and quickly moved as far over as I could (aka off the seat) and then he turned around to me and said "Esta bem?" with a grin and a thumbs up. (meaning "it's all good") At that point the bus ride was just so absurd that I started laughing and my friends and I talked about how ridiculous this guy was (he couldn't understand english) for the entire trip.
Climbing in the Window by a slaughtered cow (Between Tofo and Maputo, Part II:
On the way back from tofo we were the first people to get onto the bus so I quickly grabbed a window seat with a grown-up chair and settled in for a comfortable nap back to the capitol (we left at 4am) Unfortunately, I had nothing to eat for breakfast and I forgot to put on my motion-sickness magic sticker so I spent the first 3 hours aquainting my stomach contents with the mozambiquean countryside. We had no plastic bags or anything so I just had to stick my head out the window and throw up into the wind (that ended poorly for my hair, might I add). Several times during this process I would be tapped on the shoulder and a local would say "shut the window, that woman is trying to sleep!" I don't exactly remember what I said back to them but I suspect it was similar to Clancy's interactions with the printer. At one point the bus stopped because there was a cow being slaughtered on the side of the road and the driver wanted to buy some meat. I quickly took the opportunity to be sick in private behind some bushes but when I returned the bus had already been loaded and since I was sitting in the back row the driver looked at me, opened the back window and indicated that I should just climb in- which I did via a somersault over the 5' tall window ledge.....everybody laughed, fortunately I did too. Luckily, I started to feel better about 3 hours in and everybody agreed that I got first shower when we got to the hostel.
Maputo's street names: I have mentioned the 30 years of civil war in Mozambique (yes, they are over). In any case, Frelimo, the communist party, won and is currently in power. Part of their campaign was apparently to rename all of the street signs in the capitol, resulting in the cooolest intersections ever (see pic)
I especially appreciated the names because I could remember where we were staying (Mao Tse Tung avenue) where the busrank was (Intersection of Marx and Ahmed Souke Toure) and where the museum was (Vladimir Lenin and Ho Chi Minh) Awesome
The Sketchy:
The Chappas- a Chappa is a 15 passenger van, just like a combi in Botswana. They are dirt cheap in Mozambique (20 US cents) and we took one from Tofo to Inhambane, a cool city about an hour away. The thing about Chappas, however, is that the driver gets to pick up as many people as he wants along the way...... There were 31 people in our chappa at one point, including a few kids in the trunk and three adults hanging out the window. I dare you to fit 31 people in one of the roadtrip vans for the church and then drive it on roads that are the result of 30 years of neglect in the jungle.
The Mysterious Red Bumps/ Sarah tangos with falciparum: The second meaning of the word "tofo'ed," by the way, is the sudden appearance of hundreds of bug bites on your arms and legs. (we suspect bed bugs) I was fortunate enough to avoid that experience but I was the main course for every mosquito in town. I looked like I had smallpox by the time we left and all I could think about was the life cycle of P. falciparum, the form of malaria endemic to the area. (no worries, I am on the malaria meds.... I am just weirded out by the fact that trophozoites are probably dying by the thousands in my bloodstream right now)
Aubri and the AK47s: Turns out that in Maputo there are certain government buildings that one is not allowed to photograph (not that there are signs or anything). Our group got stopped by AK47-toting policemen and one girl (aubri) got singled out for taking a photo. She erased the picture but they wanted her to pay 1,000 Metcais to them on the spot or they said they would arrest her. (Read: bribe now please) I am not really sure how but she managed to convince them otherwise and we quickly escaped (no, I don't have a picture of the incident, we thought that might go over poorly)
"Traditional Mozambique Food"- While in Tofo, my friend Mark and I decided to go in search of traditional local food. We were told by a fellow traveller that it was being cooked somewhere in the market so we went exploring. We ended up finding several women cooking behind some stalls and before we knew what was happening, for 50 Metcais ($2) they brought us a plate of coconut rice and fish. Mark and I looked at each other, sighed, and tucked in.... sketchiest meal I have eaten since the guinea pig.
Okay, this post just took me an hour to type and I actually have to go to class now. So in summary, mozambique is pretty much pure awesome and I have numerous stories and pictures to come....stay tuned!
The Good
The Beach: This was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen (continue reading this post and consider what the beach looked like after the bus ride from Maputo to Tofo). Incidentally, our motivation to leave it was completely shot after only one day (one meaning of the word "tofo'ed: complete lack of motivation) so we stayed for 5 days and drank cheap beer, sun bathed, and body surfed.
Maputo (the capitol city where we went after Joburg and before tofo) has a great vibe. There are still remnants of the colonial era but mostly it is just an explosion of color. A lot of the streets reminded me of New Orleans- there were even horrible road conditions. My only complaint was that there are no garbage cans in the city and consequently there are piles of trash everywhere in the street.
This picture is of the hostel (Fatima's) where we stayed in Maputo at the beginning and end of our trip. Awesome vibe, there are even hammocks on the roof.
8 years of spanish NOT wasted: turns out portuguese and spanish are "close enough" so I was able to talk to the locals and be a semi-translator. (just add a "shh" sound wherever you can in spanish) Unfortunately, when I returned to Botswana I had forgotten most of my setswana as a result.
Busting out peruvian vibe: Speaking of spanish, bargaining is a hard-core activity in Mozambique. (PS, don't let a cabby lock your bags in the trunk before you have agreed on a price or they will hold them hostage until you pay triple...oops). What was really neat about Maputo though, was that EVERYTHING you could possibly want was being sold on the street by some local. (actually, this was more a sign of the unemployment rates and extreme poverty in the city, I think, so it was actually a depressing sign of desperation) In any case, there was a HUGE tourist market by the seawall where we all got some fast lessons in deal-making. (PS, most of you are getting mozambiquean gifts...they are cheap)
The Absurd
In which Sarah is sat on by a large man (Between Tofo and Maputo, part I): The busride from Maputo to Tofo was about 6 hrs (it was so long partially because the roads were so bad- thankyou 30 years of civil war) The bus was a mix between a 15-seater van and a school bus (and tetanus. There were normal, semi-padded seats and an aisle but there were also tiny fold-down seats in the aisle-with 8" backrests- where I fortunately got to sit (It was like being stuck at the kid's table for 6 hrs. There was also a bag at my feet so my knees were almost at my chest) This would have been all well and good but then one of the bus employees who collects the fares saw the attractive girl next to me and proceeded to sit on me, with the assumption I would move, so that he could get to know her the rest of the way. It was a safe assumption, I was very alarmed and quickly moved as far over as I could (aka off the seat) and then he turned around to me and said "Esta bem?" with a grin and a thumbs up. (meaning "it's all good") At that point the bus ride was just so absurd that I started laughing and my friends and I talked about how ridiculous this guy was (he couldn't understand english) for the entire trip.
Climbing in the Window by a slaughtered cow (Between Tofo and Maputo, Part II:
On the way back from tofo we were the first people to get onto the bus so I quickly grabbed a window seat with a grown-up chair and settled in for a comfortable nap back to the capitol (we left at 4am) Unfortunately, I had nothing to eat for breakfast and I forgot to put on my motion-sickness magic sticker so I spent the first 3 hours aquainting my stomach contents with the mozambiquean countryside. We had no plastic bags or anything so I just had to stick my head out the window and throw up into the wind (that ended poorly for my hair, might I add). Several times during this process I would be tapped on the shoulder and a local would say "shut the window, that woman is trying to sleep!" I don't exactly remember what I said back to them but I suspect it was similar to Clancy's interactions with the printer. At one point the bus stopped because there was a cow being slaughtered on the side of the road and the driver wanted to buy some meat. I quickly took the opportunity to be sick in private behind some bushes but when I returned the bus had already been loaded and since I was sitting in the back row the driver looked at me, opened the back window and indicated that I should just climb in- which I did via a somersault over the 5' tall window ledge.....everybody laughed, fortunately I did too. Luckily, I started to feel better about 3 hours in and everybody agreed that I got first shower when we got to the hostel.
Maputo's street names: I have mentioned the 30 years of civil war in Mozambique (yes, they are over). In any case, Frelimo, the communist party, won and is currently in power. Part of their campaign was apparently to rename all of the street signs in the capitol, resulting in the cooolest intersections ever (see pic)
I especially appreciated the names because I could remember where we were staying (Mao Tse Tung avenue) where the busrank was (Intersection of Marx and Ahmed Souke Toure) and where the museum was (Vladimir Lenin and Ho Chi Minh) Awesome
The Sketchy:
The Chappas- a Chappa is a 15 passenger van, just like a combi in Botswana. They are dirt cheap in Mozambique (20 US cents) and we took one from Tofo to Inhambane, a cool city about an hour away. The thing about Chappas, however, is that the driver gets to pick up as many people as he wants along the way...... There were 31 people in our chappa at one point, including a few kids in the trunk and three adults hanging out the window. I dare you to fit 31 people in one of the roadtrip vans for the church and then drive it on roads that are the result of 30 years of neglect in the jungle.
The Mysterious Red Bumps/ Sarah tangos with falciparum: The second meaning of the word "tofo'ed," by the way, is the sudden appearance of hundreds of bug bites on your arms and legs. (we suspect bed bugs) I was fortunate enough to avoid that experience but I was the main course for every mosquito in town. I looked like I had smallpox by the time we left and all I could think about was the life cycle of P. falciparum, the form of malaria endemic to the area. (no worries, I am on the malaria meds.... I am just weirded out by the fact that trophozoites are probably dying by the thousands in my bloodstream right now)
Aubri and the AK47s: Turns out that in Maputo there are certain government buildings that one is not allowed to photograph (not that there are signs or anything). Our group got stopped by AK47-toting policemen and one girl (aubri) got singled out for taking a photo. She erased the picture but they wanted her to pay 1,000 Metcais to them on the spot or they said they would arrest her. (Read: bribe now please) I am not really sure how but she managed to convince them otherwise and we quickly escaped (no, I don't have a picture of the incident, we thought that might go over poorly)
"Traditional Mozambique Food"- While in Tofo, my friend Mark and I decided to go in search of traditional local food. We were told by a fellow traveller that it was being cooked somewhere in the market so we went exploring. We ended up finding several women cooking behind some stalls and before we knew what was happening, for 50 Metcais ($2) they brought us a plate of coconut rice and fish. Mark and I looked at each other, sighed, and tucked in.... sketchiest meal I have eaten since the guinea pig.
Okay, this post just took me an hour to type and I actually have to go to class now. So in summary, mozambique is pretty much pure awesome and I have numerous stories and pictures to come....stay tuned!
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