Break

[I typed this up a few weeks ago, but it is still interesting...I think.]

I haven’t had any school for the past month (at least at Chadabwa) because we had our term break. I guess the most exciting thing that I did during break was an international excursion eastward to Mozambique. This was an awesome trip. I’ll try to explain some of it in words, but I think you should check out the pictures (follow the link and instructions on the upper left column) to get a better feel for it. Mozambique has Peace Corps as well so we got in contact with a bunch of volunteers over there, and they helped us a lot (especially with our shoestring budget). We crossed the border near a town called Milange, which is near big old Mt. Mulanje on the Malawi side. We meet some volunteers here and they gave us a delicious lunch and then a free ride to a cosy town in the middle of nowhere called Mocuba. There’s a volunteer that lives here, and he let us stay at his place for two nights while we relaxed, explored the town, drank lots of beer (there is a much better selection than in Malawi), watched satellite TV, and ate really good food (the food over there is much better than here in Malawi, this is largely due to the Portguese influence (Mozambique was under the rule of Portugal multiple centuries until the 1960s)).

From Mocuba we continued our way east to the biggest city in the northern part of the country, Nampula. At the time, Peace Corps Mozambique was having a conference with a bunch of their volunteers. We just happened to roll into town at the same time, and we met a lot of these interesting people. The next day, we got out of Nampula, and we took a minibus to the coast. Our first stop was Mozambique Island. This was a very strange/interesting/beautiful place. It was the capital of the Porteguese colony until the early part of last century (I can’t remember exactly when) so it had a lot of big old buildings that tourists like to take pictures of. It is recognized as a world heritage site by UNESCO, and there’s about a days worth of cool stuff to see (which is why we stayed there for two nights and one full day). One half of the island is composed of all of the old buildings left over from colonial times. It’s an eerie place that feels like a ghost town. The southern half of the island is loaded with people. Apparently, these are the descendents of workers and servants from colonial times. This area is a true slum with poor sanitation, extreme poverty, and people living on top of each other (I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being a tourist in a place like this). One problem with Mozambique Island, from a tourist’s perspective, is that there aren’t any good beaches. There certainly are beaches on the island, but these beaches are a popular place to defecate.

Therefore, we headed north to find a good place to get a tan. Before dawn one morning we took an overcrowded, hot, dirty bus for a daylong journey to the city of Pemba. We had to stand for about half the bus ride, which took about 8 hours, but it was worth it since Pemba is absolutely beautiful.

We spent two full days and three nights at Pemba laying on the beach, eating cheap seafood, snorkelling over the small coral along the coast, and meeting all kinds of interesting people. The beach was great, but by this time I was starting to home-Malawi. The whole time we were in Mozambique things were a bit difficult because everyone knows Porteguese and very few people know English. At least the numbers are very similar to those in Spanish so I was able to get by on the little bit of Spanish that I learned from college and high school. However, I wasn’t able to talk with the local people at all, something that I enjoy doing (although I did find a guy at the market in Pemba that knew Chichewa-we chatted a while and he was so happy that he gave me a dozen free tangerines). It was time to head west for Malawi.

From Pemba we went back to Nampula where we spent two nights. Nampula isn’t all that interesting, but we stayed there for two nights so that we could catch a train going to Cuamba, another town in the middle of nowhere that reminded me of the Wild West. The train was a nice change from the buses and minibuses, but it was another long ride that took us all day. I can sum up all of the transportation in northern Mobiq with two words: long and uncomfortable.

Especially compared to Malawi, everything is very spread out in that country. To get from one hospitable town to another we had to catch a ride before sunrise everyday, and then we would get to our destination in the late afternoon. On top of the distance, the roads are horrible. It was only about 15 years ago when there was a civil war over there, and partially for this reason, the infrastructure is very poor. This means that we spent a majority of the time riding on unpaved, rutted out roads. But in hindsight, it was all worth it. The day we left Cuamba we managed to travel 500km all the way back to Lilongwe. I will never forget this trip (hopefully this blog and my pics will help we remember things).

After all this I went back to my site, to my home. I had some school work to finish up and people to talk to before I hit the road again. When I’m gone from my village (this seems to be true for most of us PCVs here), I always feel bad because the people in my village put me on some sort of guilt trip when I get back. Of course, these people are poor. They never have and never will have the opportunity to travel like I do. Needless to say, they have a lot of questions when I get back (How much did that cost? Can you bring me next time? Etc.), and they never fail to tell me how long I was gone for and how much I was missed. I was back home for a few days, answering everyone’s questions, and then I had to say goodbye again. At least this time it was “work” related.

A girl from my group has a really nice school that was recently renovated by the African Development Fund. They have all kinds of crazy science equipment (more than they will ever be able to use), a computer (!!), a science lab that is nicer than the one at BLHS, and a bunch of new buildings. Thankfully, a while back they decided to share some of this wealth. We put together a week long science camp at this school to help form 4 students (high school seniors) from nearby schools prepare for their MSCE exams, which they will write in a few months. Most of the students in Malawi, including the ones at my school, don’t have all this stuff at their schools. They primarily learn by copying what is on the chalkboard and reading the dearth of books they can find in the library.

Therefore, this was a valuable experience for all of them. I also brought four of my students, and they were smiling the entire time. These were the best students from their respective schools so it was cool for me to teach more advanced students, students that actually understand and can speak English. (**DON’T get this camp confused with Camp Sky (see previous blog post)). That camp is still coming up, in December, and we are still looking for help with funding from YOU).

I’m looking forward to a busy Term 3 at school. It’s hard to believe that next month will one year in Malawi. I hope that everyone is well back home. I love being here, but at the same time I can’t wait to get back to the States to see ya’ll.

“We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.” Ralph Waldo Emerson