Site Visits

This past week, we ventured beyond Namaacha and stayed with currently serving volunteers at their sites, getting a first-hand glimpse of what life as a volunteer in Mozambique might be like.  People traveled all over the country, to all 10 provinces, revealing the great size of the country and differing experiences each and every volunteer here has/can have.

I visited the city of Homoine in the Inhambane province.  (Still considered southern Mozambique, Inhambane is located two provinces north of Maputo.)  After spending the night in Maputo on Friday (Thai food for dinner was delicious), we left the hotel at 4am and were driven by Peace Corps to Junta, the bus stop in Maputo for everything headed up North and beyond.  Junta is epitome of every stereotype about African transportation.  We had been briefed by other volunteers about the potential scariness or overwhelming-ness of Junta and didn’t really know what to expect.  Thank goodness Peace Corps continued to baby us and had four of our language teachers accompany us at Junta to make sure we got on the right/safe bus.  They even waited until the bus actually drove out of the parking lot to make sure we were properly on our way. 

Let me see if I can paint a proper picture of Junta.  There are chapas (~20 seats), medium sized buses (~30 seats), and large buses (~50 seats) parked on a dirt lot a little smaller than a football field, most with engines on and idling.  The buses are parked just close enough for someone to walk between and there are signs in front of some stating where they are going and how much it costs.  Drivers walk around asking where you are headed, saying they will offer you a good price to wherever and trying to convince you that’s where you want to go instead.  People wander about selling soda, water, crackers, capulanas, sunglasses, clothes, even nail polish!  Sitting waiting for the chapa to leave, I tried to not make eye contact with the vendors pacing around outside my window so they didn’t think I wanted to buy anything.  People stand on top of the large buses (like charter sized buses) hauling large suitcases, tables, chairs, mattresses, etc. on top of the roof, creating a pile about 15-20 feet high!  All in all, Junta is definitely not a place one should walk around looking lost or confused, despite the inevitability of feeling lost and confused by all the commotion.  I never felt unsafe, just wary and cautious and it was certainly comforting having our language teachers there to guide us around.

So we found our bus, then proceeded to sit on it waiting to leave for about an hour and a half.  I don’t know how or who decides because I don’t think any sort of bus schedule exists, but eventually the bus filled up and left around 6:30am (we left our hotel at 4:30am).  Oops, only to exit the lot then stop to load four wooden benches underneath, which took another good 15 minutes or so….

But overall, the ride was much more spatious than I had anticipated and luckily it wasn’t too hot of a day.  Amazingly, the road (Dad, you can highlight the N1 for me on your map), was unbelievably straight, I don’t think we ever once made a turn or even a bend for that matter.  The driver stops every few hours or so and people can get off to go to the bathroom (just squat on the side of the road, behind some bushes if they are around) or vendors run up to the windows selling water, sodas, cookies, mangos, bananas, cashews and even stranger things like if you need a straw mat. 

After about 9 hours, we arrived in Maxixe and met up with the volunteer we were visiting, Yvette.  After lunch at the market in Maxixe, it was another 45ish minute chapa ride(our first chapa ran out of gas) to Homoine, followed by a 20-30 minute walk to Yvette’s house.

So that was our 10 hour adventure to arrive in Homoine.  Inhambane is an unbelievably beautiful province.  There are tons of trees (palms, mangos, and others) and everywhere you look is green green green.  We even saw a rainbow! The city itself is fairly small, but nearby Maxixe has an amazing market called Taurus that has lots of fun things like soy sauce, spices, cereal, broccoli, cauliflower, cheese, and other goodies. 

Yvette is an English teacher at a teacher trainer institute and lives on the school grounds.  She usually has running water (and even running, HOT water), but unfortunately the pump has been broken for a couple months so we didn’t get the pleasure of taking hot normal showers and continued using buckets.  But the bathroom was inside which was a nice change.  Her place has a living room, kitchen, and three bedrooms, very spacious and lots of natural light. 

During our visit, we met many other volunteers who live in nearby cities either down the road about 20 minutes or off the main highway about an hour or so away.  They met us for lunch in Maxixe (I ate a surprisingly very delicious hamburger).  Then a huge storm started and, totally unprepared for rain, we decided to brace the storm and run through the flooded streets to the chapa stop about a 15 minute walk away.  Yvette almost lost her sandals in the flooded streets and people definitely were very amused to see three Americans running through the thunderstorm.  Of course, about 10 minutes after we got on the chapa, it stopped raining…

During the rest of our visit, we walked around the village center and the market in Homoine, relaxed and chatted with Yvette and other volunteers, and just enjoyed the beautiful view around us.  The best part was taking a boat then a chapa to the beautiful beach in Tofo for a fantastic beach day (let me just say, that never when I imagined my days in Peace Corps, did I imagine lounging for the entire day at a gorgeous beach with crystal blue water the perfect temperature for swimming).  It was definitely a nice change of pace being able to cook for ourselves!  We made pancakes, tacos, stew, but the best dinner by far was falafel, complete with pita, yogurt sauce,  cucumber, tomato, salad, and of course hummus!  SO DELICIOUS!

I wish I could transcribe every second of every experience into words, but I am finding that to be nearly impossible, but I greatly accept any questions you may have regarding anything, big or small!!

Mostly, the site visit served to show what life can be like and meeting and talking with so many volunteers revealed the great diversity in living situations, work situations, and experiences.  On Wednesday, we find out our own site placement and I can’t wait to see what my adventure will be like…