Scorpions united!

Another short anecdote I forgot to add about the day of the train ride.

So we had arrived in Cuamba and I went to use the bathroom.  Grabbing the toilet paper roll’s center, I felt something crawling on my hand, but didn’t think much of it.  Then it happened again and I threw the roll down, only to find a SCORPION fall out of it!  That’s right, the scorpion had been crawling on my hand!  Upon further inspection, I am still unsure whether the scorpion was alive or dead because it never moved from its spot on the floor, but either way, scary!

Then later that night, while sleeping on the floor, Zackaria’s cat chased an even bigger scorpion into his roommate’s bedroom!  That one quickly was killed by dropping a heavy book on top of it, but my, were the scorpions out to get me!!

An African Train Ride

Last week, Adam and I decided to take the train to visit Niassia province.  We prepared ourselves for the 12 hour ride from Nampula City to Cuamba, a city in Niassa province where the train ends and, conveniently, Zackaria, a volunteer from our group, lives. 

Adam on the nice train

The train has both second and third class tickets; third class they cram in way too many people, so we opted for the second class tickets which guarantee no more than 6 people in a room/compartment.  There are two trains which alternate going to or from Nampula, the nice one and the not so nice one.  Fortunately on the way there, we got the nice train (not so lucky on the way back, though).  In second class, the nice train has 6 beds, three on each wall for individuals to have their own space to lie down and rest.  We got even luckier as there were only three of us in our room, so we didn’t even need to put up the other beds.  (The not so nice train only has two beds which serve as benches for sitting on.)  The bathroom on the train was a metal toilet that simply had a hole all the way through the floor so that you just left your mark on the tracks below.  Gross yes, requires some balancing skills, but better than nothing.

Like an American train, this train makes many stops along the way, but it goes so so slow, reaching a maximum velocity of about 30mph.  It’s a beautiful ride through the landscapes of Mozambique, but you can imagine it gets pretty hot and 12 hours is a long time to be stuck on a swaying, rocking train.  Though it is much more comfortable than a chapa! 

Along the way, the train stops and people rush up to the windows to sell various items like bread, bags of tomatoes, onions, beans, and sodas.  If you’re brave, you can try the street food like fried chicken, goat meat, hard-boiled eggs, cashews, fried potatoes or bags of cabbage salad.

View from the train

At about hour 10 of our ride, we looked out the window to see the greatest number of mangos I have ever seen in my life, then that number multiplied by about 1000.  It is beginning to be mango season here, but neither I nor Adam was prepared for the ridiculous amount of mangos this little village was trying to sell.  Hundreds of people were walking around with buckets filled with over 100 mangos balanced on their heads, selling the entire bucket for a mere 10mts!  I don’t even know what one does with that many mangos!  It was incredible.

Finally, we made it to Cuamba around 5pm, sore, achy, and so happy to finally get off the train.  It was a cool thing to do once, but not something I need to do again anytime soon.  

Wedding, Hooligans, and Halloween

Through the powers of technology, from the other side of the world, I was able to see my new sister-in-law walk down the aisle and I was a part of my big brother’s wedding ceremony.  It was a bundle of every type of emotion watching them saying their vows and then being passed around the reception talking to friends and family members all gathered together, being a part of it but also reinforcing the fact that I wasn’t actually there.  Still though, pretty amazing that I was able to see it all, despite it being 3am my time.  Definitely worth the lack of sleep.

Unfortunately, some interesting occurrences happened while I was away from my house that weekend.  I had left my neighbor to watch over things while both I and Adrienne were travelling.  I’m still not entirely sure what unfolded that Saturday night, but I came home to a hole in the wall of my bedroom.  After talking with my neighbor, I have formulated my own idea of what perhaps happened.

Apparently he returned to the house, encountering five guys on the premises.  They proceeded to fight each other and then everyone ran away.  I think he must have returned right as they had just gotten inside my house because nothing was taken, very fortunate for me.  All in all, things could have been much worse and improvements have been made on my house since then, making things a little harder for them if they decide to come back.  Still, a little disconcerting though.  Unfortunately, even after a year of being here, some people still see my skin color and associate it with having a lot of money and expensive things.

On a more happier note, the school year is officially over and I have some free time now to relax and do some travelling.  I spent Halloween in Angoche dressed as a butterfly, forming the wings with a brightly colored capulana and some black paint.  This week two volunteers from the new group are doing site visits here in Murrupula.  It is a strange feeling thinking back to being in their place just a year ago and answering all their questions, trying to show them an idea of what life is like for a volunteer here.  In a couple weeks, I’ll be heading down to help out at their training, but first a train trip to Lake Malawi! (more to come soon J )