Another school break, another new country seen. Our
original plan to head up north for one more in-country adventure was not to be
due to the political unrest I talked about in my last blog post. Fortunately,
things have remained calm but PC is still keeping the travel ban in effect just
as a precaution. With only one major highway to get to the north, our only
other option was to fly which we discovered to be outrageously expensive. So we
came to the realization that our plans to relax with friends on the beach of
Ilha de Moçambique and hiking the mountainous tea plantations of Gurué were not
going to happen. We’ve both been lucky enough to get up north on separate
occasions in the past two years, so we decided to come up with an exciting plan
B for our very last school vacation. We’d heard many good reviews from PCVs who
traveled to Swaziland, a tiny landlocked country between South Africa and
Mozambique. We also heard that there are lots of opportunities for hiking,
something we really enjoy but haven’t gotten to do a lot in Moz. So we booked a
long weekend at a recommended ecolodge, and were off to see what was up
with Swazi.
For the first leg of our trip, we
caught the 4am bus to the capital city of Maputo. Per usual, the nine hours
were spent with bumping house music, mysterious smells and lots of people in a
hot and cramped space. We made it there with little to report, and had a relaxing
evening with the American family who hosted us.
The next day started with an unexpected detour of Chris frantically
searching for his wallet only to find it in his backpack an hour later (uggh, don’t
even ask why it took so long!). Losing your wallet is never fun, but it feels
like an even bigger hassle to lose it here when your money is scarce, credit
card companies can’t easily be called and not to mention that replacing the
wallet itself is a pain when a Target isn’t just around the corner. Relieved
but frazzled (never a good emotion when you're about to get on public transportation), we
finally headed out to start our journey into Swazi. Now, we’ve been around long
enough to know when taking public transport in Mozambique or anywhere in
Southern Africa for that matter, it’s best to start early because you just
never know how things will go. There are no time tables or thoroughly regulated
car condition standards, so you can’t be sure what time you’ll leave and if the
car will make it to your destination without breaking down. Even if you opt to
catch a private ride by hitch hiking, there is just no way to tell how the ride
will go. Regardless, we decided to wake
up leisurely that morning thinking that it would be a hop, skip and a jump to
get into neighboring Swaziland. Oh, how silly of us! Luck was not with us that
day, as a chapa to Swazi was on its way out just as we arrived to the bus stop.
So that meant we waited for 3 hours for the car to fill. But hey, at least we
got the front seat! I was glad when
we finally started on our way only to go into almost full blown panic attack
mode when we reached the congested highway.
Our driver was bobbing and weaving through traffic as I am digging my
nails into Chris’ arm. Drivers here always tend to be aggressive, but my usual
routes don’t have many cars on them.
It’s been quite a while since I was on a busy highway, especially one
where I had a clear view of the road (which makes me wonder if this will be a
problem when I get back to America. Oy!). Once we crossed the border and
started climbing the hills of Swazi, I chilled out. Just when I felt relaxed, the car made a
strange noise, forcing our driver to stop and investigate while further
lowering my confidence in choosing this method of transportation. I’m not sure
what the problem was, but we continued on at a very low speed until about 45
minutes outside of our destination, when we were told to change cars. So we all
grabbed our stuff and moved into chapa #2. But this was no ordinary chapa, this
was the Swazi version which they call a “combi”, complete with elevated
ceilings, TVs, individual seats for every space and only 3 people to a row. It
was essentially the same party bus I took to the OHS prom. In contrast, the Moz
version uses a much older car, crams 4 to a row on a bench made of metal bars
and a thin cushion, and will loves to play loud dance music. Our swazi transport was
not only significantly more comfortable, but was jamming to the sweet sounds of
Whitney Houston in her 80s heyday. Her famous version of the star spangled
banner came on, and it seemed like a great time for me to have a “wow, this is
awesome” moment as I’m sitting in the comfy combi with the contrast of the
African scenery and patriotic American song.
Instead, I was having a “I am so over this” moment thinking that I never
wanted to travel again. Even though we were very close to finishing our day of
travel and in significantly better conditions then I’m used to, I was too far
gone with all of the annoyances from earlier. We made it to the major city of
Manzini, then jumped into a taxi to go to our hotel just as the sun was going
down. The next morning we had to catch 2 more combis but this time a good
night’s sleep allowed me to appreciate the higher standard of transport I was
riding in. I even got to experience a police stop where they actually checked
the vehicle’s regulations and weren’t handed money for a bribe (an unfortunate
common occurrence in Moz). Finally, one more winding cab ride into the
mountains later, and we were at Phophonyane ecolodge. We were shown around the
premises that was built right into the mountains and overlooking a waterfall,
then taken to our “tent” decked out in Swazi handcrafts and complete with a
double bed and heater. As I looked at our view of the running water just
upstream from the falls, I said to Chris “it was all worth it”. The wallet
worries, panic attacks, strange car noises and Whitney jams didn’t matter
anymore as I again found myself in a beautiful place in a part of the world I
never dreamed I’d see. They say “it’s about the journey, not about the destination”.
Ha! Well in Southern Africa, I would definitely switch that around. The journey
is almost always sure to be sucky, but once you get to where you’re going, it’s
all worth it. We spent three awesome days at the lodge, going on daily hikes,
eating good food and lounging by the pool while taking in the stunning views.
We’d fall asleep to the relaxing sound of water flowing down stream and stayed
asleep until 8:30am the next day (Whaaaat? That hasn’t happened since I
regularly watched Saturday morning cartoons!). The vacation was exactly what
we’d hoped it would be and it’s always an eye opener to experience another
African country. Swaziland may still be run by a traditional king, but they’ve
somehow managed to be way more developed than Mozambique. It’s now Chris’ current top pick if we ever decided to live
abroad with our family. But even with its downsides, Mozambique is still our favorite
place to be because it’s become our home. So it came time to start the dreaded
process for the return trip back to Maputo, and it actually turned out ok. We still
had to wait a couple of hours for the combi to fill at the bus stop, but this
one went straight to our destination without a threat of breaking down or needing to switch
cars. It still took longer than expected to make it there, but being fresh off
a vacation gave me more patience and less nerves. We ended our school break in
Maputo where we stayed for a couple of days with another generous American
family, joining them for meals and good conversation. We also hung out with other volunteers in
the Peace Corps office while taking advantage of wireless internet. We hopped
on the 4am bus back to Mapinhane, with the bumping music and everything else
that comes along with it, but this time with the added bonus of breaking down
for two hours in the rain. These travel annoyances come with the territory I
suppose. I’ve started to think it’s just a small price to pay for getting to
see so many incredible places during these two years, and the freedom afforded to
see them. Soon enough, I’m sure I’ll be longing for the days when I crossed
international borders on a pretty regular basis.
I don’t believe I’ve mentioned that we received our
official COS (Close Of Service) date as November 14. This gives us a whole 2
weeks to make it back to the U.S. of A. for a Thanksgiving homecoming! We’re throwing around lots of ideas as to
where to spend those two weeks and we’ve come up with everything from Taiwan to
Israel. Wherever it is, we know we want to have one last adventure before we
get back to start our lives again in the “real world”. So our long Peace Corps journey
is beginning to come to an end and it’s finally starting to feel real. The last
of the 16ers finished their service this week which means our training group,
Moz 17, is now the senior class in country. Next week begins our third and
final trimester as teachers in the Mozambican school system. And, I’m starting
to gather my thoughts for information to pass on to the new volunteers that will
replace us at our site. We’ve even started to apply for jobs and are having
conversations about what’s to come next for us. While it’s good to have only 3
months left to worry about transportation woes, that leaves me with only 3 more
months left of this amazing experience.
