End of Blog

So, everyone, it is now time to say goodbye. I am now in Canada safe and sound. I look back at my 3 months in Mozambique as some of the best months of my life. There I made great friends which I will think about wherever I go. Everyone comes into your life for a reason, you just have to figure out what that reason is.

If anyone needs some tips on staying alive in Mozambique or some pointers on where to or not to stay in Johannesberg and Cape Town feel free to contact me.

Take care and God bless.

sale.matthew@gmail.com
+1 416 453 1010

Johannesberg – Day 1

Against stern advice from my father, I decided to stop over in Johannesberg for a day (or maybe even two) before embarking for Cape Town. As I said in my previous blog, I arrived via Intercape at around 4:30 pm. The train station called “Park station” is near the CBD (central business district). I was cautioned strongly before going to Johannesberg that I shouldn’t walk…anywhere. So I planted myself firmly inside the train station and waited for my friend. The wonderful thing about travelling in South Africa is that they speak English. So instead of struggling with hand gestures and broken Portuguese, I was able to quickly purchase a Vodacom start-up card for 10 Rand (about $1.25 CAD). My foolish Canadian, non unlocked phone wouldn’t connect to Vodacom. So plan B, try a pay phone. Bingo! My friend picked me up shortly thereafter and I was able to get my Vodacom card activated by putting it in an already activated South African phone.

First stop, Brown Sugar’s Backpackers Hostel to get setup and drop off my stuff. The rooms ranged from 8 person dormitory style hostel, the cheapest option, to a one person “suite”, the nicest and most expensive option. I chose luxury living…surprise surprise. The room had a double-bed, a futon, and a bathroom. What it lacked was towels, tv, phone, furniture, and free toiletries. You know the shampoo that leaves your hair dry, the conditioner that smells like scented cooking oil, and hand crème that lasts about 2 hours before your hands are dry all over again. So needless to say I am not a big fan of cheap hotel freebies that others love to hoard.

Since I was staying in the “suite” by myself I only had to pay the single person rate of 190 Rand (about $24 CAD) so it all worked out perfectly. Next stop was the mall to walk around and see what’s what. I had my first meal at Perri where I feasted on some fresh fish and what not all for a very reasonable. Then to the airport for some highway robbery at the currency converter. They took a 2% commission, plus an admin fee of 30 Rand plus this and plus that.

Bye-Bye Maputo

Saturday night was my last night in Maputo. It was a little anti-climactic to be quite honest. Kevin, Gabe, and I went out after work for some grub. By 8pm we were back home and exhausted. One by one we retreated to a couch or a bed and “rested our eyes” for a bit. I finished packing up my stuff for the long bus ride tomorrow. By 12am everyone was fast asleep so I let sleeping dogs sleep and I too went to bed to enjoy my last hours in Maputo asleep, how exciting (sigh).

I set my first alarm for 5:57am, and my second alarm for 6:27am which would have given me just enough time to shower, grab my things and take a taxi to the bus pick-up location about 10 minutes away.

I naturally woke out of sleep and rolled over to take a look at my cellphone to read the time, 7am. Shooooot. I was late. I was supposed to be at the bus station at 7am so that I could register, get my bags checked and packed so that the bus could leave promptly at 7:30am. Needless to say my last minutes in Maputo were frantic. I dashed around our flat trying to remember everything I had to pickup.

Well, I’ll tell you that I made it to the bus station at 7:30am just in time to be registered and hurried onto the InterCape bus to depart for Johannesberg at 7:35am. Perfect.

It’s a good thing I was so exhausted from a week long going away celebration because the bus ride was quite long. The bus arrived in Johannesberg at 4:30pm – 9 hours later – and I’m pretty sure I slept for all but 1 of those hours. So it was an uneventful journey as far as I was concerned. Although I hear the bathrooms were atrocious after hour 4 and the border crossing took over an hour.

I arrived in Johannesberg with just enough credit on my phone to send one last SMS to my roommate to notify him I arrived safely. Bye-bye Maputo, hello Johannesberg.

Inhaca Island - Part 2

I didn't go to Inhaca island again, I just didn't mention a few minor details from my trip last weekend to the island just off the coast of Maputo. On Saturday night I had my camera stolen from me. My precious, innocent, beautiful, baby of a camera was taken from me. I wasn't sure that it was stolen from at the time, but in hindsight I can say with almost certainty that it was taken from my belt when I went into a shady looking bar to buy some water.

Yeah you are probably thinking, "Serves him right. Who goes into a bar and buys water." But it was the only place that sold bottled water after dark. And when you are on an island, beggars can't be choosers. But I should have known better, from the scanty lighting and solemn glares I knew as soon as I entered the joint that the vibe wasn't in my favour. [FYI..."vibe" means ambiance or atmosphere]

I put out a bounty on my camera and the person who "found" it. Within hours of me sending the message on Monday I got a phone call saying the camera had been located. Unfortunately, the guy who took it isn't cooperating so as of now I haven't recovered it. But I still have another week before I set sail for Canada so keep your fingers crossed.

Inhaca Island

On Friday we set sails for Inhaca island.

"Inhaca Island is a small-inhabited island, lying just 37 km off the Mozambican capital of Maputo, on the periphery of a large estuarine bay. On the fringe of the tropics, it has a wealth of breathtaking beaches, coral reefs and exotic marine life on offer.

The island features large areas of unspoiled evergreen forest and bush land and large areas of its land and shores have been protected as natural reserve since 1976, providing a unique and pristine environment to enjoy." (http://www.destination.co.za/mozambique/index.html)

So as I was saying, we were up bright and early Friday morning to catch the boat from Baixa (downtown) at 8am. Of course our promptness was not appreciated and we didn't end up leaving until nearly 9am. I had a feeling the boat ride might get a little uneasy so I skipped out on breakfast, good thing I did. Coming out of the port was uneventful and actually quite pleasant. I had dozed off for a little bit to be greeted with a "[Thud]" as the hull of our boat slammed down on the backside of a huge wave. Boat survived, we survived, all the better for the experience ;)

We arrived nearly 2 hours later on the shore of Inhaca where we had to take a smaller boat to get onto land since the water was not deep enough for our vessel.

Kevin, Jose, and I did not book a place to stay ahead of time, we figured we would just wing it. So we started asking around and eventually stayed at the same sight as the rest of our friends with Tevish. In English he calls himself Joshua, and no, I have no idea how that translates. Our friends had planned their adventure for sometime so they were prepared with tents, and mats, and packs full of camping gear. We had the clothes on our back and a change clothes. Tevish, our saviour, rented us a tent and a mattress to go inside the tent. Leave it to me and I'll always find a way.

Our first night was kind of rough, at least for me. I don't think 10 minutes went by where I didn't wake up and wonder why I was freezing cold in summer in Africa? It just didn't quite make sense to me.

At around 7am the sun came up and started to heat up the tent so I was finally able to get 2 hours of solid shut eye.

We were literally camping on the land of Tevish's mother's house. She basically lives there and rents out the space to campers or if you are very fussy she will even rent you an actual room to sleep in. There are outdoor shower facilities with a door made of a blanket which blows freely in the wind. So you have two options, don't shower, or shower quickly. I chose the latter.

I woke up Saturday and had to scavenge for some breakfast. What a way to start my birthday. On top of that my phone died and I didn't bring my charger so there was no way for the outside world to contact me. Luckily, I have great friends who gave me gifts for my birthday. Kevin, bought me a coconut. Jose, bought me an orange. And I treated myself to a huge fish dinner. It was perfect ;)

Saturday night Jorge took us into the mountains on his ATV quad bike. See the picture because it is kind of difficult to describe. Anyway, we were going up the mountain and we never got past 20 km/h so don't worry mom and dad.

It was pitch black every direction I looked, and after about 20 minutes we were getting a little anxious to know where on earth Jorge was taking us. Then all of a sudden we heard the Mozambican tunes filling the air. It was a dance competition. A stage had been setup - and by that I mean they put a few ropes up to hold back the crowd and stomped down the grass - and there were teams of dancers taking turns doing what seemed like impromptu performances. I offered to perform a reggae dance, but nobody took me up on my offer. Something must have been lost in translation I guess.

Sunday morning I woke up and noticed the beach had grown exponentially. Jorge told me that the tide goes out every morning. For those unfamiliar with such scenarios, basically the oceans retreats and reveals a maze of sand paths under water from Inhaca island to Portuguese Island which is about 1 kilometer away. There is about 6 inches of water above these sand paths and if you are not careful the current will come back in and suddenly you will have a long swim back to shore, or worse yet, it will drag you out to the ocean.

Well I think you can all guess what I did next. I tried to walk on water from Inhaca island to Portuguese island. None of my friends would come with me, they were still drowsy from their restful sleeps. So off I went.

There were dozens of women out in the middle of the ocean fishing, or would you say hunting, for crabs or some other shellfish. I'm really not sure. All I know is that they couldn't speak Portuguese or English so I had to resort to sign language to try and get some direction on which sand paths to follow to get from Inhaca Island to Portuguese Island without having to swim.

Well, I can say that I made it about 70% of the way from Inhaca Island to Portuguese Island before the tide came back in and I had to turn back and sprint back to shore. I got a little cut on my toe and a tonne of laughs from the women who had long since returned to shore with their catch. Lesson learned, when locals go, you should probably go too.

For some information on Inhaca Island
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inhaca_Island
http://realtravel.com/inhaca-journals-j2368619.html

For more information on the Yamaha Rhino ATV
(http://www.yamaha-motor.com/outdoor/products/modelhome/592/0/home.aspx)

My Birthday Party

So Kevin and I hosted a little birthday party at our flat last Wednesday. We did it on Wednesday because Thursday was a holiday and on my actual birthday (on Saturday) we were going to be out of town.

So in "me" fashion I sent out a last minute text on Tuesday telling everyone to come over Wednesday night at 8pm. At 6pm on Wednesday Kevin and I still hadn't purchased any food or beverages for the party so we went to Shoprite, "Vamos!"

Shoprite is almost like a slice of North America in Maputo. It is a large grocery store stocked with all the food and household products one could ever need. It's like a Mozambican Walmart except they never "rollback prices." Instead they charge a premium because of the wide convenience of having all the products you need in one source. Otherwise, I would have to go probably 3 or 4 different small shops to get all the things we were looking for.

Anyway, we came out of the store with empty pockets and hands full of groceries. We went home and had dinner and tidied the place and showered and what not. 8pm came and went and it was only the three of us, Kevin, Jose, and moi. 8:30pm went by...no change.

8:55pm Jose says, "Matt, I don't think anyone is showing up." To which I respond, "Why are you so negative? Have some faith will you? Besides, I'm happy if its only the three of us. We have food and music. What else could I ask for?"

[Ding-Dong] 5 car loads of people came and the birthday celebrations began!!!

Gil Vicente

So last Wednesday I did what I never thought I would, I sang at a karaoke bar. I went to the theatre before so I guess I was just inspired by the arts. It was a musical on the changes women have gone through in Mozambique over the past century. I was shockingly attentive during the whole performance, clapping enthusiastically after every scene. I'm not sure if my keen attention span had something to do with the dancers costumes (I will leave it at that) or the uncomfortable bench I sat on.

After the theatre Jose and I walked over to Gil Vicente at 295 Avda. Samora Machel (258)82-323-7300 to listen to some live music and relax with some friends. A list of songs was passed around and of course I put my name beside Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry." I thought it was to determine which songs were the most popular so that the band knew what type of music to play. Then next thing I knew I heard, "Matteus, vem no estágio" (Matthew, come on the stage). Of course my friends were not letting this opportunity pass by so they pointed me out, "Here he is! Here he is!"

I took one last drink and went onto stage. Oddly enough, I was quite calm when I walked onto the stage. I started conjuring up images of famous rock bands and their fans. You know what I am talking about...screaming people chanting your name in unicent...Well let me tell you it was nothing like that. Luckily the bright lights blinded me and I didn't see the glaring looks from the crowd.

I decided to go with it, so I just started singing.

"No, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry;
No, woman, no cry"

Apparently the band was not able to download the original lyrics to Bob's song so there were words scattered throughout the song in Portuguese or just completely out of context in English.

For example, Actual lyrics are:

As they would mingle with the good people we meet.
Good friends we have, oh, good friends weve lost

Instead the karaoke lyrics read:

As they would giggle with the good people we meet.
Good friends we have, oh, good friends have cost.

I sang them out anyway. The great thing about karaoke is that if you sing bad enough nobody has any idea whether you are saying the correct lyrics anyway.

For full lyrics to Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry"
(http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bob+marley/no+woman+no+cry_20021714.html)