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)

Random Pics

Picture 1: Protestors outside my flat. I have no idea what they were protesting.

Picture 2: Jose doing....well....who knows!?!

Picture 3: Jose, Me, Kevin, and Caldron.

PASSA BOLA

Recently the Foundation launched a new initiative called Passa Bola. It’s a very entrepreneurial endeavor where LMF will entice different vendors to brand their products with the passa bola symbol (a black and white soccer ball). A portion of the proceeds for that product will go to LMF to fund our projects. Fantastic isn’t it!?!

So next time you see a product with a Passa Bola symbol on it…buy it!

MARIA MUTOLA

On Tuesday I got to finally meet the infamous Maria Mutola. She visited the Foundation to review the financial statements and get a general update on the progress of all the projects.

She is very unassuming. She greeted each and every one of us with a warm smile and a firm handshake. Her elegant clothes concealed her well defined muscles beneath. She spoke in perfect English, due to the fact that she has lived many years in America and South Africa. In fact, there is a myth that many Mozambicans perpetuate that she cannot speak Portuguese fluently. Unfortunately I cannot confirm or refute the claim, but I can understand where it comes from since she speaks English so well, and in all the time she was in the office I did not hear her revert to Portuguese which was a pleasant change for me since I am still learning the language.

There were subtle characteristics about Maria that I found endearing. For example, when she entered the board room and was ushered to the large chair setup at the head of the table, she commented “I can sit anywhere.”

When the Directors were going over the results of the Foundation with Maria Mutola she spoke up and asked intelligent questions about the Projects. She had done her research and read the literature on the Projects which was sent to her in advance of the meeting.

I am told that Maria Mutola will be visiting the Foundation more often from now on, given the fact that she has retired from professional running (after Beijing Olympics) so I am looking forward to hopefully getting a picture with her before I leave.

Status Update: Operation Black Toe

On Saturday afternoon I decided to test out my toe. I had been walking pretty gingerly with it up until then. So like true Matthew fashion, I decided to heck with the “easing back into things,” I’m going for a run!

And my little jog turned into a marathon event. I ran down the beach road (where my friend was mugged) to the fish market and then back up Julius Nyarere through downtown Maputo, down the hill (you’re not supposed to run on), and to Baixa (downtown). I was running about 1:20 so at 10km/h that’s about 13 kilometers (7.5 miles for you Americans). But that wasn’t enough to test out my toe. So I met some friends across from VIP Hotel in Baixa (downtown) on Av. 25 de Septembro (you guessed it, the street is called September 25th) and played some ultimate Frisbee.

I had never played ultimate Frisbee before so it was all new to me. Rules are pretty simple.

1) Require field 100 meters x 37 meters

2) 2 teams – we played with 5 a side but I’m not sure official guidelines. As far as I’m concerned, the more the better.

3) One team serves to the other team by launching the Frisbee as far as they can down the field.

4) Team member catches Frisbee. Can not move both feet, can only pivot on one foot kind of like basketball.

5) Team member with Frisbee throws Frisbee within 10 seconds to another team member who must immediately stop running.

6) Repeat steps 4 and 5 until a team member catches the Frisbee in the end zone.

After an hour and a half of Frisbee I thought to myself, “well maybe the toe needs some stretching while I cool down” so I walked home which took another 45 minutes.
So all in all it was a 3 hour workout to make sure my toe was ‘A okay.’

So you can all rest assured that my toe is on its way to complete recovery. No bleeding in a few days and the nail has bonded to the skin beneath. Half my nail is black and half is still alive and kicking so I’ve got a funky looking toe.

Enjoy the picture ;)