Holiday Break 2013

I'm super slow and late but here is a summary of how I spent my 2 weeks off! :)

12/21/13 

A -> B Ancuabe- Pemba

3hr ride to get to Pemba

Pemba when it rains a lot

This was one heck of a day! A series of unfortunate events. I was really sleepy since I woke up early to start catching chapa at 4am to go to Pemba. The mini bus were full already but luckily there was an open back truck that was going to Pemba too so I got the blanco treatment and got to sit comfortably in the front with the driver. I was so sleepy and wanted to sleep the whole way to Pemba but the driver wanted to talk so we talked the whole way. Most of the time was the questions game- does America have mangoes? matu? peanuts? this? that? does it get hot like here? does it rain a lot like here? etc etc. Once we got to Pemba, I was excited to be dropped off right in front of my friend's house but found out he was at the hotel in Wimbi praia and have lost his house keys. I got a boleia to meet up with the 3 PCV guys. Zeke and I went back to the house first to drop off our stuff using the spare key that his landlord has. It started sprinkling and became pouring rain when after we dropped off our stuff and walked to the bank and post office. I had an umbrella but I was still damp wet since it rains in all sort of directions! There's a new Barclays bank that's closer but it doesn't open until Monday. After we got to the old location, we found out they took out the atm to put it in the new bank so we couldn't pull out any money. I left most of my money in my backpack back at the house so between the two of us, we luckily had enough to cover the custom fees for my care package [see previous post]. I was so thankful to have my friend with me because I have no idea how I'd carry the big box myself! We met up with Sean and Stephen for lunch afterward and also because we don't have enough money on us for lunch hahah. It was hard getting a chapa to go back to the house with the box so we decided to walk to the marginal to catch a boleia. It was a longgg walk in the hot sun with a heavy box! A car eventually stopped and offered us a boleia as we were walking toward the marginal. Once we got back to the house, we were locked out for 5ish hours since the landlord left with the spare key.

12/22/13

B-> C Pemba- Montepuez

waited for 1hr for the chapa to fill up; 3.5hr ride to get to Montepuez

-Walked around the city but a lot of stores were closed since it's Sunday
-Went to the bank and waited forever only to find out the atm ran out of money
-A random guy approached me and said he recognizes me because he's from Ancuabe too. Pretty cool!
-Sean's house is nice!! He has real couches, I want them! haha

12/23/13

C-> D Montepuez- Balama
waited 1hr for the chapa to fill up; 1.5hr ride to Balama; waited 2hr in Balama for a boleia

They have the best bread and ice cream I've had in Moz so far!

D-> E Balama- Jamila
walked for 2hr toward the Niassa border before catching a 3hr boleia to Jamila; waited 16hr overnight in Jamila for a boleia

-Zeke wanted to start walking since whatever boleia we can get will pass by anyways. Plus it was good to get away from town and having everyone staring at us.. or it seemed like a good idea at the moment. Didn't realized the next town was really really REALLY far away

-We finally got a boleia and was relieved since we saw how really far away we were. The truck got a flat tire so we had to stop for awhile for them to switch out the tires before we're back on the road toward Jamila, the end destination of the truck.

-The driver was so friendly and everyone in Jamila was super nice! They got us chairs to sit to wait for our next boleia and made food for us to eat. While we were sitting, practically everyone surrounded us just to watch us even though we weren't really doing anything entertaining. It seems like we're the first Americans to stop in their town. We were literally off the grid in the middle of no where. Jamila, Mozambique doesn't show up on google map haha

-They offered us a place to sleep but we decided to sleep in the back of the pick up truck thinking it's a good idea since we can catch any car that would drives by too. Stargazing was beautiful! We eventually fell asleep until some people from the village woke us up because there was a huge truck passing by and they stopped it to ask for a boleia for us [see how nice they are? :)]. It was 10pm ish and by the time we'd get to Marrupa, it would be 2am ish so we decided to pass on it. Plus the truck didn't seem very safe and the roads are bad. We went back to sleep and woke up freeeeezing cold within a few hours. Wasn't such a good idea to sleep in a pick up truck anymore!

-A guy bought us all refresco in the morning while we continue waiting. I seriously thought we were going to be stuck there but a car finally drove by!!

After 16 hours we were starting to lose hope but a car finally came by!

12/24/13 

E-> F Jamila- Marrupa

2hr ride to Marrupa; waited 6hr in Marrupa for a boleia to Lichinga
-After asking for a boleia from the first car that we see, their question was "What are you doing here... how did you get here?" hahaha see what I mean when I said middle of no where?
-We got to Marrupa around 8:30am and felt good since we can get to Lichinga early until we found out that the chapa leaves for Lichinga already left at 4am.. waiting game continues!
-We waited at the gas station the whole morning and afternoon and asked everyone but no one was heading to Lichinga. A lot of people helped us asking around for a ride too. People here are so nice! :)

F-> G Marrupa- Lichinga

3.5hr ride to Lichinga 

-We found a chapa driver that was willing to drive to Lichinga if there was 10 people going. We were only missing 1 person so we said we'd pay extra to cover the 10th person. Then we only had 8 people and we ended up paying double the price but we decided it was better to get to Lichinga and would cost about the same mais ou meno if we had to spend a night in Marrupa.
-We got to Lichinga around 6:30pm and John made delicious soup for us for dinner!

12/25/13

Christmas morning breakfast at Jade's house

Settlers!! Didn't think I'd be able to play that here

Walked around the city a bit before dinner

12/26/13

Crashed plane memorial

Hiked to this reservoir

Went around the mercado for a bit

Waited inside a restaurant for the storm to pass

Walking home was a muddy adventure

Delicious dinner and watched The Great Gatsby afterward

12/27/13

G-> H Lichinga- Cuamba

5.5hr ride
-We were told it's a 6-8hr trip but we got to Cuamba in under 6 hours which was really good because the chapa was so umcomfortable! 28 people in a 14 seats mini bus.
-We had to wait until the train station open to buy our ticket for the next day so we hung around town to eat lunch and walked around.
-Stayed with 2 new volunteers from Moz21 in Cuamba for the night. Their house is so nice!! I got to shower with running water!

12/28/13

H-> I Cuamba- Nampula

18hr on the train

1st class

-I'm glad I got to try taking the train at least once in Moz. There's a bunch of people selling foods at almost every stop. The view along the way is amazing also

-This 10hr trip turned into 18hr because it stopped so often and broke down for 5 hours! We didn't get to Nampula until almost midnight. Thank goodness Lucio was kind enough to pick us up and let us stay at his house! He's so awesome!

12/29/13

I-> J Nampula- Pemba

5.5hr ride
Most comfortable seat ever!!

12/30/13-12/31/13
A lot of hanging out, relaxing at the beach and eating cheap food and ice cream :)

1/1/14

J-> K Pemba- Ancuabe
1hr wait, 33hr of chapa and 2 boleias 
-Made it back to my site! It felt good to be back since I was missing my community and my cat! :)

1/2/14- 1/5/14
-Hang out with the neighbors and played with the children
-Biked and hiked to the mountain nearby
-Baked cocoa brownie with browned butter and walnuts
-Sew some more stuffs
-Ran out of electricity and couldn't buy more because it wasn't open so I had to live without electricity for 2 days.. it was horrible :(