Mozambique

Heyy peeps -

Sincerest apologies for updating this late, I get back from Moz on Sunday night and was pooped beyond belief. I've pretty much been procrastinating on the update till now... but y'all can deal.

Let me tell you all about my weekend...

The trip to Mozambique was a trip filled with up’s and down’s. We got to Moz in the evening Thursday thinking that we were going to stay at a hotel a friend had booked for us. However, the booking kind of fell through, so we had to find a place to crash for the night so we could move into the hotel the next day. So we crashed at a place downtown that was kind of expensive. We figured, though, that it would only be one pricey night, and then we would move into the other hotels, which were supposed to be cheap and fairly nice. We went out for dinner (it was great to have proper food again), and what I found most immediately striking was that I had to be afraid of the dark again. I mean, perhaps ‘afraid’ isn’t the best word, but when we were walking outside in the dark there was a certain tenseness and heightened alertness. There were stories from other groups (later in the week) of getting stopped by policemen with AK-47s, having to bribe themselves out of situations, being very close to getting arrested. It wasn’t hyperbole, either. The police will arrest anybody walking around at night without a passport, and are much more likely to ambush people who look like tourists. For the whole trip, I have to say that I was pretty lucky to not have any police encounters.

But I digress.

We got to bed at a reasonable time the first night, and I was looking forward to getting a good night’s sleep. However, at about five in the morning the next day, Leo (Germany) woke me up and told me he was having chest pain and needed to go to the hospital. So we went out on the street in search of the hospital – luckily, it was within walking distance of where we were staying. Walking through Mozambique reminded me a lot of Mexico – in addition to the signs everywhere in Portuguese (official language), the infrastructure and environment just gave off much of a Mexico vibe. Actually sort of nice, because it made me feel closer to home... ish. We were able to walk to the hospital, but then encountered our next problem – the language barrier. Fortunately, Leo’s knowledge of Spanish and my (very limited) knowledge of SiSwati (our nurse was Swazi) helped us get through the hospital with considerable speed. Leo got an x-ray and some blood drawn, and eventually the doctor concluded that he had a virus and gave him antibiotics. I saw this all as very fitting with the "Moz experience" - crazy stuff happens, and you never really know. Woo!

We spent the day touring around the city, driving along the ocean and such. I had quite a shock, actually, when someone looked out the window and said “Look, the Indian Ocean!” I dunno why it didn’t register before, but I had never really thought about how Moz is on the side of the Indian Ocean. My mind then started WTFing for about ten minutes as I realized how far away from home I was.  When I used to play with the globe as a kid, I would look at the Indian Ocean and practically think it was on another planet, it was so far away. And yet there I was, on a bus driving along it. After I get over this shock, though, I began to really appreciate the ocean and the beach. The Norwegians all laughed at me because I was having a mindgasm about being at the ocean, and everyone was shocked when I told them it had been YEARS since I’d been on the beach. I love it on the beach though – I feel like I’m on the edge of the world, and I can almost feel myself being on the border of a continent. Which may sound weird but… whatever. 

Eventually we got to our accommodation -  a timeshare-esque place across the street from the beach. All of us were sooo excited to staying in this amazing village place for super cheap.. yeah, until we were told that it was going to be more expensive than we were originally told. And then we found out we weren’t actually staying in the timeshare area, but in a house in the super sketch area BEHIND the nice place. Should have known it was too good to be true, we said. The house was pretty nice but we were really pissed for a while about the price that we would have to pay. Eventually we got over it and realized that, considering the location and the nature of the accommodation, we were actually getting a pretty good deal. Nevertheless, it added to the emotional fluctuation that had been so omnipresent throughout the day.  

We got up the next morning for continental breakfast (one of the pluses of a more expensive place), and then went swimming at the pool. I wanted to swim in the ocean, but conventional Mozambican wisdom dictates that it’s a bad idea, and the water is fairly… brown. Boooo pollution. The pool was nice though, and afterwords we went to the beach to walk around and just hang out. Being on the beach was THE BEST. We got ice cream at a place with an ocean view (this was what I pictured when I thought of Moz) and had a generally relaxing and fun day. 

That night we went out and stayed out until the sunrise (watched from the beach - AWESOME), and then crashed super hard for the bus ride home. As folks can imagine, I was totally trashed (relax, I mean exhausted) by the time I got back to Swaziland, so these past few days have been focused on catching up on sleep. Yay!

Monday morning at breakfast I saw a sign in the cafeteria that said something like -
All climbers, be sure to be at the gym today to discuss a trip this weekend to climb in South Africa. 

So this is my next adventure? You all are probably wondering if I even go to school. (I do, just to clarify)

I saw today that I got a package, and I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. I'm super stoked (I danced around for about five minutes when I saw) and many thanks to the sender(s). 

Missing you all tons (of course), I'll be posting pictures soon enough. 

Sala kahle,

Eli