Trip North Part I

Prepare yourself for a monster blog! I have just returned from a week and a half of travelling around Mozambique, with lots to write about. Actually, writing this will be very difficult just because I have so much to say and I am sure I will forget something very interesting that I wanted to pass along. But anyways, I will try my best.

Lilian and I left on the early morning of Christmas Eve by bus to Beira (capital of Sofala province). The bus was very nice and modern, with two levels. We were on the top, which offered a better view of the scenery as we were going. Unfortunately, as always happens when taking pictures from a moving vehicle, my pictures came out a little blurry. We saw lots of small villages and communities along the way. Some with just a house or two, some with six or seven. The huts in the south of the country were usually round. You wouldn’t think there would be a lot of variation in the architecture of mud huts, but the ones we saw further north were quite different, first changing to be rectangular with a roof with two slopes around Beira, and the walls made more often from sticks than mud. Near Nampula, they started having more of a wooden structure showing under the mud and more complex structures (such as having a porch) and have the roof slope at the sides as well as at the front and back.

The trip itself was a good 17 hours, so by the time we arrived in Beira our legs were definitely feeling neglected. We had one stop for a rather unappetizing lunch of fried chicken and french fries and finally arrived around 9 pm. Eduardo (one of our Portuguese friends) picked us up, as he was in town staying with his cousins for the holidays and we would be staying with them for Christmas. We had Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. It was duck and cod in different casseroles. Then we went back to Eduardo’s cousin’s house and were very happy to sleep.

Where I spent my Christmas:


We spent a very hot Christmas Day (39 degrees!!) at the beach. We went to the nautical club of Beria for a nice breakfast and spent some time relaxing there in the sunshine. Then our hosts had to leave for the afternoon, so Lilian and I took a chapa into town to see a little of the city. Of course nothing was open because it was Christmas Day (or Family Day here in Mozambique) but we wandered around for a while. It seems like time has stopped in Beira. The architecture of the city is actually very nice, but the buildings were obviously built in the 70s or earlier and so it’s like walking around 35 years ago. All of the corners of the buildings are rounded as well, which gives the downtown area a unique look. There is even one building (a bank office) that was built like a castle and is painted pink!! One other note. Most cities have, in their central squares, some kind of statue or memorial. Not so in Beira. There they have a giant Coca Cola!



An example of Beria's nice architecture:


After walking around for a few hours we headed back to the nautical club and watched the sunset over the beach. Then we went back to the house to pack and relax a little before it was time to head back to the bus station for the next part of the journey, which was to start at 4am. However, our bus had managed to get a flat tire. No big deal right? How long can it take to change a flat? 15 minutes? Not when the process is as such: One guy looks at the flat tire. Then another guy comes and also looks at the flat tire. Then they disappear for a while, eventually returning with a tool to unscrew the tire (by hand of course). One guy tried to turn it but couldn’t. Another guy tried to turn it but couldn’t. Then the two of them tried together and couldn’t. Then a third guy tried jumping on it, but still couldn’t turn it. Then the three of them stand there for a long time staring at the tire. Then two more guys join them in staring at the tire. Then they start arguing. Then one brilliant guy decided to go get a long pie to have more leverage and amazingly, they succeed in slowing unscrewing the flat tire. An hour later, we were finally on our way.

This trip was a bit shorter, only 14 hours. Much of the trip was the same, including the unappetizing lunch. The highlight was passing over the Guebuza bridge, which runs of a large river that divides the country and previously forced people to drive all the way to the next province to get around it. Apparently the bridge was being built for about 20 years, but was finally completed a few years back. A little ways after the bridge we started on a dirt road, which lasted until very close to Nampula (the capital of Nampula province).

On arriving in Nampula we were picked up by Daudo’s aunt, who we were to stay with for a couple nights. The next day we went to the Fair where they sell just about everything you could think of. Lilian and I bought some earrings made of the black wood and some shells and also bought a stick of the white wood that the local women make a paste from to spread on their faces and supposedly make their skin soft. It was very crowded in the fair so we were encouraged to be quick. But the prices were much, much lower than in Maputo. The earrings were 10 or 15 mets each (less than 50 cents). After the fair, we went to pick up Daudo’s great grandmother who is 99 years old and probably the oldest person in Mozambique. She doesn’t speak Portuguese, only the local language.

The next day we met up with Daudo (who had arrived in Nampula a few days before us) and we went to the ethnography museum. It is in quite a large and modern building, so my expectations were high, but many of the rooms inside were empty. They did have a few interesting things, like a collection of instruments and examples of ceremonial costumes.

In the afternoon we were off to Ilha de Mocambique (Mozambique Island), which was our final destination. Maputo is incredibly flat, but just outside of Nampula there were some very interesting little mountains. It was not so much a mountain range as a bunch of random peaks sticking out from the earth. It made the scenery much more interesting to look at. We were travelling with Daudo’s uncle, who was travelling towards the island anyways. The island itself is connected to the mainland by a 4 km bridge. The bridge, however, is only wide enough for one car, and so at intervals there is a wider area for cars to pull over and wait for the ones in the other direction to pass. They also put some large oil drums alternating at each end of the bridge, creating almost an obstacle course for the cars having to swerve around them.

The mountains around Nampula:


As you are probably exhausted by now of reading, I’ll put my account of the island itself in a separate post. Take a break, leave a comment, and then continue the adventure!

The answer you've always wanted.

One last thing I forgot to mention, and that is the answer to that question we ask every year...

... Do they know it's Christmas time at all?

Since I am, afterall, spending Christmas in the land of this

The answer is... well... you wouldn't know just by looking. There are very very few Christmas decorations around. A few lights, a few santas painted in windows, but very little. The only Christmas music I have heard came from my own laptop. It's so hot that it's hard to think about snow. Oh the weather outside is frightful. Ya, it's 35 degrees!

Needless to say it's a little hard to get into the Christmas spirit but I am trying my best. I did manage to find this yesterday:



Actually, Christmas in Mozambique is not Christmas. The holiday is called Family Day.

So regardless of decorations and music, have a Happy Family Day!! Feliz Natal!!

Christmas Dinners and other recent activities

Hello again!

Lots to report today. The week was pretty busy trying to get everything wrapped up before the holidays begin. On Thursday we were invited to lunch by one of the local supporters of AIESEC who has been helping us a lot. On the way to the restaurant, we ran into a local celebrity! He saw us and actually stopped his car to say hi to us and took a picture with us. And what do you mean you don’t know who MC Roger is? He’s the one who sings this of course!



Eventually we made it to the lunch, which was at a very nice and fancy restaurant where the meals were a quarter of our monthly salary each! (not that that’s saying much). Anyways, it was really good. I had “three pepper steak” and apple pie for dessert.

That evening we had our alumni Christmas dinner and invited all of our new members. Most of them were able to come and it was nice to see everyone all together again and we did a small gift exchange. I ended up with a small souvenir that says Mozambique.

On Friday evening we went for our team Christmas dinner, so Daudo took us to a very Mozambican restaurant called Xima Bar. I had something called a “radical sausage” which, I have to say, was pretty radical. Daudo gave us all Christmas gifts (swanky colourful sunglasses from Malaysia) and then we all had icecream.



On Saturday we met up with Tania (our Portuguese friend) and we went for lunch in Costa do Sol (the beach). The traffic down the one road there was crazy, so we ended up going someplace a little closer but still nice – a little restaurant along the edge of the beach. There was a nice view of the city and a lot of guys walking along the beach selling things to tourists. At first it was pretty normal… a painting here, a wood carving there. And then they started to get weirder. Want to buy a 4 foot statue on the beach? What about a coffee table? Or maybe an inflatable horse?

Wanna buy a table?


After lunch we went to the Mercado Pao Preto (Black Wood Market) which has a lot of local arts and crafts and many hundreds of sellers ready to give you the very best price, only 200% more than it should be! I did manage to get one new top for 100 mets ($3) which was pretty good. I’ll have to go back another time with a local to know how much things should really be.



Pick out your souvenir now :P



I mentioned before that there is a HUGE competition between the two cell phone companies here. One thing I noticed at the market was there was this whistling that I recognised. Then I realized I knew it from one of the cell phone commercials. They had the guys who sell the credits on the street going around whistling the jingle, which us actually pretty clever.

After the market we went to see a basketball game, but not just any basketball game. It was the final of the national basketball league of Mozambique! The place was packed! It was Maputo vs a team from Beira and the fans were really getting into it. The game was really good, with the Maputo team going up about 10 points in the first quarter. Beira cam back in the third, getting to within 4, and then fell back again. Then they made a last minute surge in the fourth, coming within three points with just a couple minutes left, but Maputo held on and forced their way back to a 6 point lead before the final bell… and the place exploded!! It was really awesome, and we made it on TV several times sitting in the crowd!

Saturday evening we were joined by two Kenyan AIESECers doing their internships in South Africa. We went out for dinner and then for some dancing. Today we walked with them around the city and I talked with them a lot about Kenya. It was nice.

Tomorrow (Monday) it’s back to work a bit to finish off a few things, then on Thursday Lilian and I are heading north to Nampula, the capital of Nampula province. We will go on the 24th to Beira, in the centre of Mozambique, where we will spend Christmas with our friends from Portugal. Then it off on the 26th to Nampula. We haven’t made any definite plans yet but we have a few ideas of places to visit. We will be back by the 10th at the latest, so look for another GIANT blog post from me in the middle of January,

Until then, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks for reading!

A Very Mozambican Weekend

On Friday night we went out to a place that had a 20 piece African drumming group performing. It was really cool. They performed for about 30 min, and then they put on the regular music and the guys drummed along with it. A couple of locals started dancing along.

Saturday was pretty mellow. I stayed home and watched a few movies and just relaxed. By then on Sunday we were off to the beach!

We went to a small resort called Macaneta. To get there we drove about 40 minutes on the road towards Xai-Xai, and then took a turn off and a little six car ferry across a river to the beach. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the sand was so hot you couldn’t take your sandals off. And the water was sooo warm! Warmer than I thought possible for the open ocean. We did a little swimming and then spent most of the day relaxing on the sand. Lunch was at the resort restaurant and was a little pricey but VERY good.



In the later afternoon it started to cloud over so we decided to head home. We got back to the little ferry at five and ended up getting stuck there. The ferry takes six cars a trip… and we were the 25th car. So we had to wait for 5 trips. Plus at one point the plants growing in the river got stuck on the propeller and they spent about half an hour cleaning it off.

One car got stuck in the mud and had to be towed out by another car. Other than that brief excitement, we just waited around and tried to catch the hundreds and hundreds of crabs that were hanging out beside the road. We finally got on the boat at 8:00, very ready to go home. And I thought the BC ferries were bad! And the river was only about 50m wide. But it was a good day and we were all exhausted.

Need a little push?


This is our last week of work before we start of vacations! We are still not exactly sure what the plan is, but hopefully we will be heading up north and seeing a little more of the country.

One thing I forgot to mention on Friday… The police trucks here are just pick-ups with a bench bolted onto the back for the cops to sit. On Friday I was walking down the street and there must have been an accident or something because a cop truck came racing down the street. But they didn’t have any siren, so the cops sitting on the bench were all blowing whistles as loud as they could. That’s one way to do it I guess!

I'm back!

Hello again,

Sorry for disappearing for a while. We have internet at home, but after we use up our month's suppy it cuts off. We lasted 8 days. It died on Tuesday. So on Wednesday I went to the university to use the internet... and it wouldn't connect. Nothing. So yesterday I went with Daudo to a place that has free wireless, and for whatever reason my wireless couldn't detect the network. So... the end result is that I haven't had internet for the whole week! Crisis!

This week was actually pretty mellow. Daudo got back from the Netherlands on Tuesday and we have been eating these awesome Dutch waffles and licorice :) I have been meeting with potential exchange participants for interviews and working on some documents (reception booklet, wikis, etc.)

So anyways, I'm still alive and I'll try to write more soon :)

P.S. No pictures because blogger is being stubborn today

Scientific discoveries

There are many birds in Maputo. They can be seen and heard all over the city. They come in many sizes and colours. But there is one sky flyer of particular interest that I have never seen in such numbers elsewhere, seen here:



I like to call this, plasticus bagius. This light and nimble creature can be found on every block and every corner. The species vary in colour, the most common being black, white and blue. They often form groups, swirling in circles together. Most of the time they prefer to stay close to the ground, occasionally trying to land on moving cars and people. Sometime, a free spirit among them chooses to soar higher, as many as 10 or 15 floors, as seen here:



They don’t appear dangerous, but their numbers are growing quickly. Perhaps the city will have to look into some kind of extermination program in the near future. Until then, these noble creatures will continue to freely roam the skies of Maputo.

Educational Structure

Here in Mozambique, there are both public and private universities, but how they are set up is a little different than I have seen in other countries

In Brazil, the biggest and best universities are the public ones. To get in is extremely competative. The top students are at the top universities, in general. This means that the students at the public (and therefore completely free) universities are the students who went to the private highschools, because the quality of the education is better there.

Here it's a different story. There is also an entrace exam to get into the university, but there is a strong preference for students who are coming from the public highschools. Some of the best students from the private highschools are rejected in favour of the "less advantaged" students. This means two main things. First, there is more access to quality education for the students who lack financial capacity. Several of the students at the public universities here live in the slums. On the other hand, it means that the students from the private highschools are, in general, forced to attend private universities as well, where the options may be fewer (in terms of areas of study). The atmosphere between the private and the public universities is very different, and the attitudes of the students as well.

While I see offering a free university education to those with less financial capacity as a good thing, it also seems a little strange to perhaps exclude some students who might benefit a lot from the environment of the public university, which is more competative and pushes the students more. It also creates a distance between the more advantaged and less advantaged students.

Of course any system will have it's advantages and disadvantages, and overall I think the Mozambique system is probably more positive than negative. I would love to see my kids in the Kenyan slum have the chance to attend university for free. Here, if they make it through highschool, they might just have the chance. Part of alieviating the poverty of the slums starts with educating the people who live there and providing them with more opportunities. This is definetly something I will try to find more about!