Year 2 - Week 45: Escape to Inhassoro

Well, this is something new and exciting: electricity in the morning. I know, I know, it’s been almost six months since “twenty-four hour” electricity was installed in our house. And for the most part, it’s been reliable. But this last week has been nothing short of awful.

Sunday, however, started out promisingly. Clouds continued to fill the sky; a heavy breeze blew all morning, keeping things sweatshirt cool. And the electricity was working. It couldn’t have worked at a better time. A colleague came over yesterday asking me to type up a couple of math exams, which I was happy to do. Not only is he extraordinarily inexperienced when it comes to s, but I really needed something to do.

The math exams provided but a little distraction. By 9:00, I had finished working. Now the only problem would be printing. Since none of the teachers here has an updated anti-virus, all of them are scared shitless (and rightfully so) about viruses spreading via flash drive. The only reasonable solution now is to have things saved to CD and then copied to a computer that has the printer installed. Pain in the ass? Not really? Expensive? Not extraordinarily (about fifty cents for a blank cd here). But inconvenient? Yeah. I didn’t have much of a choice though. I made my directions very clear: buy a blank CD and talk to the assistant director about opening the office in the morning to print. We’ll see how he does.

In the meantime, the rest of the morning was quiet. I sought ways to distract myself, just looking to make it to lunch time. From there, everything would be okay.

The first few post-lunch hours were spent napping. It’s really hard to justify taking a nap having done so little work. The only way I can justify it is that we’ve been up since 5:00 and the boredom of Machanga is slowly killing us. We vowed that we would get out of here at some point this week for greener (or I guess, sandier) pastures. If nothing else, it would help us recover some of our lost sanity.

All afternoon, we tried to figure out what we should do for dinner. We kept putting off the decision, but late in the afternoon, our hand was forced. It was 5 in the afternoon, and we still had no idea what we were going to eat. We ran to the market to see what we could get our hands on. We were then faced with a slew of problems. Being Sunday, most of the stores were closed. The one store that was open didn’t have anything worthy of being dinner. And the butcher didn’t have meat and didn’t have plans to kill anything until at least tomorrow.

So we’re screwed on dinner. And on top of it, the power was out. Charming. I will say this. Given the choice between having energy in the morning or having it at night, dear god please give me energy at night. When it gets dark here, seeing our hands right in front of our face is challenging, and we would prefer to not be outside at night, when the mosquitoes come out to play.

With few options, we turned to egg fried rice for dinner. Richie decided to add fish to his. In the process of frying his fish, he set the entire frying pan on fire. This was one of the few times where living in a cinderblock house had an upside. If we had a house like the girls’ house in Vilanculos, we might not have a house anymore.

After talking to my parents, Richie and I started an episode of “The West Wing”. Everything was fine until Richie’s computer froze twice. We were tired and didn’t want to deal with the computer, so we gave up for the night.

I was up at 2:30 in the morning, dry-mouthed, awakened by a dream that involved my brother, magic socks, driving through Chicago in reverse, and a bottle of scotch. It was at this time that four things became very apparent:

1) I really need to get off of these malaria drugs.
2) It was going to be hot. There were no clouds in the sky. So much for our extra days of winter
3) It was going to be a long day.
4) Someone needs to kill the goddamn rooster that is crowing at 2:30 in the morning. It’s pitch black outside. There is no reason to be waking up anyone or anything at this hour.

All those thoughts swirled through my head as I struggled to get back to sleep. Eventually the rooster shut up and I was down for the count. Richie would tell me later that the rooster got him too. He was up and moving at 4:00 and there was no going back to sleep for him. It was definitely going to be a long day.

Things were back to normal Monday morning. The power was out again when I woke up, but came on shortly after. The colleague who was supposed to buy a CD, amazingly, did as he was told. I saved his documents, plus our grades, to disc and ran over to the school to see if I could print.

Conveniently, the school generator was pumping. This shouldn’t be a problem at all. Thoughts like that, though, can be dangerous. I saw the director and asked if it was possible to print these documents. “Oh no, this electricity is about to go away. He [my colleague] should have talked to the assistant director about this yesterday.” Funny, that’s exactly what I told him.

I was truly surprised when the electricity at the school actually did go out, just as the director had said. All of this left my colleague very concerned. After all, he wanted to give his test today. Planning is everything, right? Twelve hours too late, he talked with the assistant directors and I was able to print both his exams and our grades.

We received some surprise packages from Peace Corps just before lunch. Our quarterly newsletter as well as some magazines arrived. We already got our hands on the newsletter via email. At least the magazines will make for a couple hours of reading. I’m always shocked that Peace Corps can get us mail, mostly because there isn’t a post office anywhere close to here. Whoever is bringing this stuff up here, I’m sure they’re pissed off that they’re coming all the way to Machanga just to deliver these packets.

Richie and I went on a small mission after lunch. We ran over to Madinha’s to discuss our upcoming goodbye party. We’ll be throwing this festa in a couple weeks and we wanted to discuss prices with Madinha. We’re probably going to buy everything from her anyways, so she can give us a good estimate on what this thing is going to cost us. From her estimate, it looks like it’s going to cost a little less than we expected. Still, we’re each spending a ton of money to make this party go.

We were much better prepared for dinner tonight. I had beans soaking all day, so they’d be quick to cook in the evening. I put the fire up around 4:30 and got cooking. Naturally, the energy was out again and would stay out all the way through our meal. Richie was in bed by 8 o’clock. Just as he crawled into bed, the electricity came on. Nice timing. I refused to go to be at such an early hour. I stayed up reading for a bit before my body could take no more. I was gone by 9:15.

Tuesday was the day that we began to search for our lost sanity. We’ve lost it the last couple of days and we figured that we could find some sanity in just about any other location. The closest place for us to go was Inhassoro, so we decided that Inhassoro would be the best place the go. The less traveling we have to do in these last few weeks, the better.

The travel day was pretty typical for us. We took the good path to the river, which made me happy. When we arrived, no one else was waiting to cross. We told the boat-man that there was nobody coming down this way. He completely disregarded this news. “We’re gonna wait for a couple more people.

Eventually, he caved. He realized that I was right. There really was nobody crossing. Even by the time we made it across the river, nobody had arrived on the Machanga side.

It wasn’t a particularly pleasant ride out from Mambone to Maluvane. We didn’t have any wait time, but the car sucked. It was packed with disgusting dried fish. Richie had the good fortune of being squished right up against the fish. I definitely got the better end of the draw, sitting half in the truck and half out of the truck. Ninety minutes later, we got out of the car, Richie smelling awful and me slightly bruised.

You would think that things could only get better after a ride like that, but somehow, they got worse. The truck we got in barely started. The driver was not quite with it. He was sober, for sure, but he just really wasn’t paying attention. At one point, he tried to pull on to the road while another car was barreling right toward us. This is why we don’t want to travel more than we have to.

We did make it to Inhassoro in one piece. I’m not quite sure how. We actually beat our colleague to his own site. He was coming up from Maputo, having been at training for Moz 15’s. While we waited for him, we got in touch with another Volunteer in Inhassoro. The three of us headed to the new bakery in Inhassoro, which has also started serving pizza.

We almost felt obligated to try this pizza. We wanted to know if it stacked up to the pizza in Vilanculos. The price was certainly better, but the quality was not. Yes, we pay twice as much in Vilanculos, but the pizza is easily twice as delicious.

On the way back from lunch, I stopped by a wood artisan’s shop. I wanted to have a plaque made for our second place finish in the English theater competition. He told me to make a model of what I wanted and he could probably have it done by Thursday.

I knew what I had to do. I took the next hour to design exactly how I wanted the plaque. I wanted to make this task as simple as possible. All the craftsman has to do is copy the exact size of the piece of paper and it would be perfect. I returned an hour later to the shop, model in hand, and left the man to do his work.

While I was working on the model, our host arrived home. He was followed in by another Volunteer who lives south of Vilanculos. This was going to be a good night. Whenever we get together, we always make good food, and tonight would be no exception.

The four of us went to the market to find some goods for dinner: a couple veggies, a can of beans and a frozen chicken. I brought an avocado down from Machanga. It’s burrito night.

The burritos, as you’d expect, were delicious. The only downside was that the avocado did not survive the trip. At some point, it burst in my backpack and spoiled. This made us all a little sad, but it’s hard to be really sad when you’re eating burritos.

We didn’t stay up that late, like we usually do. We all traveled today and it showed. Maybe we’ll do a little better tomorrow.

I had a little bit of work to do on Wednesday morning. I needed to hit the internet café – the crazy fast internet café – to download some drivers for the computer I’m currently using. It’s one of the computers that were donated to the teachers of the school here, but he doesn’t really use his computer. He told me I could use it until we leave, which was exceedingly kind. What we really need is audio and video, so we can watch our shows at night. In the half-hour I had at the café, I managed to find and download both. I now have a fully functional computer. It should hold up for the next couple weeks.

One of the big advantages of Inhassoro is that it has a beach. The beach itself is better than the beach in Vilanculos. The tide doesn’t go out so far and it gets deeper faster. The problem with the ocean in Inhassoro is that it is really dirty and salty. Still, that wasn’t going to stop us. We walked over to the market to buy some snacks, then headed to the beach. The water, as expected was dirty, but it felt good. The ocean has yet to become a bathtub, like it will be in December and January. The combination of hot weather and cool ocean was perfect.

On the way back from the ocean, I stopped by the craft shop. I wanted to see what kind of progress was being made. The artisan gave me good news: he could have it done by the end of the day. “Awesome,” I said. “Can I see?” When he pulled the plaque out for me, I was only slightly horrified. He broke up two words over different lines and managed to misspell the name of the city where the competition took place, even though it was written right in front of him. I made my displeasure known and told him what to correct. He said he’d have it done by tomorrow. Good.

Late in the afternoon, the four of us headed toward the market, which is conveniently located near the chapa stop. The Volunteer who lives south of Vilanculos needed to get back home. The remaining three of us hit the market to get supplies for beans.

As usual, I did the bean-cooking. These would have been the best beans I’ve ever made, except we didn’t have any hot peppers. Even so, the food was delicious. For our entertainment, we watched “Pirate Radio”, a film about illegal radio stations playing rock music in England in the ‘60s. It wasn’t a great film – had some cheap laughs. It was a mindless movie, which was exactly what we wanted. Exhausted from a long day, we all went to bed.

We were all awake early on Thursday. Richie wanted to head back home. I had to stay because the plaque wasn’t finished. While I waited, I went to the internet café to catch up with some friends from home. It had been a while since we had talked, so I was happy to catch them. By the time my hour was finished, the plaque had been completed. Yes! It looked great. Everything was spelled correctly, on their correct lines. This should make the school happy.

I could have easily made it home had I chosen to go back, but I really didn’t want to travel today. The whole point of the trip was to not be in Machanga. Why would I go back when I can stay? So I stayed.

As long as I was in town and doing nothing, I wanted to at least make myself useful. The Volunteer with whom I was staying wanted to put a closet up in his room. The only problem was that he had all of his exams to correct. I told him that I’d be able to do it. I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting drilling into a wall, cutting bamboo, and hanging the bamboo up. It wasn’t my best work, and I told him as such, but it’s better than nothing.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet on my end. My buddy was busy grading so I just tried to stay out of his way. Amazingly, we managed to make it to almost 8 o’clock without eating dinner. While he graded, I took care of the cooking. Spaghetti was quick and easy and tasty. I watched a couple episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” before going to bed.

I was up and at it pretty early Friday morning. I didn’t have much reason to be, but by 7 o’clock, I was already wide awake. So much for getting a good night’s sleep before a travel day. I said goodbye to the Volunteer who was so generous for hosting me for a couple days and waited on the side of the road.

I didn’t have to wait too long to get a ride. Only three or four trucks passed by me before one stopped to pick me up. I had hoped that this car would make it all the way to Maluvane, my crossroads, but there was a significant crowd waiting to go back into Inhassoro.

It proved to be a blessing in disguise. A van came flying up the EN1. In fact, it blew right by me by about 100 yards. At least it stopped. I ran over to the van and asked if they would give me ride. I had to pay, but it was absolutely worth it. We made it from one crossroads to another in twenty-eight minutes, definitely the fastest time for me.

I thought my good luck was going to continue as two Land Rovers pulled up into Maluvane, heading toward Mambone. Unfortunately, both of them blew right by me. I hate people like that. After about half an hour, four of us convinced a driver to take us into town. We said that we would pay extra, but as we went toward town, we got more people. In the end, we all paid the right price.

After crossing the river, I walked back toward the school. Just as I hit the main road, a car going to the school stopped for me. There was no room in the bed of the truck, so I stood on the bumper and held on for dear life. We hit two good bumps, and I almost fell off the truck. Could have been a terrible end to an otherwise good travel day, but I managed to hold on.

All of this was done before lunchtime, which I thought was pretty impressive. Richie took care of cooking. It’s our unspoken deal: one person travels, the other person cooks.

I actually had some work to do in the afternoon. I wanted to show my students their grades for the trimester, but most of the students were not there when it was my turn to go into the classroom. I told the few students that were there to have people come to my house to see their grades.

At first, they came one by one. Then they came in pairs. Eventually, I had groups of seven or eight coming to my house. This was much better than going into the classroom. I had the classroom come to me.

Most of the students managed to make it to my house. The ones that didn’t will see their grades soon enough. Once the flow of students reduced to a trickle, I went to the market to find some food for dinner. The butcher killed a cow earlier in the day (which I wasn’t aware of). But I know that the good stuff goes quickly. I figured I’d at least ask if he still had filet, but it was hard for me to be disappointed when he said no. I resigned myself to eating lower quality beef.

We threw the beef on the barbecue, pairing it with some rice and tomato sauce. The difference between filet and this beef was noticeable, to say the least. It was still good. Just not filet good. We wrapped up the night by watching three episodes of “Modern Family”.

I slept remarkably well Friday night. I guess all I needed was a half a day of travel followed by a bit of work to get some good rest. Even after the good night of rest, I was reluctant to stay out of bed. Instead, I read a bit of “Guns, Germs, and Steel”, a book that we took up with us from Inhassoro. Really, we’re not at all desperate for new stuff to read. Really.

Things here have officially ground to a halt. Nobody did anything today – not us, not anyone. At least not anything of value.

My one activity for the day was heading into an office to see what was wrong with a computer. A colleague from last year told me that his computer wasn’t turning on. One day, it turned on; the next day it didn’t. Computers just don’t do that. I ran over to his office, didn’t do anything special – didn’t do anything, actually – and the computer turned on just fine. I’d like to say I have some magic touch, but if that were the case, my computer would still be working.

After lunch and a nice, needed shower, Richie and I went to the villa to talk to a shop owner. In a couple of weeks, we’ll be throwing a goodbye/thank you party which will require ten frozen chickens. The shop owner told us that he would have no problem getting these chickens for us before the party. Having succeeded in this, Richie and I rewarded ourselves with ice-cold sodas.

The rest of the day was just really quiet. We made some stir fry for dinner and watched a couple of episodes of “Modern Family” before turning in for the night.

Another week done, not too many more to go.