This is probably the best measurement of how lame the Halloween party was last night: I was sober/smart enough to set an alarm for the next morning. If this were a real party, I would have been out cold well into the morning. Instead, I woke up at 7:00 to the pulsing rhythm and vibration of my cell phone.
Five of us had a big day ahead of us. For the first time in two years, I was finally going to snorkel off the islands of Vilanculos, the Bazaruto Archipelago. It is apparently some of the better diving-snorkeling in the world, and there was no way I was going to pass up that opportunity.
We had an absolutely perfect day for going to the islands. Just a few wisps of clouds floated in an otherwise blue sky. The weather was not too hot, but far from chilly. And the ocean was a perfect green-blue, calm, and bathtub warm.
The five of us were joined by two South Africans, and a couplee from very northern Europe (he from Iceland, she from Sweden). The trip out to the islands took about forty-five minutes. It quickly became apparent that, contrary to what we have thought over the last two years, it would be impossible to walk to these islands. Those of us who were snorkeling were dropped off on one of the islands to adventure, snorkel, do whatever really.
The Vil girls wanted to walk around the island. I was eager to jump into the water. The Europeans joined me in snorkeling off the beach. To give you an idea of just how pale this poor Icelander was, he went swimming in pants and a long-sleeve shirt and I’m pretty sure he still sunburned.
Toward the end of the morning, the girls and I climbed up the sand dunes than overlook the other islands and Vilanculos. Looking out over the water, I immediately not regretted not doing this early. It was one of the most landscapes or seascapes I’ve ever seen.
In the afternoon, all of us headed out to Two Mile Reef. Apparently, it’s a reef that is two miles long. They really stretched to name it. On the way out to the reef, we came across a group of five or six dolphins. Of course, everyone tried to take pictures, and everyone failed.
One of the Volunteers who went diving in the morning snorkeled with us in the afternoon. We putzed around for an hour or so in the water. He told me that the snorkeling was as good as the diving. After saying that, I felt like I definitely made the right decision to snorkel. I haven’t been diving in years, and doing so four weeks before I get home just didn’t seem too practical.
While we waited for the divers to finish their dives, we sat on the boat, rocking back and forth uncontrollably. I know how this story usually ends: with me hanging over the edge of the boat. I popped a Pepto in lieu of Dramamine earlier in the day, but I knew it wouldn’t hold up. I closed my eyes and hoped I would get better.
After picking up the divers, we made a quick pit stop on one of the islands. I lay down for the few moments we had and immediately felt better. We then booked it back to the mainland, just a little hungry.
There was no way that any of us would cook tonight. It just wasn’t going to happen. Good thing that Vilanculos has delivery pizza. We ordered as soon as we got home and the pizzas arrived at a reasonable dinner hour. All of us devoured our pizzas and quickly found our way into bed.
It goes without say that I slept well Sunday night. A day on the water always knocks me out. Richie, as usual, was up and moving early. We said our goodbyes – real goodbyes, not see-you-next-time goodbyes – and hit the road for Maxixe. This would be a week of goodbyes.
We took the first car that we could catch out to the crossroads, and then the waiting began. After twenty minutes of sitting at the cruzamento, Richie started becoming impatient. He should know better than that. Just as he was ready to give up and take a dreaded chapa, a car that was blazing down the EN1 stopped for some us. After some initial concern (“You’re not going to jump me, right?”), we got in the car and made it to Maxixe in two hours.
Part of the amazing time was the fact the driver was doing 120 kilometers and hour for most of the way. A bigger factor was that the dreaded “Massinga Road” – the one that has been one giant pothole for our entire time here – is now almost completely paved. We spent less than five minutes on dirt. I’ve spent plenty of space here bitching and moaning about how terrible this road was and how it seems the only progress being made was backwards. I have to give them credit: they’ve done a really nice job on this road. Sure, it may have taken years to do, but it’s pretty much done.
Just after arriving in Maxixe, we were met by two of the Volunteers in the area. We made this trip down just to say goodbye to them. It’s been three months since we’ve seen them and they’re leaving next week. It was a trip that had to be made.
The four of us went out for lunch at a little restaurant in the market. I’ll say this: if there were a little restaurant in our villa where we could eat for twenty-five Mets a day, I would do that every single day. After lunch, one of the guys went back to work (poor soul, working during his last week) while the other stuck around for a couple more beers. The three of us eventually made our way to a grocery store, where each of us picked up some dinner items.
Before splitting ways, we stopped at the bank to see what went wrong with my deposit this month. Apparently, 2000 Meticais was lifted from my account by someone in Chimoio. How lovely. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying (and failing) to work this out with Peace Corps. Between this and the uncertainty around our visa renewal, it’s been a frustrating few days.
For dinner, we had a regular smorgasbord. The person with whom we were staying already had some rice and couvi prepared. Another Volunteer who lived within a stone’s throw had some beans. Richie and I brought some pork from the store. We threw it all together to make a pretty tasty meal.
It didn’t take long after eating for us to fall asleep.
I didn’t get the best night’s sleep, but it was good enough. We had a long travel day ahead of us. We figured that it would take us eight to ten hours to get home. Add an hour to that because we had to sit on the side of the road while every single car heading north passed us. Finally a car heading way north – beyond our crossroads – stopped for us. We didn’t make it more than thirty minutes in his car before police stopped him and held him for some irregularities in his papers.
Fine, we’ll catch another ride. Shortly after getting out of the car, another little sedan came flying up the road. It passed us by a good 100 yards before slamming on the brake and kicking it in reverse. He was heading just beyond where we were going, right to the Rio Save. Perfect. When I asked him if he had work up there, he turned around and pointed to his cap sitting on the back seat. He was a policeman. There was no way we were going to get stopped now. We could break as many laws as we want and still not get pulled over.
In a mere three hours, we made it from just north of Maxixe to Maluvane. Yes, we paid for the ride, unlike the free one we got coming down, but it was worth it. Our travel luck continued when we got a pretty fast truck heading into Mambone. And then a canoe was waiting for us when we hit the river. Including the hour wait on the side of the road in Maxixe, we needed seven hours to get home. Not bad at all.
Finally, home, we could sit and relax for a little bit. There will be no more big trips for me – just the one that gets me to Maputo, Johannesburg, and California.
After getting my feet back under me, Richie and I made a run to the market to begin paying for everything for our goodbye party on Friday. It’s a very strange feeling: I can’t believe we’re saying goodbye already, and yet, it’s completely believable. Then again, it’s a strange feeling to think that these two years have gone by both really fast and that it’s been a long time.
Once we got home for good, it was a night of D’s. It started with collecting on some debts. I had 2100 Meticais out to colleagues. I knew that it would come back, but since I’m out two grand thanks to the banks here, that money became all the more important. About half of it came back that night, which surprised me. I’m sure the rest will be back soon enough. We ended our night with dinner – stir fry with some shockingly good non-filet meat – and an episode of “Dexter”.
With Sozinho good – thankfully – the onus of washing clothing fell squarely on our shoulders. I forgot how much this job sucks. It’s not that it’s difficult – it’s just boring. And much like taking a bucket bath, nothing gets entirely clean, just less dirty. At least I felt like I had done something productive, and it wasn’t even 8 o’clock.
The rest of morning was taken up by two jobs. The first was another run to the market to blow a lot of money. Ten frozen chickens, five kilos of beans, eight cases of beer and four cases of sodas costs a lot of money. Madinha now has all the food for our party. There was no way that we’d be cooking all this stuff. Madinha knows how to handle this stuff.
When I got home, I had one other small job to do. One of our power outlets broke just before we left for Vilanculos. We don’t want to leave the house in disrepair for the next Volunteers, so we bought a new outlet while in Vilanculos and I replaced it just before lunch.
Having done all of that work before lunch, I definitely earned myself a relaxing afternoon. I napped for a little bit in the afternoon, then started cleaning out some little nooks and crannies of my room.
Wednesday night was a night of celebration for us. It was the last time we’d spend a Wednesday night in Machanga. Exciting? Absolutely! We cooked up our remaining beef with some tomato sauce and yellow rice, followed it with a small cake, and watched three (three!) episodes of “Dexter” before going to bed.
I was summoned into the school Thursday morning. The director needed some help alphabetizing lists of names for the National Exams next week. That job took about five minutes. While I had the opportunity, I told him that because of our visa situation, we’d have to leave a little earlier than anticipated. He seemed to not have a problem with this. He also took advantage of the situation of me being there: he asked me if I could put together a massive spreadsheet for National Exams. Having nothing else to do, I took the job. At least it killed an hour of my morning.
That was just the start of my work on Thursday. One of our colleagues from last year was having computer problems in his office. I can’t say that I was able to repair the problem, but I was at least able to save his documents and music. All that computer work took me right up to lunch time. For not having a job, I sure had a lot of work.
The afternoon was just as busy. Around 2:30, Richie and I ran to the market to pick up the drinks for our party. Twelve cases of drinks weigh a lot, even with a little handcart for carrying. The walk took us about twice as long as usual, but hey, we have our drinks for the party.
There was only one piece missing for the party – the goats. Who would have thought that in a place full of goats that the goats would be the most difficult purchase? Five of us set out way into the bush to find the suckers. It took nearly two hours but we finally got them. Sozinho tied one of the goats to a tree and literally within one minute, it snapped the rope and ran away. Stupid goat. If there’s any good news, it can only run so far and it’s probably going to run right back to where it came from. Stupid goat.
I got home before Richie did, so I cooked the spaghetti and cheese sauce packet. We powered through our dinner quickly, watched a single episode of “Dexter” and passed out quickly.
Friday was a day of mayhem, but it at least started with a little piece of mind. Sozinho went over to the house where we purchased the goat yesterday. Not to anyone’s surprise, the goat went right back to its house. Stupid goat. He took Stupid Goat and Richie’s slightly smarter goat over to Madinha’s so she could start cooking.
Richie wanted to head over to the villa late in the morning to begin the celebration, but I had a place to go. A Volunteer from near Xai Xai was on her way up to Mambone. She had said that she wanted to see our site, and this was the best opportunity. Quite frankly, I can’t believe she actually made it. Before biking to the river to meet her, I stopped by Madinha’s to buy a bottle of water and check in on all the cooking.
Barring some crazy issue, this would be the last time I’d be walking back from the river to Machanga. It goes without say that I’m excited about that. While we walked, though, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. It was as hot of a day as we’ve had here and I was walking through the bush under the noon sun. At least I was smart enough to buy the bottle of water.
I got our friend settled into our house and we went over to Madinha’s to begin the party. I think the plan was to drink slowly, to get a good buzz going for the party, but at some point, we switched gears into get-tanked mode. We drank for a good couple hours while we waited for one other Volunteer to arrive.
The rest of the afternoon was pure madness. Quite frankly, the whole experience makes me not to want ever organize a party ever again. It’s way too stressful.
Eventually, around 8:00, I got a ride with the school padre to Madinha’s to pick up all of the food for the party. When we got back, I started organizing things in the cafeteria and getting people moving in that direction. We told people 9:00, which I’m sure they assumed meant 10:00, but no, I really meant 9.
The party, by all accounts went well. There was plenty of food and drink for everyone. The music was decent. Everyone seemed to have a good time. We ran out of steam around 2 AM but I know many others kept on chugging.
The four of us were all up and moving by 7:30, which was only a little depressing. I really didn’t want to get out of bed until at least mid-morning, but my body said it was time to go.
I only had one thing to do all day on Saturday, which was probably for the better because I felt absolutely miserable. I wasn’t drunk miserable or hung over miserable. My stomach just hurt a lot. I knew I was going to be in for a rough day.
Around 10:00, a large group of teachers came over to see what I was giving away. The answer was “a lot”. Over the last couple of weeks, Richie and I had put together a huge suitcase full of clothing that we wouldn’t be bringing back to America. The clothing in the bag was there for various reasons – too small, too stretched out, too worn out, too bleach-stained (thanks, Sozinho) – but all of it will go to good use here.
The rest of the day was very relaxed. In an effort to recover from last night, all of us napped for a little bit right around noon. We had a late spaghetti lunch just after 2:00, followed by a viewing of “Bad Boys”.
Whatever stomach problems I had during the morning were gone by mid-afternoon, just in time for us to make brownies. We were going to save them for after dinner, but once we got going, they had no shot. The four of us nearly finished the tray before we got to our chicken tacos.
Finally fully recovered from the night before and full on tacos and brownies, we sat down on some extra mattresses and watched a couple of episodes of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. We were all exhausted by the end of the second episode. And given that our two friends have long travel days tomorrow, we decided to call it a night.
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