Anyone who read this blog regularly last year knows how we struggled while
serving in isolated Tete province so far away from Peace Corps Mozambique. Well
this year Peace Corps opened a new province, Nyassa, and the six volunteers
there have stolen the title of serving at the edge of the world. Since Luc is
the local volunteer Peer Support Network representative, and with just
skinny Malawi seperating Tete from Nyassa, we decided to give the newbies a
visit and share the coping strategies we developed during our solitary existance
last year. So after a 4:30 AM start and six different transports, we
successfully made the international jump, landing in Nyassa by mid
afternoon. Our last transport was an open-back truck, which took us up switchbacks with great views of the lakes behind us as we ascended into a misty cloud, which unfortunately meant we got a little wet. But we did see some baboons and the sun finally came out for the final piece of our journey, a seven- kilometer walk across a no-man´s land between border posts. Nyassa is the most forgotten neglected province in the country, and the infrastructure reflects this. The roads are terrible. Several people commented unsolicitedly that the Cuamba to Mandimba dirt road is the worst stretch in the country, confirming what our sore butts already knew. The province is beautiful, and the sites are great for Peace Corps service; they are just isolated. The new volunteers are coping all right, despite some rodent issues in one site. Volunteers always show each other plenty of hospitality, so despite sleeping on the floor, they made us comfortable with whatever spare
mattresses, blankets, or padding they could scrounge and we ate at the nicest
restaurants available, but most of all we just enjoyed chatting and sharing each
other's company.
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