Our Dark Place

After two years of moving around Africa we have developed a respectable repertoire of public transport skills. But even a couple of old hands like us have our bad days. One of our least favorite places on the continent is the Lilongwe bus depot. It brings out the worst in people who just see you as another body they need to get to fill another seat on their vehicle. Touts are aggressive and use all kinds of tricks to coerce our decision. We just want to get on the next bus out, but it’s so hard to figure out which one that is with the anemic information available. Buses rev their engines and pretend to pull out, but this means nothing, they can maintain the charade for hours before actually leaving. There are bus companies with ‘schedules’ but this also means little, especially now with the fuel crises and everyone vying to fill their already uncomfortable buses to the max. The words ‘express’ or ‘luxury’ also mean nothing. Mini-buses compete against the big buses, and they are even worse, oftentimes physically grabbing our bags or pushing us towards their dilapidated vehicles. It’s so bad we just steer clear of that part of the yard completely. In the end none of the options are that good and we always seem to wait at least two hours before leaving, so Africa Always Wins. This time around we got on what we thought was a reputable bus, with a decent price, but it still took three hours to fill. We share a last-resort technique with some other Peace Corps friends, which we call “Going to your dark place.” It involves completely giving up, closing your eyes, and retreating into a gloomy mental state of barely hanging on. It’s a last resort coping strategy, if you can call it a strategy, but when we’re in the Lilongwe bus depot, or an open pickup in the rain, or squashed into the aisle of a bus at three times its capacity, we’re glad the dark place is there for us.

Epic Journey Back to Site

So after our safaris and tropical island rest and relaxation it was time to head home, crossing all of Tanzania and Malawi. After so many crazy African buses, we decided to give the train on this continent a chance. Getting tickets was a nightmare, and Luc had a mini breakdown after trying unsuccessfully for three hours at the station. Luckily Janet made a couple phone calls and solved the problem. The old Tazara line built by the Chinese in the 1970's has received no non-essential maintanence since. Half the electricity dind't work, we found several holes in the floor we could watch the tracks zooming by through, our bathroom was only functional for #1, for #2 we had to go to the next car, and of course the engine broke down, delaying our trip for 7 hours while they sent a new locomotive to relieve us. Us being foreigners everyone assumed we were engineers ready to fix the problem so they brought us into the engine room, unfortunately our white person magic did nothing. The train was spacious though, at least in 1st class were we had our own cabin, dining car and lounge. We remarked several times how glad we were not to be in third class pressed up with all the humanity, we've done plenty of that already. We passed the time watching Tanzania roll by, eating food and drinking beverages in the lounge, and chatting with all the world citizens and PC tanzania volunteers we meet, passing on and recieving travel tips. Pepe particulary enjoyed the various Spanish speakers we coincided with. The train traversed the Selous National Park and even though a locomotive isn't the best safari vehicle, we spotted animals and enjoyed an amazing sunset. So, on aggregate, we would take the train over a bus, especially for any distance over 20 hours. Northern Malawi was scenic, with plenty of views of the lake, but with the ongoing fuel crisis and so many bus routes cancled, all the transport is uncomfortably sardine can jammed packed. Luckily one of the police at one of the numerous roadblocks confiscated the 10 drums of fuel one of the passangers was trying to smuggle from Tanzania because the fumes had been making us nauseus. We've tried to shield Luc's dad from some of the less pleasant aspects of life here, but transport is always hard. He's been a trooper though and enjoyed getting to experience the real Africa. Hopefully readjusting to teaching and life in site won't be to challenging after so much action and adventure, but we're really going to try to make the most of it now that the end of service is within sight.

Zanzibar

Exotic spice islands, white sandy beaches, medeival forts and mosques, narrow meandering streets, Sinbad the sailor, Zanzibar lived up to everything we imagined. It was the perfect way to relax, sleeping in an old but nicely restored Swahili mansion overlooking the ocean, after all our hundreds of miles of African travel. There are a lot of tourists here, and some aspects of Stonetown have been cleaned up and Disneyfied since Janet's last stay here, but we've been living in Africa since 2009, so we've already had plenty of authentic experiences. It was still Ramadam, so daytime food was still scarce, but the night time food market made up for it, with Zanzibari pizzas, shishkabobs galore, and Pepe's favorite chicken shwarma. Curio vendors and touts get a little aggressive with all the business opportunities us foreigners present, but we had Janet's swahili to neutralize their sometimes outrageous demands and prices. We did plenty of shopping, so maybe some of you will get a Zanzabari souvenir for Christmas. Luc did a couple of early morning runs to some outlying ruins and Janet enjoyed sleeping in every day. Sunsets were gaurenteed awesome every night, overlooking the ocean with traditional Swahili boats. We experienced some traditional Taarab music while dining on fancy Swahili cuisine in an old palace sitting on pillows. There were also plenty of places to just sit and relax and plenty of amazing views to absorb. We also got out of town for a day and actually got to have some normal interactions with locals, including some impromptou lessons with a group of Zanzibari students eager to practice their English. The modern ferry back and forth from the mainland was a smooth two hours and we even saw humpback whales. It was a great farewell to vacation, now we just need to get back to site for third trimester.

Lion King Time

The next phase of our trip was safari in northern Tanzania, but to make it possible we had to spend a hungry day organizing travel details in hectic Dar, where finding daytime food wasn't happening in the predominantly Muslim city center. Luckily nightfall magically transformed the streets into barbecue feasts. We also found time for site seeing the German buildings, drinking extremely strong coffee with locals, and touring the smelly fish market and sea shell stalls. Then it was an all-day bus to Arusha through sisal plantations and Rift Valley landscapes, including an up-close view of Mt. Kilimanjaro and its disappearing glaciers. We went with a "luxury" bus company so even though it was 10 hours at least we had our own seats. We had already done our homework sorting through potential scams and booking a safari tour since it is nearly impossible to visit the northern parks without your own 4x4. We chose a camping safari so our Land Rover was packed with tents, sleeping bags, pads and all our food, along with affable Cosmas, our guide/driver and Luc's new best friend and Sokoine the cook and another Italian couple. To describe in brief, the luck on this safari was the kind that happens once in ten years. It was like driving in a National Geographic documentary, seeing highlight reels that take naturalist thousands of filming hours to compile. Janet had specifically requested cheetahs, and presto! Our first day in the Serengeti we see a cheetah chasing a Thompson's gazelle, which escaped leaving the winded sprinter panting in plain view 10 feet from Janet's window. Serengeti means 'endless plain' in the Maasai language and the scene was indeed that, a sea of golden grass so easy on the eyes, punctuated by the iconic flat-topped acacias. We also saw Pride Rock, islands of granite called 'kopjes' dotting the otherwise flat landscape. Speaking of Simba, we saw more lions than we can count, sleeping, eating, playing with their cubs, posing next to the road and on our last day, in Ngorongoro Crater, providing some serious fireworks for the grand finale. A pride of 15 lions took down an adult buffalo, the specific event our guide had coincidentally told us the first day was the most exciting thing he'd seen in his 7-year career. He even let us climb on the roof of the safari vehicle to get better views of this once in a lifetime spectacle. Janet teared up as the lions struggled with all their force and cunning to take down the mighty beast. Eventually the roars, grunting, and splashing ended as the buffalo surrendered and the lions chowed down. Time to make our exit from this amazing bowl of wild animals... but wait! What's this? There a lioness in the road. She had been stalking a herd of wildebeest for the past three hours and we happened to arrive for the exciting climax. We had the prime spot and quietly watched her creep closer and closer to her prey, carefully peaking over the berm of the road until she had just the right spot, her skill and patience apparent to all except for the unfortunately oblivious wildebeest. So with Janet silently cheering her on, she made her leap and in a cloud of dust, came up with a wildebeest by the throat and slowly suffocated it to death over the next 5 minutes. Exhausted she laid in the grass to recovered, exposing her bloody fur. Janet was also exhausted and tearing up again. The thrill of this final encounter was the intimacy, taking place all within 10 feet of Luc's front seat window. The extraordinary of watching what is ordinary for the lion and the completion of the circle of life is a memory we won't forget, especially since we have so many amazing pictures we hope to post as soon as we get a good connection. Although totally overshadowed by all the lion drama we also had lots of other amazing safari moments: Janet spotting a hidden serval cat while our guide tracked the illusive black rhino, flamingos flocking in the alkaline Lake Manyara, ostriches, huge herds of zebra, wildebeest and buffalo, a leopard in a tree over the road causing a traffic jam while munched on yesterday impala catch, gazelles prancing and swishing their tails, and all our other favorites, like giraffes, elephants, hippos, warthogs and the rest of the Lion King menagerie. Cosmas told us that when he has good clients, good things happen; we just felt lucky to witness so many aspects of Africa's natural riches on our five day safari.

Swahili Time

With our PC service winding down, we took advantage of our inter-trimester break to take our last big trip and burn our remaining days of vacation. Our goal this time was Mozambique's neighbor to the north, Tanzania, and meeting up with Luc's dad in the capital, Dar es Salaam. The obstacles were the great distances and lack of roads or reliable travel information in Mozambique's untamed northern province, Cabo Delgado. Our volunteer buddies up there tried unsuccessfully to dissuade us, focusing on the discomforts of the overland journey. Nonetheless, we flew to Pemba, Moz's northernmost city, spending a dreamy afternoon swimming at Wimbe Beach, eating seafood and watching a postcard-perfect sunset. The next morning was a very early and very crowded bus, followed by an equally crowded afternoon Land Rover, which covered the extremely bumpy final roadless-stretch to the border. Our sore backs and butts confirmed the discomfort we'd been warned about. The actual border is the river Rovuma, which we hired an over-priced wooden skiff to help us cross just at sunset. The rest of the travelers, all Muslim, started scooping water and eating dates, which they shared with us, to break their Ramadan fast. Unfortunately, the late crossing meant we arrived in Tanzania to find the immigration post closed. The locals assured us that a small bribe would convince the border officer to return, but we were unable to stomach this way of doing business so we spent the night right there in no-man's land with no electricity in a surprisingly comfortable bed in a small rest house next door. It's a good thing Janet was able to salvage enough Swahili vocabulary from the back of her brain because no one spoke English and we had already had enough adventure for that day. The next morning the inefficient border post took over two hours to issue our visas, even though we were the only travelers there. Luckily, an old woman's breakfast stand had spiced milk tea, rice cakes and chapati to nurse our frustration. From there it was one more crowded open-back pick-up ride over a rough sand road through palm groves and ocean views to get back to electricity, paved roads and civilization in Mtwara. We broke up the 14 hour bus trip from there to Dar es Salaam with a 2-night stop in Kilwa. The ancient Swahili coastal town where sultans controlled the lucrative gold, ivory, spice and slave trade routes from Mozambique to Oman during the Middle Ages. You still have to take a traditional sail boat to get to and from the island where the now-ruined palaces and mosques attest to the former greatness of this place, now a sleepy fishing village, with meager guest houses and tourist amenities that even we considered dirty and run-down. The town had a great post-sunset Ramadan fast-breaking atmosphere and we gorged ourselves on fried 'sambusas', potato omelets and exotic-tasting hot drinks with the locals. Our next bus broke down but eventually made it to Dar, leaving in a crazy bus station surrounded by blocks of even more frenetic market stalls and aggressive taxi drivers vying to grab vulnerable tourists. We just secured our valuables and pushed our way through until we found some fresh air. We calmly boarded the 30 cent local bus which took us straight to city center hostel where Luc's dad was waiting and we were joyously reunited.

Bumper Cars

What's the perfect stress release after a weekend full of emotional goodbyes? Yes, its bumper cars! The Maputo Fair Grounds, conviently located across the street from our hotel, has it all, a ferris wheel, carnival type games, restaurants, bars, and as you can guess from the title of this post, bumper cars. Janet thought it would be a good way to get her ready for driving real cars when we get back to America. It seemed like the Mozambicans crowding the amusement park for a Sunday evening family outing enjoyed watching a bunch of American adults acting like kids. Hopefully Peace Corps' ban on driving motorized vehicles won't apply to this situation. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures since a flashy digital camera makes an attractive target for petty street theft. The big city is such a blast, it'll be hard to return to our provincial town after so much fun!

Close of Service Conference

Now this is not the end, but it is perhaps the beginning of the end. It was 22 months ago that 69 of us flew from USA to Africa to serve as teachers and health workers here in Mozambique and now with just over 4 months left of service, Peace Corps brought the remaining 59 of us down to the capital to start the close of service chapter of our sojourn. Its an emotional time for volunteers. Arriving in the lobby of our fancy hotel we bumped into colleagues, some we had not seen since our swearing in ceremony in December 2009. The hotel is shwanky, especially when something as simple as running water is such a luxury to us now, so a bathtub with hot water in our room is almost overwhelming and oh so enjoyable. Unfortunately the pool is being rennovated, but the meal service has kept everyone happy and full including Luc, who has a weak spot when it comes to buffets, especially ones with four kinds of dessert. We also have our own TV with ESPN and got to watch the Giants edge the Philies in the first baseball transmission we've seen on this continent. We saw the bill when we swigned for the room, each day here is the cash equivalent of an entire month in site! But we're not dwelling on that desparity, this is a celebration of making it through this at times very trying, but always amazing Peace Corps ordeal together. As far as the content of the conference is concerned there is plenty of bland paperwork and formalities to occupy our three days, like specifying how we would like to receive our readjustment allowance, learning what our medical care will look like post service, and filling surveys quantifying our experiences. There's also a psycological and emotional component. Peace Corps staff wants to prepare us as best possible for the stresses of saying good-bye to our communities that have been our homes for the past two years and how not to freak out if our friends start asking us for our bed or our shoes or anything else that might be hoping we'll leave behind. Plus there will be the reverse culture shock when we reenter America. Apparently some of us will suffer from "Supermarket Syndrome," which basically means having an anxiety attack when we come face to face with US consumer culture after our spartan existence in rural Africa. Janet is anticipating Luc will be susceptible to this condition. We'll also have a two year gap in technology and pop-culture to deal with open arrival. Most of us don't know exactly what we'll do once our Peace Corps lives are behind us and the state of the world economy is disheartening, but those of us who have made it this far are a resiliant bunch, so I think we'll be ohkay. So after the emotional reunion came the even more emiotional good-byes as we return to our scattered locations across this vast country to complete our service. Because of our flight schedule we had an extra day in the city, so we spent it soaking in everything this cosmopolitan African capital has to offer, snacking on gelatto and pastries at sidewalk cafes, strolling the wide Acacia lined avenues, and visiting the lively taxidermies in the Natural History Museum, which has the worlds most comprehensive collection of elephant fetuses representing the full 22 month gestation of the gargantuan animal. But we're not done yet. We are just on inter-trimester break, and still have all of third trimester and organizing our provincial English Theater competition left to do, so there is no rest for the weary here in Peace Corps service! We can catch up on sleep in December when we get back to America.

Bye Bye Visitors, Don't mind the Fuel Shortage

So we sent off all our American visitors. We were a little worried for a while because they were using nearby Lilongwe airport in Malawi, and that country has been experiencing some extreme fuel shortages. Cars and buses have been queuing up around the block in what we imagine to be reminiscent of USA during the 70s immediately following the OPEC oil shock. Lots of public transit has been canceled and prices are surging. Here in Mozambique we still have plenty of fuel, but in Malawi people are resorting to exorbitant prices on the black market. Luckily we sent our loved ones with our driver Alfonso who stocked his vehicle with a couple spare drums of diesel before crossing the border. Jet fuel has not been affected by the shortages, so planes are still flying. The situation in Malawi has gotten to the point that people are taking to the streets, protesting and rioting. It's hard to get good info, but apparently about 18 people have died in the ruckus. Don't worry if you've read any scary headlines in the Africa section, we are not in danger. Even though we're right on the border we're far from all the violence which is confined mainly to the big cities. Still we are hoping for a more peaceful resolution to this situation for our African neighbors.

Another Romão Story

Another story from Romão illustrating what life is like when you're a care-free teenager here in Africa:

-"Luc, this head hurts"
-"Okay Romão, tell us what happened."

So he proceeds to tell us:

-"Its ecause of beans."
-"What?"
-"I was up there in my classroom, and I really had to go, but we have no latrines up there, so I ran behind the Vodacom tower to take care of my needs. I wasn't really controlling what I was doing until I realized I was running through crazy beans [a local plant here which produces pods covered in irritating hairs similar to stinging nettles]. Now my entire body itches. I was scratching so much they almost kicked me out of class during finals. So, that's why my head hurts."

Student Safari

In contrast to our all expenses paid five star safari, we later had the chance to accompany our Peace Corps neighbor Jordan's wildlife club on a more local type safari. No Land Rovers were involved, we just cruised around with about twenty students and a counterpart teacher in two mini-buses; any motivated elephant could have easily punctured our tin-can-like walls with their ivory tusks. Luckily safari animals categorize vehicles as large rocks, that move, so they had no need to attack us. We stayed in bunk beds at the park youth hostel with no electricity and cooked all our own food, which meant plenty of nsima (bland corn mush) and goat. Although some parks do a good job here in Africa, some leave a lot to be desired to sensitive enviromentalist concienceses, like food waste disposal (just feed it to the monkeys) or fire wood collection (gather whatever you want, we're in a forest) and litter was everywhere despite the signs. Even though our students have lived their entire lives in Africa, most of them have never seen any wild animals, except for the occassional monkey. Contrary to popular belief, zebras and lions don't just stroll around town here, and are pretty hard to see outside of the big safari parks. Everyone really wanted to see elephants, and we saw plenty. We saw two herds converge, flaring their ears and trumpeting at each other no more than ten feet from our windows. During the wrap up session in the campfire circle everyone effused about how they would remember this day for the rest of their lives and that makes us feel really good as Peace Corps volunteers. At ten PM as Luc tried to get his boys to put out their candles and go to sleep, but they just kept recounting all the animals they had seen and repeating their favorite facts our park scout had taught them (they seemed particularly interested in the exact number of female partners a male impala could have).

Safari!

We couldn't have family come all the way to Africa and not go on safari. Plus after a long second trimester jam packed with extra curricular activities, administering finals, grading, and hosting family and friends from the USA here in site, we felt like we deserved a little vacation. Traveling in Africa is not really relaxing, but we did not rough it on this trip; we had a safari company do all the work and we just enjoyed the ride. We cruised to the relatively nearby South Luangwa National Park in Zambia in a fancy private vehicle. It was still about 10 hours away, but that's not bad for this big continent, public transport would have been at least twice as long and even more bumpy; the dirt road still managed to break one of our shock absorbers. We stayed in a lodge right on the river, with views of crocs and hippos from the swimming pool and periodic elephant visitors. Food was gourmet, and meals happened five times a day (calories don't really count in Africa since we usually just eat leaves during the rest of the year) breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. The Land Rover we took our game drives in definitely had us all humming the theme song to Indiana Jones (it felt just like the ride in Disney Land), and James, our burly Zambian guide, loved offroading, and testing the vehicle's limits speeding over gullies and dry river beds with no fear of catching some air. We saw plenty of animals, including elephants, buffalo, lots of impala and puku, plenty of giraffe and zebra, birds galore, a heyena, and even a pride of lions on the very last night. The highlight was when a leopardess tried to eat Janet and her buddy Rebecca. Apparently she had been trying to mate and our safariing was cramping her privacy. Janet's dad's accidental flash possibly set the big cat over the edge and she let us know with a mighty growl and false charge. Luc still maintains we were totally safe in the safari truck, but James did mention that this was only the second time in 14 years that he's had this happen.

Everything is New

Having Janet's family and best friend here in site is like experiencing everything anew. Unfortunately it also means going through culture shock all over again. Rolling around town in a 7 person azungu posse generates so much more attention than what we are used too. After a year and a half here we've become so integrated into our community that people normally treat us like any other teacher. The constant stares, spontaneous applause, and the overall superstar effect has slowly diminished during our stay, so its effect had dimmed in our memory, but this week we got it fullforce! Everyday is a party in our front yard when visitors are staying with us. Neighborhood kids materialize as soon as we emerge to dance, sing, play games, or just patiently observe what we are doing. A camera makes it an especially exciting party and kicks up the enrgy level a couple notches whenever it appears. Even when we stay inside, little faces appear in the door or any open window. Our family also reminds us about all the annoying noises we tend to subconciously tune out, like the continuous loud music, crying babies, and ubiquitous roosters that start cacadoodledooing well before sunrise. We hadn't even noticed all the trash littering our yard until our guests starting picking it up. But its great, ever tree and bird is beautiful again when you are seeing it with people new to this part of the world and the sunset light is so fresh! Young people have been especially interested in Janet's 9th grade brother and sister, they don't often get to see real teenaged foriegners. Sammy built a wire bicycle with our neighbor Seni, Annie got a couple of marriage proposals, and despite minimal communal language to facilitate communication, everyone got along fine, reinforcing the notion that kids are just kids everywhere, even in faraway Mozambique. Everyone's effusive greatings reminds us how lucky we are to be amongst such friendly people. And the power didn't go out a single evening during there stay! Despite all the craziness, it is so amazing to share our little town with family, we are so gratefull they could make it half way around the world to experience it with us!