Mozambique...

Oh Mozambique, I think you were a victim of circumstances out of your control.

Our original plan was to head out to Swaziland for the weekend, but we learned midweek that the Indians and the Taiwanese team member needed special visas or something from Pretoria, so we amended the plans to go to Mozambique for the day. Now, it turned out I was somehow responsible for dealing with the tour operator, who is really a representative of the CDC (our NGO) so I didn't think it would be too much of a big deal to expect him to arrange things. I was further comforted by the fact that the trip itself was going to be expensive, $100 a person to be precise. Now, of course for us, that isn't a big deal, but for some of the members from different economies around the world, that can be a lot of money.

I justified it by thinking, well, you pay for convenience. If it's $100, it's probably going to be a great trip with some unique insights and a wonderful experience. The trip itself was 1 for 3.

It didn't start off well. Our guide, Sertorio, was 30 minutes late to pick us up. This would have been fine, we all understand south africa time, but the fact that we were all ready at 6am further added to the problem. We could have all gotten an extra 30 mins sleep.

If I would have had a convenience clock that ticked away the extra money that I felt I was paying for the trip, this is when it would have started ticking money off.

We're picked up in a nice 18 person van, but Sertorio notices that we only have 13 people instead of 14. Our dear holy Mary came down with a case of Shingles the night before and it was decided she should stay and recover. Well, Sertorio says, we need to change vans so we can take a van that seats exactly 13 people, with less leg room, and less room for our stuff. We are now feeling like second class citizens, in particular when he tells us he needs to give the good van to another group. Ok, got it, fine....but! before switching vans, we head to the gas station to fill up the tank of the van that we're not even using! Are you kidding me? Then! we switch vans and have to lead the driver of the other van to a different lodge to drop the first van off. Mind you, this is all happening with 13 of us cramped in the car.

It's now approaching 7 or 7:30am (we were supposed to leave for Mozambique at 6am) and we haven't even filled up the gas for the actual van we're taking. Finally underway.

The border crossings here are an experience. You have to get out of your car and wait in line, not once, but twice, one at each country's border so you can pass through. The lines were long, and the people here don't pay particular attention to queue rules. This includes our guide, which at one point, caused some of the members to feel rather uncomfortable when essentially we moved straight to the front of the line and people started shouting at us that it was because we were white. This actually happened twice, at two different points. Most of us were really trying to wait in line but our dear guide kept trying to take us to the front. I'd rather spend five minutes in line than wake an angry mob.

But back to the trip, in our uncomfortable van for four freaking hours. In fact, here's what a lot of the trip felt like, and when I say a lot of the trip, we're talking probably 9 hours or more:

That's the view I had of Mozambique for a long time. Now, it's true it was probably too dangerous for us to get out of the car at this point, Mozam's a bit shady in a lot of parts, but it felt like a really long time in the car until we got to our first destination, a deserted train station:

The culture continued! We then went to an old fort, supposedly the oldest building or something or other in Mozambique. It was the saddest excuse for a building I have ever seen. It was basically stone walls around a courtyard. In fact, I don't even have pictures of it, it was that lame. Instead, I spent my time outside taking pictures of the locals. Oh wait, I can't post them either, because while I was taking photos, I took some of the police. Three minutes later, they were harassing me trying to extract a bribe while one of them held an AK-47. He made me show him all the photos and delete them. I think Mozam should create a new country slogan involving friendliness.

We drove around for another 30 mins or so, seeing a building made of steel, and aluminium plant and who knows what else. Then we hear that we're going to the market! Woohoo! a market! I would love to go through a market, see the locals, buy some nice souvenirs. As we roll up in our crowded clown car van, they tell us that the market has just closed, it closed early because it's Sunday.

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I'd like to say this was the turning point of the trip, but there wasn't a person in that car that didn't immediately make the connection that if we hadn't messed around that morning, we'd have been able to go to the market and maybe salvage the whole snafu'd trip. In fact, this trip was an excellent time to teach some of our non-native speakers of english a new word, Cluster&%$*. It was used quite often throughout the entire day, whether it was borders, closed markets, police shakedowns, or van mishaps.

It was then time for lunch, which in the end wasn't all that bad. Mozambique is known for it's seafood so we went to a local seafood place (which really was probably a tourist place, not so local) and ate. My table ordered Octopus heads to start and then medium prawns for the main course. The Octopus heads were disappointingly like regular calamari; we were hoping to crunch some beaks and eyes, but oh well.

This was an ocean side restaurant so we waded across the street through the locals to the beach and hung out for about an hour. This was easily the best part of the whole day, which accounted for 1 hour of the 14 hour day. With that, here's some pictures from that precious hour.

Locals playing soccer on the beach with Mozambique in the background.

Yes, he's midair in this shot. He's basically a kung fu kid posing for the camera.

Why is it that chariots of fire breaks out anytime people are on a beach? As a tribute, here's a slow motion run from Craig and Ethan.

Thought it appropriate to dip my toe in the Indian Ocean, ever so gingerly.

Hidden treasures amongst the waves! I found myself a new pair of boxers, what a discovery!

I wasn't with the team at this point because I've learned my lesson far too often with incoming tides. I had retreated back to solid land at this point.

I like this shot, that's most of the CSC team, probably 12 our of the 14, plus 2 street kids with the Mozambique skyline in the background.

This is what I was able to avoid, everyone of course got stranded by the tide and had to wade back in, fun time had by all for that one hour.

It was quite a day, didn't get back to the lodge until 8pm (which I lost a bet on, I had guessed 7pm).

We are supposed to go with Sertorio next weekend to Swaziland, but I'd imagine that's not going to happen. Now, he could be the absolute best tour operator in all of South Africa, and we might even be lucky by comparison to what could have happened, but considering how much of a relatively expensive disaster the day was, I think I'm ready to take my chances with another tour operator.