Maputo, the beginning of Under African Skies

Sorry this has taken so long to post--I've had a long week with classes beginning again, but I'm back and not too stressed! My literature review was looked over by my professor who called it "fantastic." That really was fantastic considering that he doesn't use superlatives--ever.


On to recount some travel journeys for you.


After our time in St. Lucia was over, we got on the road to Maputo. You can't travel straight through SA to Mozambique because the roads are simply not good enough. Most are gravel and a 4X4 is advisable. So, we decided to go through Swaziland. We didn't realize at the time that Swaziland, directly translated, means "land of the ubiquitous speedbump." After hitting them all, we ended up on a national highway which, it turns out, is unpaved. After an hour and a half on an unpaved road in the middle of Swaziland where we rode through a riverbed populated by a herd of cows and not seeing people for almost the entire drive (are you beginning to feel the desperation here??), we found our way back onto a paved road and to the border. The exciting part about being in Swaziland was another stamp on the passport, and a visit to my first monarchy!





In this picture, you can see the dirt road, and you can barely make out the river and herd of cattle...

The border crossing into Mozambique wasn't too bad. We think we might've gotten taken for a ride a bit with the car entrance fee, but we're naive Americans, so what could we do?? After about 20 minutes, we were into Mozambique and on our way to Maputo.

Now, I don't know how many of you know this about me, but last year I spent a month in Mozambique, a little less than a week of which was spent in Maputo. I love Mozambique. My entire trip to SA has hinged on excitement about going to Mozambique again to visit. And while I didn't get to visit the orphanage in Cambine or the guest house in Chicuque, I did get to hang out in Maputo and visit with a dear friend, but I'm getting ahead of myself. As we drove into Maputo, we circled a roundabout, and suddenly I knew where I was...Avenida 24 de Julho, the main drag in Maputo. I actually knew my way around! And not long after that, we drove past the Methodist Guest House where I stayed last year. Of course, every emotion you can imagine passed through my body. I really wished that my companions from last year were there with me to experience the joy at returning to Maputo. Maputo marks the beginning of my true love for the continent of Africa, so this visit was incredibly important to me.

My traveling companions on this journey were a little taken aback, however. You see, we live in South Africa, better known as the United States of South Africa. We have most luxuries, cities are at least relatively clean, etc. Maputo is a bustling city full of vegetables, shoes, and tires being sold on the street, garbage everywhere (the typical method of disposing of trash is throwing it out of wherever you are), and people galore. Also, the driving is horrendous. I was exceedingly glad that Niv was in the driver's seat and I was not. We finally found Avenida Patrice Lumumba (100 points for the person who can identify this African liberation leader), and after circling the block a few times, we found the Base Backpackers, a meager, but very quaint backpackers with a great view of Maputo Bay. We disembarked to find my friend Kristian at the backpackers waiting for us.

Maputo Bay

After checking in, we all piled back into the car and drove to my all-time favorite seafood place in the world (and I can say that), Costa du Sol. Costa du Sol sits on the Indian Ocean, and the seafood only hits the pan in between the ocean and your plate. It's wonderful. Also, if you've ever heard of Mozambican prawns, you've only had them done right in Mozambique. Each prawn is literally the size of your hand! I was in paradise, once again. And, once again, I was missing Mama Bette, Maravilla, Naftal, Telmo, and my BSC traveling companions. But Kristian and I reminisced and were quite content.


The next morning, Niv, Emily A, Alli, and Emily K departed for Tofo. Kristian and I bid them farewell and set out on our own adventures in Maputo. Maputo is very different than South Africa in that the crime rate is quite low. So, we felt very comfortable walking most anywhere. Our goal was the art museum, but we wandered a good deal before getting there, making our way toward the central market, having a great language exchange with my broken Portuguese and a non-English-speaking woman at a beautiful shop, buying some fabrics, etc. We finally made it to the art museum and had a great time analyzing the art. Most Mozambican art, we have found, carries the themes of scarcity of resources, overcrowding, and revolt. It was quite interesting. Most of these works of art were pre-civil war (which lasted 20 years), while the post-civil war artworks often had themes of reconciliation, uncertainty, and still crowding. It was a beautiful morning.

Statue of Samora Machel, a Mozambican liberation leader.

This tree starts out as one kind of tree, a vine grows on it, and eventually the vines reach the ground and take root. Then the tree gets enveloped by the new vine plant and eventually a new tree has grown!

The next day, we struck out for the Saturday craft market, where we found some gems. I bought a nativity scene set in a baobab tree, Kristian bought a more conventional nativity scene, and also a procession of refugees carrying their belongings on their heads (she has been working with the refugee department of lawyers for human rights) from a man who is apparently relatively famous for his work. I also bought a journal covered in capalana cloth and two long, thin batik cloths. Kristian made it away with a piece of driftwood carved to look like an elephant after some very shrewd bargaining on her part.

Kristian reading on the deck of the backpackers

For lunch, we headed to the park nearby and ate at a local restaurant. Of course, the menu was entirely in Portuguese, so we had to be clever in our ordering. I ordered chorico (known to you as chorizo) sausage, but Kristian ordered "moelas estufadas." I wasn't sure what that was, but she insisted on ordering it. Turns out, moelas estufadas are chicken giblets. Nice. After our lunch, we watched a few tennis matches at a local tennis club.

That evening, we went to another art gallery to see some more contemporary art. I had been waiting for a year and a half now to see the Mozambican conflict art which is made of old automatic machine gun parts. I really enjoyed it. I think my favorite was the one called "Libertas" which was a bird with tail made of springs. Beautiful. After eating some dinner at a very elaborate Thai restaurant (with incredible prawns, pictured below!) and seeing a show at the art gallery, we met up with our old friend Naftal.




Naftal is the director of Volunteers in Mission for the United Methodist Church in Mozambique, and he coordinated both Kristian's and my visit to Mozambique from Birmingham-Southern. When Naftal pulled up to pick us up, he got out of the car, gave us both hugs, and said, "Lisa, is it really you?" I was so thrilled to get to see an old friend. We went back to the backpackers and had tea and a good chat. Naftal will soon be moving to Zimbabwe to begin courses at African University in Mutare. For those of you who are aware of the situation in Zimbabwe right now, you will understand that he is a bit nervous. But he is going with his wife and two children, and I am sure that they will be just fine.


We also discussed all of our friends from our visit and Naftal gave us updates on each one. Mama Bette is still well, as is Maravilla. Telmo is still driving for the UMC, but hasn't improved much on his English. The orphanage in Cambine has moved into its new compound and is doing well, and the next day Naftal was sending a medical group to the hospital in Chicuque. CMC is not yet finished with construction, but will be within the year. We were so glad to hear of the progress being made and to get to have some time with a dear friend.




Me, Naftal, and Kristian (Kristian and I look pretty good for no shower all weekend--our hot water was broken!)

We didn't realize that the excitement for the evening wasn't over. Apparently there was a French hotel nearby, and being Bastille Day, they shot off fireworks! That was pretty nice since my 4th of July was quite devoid of such things.

The next morning, Kristian and I walked to the local Anglican church to see what it was like. They had an English service, and we were intrigued. The service itself was pretty typical of an African Anglican church in my experience. What was really special about it, though, was the invitation we received after church. A family with four girls (and probably 14 other children who were related or friends) invited us to lunch at their home in Matola, a suburb of Maputo. Kristian and I gladly obliged and were treated to the most wonderful home-cooked lunch with a loving family who enjoyed our stories about the US and from whom we were given stories about Mozambique and Tanzania. It was really a treat.

We returned home in the early evening and met up with the other weary travelers who had just returned after a long journey from Tofo. We ate dinner at the Indian restaurant across the street and turned in early for a departure to Kruger in the morning.

I awoke early on the next morning and drove Kristian to the bus station to catch her bus back to Pretoria. As I was returning to the backpackers, I had a strange occurence--a chicken crossed the road in front of me! Imagine that you're driving in the capitol city of your state or province and a CHICKEN walks in front of your car as if it was no big thing. Crazy!


I recovered from the shock, bought the group some breakfast, and we departed for Kruger. More on that later.


Views of Maputo. Now imagine the chicken!



Love to you all!

This is the last post before I leave, this time I promise, but I had a few minutes and knew you'd appreciate a post. I happened to realize that I didn't give you a detailed breakdown of where I'm going on my vacation! So, here you are:

Today: I leave at 3 for Durban. My friend Kate is picking me up at the airport and we're driving to the Drakensberg Mountains to her family's cottage there. Here's a picture of the Drakensbert Mountains:

As Natalie says, "geez, Lis, it's a tough life." It is tough, but someone has to volunteer for it.

After two days in the mountains, I will join my friends Emily A., Emily K., Alli, and Niv in Durban where we will stay overnight. If you're interested in seeing more about Durban, follow this tourism link.

The next morning, we're leaving Durban for St. Lucia, South Africa. St. Lucia is in the middle of a huge nationally-protected estuary. It's basically a small beach town with lots of crocodiles and hippos and birds. I should be in paradise! I am going to see if I can't convince the group to go on a whale-watching expedition. It's whale migration season in this part of the world and I've never seen a whale, so I think that should be on my list of to dos. Here's a link about St. Lucia.
In St. Lucia, we're staying at BiB's Backpackers, which looks pretty cool. Check it out. My favorite part are all of the "freebie" activities.

From St. Lucia, we'll drive on to Maputo, Mozambique. Yes, I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I've already talked to Naftal on the phone and I'm just counting the days. Here's a link to info on Maputo. While in Maputo, the group will go on to Tofo, and I will stay in Maputo with my friend Kristian. Then the group will return after a couple of nights in Tofo and we'll all head to the Kruger National Park. You don't need a link to that--just go back a couple of days in my posts and see pictures. Ok, just kidding, I found information on the birds you can find at the camp where we're staying, and even if Laurie Glenn is the only person to ever look at that, I'm satisfied. I've been wanting to see a broad-billed roller. And just so that my nerdiness is complete, I went out and bought the cutest tiny little binoculars yesterday. They were only R160 and they can fit in your pocket (with some difficulty--womens pants are not made to carry things right now). I'm super excited about using them. I may drive the rest of the crew crazy with my birdiness, but I'm okay with that. They already love me unconditionally, so I think we're fine.

So, I'm pretty excited. We're going on another great adventure with great friends--what could be better?? Ok, yes, if Orlando Bloom volunteered to come with, but I don't see that as much of a possibility, so I'm looking at the bright side of things. Plus, my accompanying friends are much cuter than I--there'd be no guarantee that Orlando would be all mine. So, no, this is the best possible vacation! See you in 11 days!

Crazy Week

Since I've been updating you on my trip with my family (which ended almost a month ago, can you believe it??), I haven't been updating you on what I've been doing. Don't worry, this won't take long.

1. "Marking" papers. That is the word used for grading here. I graded 127 exams and 127 projects and about 40 homework papers. My highest class average was a 64, which isn't off track at my school, so I felt secure but not satisfied with my teaching efforts. My next task is to plan for the next term.

2. Researching. My literature review is due on July 23, but since I'm leaving Saturday for Durban (more on that in a moment), I've been studying non-stop to get as much done before-hand as possible. I don't think I've told you my research topic, but I'm sure you could've guessed it: Human Rights Education in the South African School Curriculum. If you're interested, I can post some good articles on the subject. I'm certainly reading plenty.

3. Weekends--I've spent several weekends with my friend Kristian who is working in Pretoria for the summer and our mutual friend Katy Ginanni. We have visited some great restaurants, the Rosebank African Craft Market, Museum Africa and the Market Theater. Katy and I spent a weekend at the Pilanesberg Game Reserve (not Kruger, but a closer option. It'll do.) and did a lot of birdwatching. Call me a nerd, but in Africa my favorite hobby is bird watching! Last weekend was a Rotary weekend with the District Governor induction Saturday night and our club president's induction on Sunday afternoon. AND, our very own mom Lynne Ward was given a Paul Harris Fellow Award for her outstanding service to Rotary! For you non-Rotarians, that's a heck of a big deal!

4. Trip planning. On Saturday, I leave for Durban to meet up with an Ambassadorial Scholar friend in Durban and to go to the Drakensberg Mountains (again--wooohooo!) with Kate's family to their cottage. Then on Monday, I'll meet back up with Cape Town friends Niv, Emily, Emily, and Alli and we'll head to St. Lucia which is a little town in the middle of a National Park on the coast between Durban and Maputo. Did I just say Maputo? Yes. If you know me well enough, you know that no trip that close to Maputo would see me not driving to the city to see my friends! On our family trip to Kruger, it was all I could do to stay in SA! So we'll spend two days in St. Lucia and then head to Maputo where Kristian will meet us. The group will go on to Tofo and then I'll stay with Kristian in Maputo and visit with Naftal, Telmo, and other friends. On the 16th, we'll then head to Kruger for a couple of days and then back to Jo'burg. The major benefit about this trip (other than it being breathtakingly beautiful and exotic and full of great friends, blah, blah, blah) is that it will be WARM. Forget warm, it'll be HOT! I heard that in Maputo tomorrow it's supposed to be 80 degrees F!!! I can't wait. My swimsuit is ready and so am I! Bring on the sun.

So, I won't be posting for a while unless I just have some good time with the internet at some point during my trip. Hope you all have a great two weeks!