Really? With the trash?

On my run this morning I watched a man pick up a trash can, empty it into the street, and fill it with grass and leaves.  I was thinking maybe he'd put the trash on top after... No, I ran by 30 minutes later and there was trash all over the street.  Way to keep the streets clean and show some Namaacha pride.  Ridiculous

I still don't understand Mozambicans...

A man showed up at our front gate this morning. Neither Scooter nor I recognized him, so I went outside to talk to him at the gate and figure out why he was here. Our conversation went,


Anna: Good morning, can I help you?
Stranger: Good morning. Let me in.
Anna: I'm sorry, who are you? Can I help you with something?
Stranger: I was passing, knocked on your gate, and you should let me in. It is my right.
Anna: If you don't need to check our water or check the electricity, you don't need to come in.

This conversation goes on a few more minutes, the stranger making religious references about us being brothers and God opening up this house for him as well as me. So I go back in the house, back to Scoot who's watching. The man stays at the gate. Also, during this entire time Amenduim (our beloved dog) is going insane barking at him. Scoot and I sit down and the man starts yelling;

Stranger: Why do you have this dog to scare people? When someone comes to the gate you must let them in! It is our right as humans!! (some more yelling...) Who do you rent this house from?
Scooter mentions where our landlord lives, the stranger asks for his name, we don't give it. At this time the stranger says, “I am Joao. I am your landlord.” Well shit, if maybe you'd mentioned that right off the bat when you showed up at our house rather than spouting all sorts of other excuses to get yourself in and banging on the gate we would've been more inclined to let you in. Scoot goes out and opens the gate (which is actually unlocked anyways, the stranger just didn't know how to open it, thankfully) and they start talking.

Joao (stranger): I am your father. We must know each other. We are family.
Scooter: You have to identify yourself because we don't let people we don't know into our house.
Joao: But it's the afternoon! Nothing wrong is going to happen! You must let anyone who comes by into your home.
Scoot.: We are two young, female, foreigners living alone. We cannot let anyone that wants to come by into our house. That's not going to happen. You have to identify yourself.
Joao: (pensive for a moment...) Ok you have a point.

They stood outside at the gate and talked for about another five minutes. He didn't know our names, but gave us his wife's phone number if there are any problems (who does he think we've been paying rent to for the last 11 months?!), told us we should come visit him sometime because he is our father, and made sure we understood that he wanted to know who we were because we were living in his house and he wanted to help with anything he could.
The whole situation was weird and strangely very frustrating. Once he identified himself as our landlord we got it. I don't think Scoot nor I have any doubt he his who he says he his, yet his roundabout way of talking to us was so infuriating. We've been living in this house for 11 months and he just now decides to stop by? We're moving out in 2 months. He doesn't know our names? Ok yes, as our landlord he can come over whenever and check on things, but he thinks he has the right to not explain who his is? Again, the whole situation was frustrating yet very familiar. Very Mozambican. Sometimes I just don't understand people...

Happy birthday to me!

Today we drove down to see the penguins! Mom was so excited, and I guess I get it because the little guys are pretty cute.  Smaller than I would've originally thought, but adorable.  The drive along the coast was spectacular, although we didn't see any whales.  First we saw penguins, then had lunch (beer and fried calamari was EXACTLY was a needed on my birthday), then we were kind of at a loss of what to do.  Well, we knew we had an afternoon to kill so to the wineries we went!!! First we went to Annadale (partly because “anna” and partly because it was the closest), which is the oldest winery in the area (in all of the Cape I believe).  It was a tiny place, extremely beautiful, and very rustic feeling.  Apparently it's a place that people drive into, think they've taken a wrong turn, and turn around and leave.  We got lucky.  The wine we had here was the best wine we've had in the country.  We got through the tasting, got a tour of the winery, tasted a bit extra of their port (I'm not usually a port fan but this was SO good!), and then another tour group showed up.  Rather than moving on we stuck around and had another tasting! Again, best wine in Cape Town.  So, wineries turned into one winery, but we had a spectacular time there, for sure.  In the evening, after realizing probably too much wine was being consumed and bought, we headed out to my friend Michelle's house.  She's a wonderful woman whom I was lucky enough to meet on an airplane last time I was in Cape Town.  I promised if I was ever back in Cape Town I would come visit.  She was very gracious in letting us stay with her, her children, and her nephews for the evening (especially after our wine consumption). 

Red red wine

The cape of South Africa is known for it's wine. Thankfully my parents and I all love to drink it.


I've had several friends come to Cape Town and take various wine tours, but we found a great company, Cape to Grape, which worked perfectly for us. Turns out it was just us, the tour guide, and the tour guide's father, so we had a pretty personal experience. We drove through several parts of town just outside Cape Town and visited six different wineries. Each winery had something special to offer; Cheese pairings, biltong pairings (which is pretty much South African jerky made from all sorts of animal meat, like ostrich or kudo or beef), lunch (always necessary with six wineries), or a fantastic view overlooking wine fields. My favorite was the cheese. So... six wineries, six wines at each, a bottle at lunch, and a few extra glasses when the pour-er was feeling generous... Believe me, that's a lot of wine to consume in one day. By the end of it all we were a very happy group, probably a bit of a handful for our guide.

SHARKS!

As my birthday present, my parents sent me off to cage dive with great white sharks.  Some would see this as a dangerous and scary experience and would hesitate to do it or let their children do it.  We saw it as a once in a lifetime experience.  I got picked up at 510am (awesome) and rode 2 hours outside of Cape Town to Shark Alley.  Along the way (apparently we were ahead of schedule... thanks for picking me up so early...) we stopped in Hermanus to look at the whales that were literally just off the coast.  Rock throwing distance.  So, we get to the shark place, wait, then the owner comes out and says, “This is the worst part of my job...  I have to cancel today.”  Awesome.  The weather was too rough and he guaranteed everyone would get seasick.  So, he took several brave souls out to show them how rough the water was, came back 45 minutes later and said, “Let's do this!” We got in the boat, drove out 15 minutes, and quickly all understood what he meant about getting sick.  But hey, priorities! I was in the first group to get in the water.  Eight of us wet-suited up and slid down into a cage floating next to our boat.  When we were told, the captain yelled, “Down! Down and left!” or what have you and we'd hold our breath and go underwater, looking through the bars of the cage.  Visibility wasn't very good (good thing or bad thing I don't know) so when we saw sharks they were RIGHT HERE!!!!  The first time one came up to the cage my face was so close to the cage and he got so close I threw myself to the back of the cage, out of shock and fear.  Apparently my neighbor happened to be filming me at that moment, so everyone got to see my reaction once back on the boat.(thanks a lot Thomas).  The sharks were amazing!!!  They would occasionally come up and hit the cage with their bodies, jump and fight for the bait the captain was holding out, and sometimes just swim by and stare at us.  From outside the water we had an even better view, watching them come by and jump out of the water.  Seriously, one of the coolest experiences.  I'm thankful yet a little sad I don't have a little battle wound or memento from the afternoon...

Victoria Falls

We left early in the morning for a Victoria Falls walk around the island. I had no idea what I was in for. About 12 of us (my family plus a bunch of college girls and a guide) walked through the streams and over the rocks that fed the falls. It was tricky at times, trying not to slip on the rocks or be swept away by the current when the water was above our knees, but about 45 minutes after walking we ended up on the island (which is actuality is not an island at all, by common definition, but whatever.) Then came the surprise. We stripped to our suits and swam across the current to Devil’s Pool. I’ve seen pictures of this pool but never thought I’d be there. From a rock, we jumped into the pool, literally less than 10 feet from the edge of the falls. Then we swam to the edge of the pool and sat, less than 5 feet from the edge. Finally, we kinda hung over the edge- crawled on our bellies to where we could see over. It was terrifying and so much fun. And I will admit, I was extremely impressed with both parents. They had more balls than the college girls in our group.


After getting out of the pool, dad and I followed the guide back around the rocks and streams. After tracking down mom, we walked down to see the falls from the other side. They are just so amazingly massive and powerful. The guide was telling us each year crocodiles, hippos, and even elephants get washed over the 108 meter high edge. To think that's where I hung over the edge...

Three countries in one day

This morning we woke up early in Maputo and caught a plane to Johannesburg.  After our hour long layover in SA, where I took the time to eavesdrop on a team of Angolan soccer players, we got on a plane headed to Livingston, Zambia.  I’ll be honest, traveling with my father is usually an adventure; sometimes we don’t know where we’re going, we should take a public bus (or 5) to cut costs, etc.  But today was different- taxi to our doorstep, and we arrived with time to suit up, jump in the pool, play cards, and watch sunset over the Zambezi while sipping 2-for-1 gin and tonics.  It was spectacular.  So even though we didn’t leave the airport in South Africa, we got stamped in three countries so I think that counts.

Casa De Mar = Paradise



sunrise



Dad’s arrival in Moz marked a new pace to the trip. We rented a car from a friend of a friend and took off to Inhambane to the beach. Mom, Dad, Scooter and I headed out and along the way we ended up picking up fellow PCVs Erin and Dylan. Getting to the beach was a bit of a challenge, due to the enormous sand dunes we has to climb, and thankfully the owners of the lodge, Mary and Des, happened to be coming back from town so they pulled us up the last giant hill.

The beach is breathtaking. Several houses tucked into the side of a hill facing the beach, nothing else is site. We literally were the only people there. Our first day at the beach consisted of sun bathing, body surfing, whale watching, beer drinking, and relaxing. Day two was a bit overcast so we spent more time playing cards and bananagrams, cooking AMAZING food (get 4 PCVs together and you can come up with some delicious dishes), napping, more whale watching, and catching up. My dad’s main goal in coming to Mozambique was to see whale sharks, so day three we took out Des’s boat to try our luck. We’d been talking to people all up and down the beach for days trying to hear any news about the whale sharks but nobody had seen them in a long time. Unfortunately we didn’t either. But we did snorkel, see whales, and watch dolphins swim with and around out boat. It was pretty great.

I think all of us needed these few days to let go, relax, and spend time with close friends and family. I loved having my parents meet my friends and I really think my friends liked my parents. This weekend was very close to perfect.

our spot






enjoying evening activities



the house = amazing!

yes, those are flamingos