Blogs from Nampula, Northern, Mozambique, Africa

Nampula is the capital of this Northern Region of Mozambique, and as such it has lots of administrative offices and lots of activity. It does have a "hard edge" to it, but N.. Walked around and bought clothes and toiletries to replace the essentials that he lost. He managed to find everything he needed except secure Internet access. E.. cheated and used the hotel's computer. N.. refused to use a potentially compromised machine. It took us 2 days to recover from the stomach bug and the ill effects of lousy train travel.... read more

We got to the train station at 04:00. There was a semblance of a line up, but there were pockets of people not in the line up too. We stayed near the entrance to the station. At 04:30 the station doors were opened by big beefy men in hard hats who were used to crowd control. We used out torches to get to the unpopular 3rd class caqrriages near the front of the train. They were less crowded because they involved a long walk from the station platform. We got 3 seats in a corner where there was plenty of luggage space on top. We put our 3 bags on the top luggage rack and held on to our day packs in our laps. We chose the corner seats, so there would be more security for ... read more

Sorry it has taken so long to get another few blog posts up. For a while I was out in the field and didn’t have access to internet and then after I returned to Nampula it turned out that the internet was down in the city as well so that didn’t really help the situation. Right now I’m able to connect with a Mcel stick but I won’t be able to upload photos. Anyway as usual these next blog posts are a bit disjointed as usual but that’s life I guess. For this post I want to talk about some random experiences that happened over the past two weeks. These are probably not the most interesting or exciting things that happened but rather what I happen to remember at the moment. Also the entire last two ... read more

I just got back from a couple days out in the field so I figured I'm posting something now that I had written while I was out. It's not terribly coherent and certainly not continuous so I apologize for that. I woke up this morning with a song. First the rooster started the show with a fowl ballad. Next the birds in the trees chimed in with a falsetto. This merely served to introduce the main act, the piece de resistance, and the crescendo that really drove me from slumber which was the sound of drums beating and voices raised. Still half asleep I wondered if this was the end and if the local people who had appeared quite friendly the night before had in fact changed their minds and were preparing to rid themselves of ... read more

This next post is a bit graphic so I apologize to your eyeballs in advance. Also there are no pictures for this post. About half way through the afternoon I realized that I could not escape the inevitable beckoning of small concrete structure near our house. I grabbed the necessary preparations from the trunk of the car and slowly trudged to the "building" like a man walking to death row. I took a deep breath before entering and assumed the position. Hello my old friend, we meet again. I am of course referring to the latrine. There was a hole in the concrete floor in a vaguely phallic shape and two foot imprints to indicate where the feet were supposed to go. I imagine this was to improve aim and while it appeared silly I certainly ... read more

It's hard to believe I've only been here for four full days. Somewhere between two days of travel, a winter that feels like summer, and adjusting to a different lifestyle I lost track of time. Landing in Johannesburg on Thursday night seemed like nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe because it was nighttime, or perhaps because Johannesburg is a well developed city, but I didn't feel like I was in an exotic location. The airport was modern, large and well organized. Bussing out to the small 24 seater plane in the morning was the first indication of a road less traveled. The flight wasn't long and as we descended into Nampula I was shocked by the scenery. Palm trees and dusty roads greeted my eyes but most impressive were the tall granite outcroppings that dotted the ... read more

Rui is wrapped in a bedsheet and sleeping under the cashew tree when I set off for the train to Nampula. He wipes the sleep from his eyes, raises half-heartedly, offers to walk me to the station. I pat his shoulder and thank him for the offer, but tell him to go back to sleep. “Estou bêm,” I assure him. The early pre-dawn blue has begun to show in the sky, and sleepy Cuamba doubtless has few surprises between here and the train station. The askari opens the gate and wags his hand and sends me off, no doubt grateful to dispense of his responsibilities before heading back to bed. Stray dogs prowl through the street trash; a truck idles outside the bakery, the driver slouched in his seat. At the station, two surprisingly patient queues ... read more

This blog entry could also be called two idiots on a road trip... Jens the German guy I’m traveling with at the moment and I decided that we wanted to go up north as quickly as possible. I wanted to save time in Mozambique to be able to visit Malawi and he wanted to go from north to south. All said and done we decided that we will try to cover as much distance in as short as time as possible. We did … 4 days, over 30 hours in busses and over 1500km later we arrived. This is our story The whole tour started in Inhambane with a Dhow (small sailing boat) across to a small town from which we apparently could get a bus to Beira some 10 or 12 hours up north. After ... read more