Life on Bazaruto, Mozambique

Hi Guys! Sorry I´ve been out of touch for so long! Glad you haven´t forgotten about me! your emails and comments are so sweet and I love you all!!

I´m on such a high right now! It´s a half-day in the office, so Im here alone. And Steve just managed to call the office landline from his company in Nice! We haven´t spoken for weeks! :-)

So my last update was from bloomin´Ghana! So much has happened since then. I have almost completed my internship with the UNDP and am writing loads of reports for them at the moment in the office. It is such a shock to be working in front of a computer all day after the last three weeks.

The main bit of my internship was to work on one of the UNDP Global Environment Facility´s (GEF) Small Grant´s Programmes´projects on an island called Bazaruto. The project is a ´community based ecotoursim project´ run by a small local community organization based on the island. Bazaruto is the largest island of the group of islands called the Bazaruto Archipelago. It´s about 7km x 15km. for Backpackers can´t visit the island and only really really rich honeymoon couply people go to stay at the two 5* resorts. The local people have always had serious water shortages and because of the sandy soil, it is extremely difficult to grow fruit and veg. As a result, the people use rackety wooden sailing boats called ´dhows´to fetch supplies from the mainland. The idea of the project is to support the local organization by helping the community to benefit more from the recent rise in tourism. The idea is to help the local people conserve their natural resources through environmental management while also teaching them activites that can act as alternative income sources. With Global Warming, it is likely that the water shortages and crop failures will become more common in the coming decades. Helping local people to earn money through teaching new skills like carpentry and small business management, enables them to buy food from alternative geographical regions. So this is what I was there to do!

There are only a few thin, sandy tracks connecting the settlements on the island. The National Park has a 4x4 but it broke down more or less as soon as I arrived so my plan of work had to change a lot. I ended up settling in a tent, by a building used as a community centre. Since my gap year i have kind of thought that i would be totally prepared for any conditions i needed to live in when away from home. Africa has properly proved me wrong! As you know, Ghana was hard work. Mozambique, though pleasingly familiar due to its European influences, has also been another challenge in terms of roughing it! At first they let me stay in a private chalet on Bazaruto. It was so beautiful and i could walk right out onto the whitest sand, which would just blend into the clearest of blue water. But then they realised i was needed at the community centre so i ended up camping in the middle of no-where. Not only was i without a toilet for 3 weeks, i was without even a long drop or dare i say it, a set place to use the loo. when i asked the president of the association who i was working with, where i went to the toilet, he smiled at me, pointed to the bushes that surrounded the building and made a digging motion with his hands! Eek!

It would have been okay. But there were snakes...everywhere. The locals said that the black ones were dangerous and the green ones were friendly. Every 5 minutes of walking away fr om my tent, i would see a snake scurry away from the grass i was about to walk on. And most were thin, long and black. Since getting back to Maputo and meeting other travellers and south africans, I have found out that these snakes were in fact Black Mambas, the most deadliest snakes in the world that kill you (from doing something to your immune system) in just 15 minutes. When i was there, the locals would walk through the long grass all the time, so i just did the same, living the life, taking the risks as they do. Now im starting to look back and think...you crazy fool sarah what were you thinking! The worst thing was getting food poisoning though and having to find a clearing in the long grass, in the dark to be sick etc. and not being able to see the snakes or spiders. Man it was bad.

The highlights were amazing. Walking to the beach in the morning sun to buy fish was a case of wading out to see til the water was thigh deep, to peer into a half submerged rackety fishing boat at the fish flapping around inside. They had just been caught. I would choose 4 fish and thread some grass through each of their gills and out of their mouths, so that each fish was attatched to a makeshift carrier bag type thing. I would pay my 2pence and then wander back to my camp to gut and cook them over an open fire. The people were so grateful that I was volunteering to teach them english. One guy owned a dhow and took me out for a 'sunset cruise' for free. So relaxing, and so silent, just letting the wind take you along the length of the island. There were dolphins swimming alongside the boat and everything. They would also come to me and give me calimari, which is absolutely delicious fried with lemon and garlic. Mmmmm....

Saw a chicken get its head hacked off. I was horrified as its head fell limp and its neck tendon kept twirling around frantically. The next day i realised that the resident cat hadn't meowed for a few days and had disappeared. When i asked the lady who was staying near me where it was she pointed to the bushes. Sensing my confusion, she motioned a sawing action across her neck and i realised she had hacked the cats head off too! I said in complete astonishment....'what? why??' and she replied ' it was eating all the fish!' It may sound totally crazy, but from that day onwards, we had the most delicious grilled fish! They set up sticks around the embers of the capfire and wedge the fish in vertical lines between the sticks, then leave them there for about 4 hours. Beautiful!

I have so many more stories but unfortunately i can't write them all down now! I am back in Maputo now and working in an office. I have been staying at a place called Fatimas in a dorm of 12 for 10 days. The barman has been giving me so much hassle since i rejected his offer of marriage after i ate a meal he cooked for me randomly. If anyone ever goes there, BEWARE OF MATHEUS-the bar man with dreds! I've watched him treat so many lady backpackers in similar ways to me. I've also clocked on to a big undercover arms and drugs dealing operation. One guy that i got to know quite well before i went to the island, i have now found out, is actually a fugitive of the south african and mozambican police and has gone into hiding. A proper crook apparently!

Ok, well better be off! Take care everyone and see you soon!!!

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