Blogs from Inhambane, Southern, Mozambique, Africa

Sunday 18 February Barra Beach, Inhambane & Monday 19 February Vilanculos Up at 5.20am, breakfast at 6.00am (boiled eggs, toast and cereal) and away by 6.30am. It was still sprinkling with rain and the power had gone off early in the morning, so no air-conditioning. It was cooler, so that didn’t cause any issues. We stopped off at Inhambane for supplies. This gave us a chance to walk around the town, including the markets. It was a little too early (8.00am) on Sunday morning, so the activity hadn’t started. I came across a church where many people were singing and the minister at the front was definitely preaching forcefully. The singing was beautiful. Inhambane was a very typical African minor city with tired looking buildings, some abandoned but some in excellent condition. Most of the retail ... read more

It is indeed a very beautiful country with a landscape that varies all the time lush green to desert beige, and it's not flat lile the Pampa of Argie or the plain of Brazil, nor is it col, well it is in places but more about that later. I left my boutique hotel and went for the coast double checking every now and then so that tracks4Africa in cohorts with Mssrs Garmin would not lead me on a wild goose chase yet again, close to Port Edward I was suppose to take a left which I did and then I thought about a nice cup of coffee and made a U-turn and went back to Port Edward and had a nice cup of coffee when the moneys came. They were looking for food and searched under ... read more

I want to take a moment to reflect on a few things that have happened over the last few weeks, particularly since a few people have commented on the grumpy and somewhat negative tone of a few of my last couple of posts. Unrelated to travel, Africa, and my personality quirks, but very much related to life in general and social media, is the idea of the personal, private, and uncurated thoughts and emotions that a person goes through on a daily basis versus the public, often perpetually positive, highly-curated projection that is expected of us. This is nothing new – when immigrants to the US went for pictures to send back home to Europe they put on their finest clothes and projected levels of affluence and wealth that many did not possess in the slightest. ... read more

Recapping quickly, I’ve been in a crappy mood for the last good chunk of time and haven’t wanted to do anything. Despite being more than a bit sketched out by the idea of sleeping in the wilds of Africa in a stick hut without a door or solid walls (not even Baraka construction), I felt it was necessary to get out to Mukambe feha and spend some time with them. It was necessary because otherwise this whole idea of me teaching the process of making the materials and thinking about the situation in a greater context was useless because all I would be doing is the same thing that every other NGO and government department does, come in, provide a temporary good or service, and leave. Now, I’m not totally crazy or naïve and realize that ... read more

28 Jun – 4 Jul Sunday, slow day. I spent the day on the computer working and was “forced” to go into town in the afternoon since I had eaten everything consumable in the kitchen as a result of not leaving CoH for a few days. Café food and grocery store accomplished, I headed back to CoH. When we were waiting for the chapa to leave I sat there listening as the cobrador for the chapa next to us as he changed the destination of his chapa and started telling people his was going the same place ours was (Nhamaxaxa, which is further than Chicuque, but on the same route). A few women got into the other chapa, and then as it became evident that the chapa I was in was going where they wanted to ... read more