Written November 27, 2012

How to spend Thanksgiving in Mozambique:

First you have to decide last minute (two days beforehand) to travel halfway across the country. Secondly you can only take a backpack and a purse because you will be hitchhiking and can’t carry a lot of things. Thirdly I suggest bringing sunscreen or a baseball hat (both is advisable) because more than likely you will be sitting in the bed of a pickup truck for countless hours.

With those tidbits of information, I’m going to tell you about how I spent my first Thanksgiving (Dia de Peru –day of the turkey) in Mozambique. My adventure starts last Tuesday afternoon after work – I was standing on the side of the road on the edge of Quissico, trying to flag down a ride to Maxixe where I was going to spend the night, and meet up with some other volunteers traveling north. What do you know, but a pickup truck full of other volunteers stops to pick me up! We take that truck (with people heading up to Gorongoza as well) to the crossroads of Maxixe and Inhambane City (there is a turnoff to go to the beach) we hop out of the bed of that truck, and flag down a nicer looking car that takes us into the town center of Maxixe. Our friend who lives there meets us and we head back to his house to drop our bags off. 

I should clarify this right now, when I say “us” I am referring to myself, my friend Morgan, and my friend Heather. We kind of became travel buddies by total chance on this trip. I love Africa.

So we spent the night in Maxixe at our friends house, getting up at 4am to get to the side of the road by 4:30/5am.  –To catch a good “boleia” (free ride) you need to walk a bit out of town, to catch the cars/trucks/semi’s that are actually leaving town. Around 6am (this process can also take a while) we flagged down a bit semi truck that was heading north to Tete Province.  Although he was passing the town we were going to, because we weren’t willing to pay he said he would only give us a lift to the border of Inhambane Province and Sofala Province. No arguments there – that’s a 7/8 hour ride and gets us about halfway.

So we piled in and proceeded to try and get as comfy as possible in a hot (semi smelly) cab of a semi-truck. The roads north of Vilankulo are not paved, and somewhat shitty, so it was a bit slow-going for the big truck. The trip to the “Ponto Save” (a bridge over the river Save dissecting Inhambane and Sofala) ended up taking about 9 hours.

Here’s where things get funny – the driver originally said that he would take us into Sofala – when we got to the bridge, he made us get out saying he was worried about the police charging him money, or that he was transporting us (blah, blah, blah) we tried to explain that we had proper documentation and whatnot, but he wasn’t having it really. So we got out, and proceeded to walk across the Ponto Save. I’m actually kind of happy for these turn of events, I got some really beautiful pictures of the river (or whats left of the river, considering there is a drought) and it was a cool thing to say I’ve done.

From the bridge we walked a bit of a ways and proceeded to wait a few hours for our next lift – a younger Portuguese man who was nice enough to give us a lift about halfway to Inchope (the town before Chimoio). He was cute too.

From this random town, we got in a chapa that was going all the way to Chimoio (where we were staying for the night) for 125Mtz. We decided to pay that, as it was getting to be afternoon-time and we didn’t want to be stranded on the side of the road at night. We pulled in to Chimoio around 6:30pm, and met everyone for dinner – I had a Manica beer in the Manica Province. Life was good.

I crashed that night at my friend Wendy’s house (she’s a Moz 18’er too) and the next morning (Thursday) we were up and back on the side of the road trying to catch boliea’s out of Chimoio to Gorongoza National Park. I got one to Inchope, and then one right to the entrance of the park.

We got to our campsite, pitched out tents, took showers (with running water in the bathhouse) had some beers and dinner (pasta, salad and garlic bread) and all crashed. Friday was our “Thanksgiving” some went on nature walks in the morning around our campsite, others decided to dip into some early morning sangria, either way it was a laid back day, full of friends, food, and much needed fun. We had grilled turkey (killed that day), garlic rosemary mashed potatoes (made by yours truly), a cheesy carrot casserole, green beans, and homemade cranberry sauce (made from jelly haha). It was basic Thanksgiving food, other volunteers had much more where they celebrated, but considering we had to pre-plan everything, and lug it all the way into this park, I’d say we did a really great job.

The next morning we went on a game drive through Gorongoza National Park. We saw elephants, warthogs, and all kinds of other gazelle like animals. Unfortunately my camera died, so I was only able to get a few pictures. The scenery was amazing though, we drove through lush forest, to then be in the dry flood basin a minute later. That was classic Africa in my mind. This open stretch of land that you could see the heat ripples rising up, the animals slowly walking across it. Unfortunately we didn’t see any lions, but the elephants were pretty cool in and of themselves.

That afternoon we packed up, and headed back into Chimoio – had dinner, and again crashed at my friend’s house. The next morning was the earliest of all – a 3:30am wakeup, to be on the road by around 4. We caught a nice boleia into Inchope, and walked through town. The boliea gods were smiling down on us, because we caught THE BEST ride down south. This nicer pick-up truck of media/journalism people were traveling to Maputo, we asked to sit in the back of the truck and they agreed. The ride was smooth and quick. We stopped every now and then for a drink/pee break, a we only got a little bit sunburned in the back. For the most part it was comfy, laying on our bags, napping, and talking.

On the trip home, Morgan, Heather and I talked about what we were thankful for. My list was pretty complex but the basic components of it would be; I am thankful for my family and friends, my amazing colleagues here in Mozambique, to be in Africa, capulana’s, hard-boiled eggs (a staple here when traveling), clouds, nice people who give boleia’s, Obama winning the election, music and movies, and the fact that I now have two homes –one here in beautiful Quissico, and one back in the states where my friends and family will always be.

With all that said, I am back at home, sipping on some instant coffee, while some neighbor kids play in my yard with the dog.

I hope everyone had a filling, and happy Thanksgiving – remembering that holidays are not about where or when you celebrate, as long as you enjoy yourself when/where you do celebrate.

Gobble gobble.