Pemba!

Pemba-

So, the night after the discothèque, we all woke up a bit frosted around the edges –not the best for a long day of travel, but whatever, we made it work.

It is a bit difficult to get off the island by boleia, so we decided to take a chapa to Monapo, a town about an hour or so from the island. The driver was a total and complete asshole, and a terrible driver to boot, so Olivia and I were quite happy to be out of that car ASAP.

From there, we hitchhiked to Pemba. . . it took us 4 cars after the chapa to reach our final destination – the last car being a police truck! We were a bit hesitant about getting in with the police, neither of us having great past experiences with them, and not knowing if it was actually going to be a free ride – but we did it anyway haha. The police trucks here in Moz have 4 seats facing back to back in the bed of the truck, so that's where we sat. Wind blown, and a bit sunburned, we arrived in Pemba safely and for the price of “free.99” gotta love the power of the boleia.

(a dusty boleia, is still a free lift)

(the lift with the police)

In Pemba we stayed with a volunteer every night, and he happened to be hosting many other people that weekend as well, so we kind of just joined in with the crowd. That afternoon, after arriving, we went down to Wimby beach. After a few days of secluded beautiful beaches – seeing a public beach on a Saturday was not what I wanted. It was jam packed with locals enjoying an afternoon off. The beach was dirty, lots of people bothered us (we were a big group of americans) and I was tired from the travel. We didn't stay long at the beach, returning back to his house to shower and relax before dinner/dancing.

I took a nap, and when I was woken up to go out, I almost declined. But then thought “YOLO – you only live once” and got my butt up, and went out. I’m happy I did-  it was an ok dinner (chicken and fries) and the dancing was for the most part, fun. Nothing compared to Ilha – at this disco, there were a lot of prostitutes, and skeezy men, but I still enjoyed moving to the music, and just being out and about in a new city.

(wimby beach)

The next day, Olivia and I hitchhiked down to the beach, wanting to get some coffee- fortunately for us (and this is where our story just becomes a magical fantasy) the people who gave us a ride were also going to have a coffee, so they took us down the road a good way to this small resort/hotel on the beach – still Wimby beach, but far enough down that the masses were not there. We talked with them for a while, and had some coffee overlooking a beautiful stretch of the beach. They continued on with their Sunday, leaving us to soak in some rays, and were kind enough to pay for our coffees! How lovely.

So yet another day was spent soaking up the sun, swimming in crystal clear blue water and relaxing. It was VACATION at its finest.

Now, this is the best part of Mozambique – during our time on the beach, we made friends. One of the friends bought us some drinks and an appetizer, and the other offered to take us around the next day for some shopping/to get to know Pemba a bit more. There was fantastic conversation, we met some amazing new people, and had a lovely afternoon.

Around 4pm, the hunger bug struck, and we decided to go in search of a fish dinner. We decided on a local spot on the beach, had a delicious meal, and while we were sitting there- ran into someone Olivia knew from Maputo! So there were a few other wine bottles that were uncorked, some of the friends we had made earlier in the day arrived at the spot where we were, so conversation, and wine was the agenda for the evening.

We got back to the house a bit late, all of the other volunteers had gone to bed, and our phones had been at the house. We had a few missed calls and some texts that read like “are you still in pemba?” . . . . that's what we get for falling off the grid for a day haha.

The next morning we woke up sick to our stomach’s . . . I’m positive it was a bout of food poisoning, which is so incredibly unfortunate, but it does happen. More often than I would like, especially in this country.

We still went out with our friend from the day before though, did a bit of second hand clothes shopping (calambidades), had lunch at this beautiful place called Wilson’s Wharf, and got to see a good bit of Pemba, seeing as our friend had a car and she was willing to drive us around a bit. We ended our day on the same beach from the previous day – relaxing in the sun, and chatting a bit about the our concern for the next day- us needing a ride from Pemba to Nampula to catch our plane at 8pm.

Fortunately, our friend made some phone calls, and put us in touch with a lovely Portuguese man, who was, in fact, going directly to Nampula the following day! Yayyy! That evening was low-key, with just Olivia, Zeke (the volunteer we stayed with) and I going to have a nice little dinner, and then watching some movies at his house.

The next morning, we met up with our ride, and had a fantastic trip to Nampula. Seatbelts, air conditioning- the works!! We arrived in Nampula around 2pm, and were offered lunch and a place to nap until our flight …. We must have done something right in our past lives to be so fortunate in our travels.

(or lift back to nampula)

After a good nap, we grabbed a quick bite to eat, and our friend took us directly to the airport, where we hopped on a plane and had a quick and safe flight back to Maputo. There, we were met by a friend of our friend, and given a ride to where we were staying for the night.

By this time, it was rather late, so we both made the executive decision to sleep in, and just have a relaxing day in Maputo at our friends house. We did some laundry in a (wait for it) WASHING MACHINE! We both did some research about graduate school, a quick trip to the supermarket (I got oatmeal, coffee, cheese and some soy sauce) and an evening spent with amazing people and a lovely home-cooked meal (I made stir-fry, chicken and rice).

Yesterday AM, I was up and out of Maputo before 7am, and back at site around noon. A quick and uneventful trip north, exactly what I needed. I was greeted with such love when I turned the corner into my small neighborhood, the kids all running at me, and Lua going crazy at my feet.

I had a fantastic trip, got to spend time with an incredible friend (Olivia), I saw and met some phenomenal things and people. . . but, damn, does it feels good to be home.

Off to work this morning.

A blog post about normal life to follow sometime this weekend.

xo