On Monday December 12 I arrived at Mangunde, Mozambique where I will be living for the next 2 years. Mangunde is a very rural area that is located in the heart of Sofala. It is flat, warm, and very green. At this time of year mango trees are going nuts and you can buy huge mangos for just 1 metical a piece (This is roughly 4 cents). The town is very quite given that exams have just ended and the school is practically vacant. Mangunde is located right next to the Buzi river, which is supposed to be filled with crocodiles and even an occasional hippo (Don’t worry I will be avoiding all dangerous and otherwise harmful animals).
I live on a Catholic mission where the mission runs a primary and secondary school along with hospital and a small agriculture school. The people here have been very friendly and I get a good feeling every time I walk around and talk to people. I’m going to be having a roommate his name is Ian and he has been a volunteer here in Mozambique for just over a year now, and I am sure that when he comes back from his visit to the states that we are going to get to know each other quite well (given that we are the only two native English speakers in the entire village).
Another interesting thing to note about my living situation is that I am basically inheriting an entire Mozambique family. Gracinda and her son Jacinto (about a year and a half old) live in a hut right next to Ian and I’s house and we all share the kitchen that is attached to our house. Gracinda is Ian and I’s empregada, that is we pay her by the month to do things like cook dinner, do the laundry and dishes, and to fetch water. In the states this would probably seem fairly weird, however here having an empregada is quite normal and it is a way of giving someone who would otherwise have trouble finding a job (not that Gracinda would, she is a very capable woman) a way of supporting themselves. Anyways, Gracinda, Jacinto, and Gracinda’s niece Anita all live with me more or less and they are all very friendly and in Jacinto’s case absolutely adorable. Jacinto enjoys running around and finding items that he thinks would be fun to hide on me (I just recently found my sandal that he hid on me the first day I got here). I think we are going to make a nice little familyJ.
December 16th 2011: So today started out more or less normal (given that I just moved to Sofala and have only been here for 4 days) I got up drank some tea and sat outside on my porch waiting for an open back chapa (a pickup truck more or less) to come so that I could catch a ride to a town called Muxungue which is where I was going to buy propane for my gas stove, tomatoes, onions, and a few other things, that you can’t seem to find in Mangunde.
Well I woke up around 5am like I usually do thinking that the Chapa was going to come around 6am (I later learned that it normally comes between 7:30am and 8am) So I spent my morning waiting and reading and keeping my eye on the weather which was starting to rain a bit. After waiting for a few hours and thinking that I should probably just hold off my trip until the next day, Gracinda called out to me that the chapa was here. I quickly grabbed my propane tank threw on my poncho and ran to catch the chapa.
I got on and settled in to what I thought was just going to be an hour or so journey given that Muxungue is only about 45km away from Mangunde. However fate had other plans, first it started to rain lightly and then it got a little harder….then it began to down pour. Mind you at this point I’m in an OPEN BACK Chapa, that is I’m in the back of a pickup truck with 15 other people a few sacks of rice, corn, and other things along with my propane tank and it is storming. Now if that is not an adventure enough when it rains this heavily the road (only one) from the town of Mangunde to the main road becomes very muddy (did I mention it’s a 25km dirt road). The tuck that I was riding in back of was having trouble getting through some of the mud patches so a bunch of people and I had to get out and help push it along, all in rainy weather conditions. Now after the truck got moving and everyone got settled in to their respective positions (I was seated on top of a bag of rice, close to the edge of the side of the pickup truck…a side that seemed to be loosely attached…) I settled into a 3 hour ride in the rain where for about 2/3 of it I had to pee (They had a little pit stop before we hit the main road that I took advantage of). So after 3 hours sitting in the back of a pickup truck in the pouring rain we finally arrive in Muxungue where I find out from the driver that the chapa (the only one to return to Mangunde that day) was going to return right away because of the rain (O shit… ) After making that journey I was bound and determined to get some propane so that I didn’t have to spend an hour lighting coal to have my morning tea. As luck would have it the propane filling station was right next to the chapa stop, so all I had to do was pick up my propane tank and cross the street (it’s still pouring) just to find out that they don’t have any gas… I this point I’m severely amused at my situation and ask the man if I can store my propane tank there while I try to run and pick up a few things he says that’s fine and I head off down the road for a bit.
Let’s just recap a bit (This just happened to me so I’m still trying to rationalize the string of events that just occurred) I waited for 3 hours to catch a 1 hour chapa ride to Muxungue that ended up being 3 hours all of which I spent in the pouring rain just to arrive in Muxungue to find that the only reason I would put myself through this (to buy propane) was not going to be achieved. So while I’m laughing at myself at this point I reach down to grab my phone to call a friend so that I can share my tale of woe, just to find out that when I dropped my phone on the chapa earlier it got wet and now was not functioning. So now I have zero ways of communicating with the outside world…. (That was the biggest o shit moment I have had in Africa). So finally after buying some bread and water I rapidly return to the chapa stop to find that the store that I was going to have my gas tank filled was closed and my gas can I left with them was nowhere in sight (the optimist in me hopes that the guy will remember the next time I come, and won’t charge me for another tank, just the gas.)
Recap: I’m in Muxungue, Mozambique, Africa a city I know nothing about, it’s raining, I’m soaked, I have no form of communication, I’ve lost my propane tank(the only reason I went to Muxungue was to get that thing filled), and my only ride back home for the day just left.
Then my luck turned around and I ran into 2 of my neighbors here in Mangunde who remembered me and helped me out (I didn’t remember their names and still don’t given that I have serious trouble pronouncing them) They told me that a mission car was coming buy and that I could catch a ride. When the car got there I talked with the driver and he said he would come back for me in a few minutes. He did in fact come back for me and served as my ride back to Mangunde (this time in the front seat of a car…I never thought I would be so happy that vehicles have closed tops).
Things I learned today: Never travel out of Mangunde (This is where I will be living for the next two years by the way) on days when it is raining. Have a hard copy of your cell phone numbers saved somewhere and carry a hard copy of them with you (ya know in case your cell phone dies due to ridding on the back of a chapa in the pouring rain). Don’t drink tea before you get on a chapa, during this whole event I had I had to pee, this added a whole new realm of uncomfortable to the experience. Always bring your poncho, that thing saved my life today. And lastly as long as you keep a cool head, and keep looking for a solution things will work out. I feel as though I kept very high spirits throughout this whole event given that at times I was quite stressed. I also learned today that, without a doubt, I live in the middle of nowhere Africa and it is not easy to get here. As crazy as today was, I definitely would not want to be anywhere else at the moment.
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