November, December, January and all the way to February!

-It’s been almost 4 months since the last time that I wrote a blog!!   Sorry for the long break I was so busy wrapping up the 2012 school year, traveling all around Mozambique, Swaziland, and South Africa, having my family visit and starting the 2013 school year that it just dawned on me the other day that I should post another blog.  So here goes!

The Agenda

-Finishing up the 2012 school year (includes a brief trip down to Namaacha where I welcomed in the new training group).

-TRAVEL: Starting in Mangunde and traveling through Mozambique, Swaziland, South Africa and back.

-The Skvarch’s travel through Africa!!!

-Mid-service and settling back into Mangunde life with a new roommate and a new year.

PART 1 

Finishing up 2012

                It’s hard to believe that 2012 and my first year in Peace Corps have already passed.   It seems like just yesterday I was getting off the plane after a long tiring trip and stepping foot for the first time in Mozambique.

                The year slowly faded away towards the end of the school year as final exams started to wrap up in early November and students started to slowly trickle out of Mangunde.  Mangunde is so incredibly busy during the year that when November rolls around it seems like an odd but peaceful silence permeates all parts of my lost little mission village in Mozambique.

                The school year ended and with it my responsibilities in the community. I hung around Manugnde for about two weeks and helped grade and proctor final exams but soon enough it was the middle of November and I was heading down to Maputo Province, specifically Namaacha, to hang out and impart some Mozambican PCV wisdom on the new Peace Corps trainees who were entering the country.  In mid November I started what would be an almost 2 full months of traveling experience.  I left my site and headed to the capital city of Sofala, Beira to catch a flight down to Maputo.    Beira is the second largest city in Mozambique, busy, congested, not particularly clean, and Peace-Corps-Volunteer-less.  This put staying there a bit on the inconvenient side.  Anyways, after my flight got moved and I spent 9 hours waiting in the Beira airport I finally managed to get on an airplane head down to Maputo (arriving around 1pm). Needless to say the moment I got to the hotel room (an absolutely FABULOUS room equipped with both a FLUSHING TOILET and a HEATED SHOWER)  I passed out.  I woke up the next morning with and, in the company of two fellow Moz 17ers,  made my way to Namaacha. 

                The following week was filled with meeting almost 70 new Peace Corps Volunteers, attending a bunch of practice classes to give everyone feedback, and being overwhelmed with the nostalgia of being in Namaacha.  Namaacha is the place I lived when I first arrived to Mozambique and after a year of living in this country the whole town seemed so startlingly familiar and different that it took me a few days just to find the ground. The whole week in Namaacha was a wonderful experience where I got to check myself and to see how far I had actually come in just a single year’s time, not to mention I got to meet my then soon to be roommate Jonathan Lesko!

TRAVEL:

Well… this is going to be a crazy ride

Day 0(Around November 28^th) -  I find myself back in Mangunde for a brief period of time after having spent a week in Maputo visiting the new soon to be Peace corps volunteers.  I was only able to stop for a day or two to make a whirlwind of arrangements, say some good-byes and do some laundry by hand.  It’s amazing how much you can get done in a day when you put your mind to it.

Day 1 –  I leave Mangunde and travel all the way to Vilankulos about 5 hours south and manage to shoot into the city for just an hour’s time to try and make travel arrangements for my family.  So I just got done traveling for 5 hours.   I was hungry and tired and running around Vilankulos, only to find out that EVERYTHING but a few bunk beds had been booked for New years when my family was supposed to get in.  I make the booking for the bunk beds, pray that they will give us  fans, and that my mother won’t kill me,  and as quickly as I got into Vilankulos I caught a Chapa out to try and get to Mapinhane where two of my friends live.  I arrived at Chris and Laurie’s just a few minutes before dusk and was happy to find myself with friends after a stressful day of traveling and bad news.

Day 2 -  I say my good-byes to Chris and Laurie and tell them I will see them in Capetown and then I head south towards Inhambane city.   Traveling is smoothing sailing from here on out and I make it to Maxixe early in the day.  To get to Inhambane city one has to travel for about a half an hour in a boat taxi from the mainland of Maxixe through a small channel to reach Inhambane city.   Maxixe and Inhambane City are located towards the southern end of Mozambique and seem to be overflowing with coconut and palm trees and of course the general relaxed beach atmosphere you find when you can smell ocean water and eat fresh fish on a daily basis.    I make it into Inhambane city, see briefly a friend who lives there and then meet up with the 4 other people I will be traveling with for the next 2 weeks. The big five as we liked to call ourselves were my friends Mac and Dylan from Sofala as well as Ariel and Leah from the northern province of Nampula.  We all then made our way to the beautiful beaches of Tofo where we would spend the next few days.

Day 3,4,5 – BEAUTIFUL beaches, Swimming, and Scuba diving for the first time.  Scuba diving is a BLAST  and I think it is something I will continue to do in the future. :-D…. on a not so awesome note… I left my camera on the bus that brought us to the beach… bad timing.

Day 6 – The big five load up and we head on down the coast to stay in the gorgeous lagoon town of Quissico.  In Quissico the five of us stayed with a, super friendly and chill, volunteer named Tony, who was calling Quissico her home for her two years of service.  I don’t generally get jealous of Peace Corps sites but I do have to say that Quissico is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life.  Starting in the small town of Inharimme about 30 miles up the coast you will find a series of 7 lagoons, Quissico being the 4^th or 5^th one down.  The town is located on a hill next to the lagoons, which means that just 2 or 3 minutes walk from the center of town you get a view that will take your breath away.  Imagine being able to see 3 or 4 baby blue lakes all in a row surrounded by coconut tree forests and the Indian Ocean just beyond the small strip of land that keeps the lagoon separate from the ocean. That’s Quissico.

Day 7 – We leave Quissico and head to the capital!

Day 8-9 10-  We find ourselves in the midst of the swearing in ceremony for the new volunteers, saying good bye to volunteers who are in the process of COS(Close of Service), and fellow travelers.   The 5 of us stayed with a few American CDC (Center for Disease Control) workers who were AMAZING hosts that gave us all beds, a few meals, and some great conversation.

Day 11- we leave Maputo and leave Mozambique!!!!   We left Mozambique and headed into uncharted territories!  We took a trip through Namaacha and headed over into the Kingdom of Swaziland (One of the only Monarchies left on the planet).   We traveled to small town of Siteki in Swaziland where we stated at a wonderful little backpackers, enjoyed the cooler night air (It’s a fair bit more mountainous in Swaziland then in Mozambique), and made some wonderful egg sandwiches for dinner.

Day-12- We leave Siteki and head over to Lobamba Swaziland, but first we have a pit stop in Hlane Royal National park to go on our first GAME DRIVE!!!!   We arrived in the park and went on a 2 hour game drive through the Safari of Swaziland we managed to see baboons, a bunch of Giraffes up close and personal, a few elephants in the distance and some huge rhinos. 

Day 13- After a restful evening in Lobamba Swaziland we woke up the next day and decided that we wanted to go white water rafting.  So we did!  We took a few rafts out to the local rapids and spent the morning meandering, shouting, yelling, laughing, and splashing our way down the Mbuluzane river.  The highlight of this day was when Mac and I went down one of the huge rapids together.  We were both pumped and super excited for the rapid and our goal was to not have either one of us fall out.  We get into the rapid and it’s tossing and turning us all around but we keep on paddling and finish strong, or so I think.  I turn around excitedly once we get passed the rapid about to congratulate Mac only to realize an instant later that him floating away down the river.   White water rafting in Swaziland!!! So much fun!!! A special shout out to Leah who was my awesome rafting partner for the majority of the day!

Day 14- We all get up and the group splits in two.  Ariel and Leah and back to Maputo to grab some stuff they left there and prepare for their journey home, and Dylan, Mac, and I cross boarders and head into South Africa. 

Now, when Mac, Dylan and I got to Swaziland we were all surprised at the level of development as compared to Mozambique, but when we got to South Africa it was like walking into a whole new world.  There are shopping malls, stores, cars, and a whole hell of a lot of white people, it was all very overwhelming and slightly uncomfortable at first, but hey we had just walked into the most developed country on African continent south of the Sahara.

We arrived in South Africa and ended up staying the night with a friend of a friend’s parents who live in South Africa which Mac set up.  We were warmly welcomed and well received by the South African family and were happy to eat all of the delicious cookies, sausages and treats they offered us.

To be continued......

Stay tuned in the next few days I'll post PART 2 of my Traveling adventures through South Africa and Mozambique!