We made it to Mozambique!
Kelly (my PCV travel buddy) and I are here in Pemba, Mozambique on the coast of the Indian Ocean. All of our travel plans fell through the day before we were going to leave, so we had a bit of a scramble with our trip. And we got so lucky! My wonderful friends at the tea estate who live even closer to the border than I do, let us stay at their home and even drove us to the border crossing at 6 AM after a cup of coffee. We got to the border and crossed through in maybe 30-45 minutes. Thankfully people right around the border still spoke Chichewa, so it was fairly easy to communicate. We started on our way-our plan being solely to hitch or catch local transport if that didn't work out (it was a Sunday which is a hard day to hitch sometimes with low amounts of traffic). And, SURPRISE, Kelly is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and Spanish are almost the same. So she has saved us on this trip!!!! We stood on the side of the road trying to get a ride to Mocuba (the first stretch of the journey), and after a few cars passed us going different directions, we eventually had a truck stop and when I asked where they were going, he said Cabo Delgado (PEMBA!). Which is 1000 km away! We got so lucky-we hopped in and hit the horrible road. It was dirt, pot-holey road for the first few hours...and a bit miserable.
We finally stopped for lunch, the guys insisting on buying it for us. But we bought beers for us. The guys were so great. We made it to Nampula (a bigger city) where they had a friend and a place to stay. We were a bit nervous about this plan, but when we got and had hot showers, and saw our bed, we were like OKAY! We crashed with him and enjoyed more food and beers together. The next morning, the guy's houseboy made us all fresh fish, and we were on our way!
We drove from 7 AM to 3 PM, stopping once with the guys to drop materials (they were driving all around because they were dropping basketball equipment at various schools around northern Mozambique). When we stopped, Kelly and I got a Mozambique SIM card so that we can communicate with people we meet here and do research. We also played some soccer with kids who were standing there staring and yelling at us (#peacecorpslife). Then we were back to the main road. When the guys were veering far off the road, Kelly and I sadly decided to jump out and catch a chapa or a ride to Pemba. Via a mini bus and two hitches, we arrived at Russels Place and got settled. We are staying in the dorm which is open like a treehouse, so that's really cool. Last night we enjoyed fresh seafood and local beer at the bar and watched 90s music videos on the TV. We were exhausted and at one point, Kelly said, 'So what time is it?' ...it was 7:36 PM. We found a Peace Corps Mozambique volunteer at the bar and chatted with her for awhile before passing out.
Now it's our first full day. The bar has free coffee/juice/tea, so we're sitting enjoying a chill morning before checking out the town. The Spanish girls staying in the dorm with us are trying to make plans too, so we're trying to arrange a trip to a nearby (6-7 hours) island. We'll see. But here's your update yall.
Xoxo