Written on August 23
Sheesh, so yesterday's travel after the boat began as the worst I've ever had, and then later in the day, among some of the best. When we got off the boat at the mainland port, there were three trucks/buses. The guy we were traveling with spoke like perfect Portuguese, so we just let him do the talking. Apparently none of the chapas were taking the road we wanted to go on, so we decided to take a different one that would bring us to the same main road. Well, this was when we made our worst decision of the day. At first the ride wasn't too bad because we had plenty of space-just the road was horrible. There were so many potholes, so we had to go so painfully slow (yes, PAINFULLY was meant to be ironic). Then we began picking people up. At peak capacity (which lasted for about 3.5 hours), we had 20 people, 2 goats, a basket of chickens, 3 babies, and about 8 maize sacks of cassava in the truck. Kelly and I were in so much pain- there was no room to move our legs because we were so squished between people and bags, the blazing hot sun beat down on our already sunburnt faces and shoulders, and every time we hit a bump, our backs banged against the side of the truck bed. It was pretty miserable, and the whole time, there was one thought running through my head: I want OFF this truck.
When we finally reached the road we were getting off at, it was already past noon. (We had left at 7:30)! We grabbed some snacks (since we still hadn't eaten breakfast and had been up since 4:30) and went to the side of the road to hitch. After cold drinks and some grilled corn and breads, we were feeling much better and were lucky enough to land a nice air conditioned ride to the turn off we were going to. After that, we found another hitch going all the way to Nampula after just 10 minutes of waiting. The best part- this car was going FAST. We were in the back of a short-bed truck, 3 of us, soaking up the view of Mozambique flying by behind us and trying to cover ourselves with our zitenje to keep our faces from getting too burnt. We made it to Nampula in great time and then called our friend whom we'd stayed with on the way up to Pemba. We took a taxi to his house and enjoyed hot showers, delicious food, and good conversation.
The next morning, our friend drove us to a good hitching point and after we bought a bunch of mozambique bread, the very first car we flagged down stopped for us and was thankfully going to the same place as us. When we split ways with him, we ended up running into two PC Mozambique volunteers and traveled back to the border with them. We even got to see one of their homes-soooooo much nicer than any house I've seen in PC Malawi....a different lifestyle. Every country is different!
Even though we thoroughly enjoyed our vacation (although it was a bit stressful at times with all the traveling), we were both anxious to get back to Malawi and to our homes. Sometimes it's crazy to think how much Malawi feels like home now; America seems like a far off land these days! I was so excited to get back to the place where I can understand the local language and where I know the environment and culture again. (I had a full conversation with the bike taxi that I was on as soon as we crossed back into malawi!) Being in Mozambique, even for just a week, made me realize how hard it's actually going to be to leave when my service is finished. Yes, Malawi can be a pain in the ass sometimes (slow mini buses, carrying water on the head, obnoxious drunk guys yelling, people being late to everything, etc), but it has so much to offer and I'm so well adapted to it now.