26 People! No Way!

November 10, 2011 I arrived in Namaacha safe and sound after an exhausting adventure. Here is a brief recap of my 5-day site visit.

November 5: At 4:30 am I was up and out of bed. My mom scrambled around the kitchen and made me a safe travels breakfast of eggs, sausage, bread, and tea. By 5:10 we were out the door, hand in hand, and on our way to the science hub (it is very common for people, even strangers, to hold hands). My mom dropped me off and the group of PCTs headed on our way to Maputo. About 40 minutes into our trip, we realized we were missing two people-the buddy systems fails when both buddies are missing! Alden and Jonathan were rushed by a Peace Corps car and met us on the way. Everyone was dropped off at their respective locations and I was taken the Peace Corps office where I met Eddie and Mark, current PCVs in Boane and Macia respectively. We went for breakfast at a cafe owned by a returned PCV and then headed to the fish market for the experience of a lifetime!

The fish market is a giant market with tons or raw fresh seafood. I cannot even name all of the different species there, but Mark and Eddie picked out 5 kg of oysters, 5 kg of prawns, and two types of larger fish. We sat at their favorite barraca and gave our raw seafood to the owner to cook for us. Shortly thereafter, two heaping bowls of oysters came out with three loaves of fresh garlic bread. I made a garlic bread-oyster sandwich and ate more than enough oysters. The next course came and the two large fish coated with garlic butter were served. When we thought we could not eat any more, the cook brought out 5 kg of prawns.

Pleasantly full, we traveled the rest of the way to Macia. The ride was less than eventful until the last ten minutes of our trip when a drunk Mozambican man sat next to Peggy (a PCV). His pants were down, he was fully exposed, and he could not seem to keep his hands to himself!

November 6: After breakfast, we walked across the field from Mark's house to the school. The school was built less than a year ago by the Portuguese government and it was in great shape (and even has running water). After our tour, we headed to Mark's host family's house for "coffee". I am writing coffee in quotations, because coffee turned out to be the biggest meal I have eaten in quite some time. Mark's mom made a coleslaw salad, rice, matapa (pumpkin leaf curry), beef, potato salad two ways, a chocolate cake, a vanilla cake, fish, and a corn and bean dish (it is a traditional Mozambican dish). It is safe to say I grew a food baby during her four hour "coffee".

Afterwards we took a tour of a Macia and headed home for a long night of digestion.

November 7: Today we headed from Macia to Bilene and spent the day on the beach. We took a thirty minute ride across the water and spent the day on the island facing the ocean. I saw a whale and started to love the Peace Corps life more and more.

November 8: As if one day was not enough on the beach, we headed out of Macia early and traveled to Xai Xai beach. It is safe to say I thought I was in paradise!

After a day at the beach, we headed to Chongoene to spend the night at Michelle's house (Michelle is a PCV).

November 9: We headed from Chongoene to Xai Xai to explore downtown Xai Xai. We walked around the market filled with miscellaneous goods ranging from onions and used clothes to electronic goods.

I enjoyed a soft-serve ice cream at KFC before heading back to Macia. I never thought my first trip to KFC would be in a third-world country. What are global markets doing to this world?

November 10: A long day of traveling... We left Macia around 9:30 and did not get back into Namaacha until 17:00. We did however manage to squeeze 26 people in one chappa (chappas are meant to hold no more than 12 passengers- we showed them)!

On Wednesday I will know what the next two years hold... I will be sure to update people as soon as possible.