Sunday, August 31, 2008

Jeffrey's Visit

An entry by my buddy Jeff, who was my first visitor in Mozambique. We traveled for two weeks and had a blast experiencing Moz and Swaziland. I asked him to give a third-party perspective of the experience, especially since he had been through Peace Corps. Hope you enjoy!

"After 46 hours of traveling I finally arrived in Mozambique. The trip there was EXHAUSTING - and at one of my FOUR layovers - I swore to never travel again - but as soon as I landed in Maputo - the adrenaline kicked in and I was totally fine and with almost zero jet lag.
Since I was recently a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine, I can easily say that Zachery has been in Mozambique long enough to feel settled and I know he will be there until the end of his 2 years. His language skills are very good and he can totally take care of things. And he is clearly very happy with his life there. He has a large group of friends and support network and has done a great job of adjusting to his new environment.

The capital, Maputo, has a very interesting feeling and is totally different than the rest of Mozambique. It feels very Spanish / Latin in culture - and yet African at the same time. It looks a lot like the photos I have seen of Cuba. There are some older cars - but most of them are modern small European cars. The official language is Portuguese so I was able to read most of the signs and understand them...even with my poor Spanish. The streets are in terrible shape as are the sidewalks with potholes and dirt and garbage all over the place. It is not clean and yet I didn’t feel as a dirty as I did when I was in Delhi or Kathmandu. And there are lots of abandoned buildings all over the place. There are very few white faces on the streets and they are typically either tourists (very few) or mostly aid workers. The EU sends more money there than almost any other country as Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in Africa.
Throughout Mozambique I saw LOTS of Unicef, World Vision, Save the Children, etc. vans and met quite a few people who work for these organizations. You can pretty much assume that most any white face is with one of those organizations. They are the majority of foreigners I saw there. So when people there look at us - they do not see “rich Americans” but more - people there to help them. This makes it easier for Zachery as people don’t see him as a spy (like they did me in Ukraine) and yet - he it is much harder for him to blend in and make friends like I did in Ukraine.

The entire vacation we took only local transportation (chapas) and I have never seen so many people cram into a tiny mini bus. It was almost like clowns at a circus. People were all over each other and just when you thought they couldn’t get one more person in - they would stop and pick up 3 more people. And let’s just say - it smelled quite ripe in there. And this is their winter so I can not begin to imagine how unbearably hot and smelly they are in the summer. My hat’s off to Zachery for dealing with them on a regular basis!

After 2 days in Maputo, we took a 3 hour chapa to Xai Xai – the provincial capital near his village of Chongoene, had lunch there, and then went on to his village. We then got off the hot and dirty chapa and I looked at him and said “Oh my god – we’re in Africa!” Most of the homes in his village are mud huts. Some of them have thatch walls and tin roofs. His home has a concrete floor and electricity. Yet no running water - so the “bathroom” (read hole in the ground) and “shower” (read bucket baths) are actually quite comfortable and clean. Since it is now winter (highs around 85 and lows around 55) it's comfortable taking a shower - later in the day. He is doing well health wise – yet has lost weight. We had numerous talks about ways for him to gain weight and I think it’s safe to say he will be more focused on this being a priority. I was 100% healthy the entire time I was there. His food options are incredibly limited. He has an empregada (maid) who cooks most of his food, cleans his house 3 days a week, takes care of his dog and cats, goes grocery shopping for him, and does ALL of his laundry. He pays her $20 a month. She is very sweet and she clearly is very attached to Zachery.

Everywhere we went - people smiled on the streets and said hello to each other. There is a warmth and sincerity in total strangers. I was not constantly in fear of my knapsack being stolen. Or his house being broken in. Or someone mugging us on the street. There is not the constant oppressive feeling I felt daily in Ukraine. Mozambique has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS and yet I didn’t really feel it. The only way I noticed is that you don’t see many people older than 40. Every once in a while you will see a woman dressed all in black who is in mourning. It is actually quite a beautiful country and I felt totally safe. He has beautiful places to go on "vacation". My life in Ukraine felt very familiar and similar to my life in the US - only on a different continent. His life is totally different than anything anyone would ever live in the US. And that is both exciting and exhausting.

We then spent a few days further north than his village. Spent one day with his friend Akisha in Inhambane and then we went to Bara Lodge. Bara is along the beach and is gorgeous. It’s a resort area and incredibly beautiful, relaxing, great food, and was a perfect two days. We shared a small room (bunk beds) with one of his Peace Corps friends - Anne. The bathroom was in the next building over. It was very comfortable - minus the TONS of mosquitoes at night. (Luckily we had mosquito nets to sleep under). My only complaint is that most of the other people there were tourists from South Africa. Rich, white, South Africans. I developed an incredible dislike for them. Zach started these feelings within me - but many of the people I met there reinforced these feelings. We saw almost no other tourist there except whites from South Africa. They were incredibly obnoxious every time they spoke with someone on staff there. Racism is alive and well.

After two days of relaxing we had to leave. And it took us EIGHT hours on various chapas to get back to his village of Chongoene. At one point we were trying to transfer at a bus station. We literally were on 5 different chapas at this one station! The first one tried to leave and they couldn’t get it started. The next one decided it didn’t want to take us all where we wanted to go. I lost track of what all the issues where - but all I remember is that we kept taking our bags and transferring to another chapa. We both had nothing to eat and minimal to drink as we didn’t want to have to go to the bathroom as they don’t make bathroom breaks. Finally around 4:00 pm we bought some cookies / crackers and ate them. By the time we arrived back to his village it was dark. We were hot, tired, dehydrated, dirty, and walked in the pitch dark the 2 miles back to his home. His empregada had dinner waiting for us. It was a mush of beans, fresh coconut milk, and a root vegetable. It was actually quite tasty but not terribly filling. It was too dark and cold to take showers. We played cards for a little bit and then it started to rain. And then pour. And since he has a tin roof - it sounds like the house if being shot at by gun fire. It was an amazing sound. And then the power went out. About 15 minutes later, at 10:15 pm we realized that it was probably time to call it a day. I decided to go to the outhouse one last time before I went to sleep. I was greeted by a frog sitting right by the hole in the ground. I squatted, did my business and went back in the house. I looked at Zachery and said “This was a LONG hard day. I don’t know how you do it. I am not sure I could do this. And this was the best day of our trip - I had so much fun.”

Zachery and I then took various chapas to Swaziland. Everyone told us it would be 3-4 hours MAX. So - we left at 9:00 a.m. figuring we would get there in time for lunch.
I was amazed at how different Swaziland is from Mozambique. It's cleaner, richer, and the people are even friendlier. And the food was terrific. Everyone speaks English in Swaziland which makes it a lot easier than Mozambique where Portuguese is the official language. And Swazi also has the highest rate of HIV / AIDS in the world - at 26-40% (depending on what statistic you use!) There were billboards everywhere and it's clear that AIDS has had it’s impact on the country.

We learned, when someone told us the length of a chapa ride - we needed to double the estimate. Well - we were wrong - it took us EIGHT and a half hours to get to our destination on 4 different chapas and one taxi. We got used to being able to go all day without eating lunch - and minimal bathroom breaks. About 5 hours into this journey, I was hot, tired, hungry, and getting crabby. There was this 8 month old baby in the seat ahead of mine who eyes were transfixed on me. I found myself having this conversation in my head with his baby. I came to the realization that who am I to complain?! Thank god I am lucky to be healthy enough to be able to travel. Thank god I am lucky to be able to even afford this trip. This poor child will have a life of hell. He will be lucky if he lives past 40. He will probably not get past a 4th grade education, or ever even leave his country. He is sitting on this hot, uncomfortable bus and seems to be perfectly content. Who am I to complain? And for the rest of the ride and every other chapa I was on - I was totally fine. I think I just needed to put it all into perspective.

We finally arrived - at one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been – Phonphonyne Lodge. It is nestled in the middle of the mountains and is gorgeous. They only have rooms available for about 20 guests. And there is nothing to do there but hike, relax, eat, sleep, and read. It was much colder (down to 54 degrees inside our tent one night) and had amazing views. The main building is this beautifully decorated lodge - with Andrea Bocelli blaring on their stereo.

Two days later we took a 5 hours chapa to our next stop. Also a resort type place (Malendela’s) which had LOTS of people - especially tourist. We read, relaxed and went white water rafting.
After 2 days there – we took a 6 hour chapa back to Maputo. Zachery recently met the Dutch Ambassador, and he offered for us to stay as his residence since he has 6 bedrooms. So we took him up his offer and stayed there our last 2 nights. Our last morning there, the Ambassador had left for work by the time we woke up. Zachery and I were watching TV and one of Ambassador’s maids walked in and asked if we were ready to be served our breakfast. We both looked at each other and smiled. We walked into the dining room with a beautifully set table. It was one of the most elegant breakfasts I have ever been served! We both laughed and I asked him if really is in the Peace Corps?!

I consider myself to be a quite well traveled – as I have now been to 44 countries. This was one of the physically hardest trips I have ever taken. Everything from the long plane rides there, and the hot and dirty chapas, to the limited food options and physical energy needed to make it through the days. It was a true pleasure and honor to spend time with Zachery. We traveled extremely well together and there was never a second of tension between us. He is a remarkable person - and ever more special is that he is 25 years old. He is a very mature old soul - who yet also has the playfulness of a 25 year old. Many people in Mozambique asked me if I was his father...... .oh well - I guess I may be middle aged - but I sure don't feel it!"

Jeffrey Janis