In my previous blog post I had mentioned that I was going to Inhambane to have a meeting with the Moz 14 volunteers to facilitate the handover of jobs and responsibilities to Moz 15 volunteers (my group). In this process, the new group needed to choose who would be responsible for what and hold the coordinator positions (National Coordinator, Financial Coordinator, Regional Coordinators, etc) for the project next year. I really wanted the position of National Coordinator and nobody else seemed to be itching for that responsibility so my peers supported the idea and I will be JOMA National Coordinator for 2012! I am very excited. It's such a great project and I feel honored to have such a big responsibility. I'm eager to get started!
Last weekend Francelino and I went to Chidenguele, a beach town about 60 k north of Chongoene for a little R&R. Once you get to the main road, you have to walk on a dirt road about 8 kilometers to get to the beach. It's also not too hard to hitchhike your way in and since it was a scorching day we decided to do just that. We got a ride from a man who "said" that he was going to the beach, and who then pulled in next to a lake where some of the 2011 African Games were going on. We left the lake area and turned in the direction of the beach. We also asked a few guys if we could get to the beach on that road and they gave us an uneasy yes. In retrospect listening to them was our first big mistake but what did we know!? We had apparently missed the turn for the closest beach in the first car that we were in, which pretty much doomed us for the day. Anyway, we continued on our alternate route and got a ride from a van full of African Kayaking/Rowing athletes competing in the games who were going to another location. We got out there and continued walking. We went up and down and up and down the sandy path and prayed for another car to come and get us. Sure enough a little car picked us up but we didnt make it more than half a kilometer before the car sank down in the sand and we had to get out and push it. We pushed it a little ways until it sank in so far that we had to use the car jack to jack the car up so that it could get out. At this point the driver decided that they should go back the way they came because they were just going to continue to get stuck. We got out and got in a car behind us who drove us to an intersection where he said we could get to the beach. He showed us to the path and said it would be about 2 kilometers farther. We were sweaty, sandy, exhausted, thirsty and hungry and very very eager to make it to our destination! We made it the final two kilometers and I was so happy to finally hear the ocean and make it to the beach! Unfortunately our journey was just getting started. When we made it to the ocean there was not a soul in sight. We had clearly made it to a beach far away from the one where we were supposed to go. Luckily I had a good idea of the direction we had to go in to make it to our destination so we continued on.
We walked and walked and walked and walked... Along the way we passed a few huts up on a hill and some unfinished buildings that we checked out to see if we could find anyone to tell us how far we had to go or give us some water. I have never been so thirsty in my life. We had walked for hours in deep deep beach sand and I was sure that my shoulders, face, and back were quite sunburnt. The ocean water was so tempting to drink but I knew it would only make me thirstier. I was even tempted ro taste the contact solution that I had along but Francelino nixed that idea pretty fast (rightfully so). We stopped a few times (once to take a nap because we were so tired) and I took a dip in the ocean to cool off. I had brought some eggs to make for us in the morning since the place we were staying in was self catered and once when we sat down to rest I sat on my bag and cracked four of the eggs all over my stuff. It was easily the most frustrating part of my day! Finally we saw people in the distance and arrived at a little resort, not our final destination, but at least there was human life, food, and water there. We stopped and ate a big meal and asked about the place we were supposed to stay at. Luckily it was only one more kilometer down the beach so at about 6:30pm we finally made it to our destination. After checking in we showered and pretty much passed out immediately.
The next day was a million times better. The place where we were staying had barely any guests so we really had the place to ourselves. We had breakfast on the deck overlooking the ocean and then we put on our bathing suits to hit the beach. The beach was beautiful and we were really the only ones there. We swam in the water, played frisbee, and rested our poor bodies from the day before. Later on I swam in the pool for a bit and we could see whales swimming in the ocean and jumping into the air! It was so cool to watch and a German man also staying at the same place let us use his binoculars to see.
After lunch we had to head home so we prepared ourselves for the trip back, which turned out to be much shorter. After walking a few kilometers we were picked up by a family from Northern Mozambique in a van. The mother of the family told me she didn't want to pick me up when she saw that I was accompanied by a man, but that her daughter-in-law felt bad for me, haha. Luckily they were headed south to Maputo so they drove us all the way to Chongoene where we only had to find a car to take us the extra 5k home. We didn't even have to pay and she gave me her phone number and told me if ever I make it up north I can give her a call and come visit!
Overall we had a great weekend. Saturday tested our strength physically and emotionally, but we pulled through and had a perfect day at the beach on Sunday. It was a fun and adventurous weekend out of Chongoene for sure.
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