Ok, I have been busy and not blogging as I should. So, I am going to go a little bit back in time and catch you all up to what Jim and I have been doing. At the beginning of February, I was hard at work at Manguzi Hospital - attending doctors meetings, going on trips out to rural clinics, observing tons of surgeries in theatre. It was really great. I felt like I was learning so much, and getting so much exposure. However, because I was working fulltime at the hospital, Jim was alone running Tholulwazi. It was a lot of work for him, and getting quite stressful. To take a break from it all, we attend the Marula Festival near the Zulu Chief's house (the Nkosi Tembe). It was such an intensely cultural experience. Men wore their skins and headresses, and carried their spears and shields. They wore furry sandals and dranks LOTS of marula liquor (a fruit here that they ferment at a certain time of year). The young women were topless and wore short beaded skirts. During the festival, there was lots of dancing, music, and drinking. Everyone wore a cup - in their belt loops, in their hands, in their pockets. And people would use anything as a cup - old tin cans, mayo containers, plastic pitchers, etc... The craziest thing was when a line of about 30 zulu women carried 25liter jugs of marula beer to a jojo (5000 liter container) and filled it (maybe not to the top - but you get the idea). Anyhow, it was quite an incredible event to watch. After that, we headed to Mozambique to camp for the night at a place called Ponta Malongane. It was a beautiful camp ground, right next to the beach. We camped with Colin, and two friends of our Johann and Marilize. We barbequed and sipped Savannah ciders while the sun went down. The next day we hung out at the beach, and then headed back to Manguzi.
The following Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Jim and I worked at Tholulwazi in preparation for our little vacation. Colin was traveling to the capital of Mozambique for a job interview, and we decided to go along for the ride. We left Wed. afternoon and sne sketchy border post, one flat tire, and five hours later, we were there. The night we arrived was Jim's birthday, so we went to eat dinner at a fish market. It was so much fun! Mozambiquan people were just throwing raw fish, shrimps, squid, crab, etc... in our faces and yelling out prices. Eventually we chose a few things and had them cooked for us in a local restaurant. We did kinda get ripped off - but it was worth it. We ate so much seafood and just had a lovely dinner. Colin gave Jim a book, and I gave him some clothes and a nice letter. Back at the hostel, we enjoyed birthday brownies with milk and then headed to bed.
The next morning, we woke up at 5am to drive Colin to the airport. Then, we went back to sleep for a bit, went for a jog on the beach, and walked around Maputu. It is such a chaotic city, in that no one obey traffic laws and people are all over the streets sellings things. But, it was a wonderful chaos - filled with color and life. Plus, the portugese conquered mozambique, so the main language is portugeese - which is quite similar to Spanish. It was helpful to be able to use some of my language skills - but wow, I have already forgotten so much Spanish. Anyhow, before leaving the city Jim and I realized that we had forgotten to bring our ATM card and had very little cash! With some creative shopping and very limited spending, Jim and I made it to our destination - Bilene (a beautiful paradise) but couldn't fully enjoy it because we had next to no spending money. Regardless, the beaches were beautiful and Jim and I had a nice and relaxing Valentines Day.
We headed back to Maputu on Saturday night to pick up Colin. We were so happy to be back with someone with money - it was like a load lifted off our chests. We were so lucky to even have had enough money for petrol, food, etc. and didn't get some crazy fine for being tourists (which happens a lot with corrupt Moz. policemen) - it was a miracle. After our survival course had finally ended we enjoyed tea at the fanciest hotel in Maputu and had a nice dinner at a famous peri peri chicken place all on Colin (our saviour).
Finally, Sunday we drove back to Manguzi - after making a few stops along the way to Ponta Mamoli and Ponta de ouru (nice beach spots). All in all, it was a great vacation, and Jim and I both are dying to go back to Maputu.
