Mozambique

After spending ten days travelling with a bunch of South Africans my lingo is changing dramatically. I greet people with "Howzit?"; say "isit?" (stress on the is part) instead of "really?"; things are 'hectic' rather than 'crazy' and 'mank lanky' instead of 'totally disgusting.' I'm starting to say 'AS well' as opposed to 'as WELL' and if I say "See you now" that means "See you in a little bit" while "See you just now" means "See you later." Be very wary if someone says they will do something for you 'just now,' it usually means it won't get done it will take so long. Anywho, on to Mozambique.

The entire trip was another world altogether. We (45 of us) got on the bus in Cape Town (only 6 hours late) a proceeded to party our way to Mozambique. It didn't take long for the pee stops to be every hour but since most people were partying (at least all the senior members that were in charge of deciding the pee stops) it wasn't that big of a deal. We slept (and partied) through the night into Jo'burg and then on to the Mozambique border. Due to someone knowing someone at the crossing we simply filled out small forms, handed over our passports, got them stamped and returned. All the international students required visas that the embassy in Cape Town physically didn't have any of so we had to get all those at the border. All in all though it went fairly well. Within half an hour of crossing the border we had our first 'police check'; I'm assuming money probably changed hands but I was at the back of the bus so I couldn't see much of anything. I think we had three stops between the border and Maputo a few hours away. Spent the night in a backpackers in Maputo and got up early to do the final 500km to Inhambame and the beach at Tofo. Tofo was amazingly beautiful! The beach stretches in both directions for kilometers before it rounds the points of the bay. Our place of residence was a series of dorms with concrete floors, woven palm-frond walls, and thatched roofs. Every bed had a mosquito net (and bed bugs, unfortunately). I was very lucky with the mosquitoes and only was bitten a couple of times without wearing disgusting bug spray while those that coated themselves in it were swarmed. An effective bug repellent seems to be a lack of showering or high blood alcohol content; more research pending.

On the final dune, over looking the ocean, was the bar and restaurant with a patio and steps down to the beach. While breakfasts were a little mundane (eggs, toast, jam and cereal) there was lots of it and dinners included such dishes as: prawn curry, grilled barracuda, crabs, and all-you-can-eat pizza. Delicious! I had some proper good times body surfing, went kayaking (that was supposed to include snorkeling Clownfish Reef, but losing our anchor hindered that), wandered into the local market a couple of times (didn't buy anything since it was mostly crappy tourist junk that is made in Zimbabwe and sold all over Southern Africa), went for a morning horseback ride (second time in my life and still no real pain!) and had an average attire of boardshorts with the occasional t-shirt the entire trip.

The diving was spectacular! There was very little plankton in the water so the visibility was as good as 40m sometimes! I could have sat in one spot for the entire duration of the dives there was so much life to see. I'm now beginning to get a sense of how nitrogen narcosis affects me because while I'm down there everything is dramatic and clear but on the surface my memory is a little hazier. Fortunately, my dive buddy had a camera with her on every dive so anything I saw, she saw and photographed. At some point everyone who had cameras on the trip will put all their photos on one computer from which everyone will get DVDs. I look forward to seeing the photo of the honeycomb moray eel that I was a few meters from - bright blue and yellow, curled up in a red coral tree. The lack of plankton meant that I did not get to dive with mantas or whale sharks but the life that I did see was spectacular!

A forty hour, continuous bus ride back to Cape Town. I never thought I would be thankful for those Greyhound trips to and from the Kootenays, but they provided me with valuable training.

All in all it was a fun trip but I would not recommend it as a way to see the country of Mozambique and I very much so felt like a wealthy, white tourist. Any of the local residents see us this way and the entire structure of the trip is one of having fun not experiencing the country. Although I am increasingly sure that as a white, westerner I will never get to experience Africa in the way that I had envisioned. There will be no hanging out with locals or having a neighbour stop by for a chat; probably naivety on my part to expect that but still a little sobering. I definitely need a break from the dive club for a little while. Not only have I done a lot of that lately and need a break to detox but the social structure is a little too boys gang for me. There were a lot of drunken actions that I read as an establishment of hierarchy within the core group (a gang of 8 or 10 guys that have been diving together for years). Very male oriented physical interactions that usually end up with someone getting hurt to some degree or another. One of the main organisers in particular was quick jump on people to start a dog pile but would lash out if the same was done to him. In the spirit of fun I am willing to partake in things like wrestling but when ego and attitude are the main reasons I get pretty disgusted. I am feeling the need to take some contemplative time so I am planning on spending my weekend doing school work which, for the first time in a while, I actually want to do. Will wonders never cease?