Back to life, Back to reality

Hello all!!! I hope this finds you all happy and healthy!

Well holidays are over and school is starting soon. Back to life, back to reality! Although extremely untraditional, I had an amazing Christmas and entire holiday season for that matter. All the volunteers in the northern regions of Mozambique traveled hours to all come together in Angoche – a small fishing town on the coast. With water being scarce and the town only turning on the water for 4 hours every three days, it was quite the experience rationing for 13 people. Bathing was few and far between, we all ate out of the big pot that we cooked with because we couldn’t do dishes, and whenever it rained - even a little bit, we would put out buckets to collect the water. It was hard to grasp the fact that it was the holiday season considering it was in the high 80’s/low 90’s and we went swimming in the warm Indian Ocean everyday surrounded by white sand and palm trees – paradise. We did try to add some typical holiday traditions to get us in the spirit, so we made snowmen out of sand, fashioned stockings for each other out of capulanas (the traditional clothing that women wear here), and hung them over a paper fire place and exchanged secret Santa gifts on Christmas morning. We also attempted to make sugar cookies without an oven, using a pot on the burner – they came out magnificently! For New Years, there were four of us that stayed in Angoche. We went out to a bar in town that was celebrating the new year. We had made friends with the owner of this bar called Tuchers a few nights before. So we told people that our friend Jamie was a famous DJ in the States, so the owner asked him to DJ on New Years. He did the countdown and everything – it was hilarious. The next week walking around, all the Mozambicans would recognize him and yell, ‘DJ Jaime! Mexe Bem!’ So now, when me and my friend meet Mozambicans, we always ask them if they know DJ Jaime – the funny part is that their response is always yes.

One of my favorite things to do in this country is joking around with the people. Mozambicans in general are the happiest people- they’re always up for a good laugh and just very easy going. My friend and I decided to go for a run when we were in Angoche one day. I have to say that is quite brave of us, because two white girls exercising makes for quite a spectacle. So we ran through the ‘matu’ – the bush. We were running through these dirt roads and paths in between mud and reed huts with little naked children running around and women in traditional garb cooking outside. Everyone was staring and laughing like we had 7 heads – thinking what the hell are these white chicks doing? So we start yelling, ‘Vamos!’ (let’s go!) and waving our hands. All of a sudden, these women drop what their doing and start running next to us with no shoes, their capulanas and head wraps. We were all laughing hysterically, and more and more started running with us. Definitely a top 7 moment in my life. Love this country.

Also in Angoche, there are small islands right off the coast that are inhabited and it’s where fisherman go each day. The four of us decided to go to an island one day. We took a little chapa sail boat, where the sail looked like an old black garbage bag full of holes. It was crammed with people and we were sitting on bags of small dried fish, and there was a guy bailing out water the entire time. The boat trip took 3 hours total – maybe the best three hours of my life. We were having so much fun with everyone on the boat. There was a guy that – thanks to second hand clothing markets here – was wearing a snapped off hood to a jacket. My friend Jamie decided to switch his Sox hat for the hood, and then the guy took my big sunglasses and gave me his neon orange circa 1982 sunglasses. He looked pretty hip. We just had a blast with all of them, buying a round of mangos, rowing to help out, trying to teach them the song ‘row row row your boat’ – good times. Once we got to the island, it was absolutely gorgeous. White sand, turquoise water, palm trees, and nothing else in site. The first thing that we noticed was the rolling sand dunes … so like the little kids we are, we climbed them and just barrel rolled down them. All of a sudden, we see a clan of little kids come running from nowhere – Lord of the Flies style. They start doing crazy aerobics and back flips down the dunes. It was so crazy. We walked around the island, seeing fisherman with their big nets and old wooden boats. We walked through the small market they had. Next thing we knew, there was literally 50 men women and children following us and staring because they had never seen white people before. A woman gave us lanhas (baby coconuts before it’s dried out), and opened them for us with a machete. We sat under a palm tree and ate the fresh coconuts with the crowd around us – more fascinated in us then they would be watching the World Cup Finals.

Every night at sunset, the four of us would go onto this old boat on the shore that has not been in use for years and now is inhabited by families. We would watch the most beautiful sunsets you could ever imagine over the ocean and help this man fish for food for his family – using an old small plastic bottle, a hook, and fishing line. It was a really cool thing to be a part of. So I really enjoyed my month long vacation spent in Angoche. It’s one of my favorite places I’ve ever been – sleeping outside on a straw bed with an ocean view and nice breeze. I think it’s a blessing in disguise that I wasn’t placed there – because if I was, I don’t think I would ever come home.

So now holidays are over here and school has finally begun! I am more than excited to start! The stories will be endless, so stay posted!

I have been asked by my lovely friends and family for pictures of what my life has been like for the last 4 months. I cannot provide you with my own personal photos due to technical glitches, but I am going to take the cheap and easy way out and direct you to my beautiful partner in crimes blog. I have spent every waking moment with her for the past month and a half, so just know that I´m right there next to her while these photos have been taken... alexkruzel.blogspot.com ... so I hope these will do for now - only to merely wet your palete. Enjoy, and maybe drop her a line to thank her for her great photography work!

I love and miss you all, I hope you know that! I hope these blogs are keeping you updated enough. It's hard when each day is so eventful to put in words what my life is like. This blog really doesn't do justice. Just know that I'm living on cloud 9 and I couln't ask for anything more out of life right now! Never worry about me... stay happy healthy and safe and know that you all are always in my thoughts. Thanks for the constant support ... I have the best friends and family!

love, bia