Saturday, July 15, 2006
nossa visita
Sorry for the delay in blogging, but we´ve been really busy with the end of the second trimester here! Eli´s mom and Lyn came to visit us for over 2 weeks. They flew into Nampula on June 20th where we picked them up in a rented chapa (like a mini-van but usually with 18 passengers squeezed in). We spent the next week or so in Nacala, so they could see what our day to day life was like, meet our friends, see our school, etc. Renee and Lyn got to sit in on both a class of mine and a class of Eli´s, they got to speak with lots of students and teachers, and also they saw the painting of the first murals at our school.
Another day we took them to the market where we spent the afternoon introducing them to all of our market vendor friends. We also had lunch at the market, where the food is a little more traditional than what our empregada cooks for us. We made trips to the Fernao Veloso beach that´s near our house and to the Bay Diving tourist camp where we tried to snorkel and dive, and even though we paid for all the snorkel equipment we really did neither because it was too windy that day. But we had a good lunch, they met our missionary friends, and also we got some great views of the bay.
To get a more Mozambican experience we also went on a walk through the bairos, or neighborhoods, which are mostly mud houses built on a rock hill. They are much more reflective of how most Mozambicans live- they are relatively few areas like where we live in the country. Most apartment buildings like ours were built by the Portuguese and are fairly rare.
After about a week we rented a chapa again and went to Chocas beach, which is a very famous and pretty beach, about 75 Km away. It was our first time there as well, because it´s hard to get to with out a private car. Unfortunately it rained when we got there! And it hadn´t rained in our area in almost 2 months! Very strange. We didn´t spend much time there because of the rain and continued on to Ilha de Mozambique, which is a world heritage site and more touristy.
Although it was still raining off and on, we had a good time walking around, visiting the old Portuguese fortress and eating at some nice restaurants. The city is slowly being rehabilitated, and looks better every time we go (they are redoing some of the old Portuguese architecture, redoing railings and mosaics on the ground). The island has a lot of history and was the original capital of the country. Also, the island is tiny so we managed to spend just 1 night there and still managed to see a lot of it.
The visit to Nacala was pretty brief, but after our trip to Ilha we all flew down to Maputo, then caught a bus to South Africa, to go on a safari in Kruger park! We were picked up in Nelspruit for the safari and driven to a private game reserve that is adjacent to Kruger park and has no boundaries or fences between it and the park, so all the kruger animals are free to come in. On the safari we stayed in a bush camp in the middle of a 60 thousand hectare reserve. There were only 11 tourists in that area, and the four of us got our own guide, so during the animal viewing part of the safari it was just us. In the camp we stayed in large tents that had real beds and a fairly weak light if we needed it, it also had hot showers and flushing toilets which were solar powered. There was a kitchen and pavilion to eat in, and it was very comfortable. We were right in there with the animals and the guides warned us not to wander out of camp. During the night baboons would poop on our tent, and we could wake up to find hyena and hippo tracks not far from our camp at all!
On a usual day of the safari we would wake up before dawn, and have a quick breakfast of hot chocolate and cereal, then go on a walk or drive just as the sun came up. Sometimes we would drive out a short ways in the open land rover, then walk. Our guide tried to track the animals and would point out their prints to us. He also carried a gun in case something ran into us! The morning walk was about 4 hours, then we would go back to camp and have a full breakfast. Then we relaxed for a bit, had a big lunch at 3pm, and went on another walk drive. This lasted for about 3.5 hours, and when the sun went down we would have drinks then take a night drive. A night drive consists of riding around in the cold, while the guide tries to spot animals by blinding them with a spotlight. For the most part we didn’t see much on the night drives, although once we did see a hyena crossing the road or a herd of buffalo another time.
When we got back we had a big dinner, sat around the campfire, then went to bed.
The one important thing is that it was FREEZING THERE! We had to wear 3 layers at morning and night, although you could usually get to shorts and shirt during mid day. Eli and I had to sleep with hot water bottles at night! We´ve never had a day of cold weather in Nacala and weren’t prepared for it at all in South Africa!
In terms of animals, we saw a lot, but because it´s a walking safari and thus we´re not covering as much ground, we didn´t see all of the big 5, and sometimes we went whole walks with out seeing any major mammals. I say mammals because we did see lots of birds, but nobody seemed to really care about that but me. I had my bird book and a good pair of binoculars so I was happy. In fact, after the safari the guide gave me one of his bird guide books. We did see an elephant up close, which was great. We had spotted him and tried tracking him on foot, and got pretty close, but we had to turn back because the elephant was in deep bush which I guess can be a little dangerous. So we took our land rover and intercepted him in the road. He passed right in front of our car and took his time, so we got a good view.
We tried tracking a rhino but we never found him. We also didn´t see any lions or leopards on the walking safari. We did see a lot of giraffe and zebra, hords of impala, a lot of buffalo and a hippo as well as some warthogs.
After the walking safari we rented a car and went into the actual Kruger park, which has paved roads, and you´re not actually allowed to get out of your car. But in the actual park there are lots of animals, and many of them aren´t afraid of your car, so we did see a LOT of animals. We saw 2 different prides of lions, although mostly they were laying in the grass so you had to wait for them to get up and move to get a good view, but once we saw the male lion with his big shaggy mane get up and walk around, which was cool. One of the times there was a really big group of cars near the lions, all pushing to get as close as possible, and even some people hanging out of their car windows trying to get pictures. It was ridiculous! One of the best parts of the walking tour was the complete absence of other tourists.
We saw more elephants and giraffe in Kruger park as well. Some of the best viewing came when we pulled up to a small water hole which was full of hippos, some of which were playing in the water near our car, and others which were standing on the far shore. The banks were lined with crocodiles, and there were a bunch of big birds in the water.
There are little rest stops in Kruger park where you can get out of your car and buy some food, and look out over the river for animals. We stopped once to stretch and get a bite, we bought some waffles and Renee bought herself a cookie. Before she even got a chance to eat the cookie she was charged by a giant baboon! Thinking that it wanted to cookie she threw it at him, but he wasn´t interested in the cookie and kept running at her. Apparently the baboon had been a problem and someone was ready to smack it with a big stick. People were talking about how the rangers would have to come out and shoot it because it had become too aggressive. Just before we left we watched it run up to someone else and grab a whole loaf of bread and then run away. Baboons are fairly large and have pretty big teeth, so usually you just let it take what it wants!
The only problem with our trip to Kruger park is that we hadn´t booked a camp site inside the park, hoping to just get one when we showed up. Unfortunately they were completely full, so we had to stay in a hotel outside of the park. It actually worked out kind of well for us because the first hotel we went to was the Protea Kruger Gate hotel, which is an incredibly fancy 4 star hotel. It´s by far the nicest hotel I´ve ever been to. It´s also very expensive but the receptionist took pity on us and counted Eli and I as children, and gave us a discount for a group that we weren’t members of, and so we all got to stay in one room at about half the normal price. We also ate a really wonderful dinner for free, partly because Renee and Lyn´s meal was free with the room, and then they forgot to charge Eli and me.
After our 2 days driving around Kruger Eli´s parents went to Jo burg to fly back to Spain and we stayed in Nelspruit then caught a bus back to Maputo. We had been planning on traveling around the south of Mozambique a bit so we had bought our plane tickets for 4 days after we got back to Maputo. But we were feeling tired, and also feeling bad about missing school, so we tried to change our plane tickets to leave right away. Unfortunately all the flights for the week were full, and we didn´t feel like traveling, so we just stayed in Maputo in a nice hotel and hung out with the other peace corps volunteers who are always in Maputo for one reason or another. (We always stay at the same hotel too, where we get a nice discount). The first time we ever saw Maputo we were shocked by how poor it looked, but this time we really felt that we were in New York, it had soo much compared to what we´re used to!
Anyways, we flew back to Nacala just in time for the last week of school, which gave us time to get our grades sorted out, and then we had Conselho de Nota, which is where we actually write out all of the grades. It is a HORRIBLE process where I probably copy out about 5000 grades into various places. Not only do you copy grades for every student in every discipline into 4 locations, but you do it first in pencil and then again in pen, and when you have 90 students with 6 disciplines… it takes about 3 days. Tomorrow is the last day of that. Then next week we have to proctor national exams.
I have my camera now and I´m trying to send out some pictures. I had emailed some out, but if anyone has a good suggestion on how or where to post my digital pix, I´d appreciate it. I would prefer something where I don´t have to send people an email link in order for them to be able to see the pix.
Hope everything is good back home!
Love,
Paul and Eli
Another day we took them to the market where we spent the afternoon introducing them to all of our market vendor friends. We also had lunch at the market, where the food is a little more traditional than what our empregada cooks for us. We made trips to the Fernao Veloso beach that´s near our house and to the Bay Diving tourist camp where we tried to snorkel and dive, and even though we paid for all the snorkel equipment we really did neither because it was too windy that day. But we had a good lunch, they met our missionary friends, and also we got some great views of the bay.
To get a more Mozambican experience we also went on a walk through the bairos, or neighborhoods, which are mostly mud houses built on a rock hill. They are much more reflective of how most Mozambicans live- they are relatively few areas like where we live in the country. Most apartment buildings like ours were built by the Portuguese and are fairly rare.
After about a week we rented a chapa again and went to Chocas beach, which is a very famous and pretty beach, about 75 Km away. It was our first time there as well, because it´s hard to get to with out a private car. Unfortunately it rained when we got there! And it hadn´t rained in our area in almost 2 months! Very strange. We didn´t spend much time there because of the rain and continued on to Ilha de Mozambique, which is a world heritage site and more touristy.
Although it was still raining off and on, we had a good time walking around, visiting the old Portuguese fortress and eating at some nice restaurants. The city is slowly being rehabilitated, and looks better every time we go (they are redoing some of the old Portuguese architecture, redoing railings and mosaics on the ground). The island has a lot of history and was the original capital of the country. Also, the island is tiny so we managed to spend just 1 night there and still managed to see a lot of it.
The visit to Nacala was pretty brief, but after our trip to Ilha we all flew down to Maputo, then caught a bus to South Africa, to go on a safari in Kruger park! We were picked up in Nelspruit for the safari and driven to a private game reserve that is adjacent to Kruger park and has no boundaries or fences between it and the park, so all the kruger animals are free to come in. On the safari we stayed in a bush camp in the middle of a 60 thousand hectare reserve. There were only 11 tourists in that area, and the four of us got our own guide, so during the animal viewing part of the safari it was just us. In the camp we stayed in large tents that had real beds and a fairly weak light if we needed it, it also had hot showers and flushing toilets which were solar powered. There was a kitchen and pavilion to eat in, and it was very comfortable. We were right in there with the animals and the guides warned us not to wander out of camp. During the night baboons would poop on our tent, and we could wake up to find hyena and hippo tracks not far from our camp at all!
On a usual day of the safari we would wake up before dawn, and have a quick breakfast of hot chocolate and cereal, then go on a walk or drive just as the sun came up. Sometimes we would drive out a short ways in the open land rover, then walk. Our guide tried to track the animals and would point out their prints to us. He also carried a gun in case something ran into us! The morning walk was about 4 hours, then we would go back to camp and have a full breakfast. Then we relaxed for a bit, had a big lunch at 3pm, and went on another walk drive. This lasted for about 3.5 hours, and when the sun went down we would have drinks then take a night drive. A night drive consists of riding around in the cold, while the guide tries to spot animals by blinding them with a spotlight. For the most part we didn’t see much on the night drives, although once we did see a hyena crossing the road or a herd of buffalo another time.
When we got back we had a big dinner, sat around the campfire, then went to bed.
The one important thing is that it was FREEZING THERE! We had to wear 3 layers at morning and night, although you could usually get to shorts and shirt during mid day. Eli and I had to sleep with hot water bottles at night! We´ve never had a day of cold weather in Nacala and weren’t prepared for it at all in South Africa!
In terms of animals, we saw a lot, but because it´s a walking safari and thus we´re not covering as much ground, we didn´t see all of the big 5, and sometimes we went whole walks with out seeing any major mammals. I say mammals because we did see lots of birds, but nobody seemed to really care about that but me. I had my bird book and a good pair of binoculars so I was happy. In fact, after the safari the guide gave me one of his bird guide books. We did see an elephant up close, which was great. We had spotted him and tried tracking him on foot, and got pretty close, but we had to turn back because the elephant was in deep bush which I guess can be a little dangerous. So we took our land rover and intercepted him in the road. He passed right in front of our car and took his time, so we got a good view.
We tried tracking a rhino but we never found him. We also didn´t see any lions or leopards on the walking safari. We did see a lot of giraffe and zebra, hords of impala, a lot of buffalo and a hippo as well as some warthogs.
After the walking safari we rented a car and went into the actual Kruger park, which has paved roads, and you´re not actually allowed to get out of your car. But in the actual park there are lots of animals, and many of them aren´t afraid of your car, so we did see a LOT of animals. We saw 2 different prides of lions, although mostly they were laying in the grass so you had to wait for them to get up and move to get a good view, but once we saw the male lion with his big shaggy mane get up and walk around, which was cool. One of the times there was a really big group of cars near the lions, all pushing to get as close as possible, and even some people hanging out of their car windows trying to get pictures. It was ridiculous! One of the best parts of the walking tour was the complete absence of other tourists.
We saw more elephants and giraffe in Kruger park as well. Some of the best viewing came when we pulled up to a small water hole which was full of hippos, some of which were playing in the water near our car, and others which were standing on the far shore. The banks were lined with crocodiles, and there were a bunch of big birds in the water.
There are little rest stops in Kruger park where you can get out of your car and buy some food, and look out over the river for animals. We stopped once to stretch and get a bite, we bought some waffles and Renee bought herself a cookie. Before she even got a chance to eat the cookie she was charged by a giant baboon! Thinking that it wanted to cookie she threw it at him, but he wasn´t interested in the cookie and kept running at her. Apparently the baboon had been a problem and someone was ready to smack it with a big stick. People were talking about how the rangers would have to come out and shoot it because it had become too aggressive. Just before we left we watched it run up to someone else and grab a whole loaf of bread and then run away. Baboons are fairly large and have pretty big teeth, so usually you just let it take what it wants!
The only problem with our trip to Kruger park is that we hadn´t booked a camp site inside the park, hoping to just get one when we showed up. Unfortunately they were completely full, so we had to stay in a hotel outside of the park. It actually worked out kind of well for us because the first hotel we went to was the Protea Kruger Gate hotel, which is an incredibly fancy 4 star hotel. It´s by far the nicest hotel I´ve ever been to. It´s also very expensive but the receptionist took pity on us and counted Eli and I as children, and gave us a discount for a group that we weren’t members of, and so we all got to stay in one room at about half the normal price. We also ate a really wonderful dinner for free, partly because Renee and Lyn´s meal was free with the room, and then they forgot to charge Eli and me.
After our 2 days driving around Kruger Eli´s parents went to Jo burg to fly back to Spain and we stayed in Nelspruit then caught a bus back to Maputo. We had been planning on traveling around the south of Mozambique a bit so we had bought our plane tickets for 4 days after we got back to Maputo. But we were feeling tired, and also feeling bad about missing school, so we tried to change our plane tickets to leave right away. Unfortunately all the flights for the week were full, and we didn´t feel like traveling, so we just stayed in Maputo in a nice hotel and hung out with the other peace corps volunteers who are always in Maputo for one reason or another. (We always stay at the same hotel too, where we get a nice discount). The first time we ever saw Maputo we were shocked by how poor it looked, but this time we really felt that we were in New York, it had soo much compared to what we´re used to!
Anyways, we flew back to Nacala just in time for the last week of school, which gave us time to get our grades sorted out, and then we had Conselho de Nota, which is where we actually write out all of the grades. It is a HORRIBLE process where I probably copy out about 5000 grades into various places. Not only do you copy grades for every student in every discipline into 4 locations, but you do it first in pencil and then again in pen, and when you have 90 students with 6 disciplines… it takes about 3 days. Tomorrow is the last day of that. Then next week we have to proctor national exams.
I have my camera now and I´m trying to send out some pictures. I had emailed some out, but if anyone has a good suggestion on how or where to post my digital pix, I´d appreciate it. I would prefer something where I don´t have to send people an email link in order for them to be able to see the pix.
Hope everything is good back home!
Love,
Paul and Eli
# posted by Paul and Eli @ 3:02 AM 
