From the Mountains of Idaho to the Mountains of Africa: July 2008

I just returned from 2 weeks of traveling with three of my friends from Peace Corps - “The Permies” Amber, Casey, Kjessie and I originally trained together 1 year ago in Permaculture and have been great friends in this journey of Peace Corps Lesotho.

We started planning Mozambique vacation a few months ago, spending a few late nights at the Peace Corps office together oogling and ahhing over photos of sandy beaches, food and ocean.

Our amazing journey started on an early winter morning here in Lesotho. We all stayed at the Peace Corps transit house and in the early morning during winter we wear blankets and down coats inside the house. We knew we wouldn't need all those layers in Mozambique so we had a bit of a cold walk into Maseru to catch a taxi to the border post. I was happy to leave my hiking boots, wool socks and down clothing behind. Our first challenge was crossing the border into S.Africa, it's usually really easy because they rarely need to see our passports as we cross into S. Africa for the day, but we needed all the official stamps as we were crossing into Mozambique in a few days time. Anyway, we had some issues with my passport and KJ's. The last time we had crossed the border we were given the wrong stamps/stickers and they wanted to charge us a huge amount of money and were saying I was illegally in S.Africa... because I didn't have the right stamp... lots of drama and early morning stress as we tried to argue our way out of fines. After over an hour of headache we called Peace Corps and the amazing staff came down to the border to help us out and work with the border agent. All got cleared, we didn't have to pay any fines and we got the correct stamps we needed. We had missed our taxi to Bloemfontein and one of the Peace Corps staff came to our rescue and drove us the 2 hours to find our rental car.

At Bloemfontein airport we picked up our car from First Car Rental. We rolled into Bloemfontein and went straight to the grocery store. Visiting a real, big grocery store is always a stressful experience – so much stimulation, choices and it's a little stressful compared to Lesotho/village shopping. We picked up some “goodies” - snack foods we can't find in Lesotho like Mountain Dew “), Bagels & Cream cheese and then we hit the road. 12 hours of driving later through tons of construction in S.Africa we arrived in Nelspruit at midnight. The cheapest room available at the hotel had 2 single beds so the 4 of us got real cozy. We all got in a laughing fit at about 1 am as we were getting ready to fall asleep as I was sharing a tiny twin bed with Amber who is about a foot taller than I and it was really funny looking. We had a 1am call from hotel management to ask us to be quiet and to check and make sure there were only “2” people in the room. So much for being sneaky… A few hours of sleep and we were on the road again.

Despite the dry winter in S.Africa we drove through some beautiful country. As we got north towards Mozambique and Swaziland we passed orchards of oranges, fields of sugar cane, banana plantations etc. We had huge baboons cross the road in front of us and pulled over to take a picture of a huge giraffe that was chilling on the side of the road. Several times I thought to myself “Where am I?” Our border crossing out of S.Africa and into Mozambique was really smooth – we were so nervous after our first border crossing of the trip. After another full day of driving and getting lost around Maputo (the capital of Mozambique) trying to find a bank we arrived to our first destination – Tofo. We arrived late at night after driving through forests of palm trees on sketchy pot hole ridden roads in the dark dodging people on bicycles, goats, bags of coconuts etc. We made a grand entrance getting our small rental car stuck in the sand as we pulled into the backpackers right on the beach. At that point we said the hell with it, took off our shoes and squished our feet in the sand as we laughed our way to the check in, warm, humid salty air coating our skin. The sounds of waves crashing on the beach a stones throw away comforted me as I fell asleep under my mosquito net in the grass bungalow.

For several days we stayed in Tofo soaking in the sun and washing away our stress from Lesotho in the warm turquoise waves of the Indian Ocean. It took me several days to get in vacation mode and to “let go” of some of the stress I'd brought with me from Lesotho. KJ rented a surfboard and spent all day surfing while we walked along the beach, I journaled a lot, sketched and played with the dogs that were on the beach. It's the slow tourist season and it's not a really touristy area yet so most of the time we were the only “tourists” on the beach besides a few of the local surfers. We stayed at a place called Turtle Cove which was a peaceful and beautiful place to stay. The lodging and food was inexpensive and wonderful. The owners are really cool and we met some really interesting travelers from all over the world at meal time and around the campfire pit. Sitting under huge palm trees on comfy couches outside around a crackling fire with stars shining brightly above us... was truly wonderful.

Walking along the beach we passed many villagers collecting mussels and fishermen. It was interesting to see how the villagers lived and in my head I couldn't help but compare everything to Lesotho. As we walked along the beach or sat on a ridge above the surf we watched whales so close spraying water, slapping their tales and breaching. We also saw dolphins, colorful tide pools, colorful crabs scurrying across the white sand.

Amber, Casey and I jumped in the car after 5 days in Tofo. We decided to do a snorkeling trip in Vilanculos. The road to Vilanculos was insane; there were huge huge potholes in the semi paved stretches among sections of bright orange clay. We got 2 flat tires and a speeding ticket on the way there which created some adventures getting those fixed and asking for help. Our hero at the hostel – Usted helped us get our tires fixed and helped save us a ton of money. The snorkeling trip was so amazing. We took an hour boat ride out to an island and snorkeled along the reef all day. Our guides cooked us lunch on the boat of fresh crab, grilled fish, salad, rice and fresh pineapple, oranges and bananas (all local). It was my first time snorkeling in the ocean and I will never look at the ocean the same again. It was so incredible. I swam through huge schools of fish and saw more colors of fish than I ever imagined. There were large angelfish everywhere, vibrant tangs, orange blowfish, purple anemones, sea urchins, candy cane colored fish in blood red coral, enormous neon blue & green fish, eels, swordfish so many things. Casey and Amber said it was the most colors of fish they've every seen snorkeling, I was in heaven. That evening some guys we met at the the hostel cooked us an amazing meal of grilled fish, curry, salads. After 2 nights in Vilanculos we headed back to the more chill Tofo beaches for a few last days of beaches and warmth.

Our last night in Mozambique was spent in Maputo. We had a lot of adventure at the fish market where we bought fresh seafood and then took it to a “restaurant” where they prepared it for us. It was a crazy experience, four white girls walking into the local fish market created a lot of attention and competition between vendors. So much yelling in Portuguese which I was glad at that moment that I didn't understand the language. We waited a long time for our food to be prepared, but it was so worth it. It was a little stressful at first, all the shouting and decisions and bartering, but the best meal of fresh seafood I've ever had. We felt like were in a sitcom several times that night. So many funny things to laugh about that market experience.

We had many more adventures on our last few days of driving, including the 3rd flat tire, getting lost in Johannesburg at night, a 2nd rental car, and hitchhiking our way from Bloemfontein to Lesotho.

It was a liberating trip in a sense. I think about where I was a year ago and would have probably been really stressed or terrified about some of the things that happened on our road trip and vacation to Mozambique, but after a year of living in Africa and experiencing/dealing with so many different things has made me a more confident and experienced traveler.

Now it’s back to work here in Lesotho as I’m refreshed and ready for my second year as a PCV.

For more photos of the beautiful country of Mozambique follow this link:

Thanks Casey & Amber for sharing your photos! http://picasaweb.google.com/ponderosapam/MozambiqueMadness

My first year in Lesotho anniversary was marked by the arrival of 23 bright eyed and bushy tailed volunteers. I am fortunate to be able to help with the training of the new group of Community Health and Economic Developement (CHED) volunteers this year and have been able to spend a lot of time with them. I was a “resident” trainer for their first week in Lesotho so in addition to getting to meet them all at the airport I got to spend the first week with them answering questions and providing some support. It was a fun experience.

The “newbies” flew into Maseru in the middle of the day so they got to see a bit of Lesotho. My group had walked across the border at 2am a year before. It was fun to see all their brand new clothes, shiny squeaky clean new hiking boots & shoes as they stood in line at customs. I knew they would be full of excitement and nervousness but wasn’t quite ready for the bombardment of questions immediately at the airport. Many had read my blog which was sort of a weird feeling and then many had questions like “what’s your project”, “what’s your house like”, “do you have pets?”, “do you have electricity?”, “whats ….. like?”.

Over the course of the week I answered a ton of questions about my experience, about Lesotho, about the Basotho culture, where to find things, and so much more. Some of the questions made me laugh like “where do you go to the bathroom? “Are there snakes in Lesotho”? Many of the questions made me reflect back on my first week arrival in country.

I’m at my “1st year mark/Mid service crisis” time. For me it hasn’t really been a “crisis” but a few things are challenging. Part of it has been a time of reflection on what I’ve accomplished this year, which is difficult to see and to measure. Another thing that is difficult about this time of year is the other CHED group is leaving some good friends are finishing their service as I type this. Many have left, but most will be gone by August/September. It’s tough to say goodbye to people whom have been sharing in this experience.

It was nice to get to spend some time with the “newbies” while they were still excited and energetic to be here in Lesotho. It was some good energy to be around at this point in my service. Also, the new group of volunteers is a great group that has a lot to bring to Lesotho. I’m looking forward to getting to know them better during the rest of their training and during the remaining part of my service.