Mozambique

Celebrated Human Rights Day with a long weekend camping trip in Mozambique.

A full-days drive. Pretoria to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. North up the southeastern coastline to Xai-Xai (shy-shy).

Another country colonized by the Portuguese. Not many Portuguese around anymore but the evidence remains in the architecture and language.

A long hot drive, truck crammed full of people and camping supplies. 80s music roaring (not by choice), windows down, sunglasses on, knee tops and arms burning from the intense sun. The landscape. Fluffy white clouds suspended from perfect blue skies. Run-down and forgotten Portuguese buildings from long ago. Over-grown by bush and vine. Specks of paint still clinging to the cement walls. Pink, green, and turquoise blue. Beside these remnants stretch wide open bushveld. Dirt, sand, aloe, scrub brush, thorn tree, brown, red, green. The occasional African farmstead. Single-room home made of reeds. Skinny dog in a swept dirt yard. Africans, young and old, on the roadside selling roasted cashews, stacked wood, bags of charcoal, reeds, waving fresh caught fish with metallic colored scales shimmering in the sun at each passing car.

Maputo. Buildings splashed in Coca-Cola red and Vodacom blue. Roadside markets for miles in each direction. Vendor stalls made from sticks and bits of cloth. Corrugated tin. Potatoes, ruby red tomatoes, onions, coconuts, cassava melon, white chickens in cages, beautifully carved wooden furniture, piles of shoes, old jeans, unidentifiable liquid in recycled plastic containers. The sun at its hottest. A massive crowd of people and cars. Women wearing brightly patterned wraps. Balancing baskets of bananas and containers of water on their heads. Babies tied to their backs like tortoise shells. School kids in uniforms. Men on bikes. Bandages in place of missing hands, feet, arms, legs. Accidental discovery of hidden land mines from the civil war two decades ago.

Off the main route. A long, dusty, pot-holed road to the ocean. The only car on the road. Informal settlements. No electricity, no cars, no conveniences. A school with a hundred kids playing in the yard. A one-room maternity hospital painted white with a red cross over the front door. Kids waving and smiling as we pass. Teens yelling at us to go away. Voicing their supreme hatred for the Portuguese colonizers. Women balancing logs on their heads. Young girls with babies tied to their backs. Men with machetes swiping at the long grass. Thatched huts. Unpredictable chickens running under and away from the car, goats tied to trees, a lone donkey on the side of the road. Palm and banana trees, corn fields, long green grass.

Camping. No need for shoes. 2-minute walk to the beach. Just us and the Mozambican fishermen. The mosquitoes and flies serve as our welcome committee. They do not for one second let us forget they are there. No diving or snorkeling. Bull sharks. Instead we play Frisbee and float in the shallow warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Saturday. Drinking at the pool. Sunday. A long hike into the sand forest. Walk back along the beach. Two little scared lost lambs try following us for lack of a better thing to do. Monday. Floating in the ocean. Reading and exploring. The sun sets. Drinking boxed red on the beach. Dinner, a campfire and a low-hanging moon.

Mozambique. A feeling of truly being in Africa. Beautiful, exhilarating, humbling.

Our 1st Potjie

Pronounced poy-kee. It's an Afrikaaner thing. Pile meat, veggies and some kind of delicious, spicy curry or sauce into the pot and let it cook down for 3+ hours until the meat falls off the bone and the sauce has permeated every bite. Delicious!

The pot itself is called a potjie, but that's also what you call the meal in the pot as well as the gathering where you eat the meal in the pot. The pots come in all sizes. They are placed directly on red-hot coals and left to simmer for hours like a witch's bubbling cauldron. The meal they produce is well worth the wait.

Black ladies use potjies to make pap, a corn-meal mush that they eat at nearly every meal. I've tried pap once and that does it for me. It's lumpy, tasteless and has absolutely no nutritional value. It just fills you up quick and is super cheap.

Saldanha Street

Our first place of residence in Pretoria. Take a peek at the photos.

We are happy here for the most part; enjoying our private and peaceful garden setting smack in the middle of this busy city. However, we aren't as crazy about this more-or-less all white, highly secure neighborhood. Our lease is up in January. We'll enjoy the gardens until then and look for a more diverse neighborhood to move to for the remainder of our time here (that is, unless I can convince Jeff to move to Jo'burg).

What's missing?

What do I miss about the US?
1. Family, friends and my Missy-dog;
2. National Public Radio and the Colbert Report;
3. Easy access to good music (if anyone ever tells you that Afrikaans music is good DO NOT BELIEVE THEM);
4. The ease of getting things done (and finding work) as a citizen with a SS#;
5. Good customer service and the knowledge that most American companies want your business and will do what is necessary to keep you happy;
6. Going to one grocery store and being able to find everything on my list;
7. Mexican food, black beans, and good store-bought salsa and chips;
8. Abundant recycling centers and being surrounded by a more consciously green community.

What don’t I miss about the US?
#1. The politics and the Obama-bashers;
2. Winter;
3. The lack of exposure to diversity and different cultures;
4. The materialism.

The best things about living in SA (so far):
1. The amazing, booming and bright summer thunder and lightning storms;
2. The sights and sounds of a place where so many colorful, unique, and proud cultures come together;
3. The braai tradition: the braai (bbq) is a frequent affair here as evidenced by the huge range of different kinds of braais, braai equipment, available woods to burn in place of charcoal (tip: throw fresh herbs on the top of your charcoal for a more aromatic, flavorful bbq), as well as various braai techniques;
4. Going barefoot or wearing flip-flops 99% of the time, not needing a coat, scarf, or gloves, and being able to wear a skirt and tank top every day;
5. The tropical plants and flowers, beautiful birds, crazy insects, and being able to go for a hike and see giraffe, antelope, zebra, ostrich, and wildebeest;
6. The Indian spice vendors selling the most fragrant spices you can imagine;
7. The prospect of so many exciting places to visit at our doorstep: Cape Town, Kruger, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Madagascar, the mountains, the desert, the sea, etc.;
8. The experience of living abroad, no matter how frustrating it may be some days.
9. Oh! How could I forget … good, cheap wine (literally $4 for a nice bottle of red).

T.I.A.

T.I.A. - This is Africa – perfect in all its imperfections and one seriously complicated place. To truly understand it is quite nearly impossible. The newness of a post-apartheid state is still so fresh - just 16 years since black South African’s long and hard-fought struggle for freedom was won. To hear that as little as 16 years ago blacks weren’t allowed in this city without a job to go to and the supporting “paperwork” to prove it really put things into perspective for me. Although the minority, privileged whites still very much hold the reigns. I can understand the reasoning behind the anger, resentment and even the crime against the whites. And now that black South Africans are free there’s a whole new set of very serious issues (education, health insurance, HIV/AIDS, cost of labor, electricity, etc. etc. etc.) that will each take time, patience, money, compassion, wisdom, and open-mindedness to resolve. This country needs another Nelson Mandela to see it through. Unfortunately, the probability of finding another such man is slim-to-none. I can’t imagine where SA would be now without his foresight and leadership.

I suppose it’s not surprising then that white and black folks don’t intermix much, but I think it a serious shame. Many whites hide behind their iron gates, electric fences, and the “smash and grab” coating on their car windows; scared of what is happening in their neighborhoods and scared of the blacks. I have heard more than one whitey say that Pretoria was safe during apartheid, the fences weren’t necessary and people left their doors unlocked, but since then the iron has gone up out of necessity. This just goes to show that attitudes need to shift before real, meaningful change is going to take place in this country. I suppose they are little by little and as future generations begin to play the leading roles in government and society old norms are bound to be replaced by the new. Time and patience … but until then, we can expect more of the same.

Midlands Meander

Happy 2010 Everyone!

Hope you all rang in the new decade in a memorable way. We spent the last night of 2009 at the theater seeing Avatar in funky 3D glasses. What an awesome movie! We made it home just in time to chug a beer and watch a few distant fireworks.

On New Year’s Day we hiked in the Groenkloof Nature Reserve right here in Pretoria. On our short 2 hour walk we saw ostrich, wildebeest (plus a skull and horns), various antelope, some zebra, many colorful birds, and best of all - a herd of about 9 giraffe. It was so cool! We just happened upon these guys munching leaves not 15 feet from us. We watched them and took a million pictures while they ate and eyed us suspiciously.

What a breath of fresh air. We spent this past weekend in the Drakensburg (Dragon Mountains) and what a welcome break from city life it was. The amazing landscape, relaxed vibe, and kind people of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Province, birth place of the Zulus, (called KZN – or K-Zed-N by the locals) was energizing. I wish you could have seen it. We spent our days taking in the gorgeous landscape and abundant waterfalls, hiking various mountain trails, shopping at local artisan vendor’s homes and markets, chatting with the locals, eating, drinking, and petting dogs of all sizes. See some photos to the right titled “Midlands Meander”. This is why we moved here – to have new experiences like this. For those of you who come to visit us while we’re here - this is an excursion we must take together.

Please write to let us know how you are, what you’re up to, and what plans you have for 2010. Much love to you all, c