Here are some belated reflections of the people of Nampula province... They seemed to get a big kick out of three crazy red-faced white ladies sweating like pigs in a quarry facing the afternoon sun.
The three of us rented this 4-bed bungalo at Touristo Complexo NASA for $25 US/night. This seemed cheap, but the dinners were expensive and (in my opinion) not as awesome as fresh veg from the roadside. Chicken and chips, chicken and chips! But we got lots of nice bats, bugs, lizards, etc. Every chicken we ate in Mozambique was missing the breast. The only time we saw chicken breasts was on LAM (Ligne Aero Mocambique). Is it possible that the national airline is high-grading the breasts off every chicken in the country?
My pal Paola worked at the touristo complexo. She spoke Portugese with a rare diction, and incredible patience, which enabled me to attempt social conversation with her. This was facilitated by the use of Lee-Anne's Portugese phrasebook, which was designed for some English retiree going to Portugal to shop, etc.. Many of the phrases were not useful to me, such as "Where is the golf course?", and "What time is tee-off?" Those actually sent us into crazed giggles because I would be seriously less surprised to see a golf course spring up in Kodiak than I would in rural Nampula Province. Anyway Paola was great. Going to school. No marriage until 25. She has set herself a lonely course of education in place of normal social development and we loved her!
Here's Jodie in the background doing some surface mapping in the quarry, while in the foreground, a man builds fires to crack off building stone plates of the self-same rock we have traveled so far to collect.
These kids hung around watching us every afternoon. We started calling them the "Lost Boys" (one of them brought his sister one day when I took this photo). They were pretty cute but it was unsettling to see kids this young completely roaming on a scary cliff of rock. There was a younger bunch too, maybe 2-3 year olds. Maybe we westerners overprotect our kids too much? These kids were sure-footed and surely independent... but maybe not eating so well... They considered our empty water bottles a huge prize. Luckily as the quarry became the locus of hellaciousness in the afternoons we were emptying plenty of water bottles for them.
On our last day we were all spent but Lee-anne kept working! Tenacious student. Tenacious L. To distract the afternoon crowd of watchers, Jodie organized a paper airplane throwing contest. This was HIlarious because she made a kindof crappy paper airplane, the kind that will fly a bit if you just give it a gentle toss but will nose dive if you throw it hard, as bigger boys are want to do. A medium-sized boy won the prize: 5nMt.
Here's the taxi driver who we hired to take us out to the quarries on our first night in Nampula. He thought we were nutso. But look at the view!
A man taking rolls to market:
1 comment:
The bungalow looks pretty awesome, and bats are ok I guess. Glad to hear you're staying hydrated!
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