June 30, 1999, CE
     Do not expect this to tell you everything that has happened in the last two plus weeks. Methinks that will take multiple letters... because a lot has happened. Mostly, you will find that I have become a connosuier of various forms of African transport, and very paranoid about losing exposed film. Here goes.
      I left just after noon on Friday. Getting to the airport was something of an adventure since my ride did not come... so not panicking (right!) I called one of Mark's friends who sagely advised me that since I was right next door to the country's only 5 star hotel, chances were good I could get a taxi (form of transport #1). I did. I arrived at the airport rather frazzled, with about 35 minutes until my plane was to take off. I negotiated a complicated set of taxes, etc. As I boarded the plane with relief, they took my backpack (containing everything I thought I'd need for two week, but sadly short of books!). I had thought I could carry it onboard, but the puddlejumper we were riding was too small. I was nervous, hoping that my worst fears were unfounded and that it would all be returned to me at the other side. The plane took off safely (#2) and I arrived in Nampula, where my mood was greatly improved by the fact that Mark was at the airport to meet me! I stepped out of the airport and saw mud huts, and thought, "Finally I am in Africa."
     Then we drove into the city. One of these days I am going to have to learn that Africa has many cities, and that they count! My two nights in Nampula (capital of Nampula province, up North, if you're keeping track) were spent at the Hotel Brazil, which was a strange place. Sometime in its history, it had been quite nice. It still had a chandelier and one of those french things you wash your rear end with. It did not have, however, hot water, water in the shower, or a light in the bathroom. It was very expensive -- like $35 US a day.
     The landscape around Nampula was breathtaking. It is mostly savannah, or sparse woodland, andeverything is golden. Most of the country is relatively flat, with very gentle hills. Periodically, however, these enormous stoneeruptions (called massives) randomly appeared. Flat golden countryside... kapow! vertical stone! No foothill type thing or anything. It was gorgeous.
      Our first day in Nampula (Mark wasn't staying at the Hotel Brazil, lucky guy, he was staying with friends) we went to a project site in Sawasawa. Mark had rented a dual cab truck (Transport #3), and there were five of us -- myself, Mark, the driver, a local pastor, and a Dutch consultant, who was awesome. The streets in Nampula were TERRIBLE! You could not avoid the potholes, so you simply chose to attack the shallow instead of deep ones. I wondered how long it would take us to go to Sawasawa in these conditions. However, to my surprise, once we got out of the city, the road improved to a more or less two lane paved road with few potholes! We made good time out to the boondocks. The roads here in Africa, at least near anything approximating a city, are much more crowded with people than they are with cars. Any vehicle, however, has absolute right of way, and the bigger the vehicle, the bigger the right of way. I think right of way is decided by power -- the ol' " who would win in an accident" theory of right of way. Our driver seemed to take great pleasure in warning yain and all that he was coming. Apparently it is good form to honk to tell cyclists in front of you that you will run them over if they don't move... but our driver just stayed on that horn forever! It was kind of funny.
     Our first stop was a diesel fueled water pump. We all got out of the truck, walked behind a mud building (accompanied by various people, goats and chickens). We all clustered around the pump, yours truly taking numerous photographs of it, and all the folk around it. A conversation was held in Portuguese (I am developing a high tolerance for not having a clue as to what is going on around me), and after a while we left. "That was fun!" I thought. Then, instead of heading back to Nampula, we headed further on into the boonies. We left the main road and turned off onto a subsidiary road that started off no worse than a Forest Service road in some disrepair. We passed lots of mud huts with thatched roofs, and all work ceased as we drove by. I guess vehicles are not common along that road, because we were a spectacle! We drove on and on on this road, until finally it got so bad that we decided it would be faster to get out and walk, which we did. We were walking to one of the previous attempts to irrigate a field. We walked past quite a few fields. That area seemed to grow a lot of groundnuts (peanuts) but the dominant crop seemed to me to be cassava. (This is possibly because cassava is one of the few crops I recognize...) There was also a lot of sorghum, which is like really tall corn. Finally, we got to the field and were stopped by a river. Hmmm... turns out this field is under water duringthe rainy season. There was even a weir to catch fish on it. Can it be guessed that this was not a successful project? Having ascertained that this was not a smashing success, we walked back. "That was nice" I thought, as we all piled back into the truck.
     When we got there, they started discussing the fact that, well, we didn't have nearly as much gas as we thought we did. We had started with well over half a tank (according to the gauge) but now we were down past a quarter... which should not have been the case. Baaaaad. Anyway, we headed on. Perhaps 2 kilometers later, we headed off down yet another unpaved road. Guess we weren't done after all. We stopped at a set of huts, went down to look at a river (they grow rice near rivers) hiked a long way to look at a field that looked like all the rest of the fields (I'm taking pictures of all of this...) and finally ended up in the village meeting place. The village meeting place was like a big hut without walls. It had a thatched roof, and enough chairs for we outsiders. No one else got a chair. We all sat down, and the consultant proceeded to have a long conversation (none of which I followed very well) about what exactly the village needed. It turns out that the $9,000 diesel generating pump was absolutely useless to them. What they really needed was watering cans. After the meeting, I asked if I could take a picture. I do believe the people of Sawasawa had no idea what my camera was. We had a difficult time getting them to stand in such a way that I could photograph them! Sawasawa was just about as authentically African as you can get. Finally, we actually headed back to Nampula. Oh, except that slight thing about not having gas. We stopped at the next wide spot in the road. Since we were foolish people and had not brought water (REALLY DUMB!!!!) we sent the guys off looking for petrol and something cool to drink. They came back with petrol. The consultant and I then showed our mettle and went and bought about 8 of the most delicious tangerines I have ever had. Here, a ripe tangerine/orange is green. Man, did we ever down a few of those, and they quenched our thirst. We ate our tangerines while two young boys with a small siphon put some gas in the tank. Then we returned to Nampula (with a few stops on the way).
The chandelier at the Hotel Brazil

The countryside near Nampula. The enormous mountain-like-thing in the back is called a "massive".

 

One of the roads in Nampula

Me, eating sugar cane on our way to Sawa-Sawa
The water pump, with Mark and the consultant behind it

  The fields, with cassava

  The weir, right in the middle of the prospective field

 

 

  Standing around the rice paddies at Sawa-Sawa

 

 

  The vegetable cooperative of Sawa-Sawa, lined up so I could take a picture of them