75% done

2/15/09
After a week of watching smut shows like E! True Hollywood story, Laguna Beach (season 2, when LC moves back from San Francisco), and The Hills (yes, Amy and I were in heaven; and no, I don’t care that you’re judging me) on Amy and Pola’s satellite tv, and making banana-pineapple-guava smoothies, I packed up my things yesterday and moved on to Ile. I was living better in Molocue than I do in the US…but all good things come to an end.

I had a romantic Valentines Day dinner with Sergio, eating chicken and xima, and drinking a frosty Mozambican beer whilst listening to Brian Adams (further confirmation that Mozambicans have an unnatural love of Brian Adams). Fun fact about Sergio: he’s the first person from his entire province of Niassa to get a degree in anthropology. Can you imagine?! He’s one of the only anthropologists in Northern Mozambique. He taught me a thing or two last night about colonialism and tribalism. Did you know that Mozambique has 38 different local languages? And the country is kind of divided into three stereotypical parts: north, south, and central. The north is considered the area where the warriors live. This is where I’m living now. The south is where the educated people are, and the middle is where the uneducated people live. And as opposed to other African nations, where tribalism leads to wars and genocide, tribal loyalty here manifests as discrimination in areas like education, and in the work place. So certain tribes are kept at a lower socioeconomic level, and others hold all the power.

This morning I ran down the windy road that leads to Mount Ile. It’s this hilly red dirt road with trees on either side that make a beautiful canopy. On my right was majestic Mount Ile and on my left were more foothills with a half moon glowing bright despite the morning sun. Plus the sounds of water running down from the mountain, women working in the fields, birds chirping, and the occasional bicycle zipping by made for a pleasant outing. I’d take this over satellite tv any day.

2/17/09
Sergio and I sat down to a peaceful dindin last night at our pensão, only to be interrupted moments later by a motorcade pulling into the parking lot followed by about 15 Mozambican police equipped with riot gear, flack jackets, and semi-automatic assault riffles ‘sweeping the place.’ Don’t know about you, but I find it hard to eat when a gang of angry-looking weapon wielding men are staring at me. Turns out the Mozambican Minister of Security from Maputo was paying a visit to sleepy little Ile, and since there’s only one place to stay in town, I spent the night surrounded by an important government official and his entourage.

Today I took a long walk through the countryside and did a little birding. Living in Quelimane, I was beginning to think that the only things that fly in Mozambique are bats. My faith was restored after I spotted a few of the most beautifully exotic feathered creatures ever made.