Short visit to Mocuba, Zambezia

4 volunteers and I flew to the province of Zambezia to visit a current volunteer. This visit is called Shadow Visit. It is way for trainees to see what life like for real! Redeena and I were sent to visit Tanya Riddle in Mocuba. From Maputo we landed to Quelimane. We had to stay one night over to another volunteer since it was late at night. Then early the next day, we hopped in a chapa to Mocuba.

I posted a photo of myself in a chapa and I did not explain it is. It is a way of transportation here in Mozambique. It is a minivan. A chapa won’t move anywhere until it is completely full. So sometimes you get to wait at the chapa station for 2 hours until it’s full and you go. It is totally uncomfortable, dangerous and long. It’s perfect for short people but people like me with long legs it is uncomfortable. Also I would say that you need to have good knees and be flexible. It can be very frustrating because the conductor would blast his songs, you might sit by the speaker throughout the whole journey (which can take up hours depending on where you are), it’s incredibly hot, so of course you will encounter people with severe BO and you have your bag in your lap. It is a great way to travel cheap in Mozambique. You can catch them anywhere in the street. There is no bus station. You just hop in and hop off but you definitely need to be open minded and ready to go to experience a chapa.

So back my short visit, after two hours, we arrived in Mocuba.  Tanya leaves in this nice compound with her organization.  It is a faith-based organization. Tanya educates orphans; she runs a theater group that does skits about HIV AIDS and malaria. We assisted a meeting where professors were recapulating what they learned about Malaria and how can they reach to the community door to door and incite people how to put mosquito nets and its importance and the different practices to avoid getting malaria and so on. It was interesting. Tanya also showed us her wells projects in which she was able to get funding. So in the next couple weeks, the community will be able to access water in their community and not go to further public wells in which generally the water is dirty and contaminated. I think it was such a great project to see. Two volunteers are supposed to go to Mocuba because Tanya is finishing her service in a couple of months. I think that this place is very secure. It is a compound watched by two guards and there are more than 10 dogs there. (Side note: Mozambicans are terrified of dogs) I felt very secure there although a part of me would rather be living within the community and not in a compound close off. But I enjoyed my visit. I thought Tanya is doing a wonderful work with the kids. I was very admirative and inspired. So I come back full of excitement because soon I will be living it somewhere and do my workshops on HIV/AIDS.

From Mocuba, Redeena and I took a chapa back to Quelimane and the flew to Maputo and stayed there overnight. I spent a nice full day in Maputo with Lisa. We walked around the city, shopped then met up with other volunteers to go to the Chinese store. I love my Chinese people! The only places that look like a wall mart are owned by Chinese people and you can find ANYTHING you want!  It is heaven there! The funny thing is that literally everything is imported from China. I know that because I was able to find the exact same shower gel I used when I was in Xiamen for a month. It was nice little day of shopping and seeing the capital and the same day came back to Namaacha with 5 kinds of cheese that I brought in Maputo. I was in Heaven. J