Ilha de Mozambique

Pictures: First - the beach where we spent most of our time, second - I had just gotten my face painted with paste that the women make from rubbing a type of wood on a rock with water, third - the dancers, fourth - inside the room I shared with Kaleb, fifth - outside my room.

I don't know where to begin about last week. I spent the week in Ilha de Mozambique, translated to Island of Mozambique. It was like nothing I have ever seen or experienced. We were there because Steve had a conference so we went along to enjoy the Indian Ocean.

The Ilha is about a 2 hour drive from Nampula but it turned into three for us. As we were pulling out onto the road to start our trip, we were about 5 minutes from the house when a police pulled us over. I guess we had been speeding, I don't believe it, but that is what you get here. So to pay the ticket, first Steve had to go to their car with his license and get that ticket written up, that took a while. Then we were off to the station so he could pay it. It isn't that easy though. The guy who can take the money actually has to be there so we had to wait for a good 45 minutes. Then after he pays it we have to take it back to the officer who gave him the ticket so that they can sign it. It was an amazing process.

So we were finally on our way. I was a little nervous when we first got to the place we were staying because the outside looks like it has been through a beating. I realized though as I got to know the Ilha that it was beautiful because of what you can't see about it. Half of the island is old Portuguese houses that have been deserted and most of them are without roofs and many families live where one would have lived before. Several of the homes are being redone and I got to go into them. It is amazing the vision that people have, to see where they can take a broken building.

Everyday we did almost the same thing. I started my day with an early walk and greetings to almost everyone I saw. To give you an idea of how many people I would see on my walks, the island's capacity is about 5,000 people, right now there are about 15,000 living there. The difference between the people on the island and the people in Nampula, they are used to seeing travelers come and go and are more friendly. After my walk I would go shower do a little reading and then have breakfast. Then the kids, Sarah and I would pack up and walk to the beach. The beach was about a 10 minute walk depending on how fast the kids wanted to walk and how many people stopped us to chat.

We met a lot of boys that were somewhere between 15 and 25 years of age. They are the guys who sell all of the jewelry, so they follow you around and talk with you, well the good ones do anyway. The funniest thing about them is they ask around where you may be and them come and wait for you there. I got a couple necklaces. One was custom made by Megel. It is really cool. They make necklaces out of things that they find and one way is they find broken pieces of china and they make them into medallions. They are really pretty.

Back to the daily activities. After the beach we would come back for lunch and then head to the pool. We would stay at the pool, that was in one of the hotels, until around 4 and then head back to our rooms. I would shower again and then head out for dinner. For dinner I got to try a couple of new things. I had goat the first night. It really tastes like beef but the texture is different it is a bit mushy. I also had lobster, banana flower, and fried fish balls. I liked non of them except the banana. That was good.

One day we watched some dancers. That was fun. I like the singing that went along with the dance better then the dance itself. The women did a great job. Another night we went to Lighthouse Island. You have to take a boat there and that was a little scary but the island was worth it. It had a huge beach that we had all to ourselves and a light house of course. That was it thought. There was plants in-between the beach and the light house and a couple trees but it was a small island.

It was a fantastic week. I love the island. I was a nice break from Nampula. Speaking of Nampula, let's talk about how it welcomed us back. I believe that at least 5 cockroaches were killed between 7 and 11, the water didn't work, the drier fried, on Sunday morning a rat died on the onions and by Sunday night Sarah was diagnosed with malaria. I guess you could count the second to last one as a half blessing. First the rat died and second it died out in the open so we could get rid of it fast. The last one died where we couldn't, or thought, we couldn't get to it. Oh yeah, that was another delay before we left, we found the dead rat that we thought was in the ceiling it was in the electrical box and there were maggots everywhere. I heard it was disgusting. I chose not to go look at it.

I guess after reading that paragraph you may think that I don't want to be back in Nampula. I would say that your thoughts are right. That is my prayer request. Pray for an attitude change because I can't do anything about my location right now. Thank you all for reading and I hope to hear from you soon! God bless.