North to Macomia!

FINALLY!  I FINALLY left site.  And it feels good to get out.  This past weekend, I as well as my site-mates Anna and Mireya (I don’t think I’ve mentioned her yet, but she lives with Anna, and is equally awesome), took a trip to Macomia this past weekend to visit a friend for her birthday.  A big group of us had planned to meet up there and celebrate together.  Gatherings like are like breathing a big sigh of relief as it gives us a chance to escape for a little while and pretend we’re in America again.  American food (sort of), American People, and American Language.  And now I’m homesick.

 

Macomia is like a bush-oasis.  About half way between Montepuez and Pemba, you take a left at Silva Macua and drive north along a paved road that takes you through some genuine African matu all the way to Mozambique’s northern border with Tanzania.  After about 100 km, you’re greeted by a Gas Station as you first enter the rustic looking mountain town of Macomia.  The settlement catches you by surprise, as for the last two to three hours, you passed nothing but forests spotted with the occasional thatched-roof hut and macamba.  Then, all of a sudden, you find yourself in the middle of a bustling market that seems to specialize in extravagant Capulans, soft serve ice cream (one flavor, usually a twist of strawberry and vanilla), dirty Majimbwe (it’s a root that looks like daikon from the outside, but has an inside that’s more like a potato with little fibers woven throughout), and honey that looks so fresh it’s like the seller has an active honeycomb in his back pocket that he uses to fill the used plastic water bottles he’s selling it in.  Everyone is selling honey, and it’s dirt cheap; Winnie the Poo’s dream.

Splitting off perpendicular to the North-South Road, is Macomia’s main throughway.  It’s paved, but who knows for how much longer.  Little by little, the already cracked and worn down pavement is slowly being reclaimed by the earth with each new rainstorm.  There are points along the roadway where you need to pay attention to where you are walking so as to avoid falling off the side of the road because a huge chunk of pavement is missing.

Where intact, the road is gorgeous. It’s lined with coconut trees and runs in practically a straight line right up the face of the mountain, only turning once it disappears behind the mountains first apex.   The secondary school caps the town’s mountain, and my friends live up there right next to it.  It’s a hike, but really a magnificent one.  Takes nearly an hour if you’re on foot, but a convenient boleia (hitchhike) can get you up there in less than 5 minutes.

Walking down the mountain towards the Market.  Straight Shot.

When we weren’t exploring the city, we were engaged in genuine American debauchery, highlighted by a late night dare to play a game of Mozambican Ding Dong Ditch on our friends drunk neighbors who had been hanging out with us earlier.  Here we call it “Com Le Sensa Ditch” and it involves going up to a house and “sensa”-ing (this is what people do here instead of ringing doorbells ), and then running away.  It sounds sophomoric, and it totally was.  What can I say, I guess we were eager to share a little bit of American culture with our new friends.

We spent the days eating in the city, and the night cooking up a feast and subsequently stuffing our faces with food.  This seems to be the common activity at these get-togethers, and I’m surely not going to complain.  Chicken and Chili on day one, followed by some more chicken and beer-battered reef-fish on day two.  Although it was still pretty awesome, I have yet to find chicken as good as what I had in Namaacha (not even in Montepuez, but I’m gonna keep looking).

Overall the trip was great and has gotten me really excited to continue exploring this amazing country.  Getting there was easy, particularly because of the transportation situation.  I can only hope tht in the future, I can get as lucky.  We caught what turned out to be a pretty comfortable chapa to Silva Macua (it was really just a guy in a private car going to Pemba who wanted us pay to ride with him), and were then offered a free ride all the way to Macomia by two exuberant guys driving a customized Toyota Helix with an incredibly efficient air conditioning system.  Also, they drove about 120 km/hour the entire way, so we got there really fast.  We weren’t so lucky during the ride home, but we made it back in one piece.  All’s well that ends well, right?

View from the Top, with Elizabeth, Marin and Eryn.

Africa, and its street goats.

This dude get's to wake up to this view every day.  Except it looks better cause he didn't drop his eye balls in a bucket of water.

Colonial buildings in Macomia.

I demand more goats.  Please.