Our Time in Vilanculos, Mozambique

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  Vilanculos, Mozambique
Sunday, March 30, 2008

Well hello there!!! It's been awhile! nice to see you! :)

So, we've been incommunicado for some time! sorry about that! But we're back, and I've got good news and bad news....

The good news is, we had the most amazing time in Mozambique. We flew from Jo-burg to Vilanculos, a small town of about 30,000 people on the coast of Mozambique. There, 2 of our volunteer hosts - Claire and Anna -
picked us up from the tiny little airport. Claire set up this volunteer project in Vilanculos almost 2 years ago and works for a company called African Impact which organizes volunteer projects all over Africa. Claire, Jude and Stacey (3 very cool fun British ladies) live in VIlanculos full time and run the projects. Anna also works for the
company and goes from one project to another all over Africa making sure everything is on track.

Anyway, they drove us to their "camp" which was amazing. It's right on the beach - beautiful blue water - and consists of about 7 little rondavals - little round huts with 2 rooms and a bathroom. Lucky for derek and I, we were the only 2 volunteers there at this time, so we had a whole hut to ourselves! And we were spoiled rotten at this place - they did our laundry, they fed us three fabulous meals a day - what more could we ask for?

Life on the site was interesting because the generator went off at 9pm (most of the people in Vilanculos don't have electricity). So, we would eat dinner at 6, and most nights were tucked away in bed at 830 reading our books. I can't remember the last time we got so much sleep! it's amazing how quickly you get used to sleeping 12 hour nights :)

But, don't worry, the girls kept us busy during the day! When we got there, we decided to cut our canoe trip short so we could focus on volunteering, so the majority of our 2 weeks was spent doing that. We spent every morning at a pre-school outside of town, trying to teach Portuguese colors (cor de laranga! azul!) and numbers to 3-6 year olds, and just playing with them as much as possible. These kids are unbelievable - they don't have very much, but they are fun, loving, playful and happy! We loved everyone of them to bits, and even though we only spent 2 weeks with them, we got so attached. Derek and I have been talking that we could probably have fit our favorite - if we were allowed to have favorites:) - 3 year old Joel in one of our backpacks!

In the afternoons, we had a variety of different projects - from teaching a small group of teenage boys english, to practicing with a local soccer team that the volunteer org created, to building mats and bead patches with local women with aids (the goal is to teach them this craft so they can sell them for income). We also built an adventure
playground at the school (it rocked too!!), had a typical mozambique meal at the orphanage with the kids, and started to build a bathroom at the orphanage. Every project was great fun and super rewarding, and
absolutely everyone we met was amazing. So friendly, and social, willing to learn and again - so very very happy.

At the beginning of the week we took 3 days off to go on our canoe trip. Derek, Anna, Lovemore and Samuel (the cooks) and Neto (the translator) took off down this little river that runs just outside the city. We spent 3 days on the river, going through massive fields of lily pads, scaling through these wooden fishing traps, and camping in
the evenings. It was amazing - being on the water was great fun, and the beautiful scenery and endless African skies were unforgettable. At the end of the trip, we landed at this fantastic lodge for a day and night of pure luxury! We red, chilled out, chatted with the owners and watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen in my life.

At the end of our week in Vilanculous, we took a dhow trip out to the Bazaruto Archipelogo islands - where there is a 2 mile reef and great snorkeling. Again, an amazing day.

A few other highlights of our time in Vilanculos that we'll tell you about when we get home - include having drinks at Baobab with Claire, Quentin, Jude and Neto; Dancing the night away and Derek DJ'ing at AfroBar; sauntering through the amazing market; going on a shopping spree buying clothes for the kids at the orphanage; and finally,
Derek's very unsuccessful attempt to make pazooki for the girls on our last night.

So, to wrap up the good news in one sentence - our time in Vilanculos was amazing, beautiful, inspiring, exciting, fun and unforgettable - all wrapped into one. We'll never forget it.

Now, onto the bad news. We had our first shitty day of the trip. In order to get back to South Africa, we had to take a very bumpy 11 hour bus from Vilanculos to Maputo (the capital of Mozambique), then grab a
flight to Jo-burg. The bus left downtown at 2 am, so the sweethearts Jude and Anna got up to drive us to the bus. The girls have this open backed truck that they put seats in that we have been traveling in the entire trip. We jumped in, thru our bags in, and off we went into the darkness of 2am in Vilanculos. When we got downtown to the bus, we realized that our day pack was not there. Derek and Anna went back to see if they forgot it, and searched the road in case it fell out, but it was nowhere to be seen. So, it seems that one of the 3 people we crossed on the road must have - very daringly I might add since D and I were right there - reached in and grabbed it. In our bag - food for the trip, our 2 ipods, and..... our camera.... with over 600 pictures of our time in Africa so far. So all our pictures of the volunteering - the kids, the different projects, the nights out, and all our pictures of the Safari in Kruger National Park and our time in Jo-burg.... all gone. We were both almost sick when we realized it, and I sobbed much of the 11 hour bus ride to Maputo. So, there's our bad news - we had a fabulous trip, but we can't share any of it with you.

We eventually moved through the sadness into the "oh well" phase, and are now working at trying to track down some pictures from the people we have met. It won't replace the pictures we lost, but we still have the memories. right? (oy).

Anyway, that's it for today folks. Sorry so long! we are headed to cape town next. so we'll talk to you there!

miss you all very much!!!

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