Oh yeah.. then what?

So the following day we saw many things. I took many pictures. And then my camera and phone were stolen later in the evening. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, ANOTHER FAO LEARNING EXPERIENCE! Argh. Luckily, I borrow Lance's camera earlier in the day so have some documentation of our travels.

It's Sunday so the government/official side of the trip was on hold. We headed up the coast in search of Mozambique's famous beaches and check out countryside.

Small villages dot the road where people seem to grow a lot of pineapples and corn and women carry water in the morning in big containers on their heads. Houses are cement or brickpossibly made in one of these ovensRoofs are silver metal sheets or tied thatch purchased in bundles like thesewhich makes roofs/ceilings like these. Well that is actually from a lodge a few nights later. Most of the thatch roofs are simple cone shapes. I just like the picture.

Another common sight were the people selling roasted cashews alongside the road. Your eyes do not deceive you, those are plastic bags tied to strings and making pretty effective flags. The cashews themselves are in the bundles on the left. We picked up a few bags for munching (too much munching - I haven't wanted a cashew since!) and Christmas gifts. Three hours later (!!!) we arrived at a sorta kinda slummy slimy resort area and chilled on the beach for a little while. We of pale skin and happy dermatologists did not go in the water (plus it stank!!) but had a nice time people watching and drinking the obligatory "beer on the beach."
Lunch was macaza (grilled seafood kabobs) and roasted chicken. Musical accompaniment was MTV Africa on a small tv in the bar next door. I recognized the new single by Britney Spears ("Oh oh oh ah! Oh oh oh ah!") and happily nothing else after that.

Back we drove (THREE HOURS!) to Maputo. Dinner was a great seafood restaurant where I again enjoyed the totally amazing Prawn Curry and Lance had crab legs with tons of "unnecessary sauce" which was really messy but good.

AND THEN MY CAMERA AND PHONE GOT STOLEN OUT OF MY PURSE ON OUR WAY BACK TO THE HOTEL!!!

argh.

(do you blame me for procrastinating on this one? tomorrow was much better!)

Maputo in few words but plenty of pictures.

I've decided to be better this trip with posting things in order and within closer proximity of their actual occurrence. To that end I made a list of things we did today but now lack the energy to flesh it out properly. So what you see is what you get.

Up with the sun and worshipers at the ocean at 0530 - yes the sun was up at 0530. Weird country.Breakfast at the hotel and reservations made online for next stop at Kruger National Park.

Drive to the Saturday Morning Craft Market where Jayne and I bargained like crazy for fabric.That guy smiled like crazy when he was selling me the panels!
Lance and Mike discussing all things FAO and Mozambique.A quick walk around the Portuguese Fort next door and a little city exploration. I forgot to take a picture of the fort but here is a view from the roof:Sat down for lunch as a seafront restaurant but Jayne didn't feel well and, coming from a big malaria area (Cameroon) and into an also big malaria area (Mozambique), went to a local doc to get checked out.Lance and I lunch on the patio. Prawn samosas, prawn cakes and a glass of the local "2M" beer. Local currency is the Metical which is .04 US dollars so a good price for lunch. Lots of people walking next to and through the patio selling stuff. Best not to even look at them if you don't want to be bothered. I learned this riding the train into Philly. View from the table:
Lance's got his FAO on and we drive up the coast in search of anything. Ran out of pavement very quickly outside town. Bumps and big mud holes. Turned around after 45 minutes. Still, I could live here. Views from the road:Wanna buy a chicken?Meeting the boats for catch of the day.Back to the hotel pick up Mike for another exploring adventure.
A packed ride.
Wanna buy a shoe?Got stuck in one heck of a traffic jam. The guy in the red shirt worked it out. Back to the hotel Jayne (malaria free!) and buffet dinner at fancy-smancy hotel. We were serenaded by a live quartet and enjoyed the biggest lobster tails any of us had ever seen. Lance was a happy camper.Back to the room, full and sleepy, and crashed at a road appropriate 10:30.

Scenes from the road

Knock Knock

(whose there?)

South African BANANA TREES!Welcome to Mozambique!
Interesting design on Maputo building.

Great breakfast, made our way through the SA/MOZ border (diplomat license plates make everything easier), settled at a Maputo hotel, dinner at a local seafood restaurant (king prawns for Lance, prawn curry for Kristin), back to the room and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

One Night in Nelspreit

'Ello from South Africa! Tonight Lance and I are just 200 km shy of the Mozambique border in the rolling hills of Nelspriet, SA. Today was 9 hours of driving but tonight we rest easy in the totally cute Utopia in Africa B&B. We almost didn’t make it though as early this morning Lance discovered we had car registration issues with the new FAO vehicle. This would have been a deal breaker going into Mozambique as officials there look for any excuse to get money from travelers. But Lance got it worked out and we left just a hour or so behind schedule.

Of course we forgot to bring any of the local currency which is a problem as we were driving toll roads the whole way. Then the first ATM we found was out of order because it was blown up by thieves the previous year and hadn’t been replaced yet. Gotta love South Africa.

On the way down we listened to the Poultry 2008 episode of This American Life. (All praise Chicken for anyone who heard it), two excellent episodes of Wait, Wait, Don’t tell me and an Fresh Air with Terry Gross. I think Lance is a little NPRed out but I was in podcast heaven. I held back on playing On the Media for fear he would crash the car while yelling at the announcers. There are times when safety needs to take precedence over great radio.

The B&B is lovely and we are pooped. Time for bed.

Ola'!

Hey Everyone,

Mike and Jayne spent one more event filled day seeing the sights in Gaborone, endured one of our infamous Rockband parties, got a good night's sleep and went on the merry way on Saturday morning. I think they had fun. I hope they learned a lot. I know I was POOPED all day Saturday. Again, being interesting for 3 days straight is tough to pull off. I can only say we were moderately interesting for 3/4 of the time and hope they spent the other quarter daydreaming about their happy place.

Actually, it was a lot of fun having Mike and Jayne here and I look forward to seeing them again in a few days.

That's right m'dears, Lance and I are hitting the road again and hoping it doesn't hit back too hard. Tomorrow we take off for one night in Nelspriut, South Africa then on to Maputo, Mozambique. Again to all would be thieves out there, don't even think about it. They fixed our electric gate and fence this morning. Plus we have swarming killer ants. They like feet and are hungry. I wish I were kidding about this.

Adeus Amigos!

P.S. Some jerk tried to pickpocket me on Friday. Silly thief to think he could find anything in my purse when I can't even find anything in my purse. He even had the nerve to act offended when I told him to go away. Next time I'm going straight to yelling something like, "I FELT YOUR HAND IN MY PURSE AND KNOW YOU TRIED TO STEAL FROM ME. BACK THE HECK OFF" because if the local people around you understand what has happened, a mob will form and police will be called ... eventually. I like this about Africa.

Must... maintain... normal... behavior....

Today Lance and Mike met with interesting people and learned interesting things.

Today Jayne and I:

• went to the cell phone store to replace my cell which broke yesterday
• went to the pharmacy to find her a food brace
• got a little lost on the way home
• drove 37 kilometers outside of town to see the Odi Weavers and their store - got a little lost on the way there.
• drove 37 miles back into town as quickly as possible to let the guys in the house security gate
• went to lunch at a local chicken place
• picked up Kristin and Lance's maid at her other job (yes, I broke down and got a maid - the threat of visitors will drive a person to do many things. Finding towels that match for example.)
• Dropped her off at the house
• Met a friend of Kristin's at a local small mosque and had a little tour.
• Followed Kristin's friend to the bigger mosque in town where the local imam gave us a bigger tour and we all sat down for a talk.
• Picked up Kristin and Lance's maid at the house and took her home.
• Almost got in a car accident in a traffic circle which would not have been Kristin's fault.
• Rushed through shopping for tonight's dinner under threat of closing grocery stores
• Came somewhat close to a second car accident which would have been Kristin's fault but didn't happen so all is well.
• With Jayne doing much of the heavy lifting while Kristin pulled together the salad n' bread n' table n' stuff, got a nice spaghetti dinner on the table for 6 guests.
• Then it started to rain
• Then it started to storm
• Then the power went out
• Then we all talked for a good 3 hours by candlelight.
• Then everyone went home, Kristin did the dishes, cleaned up the kitchen
• Then the power came back on.
• And now I sit here, falling asleep, misspelling Imam and typing.

It was one heck of a day. I am soooooooo tired.

Quick! Everyone act normal!

Hello Friends, Family and all you people who came here on accident while looking for the pop band ReadySteadyGo.

The big news is that we are headed for Mozambique in a week or so! It will be a quick trip but we are really looking forward to it. Of course this means I REALLY need to catch up on the South Africa blog entries. Yulp. I really should do that.

But the additionally big news is that we will be having house guests for a few days starting tomorrow. (Ergo the title of this blog entry.) They are Mike and Jayne, Army FAO couple extraordinaire and friends of ours from Monterey. It should be really fun because they are letting us plan their visit and we are cramming as much Botswana in as we can in 3 days. You know, we should probably let them sleep at some point too.

That reminds me. I need to go make the guest bed up.

Hugs to everyone!
K

P.S. Yes, we still have the kitten. Yes, her name is still Stupidkitten. It is still the most appropriate name.