So Scooter and Ann needed to take the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test - a standardized test used for applying to graduate business studies) for the academic plans they have for after their Peace Corps terms end, but the test isn't offered in Mozambique. So they decided to travel to and take the test in Cape Town and, while they're at it, make a two week trip out of it to tour the city. I was initially dreading this two week interval without my sister; it would've been good for me as far as forcing me to really work on my Portuguese and my relationship with the sisters without the constant help of my own American, English speaking sister, but it would also be difficult and lonely. Not to mention I felt like I'd be missing out; everyone we talked to had nothing but great things to say about Cape Town. Then, I was offered the option to go with them which I eagerly accepted. Erin, who also didn't need to take the GMAT, was going along for the ride as well.
We got up early Friday morning to begin our trip, but it was only a couple of hours of standing beside the high way later that we finally got a ride. (It might have been a long wait, but it was worth it to watch Ann yell at passing drivers with obviously enough room to accommodate us.) The driver was very friendly and took us as far as Xai-Xai, a little less than half way to Maputo, our destination for the day. Along the way we saw multiple rainbows, one continuing through the color spectrum twice with an additional full rainbow slightly above - a triple rainbow I guess. We hadn't even gotten out of our first ride in Xai-Xai when Scooter spotted our next potential ride, so while Ann and I collected our bags and thanked the first driver, Scooter had already run up to the window of the next car and secured us another ride. What initially seemed to be an awkward ride with two unfriendly South Africans turned out to be the best boleia ever - even topping the one we got back from Swaziland. Small talk gradually opened up into fascinating stories of how the driver, Willem (pronounced like "villain" with an "m" at the end), had traveled the world: all 50 states, all of Europe and good deal of other countries though he admitted to have never been to Antarctica. He had to make a two hour detour two check on the lodge he owned in Macaneta and offered to let us out so we could continue to hitchhike into Maputo, but we decided to just go with him and wait. His lodge was located on an island separated from the mainland by only about 400 meters of water, but with a slow moving ferry as the only means of crossing the channel, it was pretty isolated from civilization. The way he talked about interacting with the local community - with respect and concern for (or at least awareness of) the problems affecting it - he reminded us a lot of John and Yvett and the attitude they took to interacting with the local community. In any case, in was a refreshing relief from the much too common alternative of foreigners coming in and opening businesses with concerns only for the money they make and not the culture they might be disrupting or exploiting.
Scooter had been stressing out about not being able to purchase our bus tickets online, but this suddenly turned out to be a stroke of luck when Willem offered to take us all the way to Johannesburg, seeing as that's where they were headed the next day anyway. We happily agreed and set up a time and place to meet him in Maputo the next day to continue our journey.
While Scooter went to get some stuff taken care of for REDES, Ann, Erin, and I went to the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) compound to visit a family they had become close friends with and would be staying with that night. Polly and Mohamed are an amazing couple working in international development who have been all over the world together. They have three daughters, the older two (5 and 7) already being trilingual (the youngest is 3 and just starting to talk). After catching up withthe family, we went out to meet up with a large crowd of other PCV's who were in Maputo at the time. We hung out at the Teacher's bar and then went next door to Mundo's, probably the most famous restaurant in Maputo and easily identifiable by both the delicious aromas of pizza and the large vine draped tree growing out of the corner of the building.
Willem and Mark (the other guy in the car I forgot to mention) picked us up the next morning alongside the highway where we had a taxi drop us off. They now had a trailer where we could put all our bags, leaving the trunk empty for me to curl up in a nest of pillows and blankets they provided and fall asleep. In case I haven't emphasized the unpleasantness of crossing the Moz-SA border enough, we chose to go through Swaziland to completely avoid it, even though it required crossing two borders. Finally, they dropped us off in Johannesburg at the airport from which a man picked us up and took us to the hotel we were staying at. From there we went out again, meeting up with John, Yvett, and their daughter Simone for dinner. Being the first time we had been in actual civilization in ages, we overloaded on milkshakes, nachos, and real beef burgers, that put us all in a state of pleasure/feeling ready to burst by the end of the meal. When John went to take us home, we discovered one of his tired had gone flat, but luckily he had a spare and a (very poorly designed) jack and we were able to change the tire.
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