December 4, 2016
After swearing in, each PCV faces the unique challenge that is arriving to site alone for the first time. Here is a brief recap of my adventure for the last 3 days accomplishing this task.
- I flew into our provincial capital after a phone situation nearly made me late to catch my flight out of Maputo.
- I overnighted in a hostel here.
- I had an amazing breakfast with what was on par with a half dozen walmart doughnuts.
- A couple PCVs’ and I hitched a 2.5 hour ride to the next biggest city closest to my roommate and I’s site.
- We stayed the night there waiting for another ride which was promised to take us to site. (Plot twist: it was supposed to be an ambulance.
- Meanwhile, my roommate and I bought a gas stove top, a gas tank, and several other supplies need to help us open our site.
- After 2 days, we gave up on our ambulance ride and took an open back truck instead.
- After 8 hours on the road in this truck, we arrived at our site at midnight.
Given the list as is, nothing seems really out of the ordinary, right? Let me take a moment to highlight the last bullet point in detail.
Since we couldn’t get a free ride with some friends (which we were hoping for since they would definitely have enough room to fit all of the stuff we were taking to our site), we went to the bus station and serendipitously encountered an open back truck that could carry us accompanied with all of our things. They even drove to our fellow PCV’s house to pick up our cargo. (How sweet of them!) We had to negotiate the price of the ride down a little bit, but nothing too difficult for newly sworn in Peace Corps Volunteers! We were a bit proud to flex our Portuguese language skills, anyways. It’s a bit funny I chose the word pride there, because my momma always taught me that pride cometh before a fall… (Oh how right you were momma…) They loaded all of our stuff into the bed of the truck.
Here marks the beginning of what shall henceforth be known as “The four treacherous trials of the initial journey” – I apologize for the ensuing melodrama.
- We realize quickly that our seats will be in the bed of the open back truck. (Coming from small-town Alabama, I am no stranger to riding in the back of a truck. During hayrides or on summer nights, it is actually my preferred method of transport.) However, my red neck rear end has never experienced the peril that is an 8-hour trip on a Mozambican dirt road… Upon arrival, I couldn’t feel my hindquarters at all.
- My roommate and I were sitting behind a refrigerator, which was “secured” by two ropes entrapping the fridge at about the vertical median on either side. One of the ropes had a second job. It seemed to be holding one of the left side panels of the truck bed in place… and that panel wasn’t even flush with the rest of the side of the truck… by the way, did I mention the Mozambican bumpy road (reference “The four treacherous trials of the initial journey – trial 1”). There were moments I questioned whether we were to be squished like flies beneath a flyswatter. Another recurring thought was, “if worse comes to worse, there was a point in my life where I could leg press the weight of this empty fridge… we should be fine…”
- What is the most cliché thing that can happen when someone says this can’t get any worse? Ding, ding, ding. It starts to rain. About 2 hours into the trip, there is visible cloud to ground lightning… and we are conveniently located next to the tallest part of the truck, which, I presume to be a good conductor on top of a metal truck bed. At this point, my roommate and I start talking about the various scenarios that could lead to our impending doom.
- If your guess to my leading question in trial 3 was the car breaks down, then you too are a winner on tonight’s version of “What could possibly go wrong?” Shortly after the sun sets, the truck breaks down for a 2 hour period. My roommate and I wait there in the pitch black. (Slight funny anecdote: my roommate who undeniably looks like a stereotypical Jesus, keeps alluding to the fact he will bless the car to start moving again in hopes to rally the Mozambican morale.) Eventually, 6 or 7 Mozambican men get the truck going with enough of a push that the momentum helps the engine turn back over.
Thus concludes the treacherous trials. After another hour or two on the road, we arrive safely to site a little past midnight
Long story short, I made it to site! I’m alive and well! I have a great story to tell the grandkids.
P.S. If you would like a video depicting part of the journey, you will have to send me an email… Apparently the free version doesn’t let me post videos….#littlesalty
MOZ likely to sunburn 