from nampula to milange

We got up around 2am on Monday to leave for Milange. The trip to the Zambezia province took us two days. The first day we rode in a tiny minibus to the city of Mocuba. It was quite an interesting ride—we all piled in to leave around 4am and they were blasting some Backstreet Boys! So strange. I think we heard three different versions of “I Got a Feeling." That night in Mocuba we stayed at an orphanage and got to have a little tour of some really cool education projects they're working on there.

The next day our plan to rent a bus was thwarted and the only transportation option left was the back of an open-air truck! That was quite the experience. I think the highest count of people was 27, plus a rooster or two. I have no idea how that many people with that much stuff fit in such a small space! Mozambicans have a way of staying put—they never need to stretch or more or adjust anything. I don’t know how they do it but they can jump on with all their stuff and a couple kids and sit for hours. We Americans get real figidity real fast. In the states we have the luxury of prioritizing comfort, but it's not that way here.

Maggie and I wore capulanas to keep the dusty road on the road and not on us!

This was the truck we came in. The whole trip took about six or seven hours.