soldiers' day

Today is a public holiday in Mozambique – Armed Forces Day – otherwise known as “soldiers day”. We took the opportunity of the office being closed to drive to the Malawi border to renew my soon to expire visa. It was a short trip, 45 kilometers through villages and dry bush land. The road was present, just washed out and very bumpy! I sat in the front cab of the land cruiser, center, between our driver and my assistant. It was a beautiful morning with the sun shining. The hot air blew through our cab windows as we honked for the goats in the road and waved at children as they shouted “mazungo”. Driving through the villages, we noted celebrations being held in honor of soldiers’ day. The entire community was gathered beneath a tall wide baobab tree; men, women and children circled around the tree in honor of the fallen soldiers who fought for their freedom from Portugal. As we passed by these gatherings, the people were silent, soldiers stood at attention, and leaders spoke. On our return back from the border, the ceremonies had ended and the celebrations had begun! Children were dancing in the street, families were eating together outside, and everyone had a smile on their face. It was a beautiful thing to see these communities come together and celebrate.

To describe a little of the land out here…the farther we got away from Mutarara, the electric poles disappeared. The old railway was grown over with brush and plants. Mud huts turned into straw huts – which I wonder how they stay up in these terrific windstorms? We passed by a settlement camp where you could see the tarps WV gave out to cover rooftops of straw huts. Vegetation was scarce. The soil was very sandy. A mountain range guarded the west and the land bottomed out into dry sandy openness to the east. Goats were everywhere! Baobab trees were in plenty and scattered throughout the terrain. Villages were small with maybe 10 – 20 households. There was a community well with a large hand pump in each village. Women and children were gathered around, pumping and filling yellow jerry cans with water. We stopped on the roadside to buy onions and to our surprise…little bananas! I miss my fruit! Its hard to think I’m in Africa and we don’t even have bananas. They are a rare treat up here!

I did not return from the Malawi border with a renewed visa, as was the plan. The guy at the border said I still had four days left on my current visa, so I need to come back on the day it actually expires. I could not understand his reasoning of not being able to buy one today, but Monday I will make the trip once again. :-)