The People of Mozambique

Yesterday, we visited the people living along the lake. Today, let’s look at other parts of the country.

On Sunday morning, we were met at our guesthouse by Dylan Holmes, our guide for the Mozambique portion of our trip.  Dylan has guided for us before and he and his wife (and new daughter Emily) have become great friends.  In short….he is one of our “kids”!!

As we drove out of Maputo, we encountered a large market that took up two lanes of a four-lane major highway.

Now, this is NOT a market for tourists where every stall has basically the same crafts and every stall-keeper is telling you that HE made everything in the stall.

THIS market was where the city’s inhabitants bought the items needed for their everyday life.

It was quite hectic….

The mini-bus in this photo is actually a taxi and we passed hundreds of them as we drove.  They are mostly 15-person vans but are often stuffed with 20-25 people.  Most of them have a small trailer on the back where they load all of the larger baggage of the riders.  Those without trailers carry long lengths of rope and they will stuff everything in the back of the bus and then lash the back door down.

Dylan said that they are often involved in accidents and you might hear of 20+ people killed or injured in one crash!

Things became much less crazy as we left the city and entered the rural areas.

Since it was Sunday morning, it was fun to see groups of people, mostly women and children, walking to church.  The ladies were all dressed “to the nines”, with many wearing a white head covering…..

Most of the churches were simple metal sheds, with the doors thrown open and people spilling out as they worshiped.  I have to say that it warmed my heart to see this!

As we drove, we often saw groups of women at the local well, each carrying a large barrel to be filled with water and then taken back to their homes.  These gatherings also served as a place for the women to meet and catch up on the latest gossip!

There was a huge variety in the houses that we passed.   A few were made from bricks…

… but most were a form of stucco.  The base of the house is made from two sheets of wire with rocks placed inside the “walls”…

The walls were then covered with a mud mixture to add additional insulation to the structure….

We often passed these bags along the road…..

…and naturally wondered what they contained.

Dylan explained that these were bags of charcoal that the villagers were selling to earn money.

The charcoal is made by cutting down trees, chopping the branches into smaller pieces, covering it all with dirt and then setting fire to it.  The fire smolders, partially burning the wood and producing charcoal that is used to heat most homes.

Sadly, this practice has lead to the de-forestation of much of Mozambique, including the old trees that are now extinct.

The really sad part is that each of these bags would be sold for about $2.

We also passed houses selling plastic bottles filled with a slightly yellow liquid. Apparently this was Palm Wine and should NOT be drunk by the unprepared!!

Tomorrow we will spend a little time at the Massingir camp.

You don’t want to miss it!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

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