Ponto do Ouro, Mozambique

Sunday February 16th, 2014

(Sorry for the late posts! Internet has not been working well enough to upload!)

This past weekend, what felt like the entire hospital staff and I, took a little road trip to a small town at the southern-most tip of Mozambique. Doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and medical students all together, it was a neat feeling to have such a sense of family with the other staff. 

It was only about an hour drive to the border between South Africa and "Mozam", as everyone called it. At that point the paved roads quickly ended and we came upon the border patrol station. After what felt like a billion questions, three passport stamps, and a visa later, we were finally set free into the outback of Mozam. 

It was odd, as there was not one road, but about ten different paths through the sandy dunes that would all take you to the same location...from the border patrol station to the next site of civilization, Ponto do Ouro. This quickly became a four-wheeling race between the three vehicles we had in our group of people. The drivers motto? If we fell/crashed, there was nothing but a soft landing (sand) surrounding us! ... I just held on tight and could not stop laughing as we bobbed up and down through the sand! It was so much fun :).

Eventually we made it to the town of Ponta Do Oura, Mozambique. It was a small place full of color and movement, with food markets and clothing linings the streets. Still no paved roads, the only vehicles that were around where diesel four wheel drives, like ours, and tractors! It was easy to see the eclectic mix of cultures on this town... A mix between South African, Portuguese (mozambique was once ruled by Portugal, and Portuguese is their only official language), and the Indian influence of nearby Durban. 

Since there were so many of us, we rented two houses near eachother. The one I stayed in was the larger of the two. It had a nice African, "on-the-beach" vibe to it, and we were all surprised that the bedrooms had air conditioners (quite a luxury here)!!

The weekend included a valentines dinner out with the entire group, lots of time spent walking on the beach and snorkeling off the shore, and a traditional South African braii (barbecue) on Saturday evening. 

Valentines dinner and celebrating one of the occupational therapist's birthdays.

Live local music at dinner.

 

Chilling at the local smoothie bar.

The mozambique latte, a "galao"... Very cinnamon-ey

A local that we found making beautiful rugs and blankets out of recycled fabric in a garage next to a petrol station. His wife was working hard in the other corner spinning all of the yarn onto spools, and another woman worked to cut up old clothes into strips for a different type of rug. A kind lady down the road sold his rugs in her shop. 

The beach. For only $10 a day, we rented a "gazebo" aka tailgating-type tent to hide from the hot hot HOT sun under. This tent rental service was another method the locals used to earn money. 

Mozam made for a great weekend away. The only snaffoo we had was almost getting held up at the border post on the way back into South Africa on Sunday. Apparently we hadn't filled out the proper paperwork for the car we drove. Luckily some sweet-talking in Spanish did the trick and we were home bound. :-) 

My only complaint: Monday came a bit too early!