Tuesday, 2 April: Camarão Grande

Canoe made from the trunk of a coconut palm.

Steve and I had an early morning today which began at 5:30 am. We were headed to Praia Nova (pron. "pry-a nova". New Beach.) with the quest of finding shrimp for the missionary retreat. We drove through a market where the vendors were just beginning to set up shop. Steve wasn't quite sure of the way so he stopped a couple times and asked, "Camarão?" (pron. "cam-are-ow". "Shrimp?") We continued driving into the market. The road narrowed until it was just big enough for us to fit through. We drove until we came out on the beach where you could see a bunch of fisherman in their dugout canoes. We know we were in the right place so we parked the car.

We got out of the vehicle and walked around, but none of the fishermen had anything yet. We stopped by a group of fisherman preparing to launch and Steve asked when they would how shrimp. They said to come back at 2:00 pm. We thanked them ("Obrigado") and headed back to the car. We drove back into the city and headed up the coast to check another spot.

On the way, Steve drove past the Grande Hotel. The Grande Hotel was a 5-star resort which was built in 1953 and was the premier resort on the entire eastern coast of Africa. It featured the only Olympic-sized swimming pool in all of Mozambique at the time. The business went defunct for a number of different reasons (you can read about it here) in 1963, only 9 years after it had opened. It was then used as a military base during the Mozambican Civil War. Afterwards, it was abandoned. Now thousands of squatters are living in the hotel in slum-like conditions. The Grande Hotel has been stripped of everything of value down to the concrete walls by its new residents. This once extravagant luxury resort designed to attract the wealthiest whites is now ironically home to some of the poorest in Mozambique.

The Grande Hotel today.

We continued up the coast and parked at the end of a street. To get onto the beach, we climbed a small set of stairs up the sea wall. Trash was strewn all over the beach. The smell of the trash combined with the fish drying in the sun was a pungent, but a normal odor on the beaches in Beira. Steve and I walked along the waters' edge until we came to a group of fishermen consisting of mostly young boys. They had a bucket of fish and some shrimp. Steve negotiated a price of 50 meticais (pron. "meta-cash". The metical is the official currency of Mozambique. Meticais is the plural form. Roughly 30 meticais is equal to $1.) for a small bag of coconut shrimp plus a few muito grande (pron. "moi-to gron-day". Very large.) prawns that were 6-8 inches long. He also bought two flounder for another 50 meticais. We still needed quite a bit more kgs (kilograms) of camarão grande, but at least we had a start.

The fishermen told us they would have more camarão around 10:00 am. We walked back to the car through the groups of tiny fish lying on the sand to dry. When we got back to the house, we ate breakfast. Then Steve left for attempt #2 at getting his vehicle licenses renewed. He returned successful! He was near the front of the line when the office opened and when they saw his white hair, they brought him to the front of the line.

Around 9:45 am, Steve and I headed out in search of camarão again. We returned to the spot where we had some success earlier. This time we parked close to a rusty relic of war, an old naval gun. Unfortunately, the fishermen didn't have any camarão grande so we settled for the smaller coconut shrimp. When Steve went to pay for the shrimp, I got to experience the art of haggling, which Steve has down to a science. The fisherman set the initial price at 500 meticais by writing it in the sand. Steve got the price down to 400 and handed him the cash. Then the man threw a curve ball and asked for 50 more meticais. Steve calmly "fumbled" through his wallet and produced a 20 meticais bill. The fisherman couldn't help but laugh as he handed over the seafood. We returned home with a plastic bag full of camarão and a realization that getting enough shrimp was going to be trickier than we had planned.

After lunch, Steve and I went to the airport to pick up John and JoLene. We loaded up their luggage and brought them back to the house. Then Steve and I took John to Praia Nova to try to buy more shrimp and to give John a true Mozambican experience.

Good ole SAA. I highly recommend using this airline if you're traveling anywhere in Southern Africa.

Steve went a different way than we had gone earlier that morning. We ended up turning down a wrong (well, technically it wasn't a wrong street, just not the one we thought it was) which meant we had to drive through the slum that’s beside Praia Nova. As we drove, the people glanced curiously at the "lost" white men. Eventually, we made it to the beach.

On the beach we saw a group of people huddled in a circle. This was our clue that a fresh catch had just been hauled in to shore. We walked over and inquired about camarão. They didn't have any large prawns, but said there would be some in about an hour (though at first one man told us to come back tomorrow) so we decided to wait.

A fresh catch!

To pass the time, we decided to walk down the beach. We came to the beach adjacent to the slum we had driven through. At one point, we had to cross through some runoff from the slum. These pools were full of water turned green and brown from the sewage. It was pleasantly warm between my toes, but the smell soon brought me back to the stark reality.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but they'll also build a house.

We found another group of fishermen that had just brought in a catch. Still no shrimp, but they did have a large stingray. We returned to the spot where the first group of fishermen was. They still didn't have any large prawns. We checked a few other groups of fisherman without any luck.

Our search for the elusive camarão grande was then interrupted by a large commotion. A group of 20-30 men were working together to get one of the large boats off the beach and into the water. They did the Portuguese equivalent of "1, 2, 3, PUSH!!" When they had successfully gotten the boat into the ocean and a loud "Hurray!" went up among those pushing.

Just a bit bigger than the dugout canoes...

As we were reveling in the excitement, a man walked up to us and greeted us in English. His name was Miguel and he was more than happy to test his English (which was excellent) with us. He rightly guessed that we were in missions and Steve gave him his card so he could get more information. He was friends with one of the groups of fishermen so we asked where we could get some large prawns. Miguel told us he would ask his friends and give Steve a call when they had some. We thanked Miguel and drove home passing the Grande Hotel for John to see.

After returning to the house, we decided to take a stroll through the Club de Golfe to go birding (Steve and John are avid birders. Steve set of lofty goal of showing John 100 new species of bird on this trip.). John only saw one new bird on this excursion. I, on the other hand, got to see numerous birds that I had never seen before. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and enjoying the fresh pineapple Steve had bought when he went to renew the car licenses. I went to bed early since the Newcomers were adamant about sleeping on the couches to accommodate John, JoLene, and I in the two bedrooms. 

Gray heron

Lilac-breasted Roller

The perfect end to a wonderful day.

*A special thank you to John Hawbaker for all pictures in this post which are not things that can fly or the last picture.

Monday, 1 April: April Fools' Day

Monday started out pretty well. Chris made a breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. After breakfast, Steve and I headed into the central square of the city to meet Youngson at the Café Riviera. Youngson was going to help Steve renew the licenses for his vehicles. We found a parking space on the first go-around of the square on the opposite side as the café.

We arrived before Youngson so went ordered some doughnuts (Steve claims they are the best in Beira, and in my limited experience, I have to agree) and found an empty table in the outside eating area. Youngson showed up a few minutes later along with his wife Elizabeth and son. They ordered, and Steve and Youngson discussed some church business.

Youngson then went to the Mozambican version of the DMV to get the forms needed for renewing the vehicle licenses. While he was gone, Steve checked out some tables a man was selling. He ended up buying three and took one back to the Land Cruiser (he had the other two back at his house).

Steve's Land Cruiser

When Youngson returned, Steve and he filled out the forms. Then Youngson called a friend on the inside to see if they would be able to get the licenses today. They were too busy so Steve would have to return another day. We talked some more with Youngson and Elizabeth. Youngson asked about my boss, Jonathan Lloyd, (they were good friends when Jonathan was a missionary in Malawi) and was glad to hear that I worked so closely with him.

A little while later, we parted ways and Steve and I headed back to his car. The man hadn't brought the tables yet so Steve decided to use the bathroom while I waited in the car. As I sat in the car with the windows down, I noticed two men walking by on the opposite side of the car as me. They were looking at Steve's bag that was sitting in the middle seat. I made eye contact and they continued on their way. A few seconds later, another man approached my open window. He was trying to get me to look at some trinkets he was selling. The first thing was a gold-colored pendant. I politely said não (pron. "now". No.). Something in the way he was trying to get me to focus my attention away from the car made me suspicious. About this time I noticed the same two men who walked by a few moments earlier eyeing Steve's bag. Realizing what was going on, I clutched Steve's bag in one hand. After telling him I wasn't interested in his first item, he then tried to sell me "diamonds" in an old film canister (if you can remember what they look like :) ) which looked more like dirt. Once again I said não and turned to smile at the two men on the right. The man on my left continued to try to sell me things but I sat there refusing to acknowledge him until he finally left me alone.

Notice the roll of TP on the dashboard. This is an essential item to keep in your car in Africa.

Another few minutes (Note: When I wrote this entry, I apparently tried to create a new word by combining another and few to get "Afother", but let's get back to the story.) passed and the man with the tables showed up. Steve showed up shortly thereafter and helped the man load the tables into the car. Then we returned to the house. The tables made perfect end tables for the couches in the living room. Chris made macaroni and cheese for lunch. Afterwards, I took a nap.

I awoke to a dark house with no one inside. I could see people sitting on the veranda so I went outside. Outside I found Steve and Chris talking with Melanie. I pulled up a chair and noticed the somber mood of everyone present. Steve disclosed that someone had just played the sickest April Fools' joke imaginable on them. They had received a call telling them that one of the young pastors had taken rat poison in an attempt to commit suicide. Chris explained that this is a fairly common form of suicide in Mozambique. You can buy small vials of it on street corners throughout the city. Fortunately, the rumor was just that, a rumor, but the damage had been done. Steve was able to make contact with the pastor and confirm that he was indeed okay and had not tried to commit suicide. Despite the good news, the situation was hard on everyone.