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Prospero Ano Novo!
Prosperous New Year!

As some of you will be aware, my Christmas and New Year was spent in Cape Town, South Africa. And what a holiday it was, I had the most amazing time. The highlight was meeting with other Project Trust, as well as a GAP, volunteers from across southern Africa, working in Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi as well as South Africa. In total on New Years Eve there was over 30 of us, which made for a good party!

My diary entry for Cape Town spans 31 pages and contains an estimated 10,000 words, which gives you some idea about the good time I had and how much I got up to. Not wanting to bore you all too much I plan to condense that slightly in this update!

Our travel to Cape Town was all done by bus. Translux is a bus company linking cities in southern Africa together. (Their cheaper but less luxurious sister company is in fact called City to City.) Our first bus was from Blantyre, in Malawi, to Johannesburg, South Africa. After a couple of nights in Blantyre, where we saw our friends and fellow Project volunteers, on Tuesday 16th December we climbed aboard the 9:00 to Johannesburg, which pleasantly surprised us by leaving on time. This bus travels from Blantyre, through Tete in Mozambique, straight down through Zimbabwe and finally ends up in Johannesburg.

Two hours after leaving we reached the Mozambique border, travelled through the Tete corridor and arrived at the Zimbabwe border after six hours of travelling. We spent over an hour at the border while all the luggage on the bus was checked, and arrived in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, for dinner at 21:00, ten hours into the journey. At about midnight we made another stop at a service station before reaching the South African border at three in the morning, after eighteen hours travelling. This was another long border stop as our luggage was checked again, and we finally made it to Johannesburg at 11:30, after about 1600km and 26½ hours.

We spent a couple of nights in Johannesburg to recover from the trip. The friendly owner of the backpackers took us to the local shopping mall, an absolutely huge place with a supermarket, retail outlets and a multi-screen cinema complex. We spent some time relaxing by the pool and enjoying the ease of life granted by microwave ready meals, toasters and ovens. We also found time to see the just newly released Lord of the Rings film. This was a slightly surreal experience as looking around the cinema I could only see about ten coloured faces in an audience of about 500 people, something I wasn’t expecting in Africa.

After two nights in Johannesburg we met Malawi volunteer Ellie at the station and travelled with her on our second bus, bound straight for Cape Town. This trip was slightly shorter in distance but made quicker because there were no border controls to pass through. We arrived in Cape Town at six on Saturday morning, and found most of the place closed. After sitting around in an Internet café for an hour or two we then went and found ourselves somewhere to stay. We were expecting the place to be quite busy at this time of year, however the first place we tried, Castle Street Backpackers, had plenty of space available.

We spent three nights at Castle Street. On our first day we took advantage of the shopping opportunities in Cape Town, and also met Christine, Gemma, Lora, Lucy and Charlotte, Project volunteers working in Namibia, who Tim and I had previously met on our training course in Scotland back in July. On day two we spent a little more time shopping and I also visited the Victoria and Albert Waterfront, which is a huge tourist area in Cape Town with many attractions including more shopping, the aquarium, live music acts and much more.

The following day we travelled on Cape Towns metro system to Simonstown and visited the penguins on Boulders Beach. We also hired some snorkelling gear and despite the fact that the water was freezing and a bit murky, it was still interesting following small shoals of fish through the water. In the evening we relaxed playing pool at the Purple Turtle bar and enjoying Scrooge on the satellite TV, trying to get into the festive mood. All in all we spent three enjoyable, relaxing nights at Castle Street, and it was a good start to the holiday.

We checked out of Castle Street the next morning, the 24th, but left our backpacks there for the day while we went and did the inevitable, scaled Table Mountain. After stocking up on essentials – water, chocolate and fruit – we got a taxi to the lower cable car station and began our assent. Two and a half hours hard walking later we made it to the top. We were rewarded with fantastic views over the city to the north, both the Indian and Atlantic oceans to the east and west and the rest of the Cape Peninsula to the south. The views on the way up were also impressive, as slowly more and more came into view. We rested at the top for a while and eventually took the cable car back down. We then made our way to our next accommodation, The Big Blue Backpackers, in Greenpoint, an area just outside the centre of Cape Town. There we met all the other Project Trust volunteers in Cape Town for Christmas and spent most of the rest of the afternoon talking, getting to know each other and having a pretty good time.

The next day was Christmas Eve and was the day Tim picked up the car we had hired between us for the next three days. That day five of us took the 70km or so drive to Cape Point, advertised as both the most south-westerly tip of Africa and the place where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. I say advertised because, according to the Rough Guide to Cape Town, it is in fact neither! The whole area is a national park advertised as having a diverse range of vegetation. All looked about the same to me, but maybe the botanists among you would have spotted the difference. Unfortunately the weather turned against us that day and we were didn’t stay for very long, and because of the cloud cover we couldn’t see out to sea very far, but never the less we got some nice views. That evening we all saw in Christmas at the Purple Turtle on Long Street and had a great time, singing Christmas carols very loudly as we walked down the street to the amusement of those around us.

Christmas Day in Africa did not feel very Christmassy at all, and in fact throughout the entire season we had to try very hard to get into the mood. On Christmas Day itself Cape Town really did seem to carry on just about as normal, with most of the shops still open and the minibus taxis still running up and down the streets as before. I have no doubt that the market across the road from us here in Lichinga will have looked exactly the same, as will towns across Africa. Our own Christmas dinner took the form of a huge braaii, the South African version of a barbeque. Tim and Arran took control of the cooking and quite late on in the afternoon there was a feast on the table, which we all tucked into. There was also a brief two person comic interpretation of the nativity afterwards. It was clear that a lot of people were missing home on that particular day, including myself, and I took the opportunity to phone home and speak to my family, which made me feel a lot better!

On Boxing Day I made a spontaneous decision to go tandem paragliding, and so in the afternoon I walked up part of Lion’s Head, got strapped into a harness, and then jumped off again. Great views of the 12 Apostles and the city below, and then we landed in Camps Bay, the most upmarket area of Cape Town! So we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in Bar Med sipping at expensive drinks as slowly as possible! That evening we went to a very fancy ice cream restaurant on the Waterfront and then stayed up through to the early hours of the morning and watched the sunrise, which was quite beautiful.

The evening of the 27th found some of seven of us the Cape Town International Convention Centre to see FAME, the musical. At R120 (over £10) a seat it wasn’t the cheapest way to spend an evening, but it was worth every penny. Or Rand. Everyone really enjoyed it, and it was good to be able to indulge in something that’s unavailable to us back at our projects. We were also impressed by the Convention Centre, a huge building with many function rooms, and the whole place is covered in marble finish, even the toilet cubical doors!

The next day there was another group heading up Table Mountain, and seeing how I enjoyed the walk last time, I decided to go again. When we got to the bottom of the walk some decided to take the cable car up, in order to get to the top in time to take advantage of the abseiling. The remaining four of us took a couple of hours to reach the top, knocking about 20 minutes of my previous attempt. Spent a couple of hours at the top admiring the views again and cooling down, and then walked back down, which took considerably less time then walking up! It was quite late when we got back to the backpackers that evening and we found that everyone had already left for the evening, having dinner at a Chinese restaurant. After desperately needed showers three of us tried to find them but ended up having dinner somewhere else. We eventually caught up with them though after taking a taxi to the centre of town and hunting around the various haunts there.

The following day a few of us decided to do a few of the museums and other sights on offer in Cape Town. Unfortunately though, probably because they were so interesting, we only got to see two! We started at the Castle of Good Hope, the oldest building still standing in South Africa. It was built by the Dutch when they had control of the Cape, before it came under British control. It is now the official seat of the military in South Africa, and has some interesting exhibits, including a display of old military uniforms and the dungeons, with detailed accounts of the torturing that went on there.

We then moved on to the City Hall, which Maarten, another South African volunteer, had told us about it. We timed our visit well however – although it was closed when we got there a security guard took us on a small unofficial tour, where we got to climb right to the top of the clock tower, ring the bells (to the bemusement of passers by I’m sure!), see the clock mechanism and all four faces of the clock from the inside, and go outside, stand in front of the faces and get some more great views of Cape Town. Maarten was very disappointed by this news, as during his trip he had not got to see the clock tower, which made us feel quite privileged! On the way home we stopped and sipped drinks on St Georges Parade, feeling very European as we watched the crowds go past.

The 30th was the birthday of another of the South African volunteers, Mark. I spent a relaxing day by the pool reading the start of an interesting autobiography by a WWII fighter jet pilot. The reason for this quiet day was that I was waiting for someone to drop my replacement credit card off, as it had been couriered to him to guarantee its safe arrival in my hands. The evening however was much more lively, with a meal and the celebration of Mark’s birthday.

New Years Eve was the next day, and five of us took a taxi out to the stunning Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, which sit at the foot of Table Mountain and are home to a huge number of different plants. At the moment there is also an exhibition of stone sculptures there, as well as an art exhibition. It was particularly interesting to see the many different ways that people capture the nature of Table Mountain, and also compare the more modern interpretations with the much older paintings that were on display at the Castle of Good Hope.

In the evening we headed once more to Long Street to join many other Capetonions and tourists in the New Year celebrations. Midnight however didn’t seem to be much of a significant event to most people and we had to initiate our own, very loud, countdown, to the amusement of those around us. A bit of a downer was put on the celebrations just before midnight however, when someone discovered that they had had their purse stolen, including a credit card.

There was a carnival making it’s way up and down Wale Street until the early hours of the morning, which the two of us watching were slightly baffled by. The carnival was made up of different groups of people representing different organisations. Each had a drum major followed by a band, and then a group of people walking behind, all with umbrellas. Each group also had its own distinctive coloured suits, and some had banners explaining who they were. Although we weren’t too sure exactly what was going on, everyone involved seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, from the two year olds to the ninety year olds.

The morning continued and gradually people started drifting home, until there were only two of us, Annelieke and I, who decided to keep the original plan for New Year alive. So we took a taxi to the top of Signal Hill and watched as the first sunrise of the New Year came up over Cape Town. It was a great moment, with a view over the city centre and some of the suburbs, the waterfront and the ocean, Table Mountain and Devils Peak, and in the distance the mountains of South Africa.

Unsurprisingly I was up late on New Years Day, the last full day in Cape Town for most people. I spent the afternoon at Sea Point. We had intended to go roller blading down the sea front (which would have been an interesting experience for me, not being able to roller blade!) but found that it has been banned, so that put a rather abrupt end to that plan. In the evening I went to the cinema at the Waterfront, deciding to take advantage of another home comfort before heading back into Africa the next day. We saw the new animated feature, Finding Nemo, which was surprisingly enjoyable. Still a kid at heart, it seems!

The next morning I was up early to see off the Lesotho volunteers as well as two working in South Africa, who were travelling together for a little while longer before returning to their projects. Throughout the morning goodbyes were being said as people started to leave, and then we got on our own bus bound for Johannesburg. We arrived at six the next morning after a few hours got straight on our next bus, to Malawi. We then spent a couple of nights in Malawi while we obtained new visas for Mozambique and finally travelled home on the 6th January. Our passports now look very pretty after all the travelling, as we got two stamps at every border crossing and a handful of transit and tourist visas – quite a good collection. Unfortunately that only leaves me with about six pages left!

My time in Cape Town was an excellent break from the day-to-day life of living in Mozambique, and was the most enjoyable and best-remembered time of my gap year so far. Nearly all the Project volunteers we met already knew each other and were a closely bonded group, and it was impressive how much they opened up and accommodated Tim, Ellie and myself, the newcomers to the group. After a total of only ten nights I felt as though we had known them much longer. So if any of you are reading – thanks for making a great holiday!

We have now been back in Lichinga for nearly two weeks, and returned to work last Monday. I am now teaching one computing course and one English course, due to a very low demand for English. I am however glad of having a more diverse day, and am enjoying teaching English more as a result. Having said that there is little uptake I taught the biggest class ever on Thursday, with all of seven students. With the language barrier and the fact that the computing students are, with one exception, complete beginners, teaching that course is hard work and a slow process. It can also be difficult to come up with ways of keeping students entertained and involved in the lesson, because until they have mastered the basics it is all very repetitive and boring. But I am getting there, and I’ve only had a week!

I awoke after my first night back at home to find that the guard on duty had caught a monkey overnight, and tied him to a tree! He kept us mildly entertained for a couple of days and we fed him bananas and other fruits from the garden. On the third day however he got cheeky and ventured into the house. The guard wasn’t keen on this idea, and picked the monkey up by the tail, walked across the garden and through him over a twelve-foot wall into the school beyond!

Today we had another go at baking bread, something we tried once before at the end of September. We were unable to obtain yeast however, and it wasn’t a total success! Since then however both Tim and I have had yeast sent to us, and so today’s effort was a lot more successful. Still needs perfecting but we’ll give it another go some other time. We have also finally braved the trip into the meat section and bought half a kilogram of beef, or possibly goat, we’re not too sure. It wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be.

I apologies for the time it’s taken for this update to get to you. When we returned the office was still on holiday, and in fact the two lawyers only arrived from Maputo today. Because of this no bills have been paid and the phone line has been cut off. We offered to pay the bill in the short term so we could use the phone line for the Internet, but were told that it was twelve million meticias. That’s a lot of money even in Mozambican currency, although its about £300 to you and me.

I’ve just noticed how long these updates have become since the first few, where I was writing just shy of 1000 words. So apologies for the length, but it suppose it only goes to show what a great time I had! I have written a much shorter version in Portuguese, which is currently being marked. I’ll let you know how it went!

I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Years; I look forward to spending the next one with you!

Nic

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