Back in TZ

After a whole day long challenge of crossing the border between Mozambique and Tanzania at the Rovuma river (including 3 rides in the back of pick-up trucks and a boat across the river), I am back in Tanzania. Still a week to go before I come back to Poland, but travelling in northern Mozambique wasn't nearly as time consuming as everyone and Lonely Planet warned me.

The last couple of days in Mozambique were really sweet. Except maybe for Pemba, which is an overly touristy place for me (but at the same time it is there where, while scuba diving, I heard the sounds of whales!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! amazing amazing amazing experience!), but Montepuez, Mocimboa da Praia and Palma totally made up for it by being absolutely tourist-free and providing me with some really nice encounters and relaxed walks around the market etc.

I'm already missing Mozambique: all the incredibly kind people, portuguese language, beautiful cities and landscape (and the ocean...), nonexistence of the word 'mzungu' (in Tz used, far too often, for all the white foreigners - in Mozambique there is no word of this kind)... Hmm... I am already looking for good connections to Johannesburg - it's only a couple of hours from Maputo ;)

Photos!

Thanks to the extremely unusual here opportunity of using free wifi iat some backpackers' place in Pemba, I can finally upload some photos! The descriptions are coming soon :)

Sailors. Tanzania

Malawi

Mocambique

Mozambique - too great to have time to write

The title says it all. Mozambique has been to great for me to have time to hang out too much in the internet cafes :)
First Tete - in the north. Cold and rainy (although it´s supposed to be Mozambique´s hottest place), but a really nice town, with good people and an amazing bridge over Zambezi. I LOVE bridges, by the way.
Then Chimoio - a whole day of meeting interesting people: Mozambiquans, Canadian, Austrian, Spanish... And the first day of Ramadan, start of anti-malaria sprayings and a busy day at the market.
Beira - three days with a French family of couchsurfers - with two sweetest little girls on Earth. Lots of inspiring stories (from living in French Guyana and Madagascar), projects (compost-producing business in Beira!!!), books (Consuming twice less for twice better living :)), music (there´s a whole new list on my computer) and a good time of running errands in Beira, going out with friends, gardening in the backyard... Wonderful wonderful time.
Quelimane. Short but sweet - a beautiful town, perfect for an afternoon walk.
Nampula. A beautiful town with amazing post-colonial buildings, wide streets and surprisingly almost no life after dark. Why?? Still, good people and a really good, although small ethnographic musem with a good collection of Makonde masks and wonderful staff, giving English lessons while there are no visitors :)
And now I´m in heaven. Officially called Ilha de Moçambique. Sort of little Zanzibar, but much smaller, much more beautfiul and much less touristy (although still quite touristy compared to the other towns I visited). Still, it´s incredibly beautiful, relaxed and filled with good people.
Photos are coming, but I need to figure out how to connect my computer here.

Malawi continues

I just got to Mozambique yesterday, but here still some photos from Malawi.

Giant bao game (mankala type). Honestly, the only interesting thing in Lilongwe, the most boring city ever. There are only banks, take-aways for turists/volunteers and lots of dust.

Yep, people are shocked if you are NOT a volunteer in Malawi. For some reason (safety, stability, low HDI..?) Malawi seems to be British and Americans volunteers' favourite place to be.

Hand made, recycled paper in Blantyre. eFTe love.

Malawi Gin. Lots of it here, obviously. Not a lot of taste in the gin though.

+ more picts

ethiopian restaurant in blantyre. dla daryjki :) ja chcę taką w warszawie!!

museum of malawi in blantyre. exhibition box about livingstone. my bet is that the words that are taped over used to say "rhodesia", "discovered", "nyasa".... that's how present changes the past ;)

soccer stadium in blantyre. facing a shopping mall...

montessori preschool means that there are a LOT of expats here...

Imprevu continuesss

Songwe border (Tanznia>Malawi). I spend here much more time than I thought. I turned out that there are not enough visa stickers (sic!) in the nearest immigration office so they were supposed to reject everyone who applied for a visa here.... It took me 2h and a couple of phone calls to the Immigration Headquarters to convince them to let me in. But at the same time, I liberated a group of 13 people (+potentially 10 more) (Iranis, Russians, Greeks etc.) going to the psychodelic music festival who were stuck there since the morning. In return, I got a place on the bus with them and off we went to the festival :)

Lake Nyasa (Malawi). Beautiful. Amazing. The best for a morning swim. And big paper balloons with little lights in them, set off by some people from the party and flying away into the lake - it was the most beautiful thing to see ever...

That's how the party place looked in the morning. I didn't deare to take pictures at night. It was all fluorescent, esp. the mashrooms, glowing and moving in the wind... Plus a bunch of good people.

Imprevu continues

I'm not in a photo-taking mood really. Don't know why. But here are some pictures I have taken so far:

Dar es Salaam. It has changed a lot since I was here for the first time 3 years ago. Construction sites and new office buildings are everywhere.

Fresh chapatis and tea with kardamon at Mbeya's market. The best morning treat.

Landscape in the south of Tanzania. BEAUTIFUL!!!!! Hills, lush vegetation, cool climate. I could live here.

The unforeseen

My horoscope in Tanzanian 'The Citizen' from September 4th advised me to stay flexible for unforeseen changes of my plans. So I do.

First of all, it turned out that I would have to wait for the Mozambican visa 5 days in Dar, while on the Malawi-Mozambique border I get it straight away. So: going to Malawi.

Then I wanted to go straight to Mbeya, closest to the Malawi border, but there were no more buses. So I got on the bus (together with 800 top quality little chickens) to Iringa , half way, hoping for a connecting bus to Mbeya. And there it was. And waiting on the bus, I met 2 Finnish that are going to a sort of a 'psychodelic electronic' music festival held as a backup to a huge event that was supposed to take place at Mafia island in Tanzania, but got canceled in the last moment. Still, in Malawi there are supposed to be a couple hundred people from all around a world listening to really freaky music. Why not pop in for a night? It's on my way anyway.

What else?
... blackouts in Dar. There are more of them than I remembered from the last times. And they are there day and night. At night it's impossible not to notice. During the day time, you can tell that the electricity is gone by a sudden explosion of the noise of power generators that most of the local houses and businesses are equipped with.

... elections coming up. You can see pre-elections meetings all over the place. The newspapers are full of them. There is probably not going to be a change in the ruling party (CCM has been in power ever since the independence), but the interesting fact is that in the primaries many of the ministers and other long-term MPs have lost to new candidates. So, the analysts say, democracy is working! :)

ay.... got to go!

Sailed away

So, the Sailors on Citizenship training just ended. It felt like AGES. Some usual stuff, some challenging experiences, but most of all: wonderful wonderful people. It was crazy luck to gather such a sweet group in one place. Lots of cool discussions. Some exciting ideas. Life is soo good...

with Mahlubi and Siphelo! 'On the Veg' project coming up soon!!! :)

only a part of our sweet sweet group!!

there were some bad boys and girls too!

at work!

more picts

study visit in the Ministry. interesting....

yes or no?

all happened in Dar es Salaam!

first evening

Mbagala spiritual center...

...equiped with everything you might need.

some fun tooo... ocean's the best!

will missssssssssss them allllll!!!