Originally distributed November 2009
That was a quote from one of the volunteers as we returned to Swaziland from a trip to Mozambique. All you really need to know is, clearly, she gives too much information about her gastrointestinal status and it was a very long road trip. But those of us who have gotten to know her in the past month found it hilarious. We had just been joking about how she tells us all the time when she has to poo, as if we want to know, while she was off buying her ice cream. Then while we were waiting for one last person to return to the car, sure enough she announced that she had to poo. We were dying.
She was one of our Kruger to Coast volunteers in October. For the last of their 4 weeks with us they go to Tofo, Mozambique for a week at the beach that includes snorkeling with whale sharks and kayaking to nearby islands. Tofo is about a 10hr drive from Swaziland, so it makes for a long day in the car.
I was only in Tofo for a couple days. I went up with the company director and the seasonal turtle researcher. I got to go on an ocean safari and snorkel with two whale sharks though. Amazing! And I wore a wetsuit for the first time in my life. Sadly I forgot to document it on film. I guess I’ll just have to go back! Actually, I hardly took any pictures while in Tofo. The 2nd of my two full days there it was raining.
The people there are nice and laid back. Nobody pays attention to the time. The sand on the beach is soft like Florida sand. And you can get loads of fresh seafood, which doesn’t exist in landlocked Swaziland. Since Mozambique was colonized by the Portuguese I was able to communicate with them using Spanish. Many people there also speak English though, so you don’t really have to know Portuguese or Spanish. The funny thing about languages is, now that I’ve been greeting Swazis in siSwati all the time I had to make an effort not to greet the Mozambicans in siSwati.
The day that we went to Tofo was also the day they were electing their president. I’m happy to report that there were no riots, protests, or demonstrations of any kind. Men and women peacefully lined up at their local polling places and voted using their inked thumb prints.
Another experience I had that one would never expect to have in Africa was attending the Simunye “fun fair” in Swaziland. It’s just like your local county fair complete with fair rides. Just like in the US you buy little raffle tickets to ride the rides. But unlike in the US the kids don’t follow the concept of waiting in line. They form a line of sorts but then cut as much as possible. I went with a couple of friends and after long periods of waiting and never riding we decided we had no qualms about elbowing little kids out of the way to get our turn. For a video clip of my friend clothes-lining a 10 yr old go to Youtube. Just kidding. But we did have to puff ourselves up a bit and throw our weight around to keep kids from cutting. It was pretty funny.
One rather strange experience that day was when my two friends and I got on the ride that goes around in a circle really fast and lifts off the ground slightly so you get severe centripetal forces going on. My friends rode together so I was riding alone. But some local teenage girl decided to ride with me so she hopped in. When the guy came around to collect our tickets she pointed at me as if I had her tickets. I said, “I don’t have her tickets.” (kind of like in that song, “I ain’t tryina pay that girl”) Then I said to my friends sitting in front of us, “This girl thought I was going to pay for her. Can you believe it?” Yes, there are poor kids in Swaziland. Swazi kids, and some adults as well, have no issues with coming up to you and asking for money or asking you to buy them chips or soda (usually in the grocery store). But come on. We had to pay $10 to get into the fair in the 1st place. She had nicer clothes on than mine! Then she wants to be my charity case? I don’t think so. I joked afterward that maybe she came to the fair with her boyfriend and then they broke up, so she was stuck with no cash. Oh well!
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