Thanksgiving 2011

A diversion from our overview of Mozambique to report on our recent Thanksgiving trip and celebration !

The Trip…. Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, began and continued gloomy, with a light rain. Prospects did not look good for “bolea”-ing (hitchhiking) with 3 other volunteers north 150 miles to meet our fellow volunteers for a three day Thanksgiving Weekend. Nonetheless, despite the weather, the 5 hour journey was pleasant enough. We managed to negotiate the journey in only 3 truck rides on the lovely, palm-fringed EN1 (National Highway 1), with occasional glimpses of the Indian Ocean. Without event,  we took our final leg – a pretty shabby ferry boat across the bay from the highway to Inhambane city to meet up with our colleagues.

Inhambane…And so, to our final destination. A small, pleasant colonial city reminiscent of Mexico or central America. And, a fair quota of well-fed, well-housed South African tourists and NGO-employed ex-pats…a bit different from my home city of Xai Xai, for sure. Inhambane is also the gateway to a few (reportedly) beautiful beach towns, Bara and Tofu. Hope to make it to them some time and answer the age-old question: is t he Tofu hard, soft or spicy?

 The Food… We prepared a large Thanksgiving dinner for our 15 attendees. We were able to make a mostly traditional menu, thanks to the local market (Chinese, large) and a well-stocked supermarket, The Bull. Included many traditional dishes to make it feel like home: cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, apple pie and chicken (tastes like turkey).

Plenty to go around – the only thing missing was football !.

Our journey home was managed under blue skies, in the back of a couple flat bed trucks, shared with bags of charcoal, and one very quiet goat owned by one very drunk passenger.

Until next time…”Ate Ja” (See you soon!)