A Day In The Bush

Today is Saturday, my first day off since arriving in the country. My interpreter has commandeered a car and a few liters of gasoline from SEMOC for us to take a trip out into the countryside. We went up to the Manica province which near the boarder with Zimbabwe. When we set out, at about 8am it was still a little bit foggy. We are south of the equator and the seasons are reversed here.

Soon the fog cleared and it was a spectacular clear day.

Along the way, we stopped to buy two bags of charcoal from this man. Making charcoal is an industry in the bush. It is used for cooking and heating water in homes. When you get up in the morning you have to start the fire in the water heater if you expect to have a hot shower. My interpreter was buying the charcoal to send to his wife who is working in Zimbabwe as a nurse. The wages for a nurse are better there, about $150 per month. The man in the photo did not want me to take his photo because he did not have any shoes. But when I insisted he broke out into a big smile.

We did not cross into Zimbabwe, as visa for me would have cost $72. In order for my interpreter to get the charcoal across the border and to his wife, he simply called the train station master who held the train for us until we could get there. We loaded the two bags on charcoal onto the running board of the locomotive. When the engineer gets into Zimbabwe, he will pass the bags off to the uncle of my interpreter’s wife who inturn will deliver them to her house.. To show our gratitude for the favor, we shared a couple of cold ones with the station master. Somethings are just easier in the undeveloped world.

Trains from this station do not carry any passengers, only freight. The tracks were badly damaged during Mozambique's seventeen year civil war and are too unreliable or safe for passenger travel.

The station is deserted now. It would make a great movie set. When I walked around, I thought of the movie “Out of Africa”.

Here is a view from the station looking down on the village of Machipanda . Behind the mountains is Zimbabwe.

 

 

The local Basketball Court

Machipanda Village

After getting the charcoal taken care of, we moved on to Casa Msika Lodge , a resort on lake Chicamba to take our lunch. This lake is world famous for bass fishing and international bass fishing  tournaments have been held here. ( there is also a link on the left panel).

Note to self. Learn how to photo-shop power lines out of otherwise beautiful photos.

Lake Chicamba

Guest Cottage

My interpreter’s sixteen year old son, Francis joined us for the day.

A delicious hamburger Mozambican style.

While waiting for our lunch to be prepared, we visited the “Petting Zoo”.

Chicamba Dam

All in all, a good day.