Maputo, MozambiqueWednesday, September 9, 2009
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Europe to Africa DAY #3
What a day! We got up and had breakfast at the hotel. Then our same taxi driver, Joseph, took us to the airport in Johannesburg. Everything at the airport in Johannesburg went smoothly today. We were, once again, blessed beyond all measure by not being charged any extra for the extra weight in luggage we had. The flight was pretty bumpy. I mean, I don’t ever get airsick and I felt a little woozy. We landed at the airport in Maputo safely, though.
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Once we walked from the tarmac to inside the airport, we immediately had to pay $25.00 each for one month visas (which we will later change out for one year visas). The thing is, the officials took our passports and our money and left somewhere. This would have made me a little nervous, as I couldn’t tell who were airport officials and who were not at times. Some people who we thought were airport officials with tags “helped” us get our luggage off the conveyer belt. They “helped” us through customs, where one lady checked one of our bags, and then told us to move on. We were told by one of our “helpers” outside that he actually told her to overlook our things in exchange for money from us, which again we never asked for. Our “helpers” mostly spoke only Portuguese as well, which was really challenging. We only started learning basic phrases in Portuguese before we came to Mozambique. I found myself using more Spanish and trying to tweak the accent like Portuguese, which seemed to work all day. Thankfully the languages are close enough to do this. We will definitely be attempting to learn Portuguese fluently, though, in order to really communicate well.
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After exchanging some U.S. Dollars to Mozambique Meticals, and paying off the customs official and our helpers (fortunately didn’t take much…but welcome to Africa, where poverty leads many to do whatever they can to make money), we ran into our next set of challenges. There were supposed to be two taxis waiting for us that were supposed to take us to a place called the “Oasis,” which is a guest house close to the airport. Our taxis weren’t there. We got a hold of them and the “Oasis,” who told us they were sending a taxi. We waited and waited with no sign of anyone. We finally flagged down another big taxi that looked like it could fit us all and our luggage in it, and decided we would look for the “Oasis” with the driver, or another hotel perhaps. We finally arrived at the “Oasis,” only to find that their office was closed and that they were no vacancies (even though we pre-arranged things with them). We then decided to search for another hotel. We went to hotel after hotel asking for an available room. There were absolutely no vacancies. I guess there were many things happening in Maputo this particular week; seminars, a festival and sports events, and every hotel was full.
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We finally got a hold of Jesse in Lichinga, who told us we should go to the IRIS Ministries base which is outside of town. Our taxi driver said he couldn’t take us there, as the company he worked for would not allow him. But he did have a good friend that he called to see if he could take us. He agreed. This other guy met us where we were parked after hours of searching for vacancies, with no restroom and no food since our lunch on the plane. It was after dark and we drove to the IRIS base. We had no food and two bottles of water, but we did have a few chocolate bars, which we ate for “dinner.” The people at the IRIS base were very welcoming. We were given a room with some cots. They even have a light in the room and one plug so that I can plug our computer in and write this blog. God is so good to us. We took the time to just thank God together as for seeing us through, even when things seemed hopeless. This is truly an adventure.
.
After exchanging some U.S. Dollars to Mozambique Meticals, and paying off the customs official and our helpers (fortunately didn’t take much…but welcome to Africa, where poverty leads many to do whatever they can to make money), we ran into our next set of challenges. There were supposed to be two taxis waiting for us that were supposed to take us to a place called the “Oasis,” which is a guest house close to the airport. Our taxis weren’t there. We got a hold of them and the “Oasis,” who told us they were sending a taxi. We waited and waited with no sign of anyone. We finally flagged down another big taxi that looked like it could fit us all and our luggage in it, and decided we would look for the “Oasis” with the driver, or another hotel perhaps. We finally arrived at the “Oasis,” only to find that their office was closed and that they were no vacancies (even though we pre-arranged things with them). We then decided to search for another hotel. We went to hotel after hotel asking for an available room. There were absolutely no vacancies. I guess there were many things happening in Maputo this particular week; seminars, a festival and sports events, and every hotel was full.
.
We finally got a hold of Jesse in Lichinga, who told us we should go to the IRIS Ministries base which is outside of town. Our taxi driver said he couldn’t take us there, as the company he worked for would not allow him. But he did have a good friend that he called to see if he could take us. He agreed. This other guy met us where we were parked after hours of searching for vacancies, with no restroom and no food since our lunch on the plane. It was after dark and we drove to the IRIS base. We had no food and two bottles of water, but we did have a few chocolate bars, which we ate for “dinner.” The people at the IRIS base were very welcoming. We were given a room with some cots. They even have a light in the room and one plug so that I can plug our computer in and write this blog. God is so good to us. We took the time to just thank God together as for seeing us through, even when things seemed hopeless. This is truly an adventure.
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Christian Young
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