A couple weekends ago, we set out on our first road trip in
the Honda Stream, to Nampula. I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I was a
little nervous but not really sure why. Lots of things I guess. The fact that
there are such long stretches with no gas stations, the fact that there are no
auto repair shops along the way, maybe since there are no tow-trucks and a
smidge nervous about all of the small villages you have to drive through with
people casually walking across the road.
All that being said, people drive to Nampula every day and
they survive. =)
The main reason we were going to Nampula was to visit a
capulana factory. A friend of mine, Laura, who also has a fashion line joined
us on the trip. We took two vehicles so we could buy lots of things! Nampula is
a larger city about 6 hours away. They
definitely have a larger selection of things and often lower prices.
The drive was so beautiful. As soon as you get outside of
Pemba, mountains start popping up everywhere. The lush green landscape just
rolls on as far as the eye can see and sprinkled throughout are small mud huts
and children. It’s amazing how beautiful the rainy season is.
The first hour and a half of the trip, was quite nice. The
roads were fairly good and then they just turned to junk: paved roads full of
pot holes mixed with stretches of dirt road. We typically drive on the left
hand side of the road but really you drive where the holes are easiest to pass.
We went through one stretch of bad roads, where every 15
feet there were kids putting dirt in the holes. As you approach, they stop what
they are doing to rub the tips of their fingers together, asking for money.
This is another one of those things that just kills me. I would gladly give
some money for this effort, BUT there are so many kids and I know that stopping
our car and rolling down the window would mean mass chaos. I want to say to the
kids, just have one money collector and then divide your earning as the end of
the day! But I’m sure that would have issues too.
The best part about these kids is the smaller ones. First of
all, I should mention that these roads are so bad we are driving about 10 mph
near the kids. So when I say small kids, I would guess them to be 5-7 years
old. You can tell they just think this is all a lot of fun. Playing in the
dirt, sort of filling holes, hanging out with their friends, looking at the
passing cars and asking for money… I like them because even as it was obvious
that we weren’t going to stop, they had HUGE smiles on their faces. They were just
so happy. The slightly older kids, not so much. There was such a difference,
their expressions were full of disappointment and frustration.
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| Entering the Lurio River bridge, which means we are leaving our Province and enter Nampula Province. |
Our drive continued on. Police here operate very differently
than in the states. They don’t single you out and pull you over because you
have done anything wrong. Rather a group of police set up alongside the road
under a tree, in what we would call a Police Control, or Control. At times
there are a few orange cones out to mark their location, at times not. There
are usually 2 – 3 what I call vehicle police, in navy pants with a white shirt.
There are also usually other police which I refer to as people police, as they
walk around checking people ID’s and watching for theft, these guys wear all
green and carry some sort of huge gun.
Typically, these guys just want to check your documents and
then they send you on your way. Sometimes they will have a “gun” to check your
speed. But at times they will hassle you about nothing. With Nunu and Latino in
the other car, we sort of let them be our scape goat… as it’s hard to signal
for two cars to pull over at once. So because of this Laura and I were able to
squeeze through each control.
So what do you do when you need something along the way? For
a bathroom, pull over and find a bush. For food or drink, pull to the side of
the road in any village and a crowd will come to you offering an assortment of
items.
We passed through a section where the people on the side of
the road all had chickens. Nunu kept stopping so I finally called him to ask
him what they were selling… wild chickens. Apparently Nunu wants some.
A little ways down the road, Nunu pulls off again. I look
around unsure why he stopped, because no one was trying to sell chickens. As we
passed the car, I saw it had a flat tire. Laura threw it in reverse and got out
of the car. Apparently when we reversed there were a couple of little girls on
the side of the road, they were so scared that they dropped their bag and ran
75 feet or so from the road. Even when we got out of the car to talk to Nunu
and Latino, they wouldn’t return and just stood there. That was a first.
We were able to get the car jacked up and the tire off, but
we didn’t have the right things to unscrew the spare from under the car! Ugh. A
truck stopped and offered his tool, but none of them fit either. We sent Laura
and Latino off to try to find the correct size tool. I was hoping they wouldn’t
be gone more than an hour, so you can imagine my surprise when they were back
10 minutes later! Just up the road they found a little cluster of motorcycle
repair guys! So thankful!! Tire on and we are on our way!
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| Nunu and Latino with the motorcycle repair guy. |
An hour or so from Nampula it was really easy to buy
cashews. The street was lined with people that were positioned every 30 or so
feet. This might sound amazing, but it’s actually really frustrating. The guys,
who are usually in their late teen/early twenties, stand at the very edge of
the road. When they see a car approaching they stick their arm into the road,
where you are driving 60+ mph. I don’t get it. Nunu would pass these guys and
then they would take a step out into the road, I’m talking 3 feet into the road.
Laura would have to swerve not to hit them and at times there would be oncoming
traffic. It honestly infuriated me!
The sun was setting, which was absolutely beautiful, so
visibility was low; headlights were starting to create a glare in the windows and
we had people jumping out in front of our car.
All that stress in the final hour… ugh! But we made it to
Nampula, where we stayed at an Airbnb right in the city center, it was great!
We spent our time in Nampula driving around looking for
lights, a washing machine, an air conditioner and some other things. While I
had heard stories of organized robbers, we didn’t experience any of that. In
talking with others, it sounds like Nampula has been cracking down on this sort
of stuff (yay!).
On our way home, I drove with Nunu. The trip was rather
uneventful, with the exception of the Control stop. We got pulled over by an all-female
group of police, or at least I only saw females. They were fine at first, until
they asked Nunu to lower the back windows. They wanted to check our window
tint. We have run into this problem a lot, because it’s illegal to add tint to
windows but okay if it was factory installed… go figure. Our is factory installed
but the first woman stood their trying her hardest to get our tint to scrape.
It was like nails on a chalk board. She told Nunu we would have to pay a
ticket. Nunu got so frustrated and continued to insist that we bought the car
this way. The woman called her boss over, and now we had two women both
scraping with their thumb nails on the edges of our rear windows trying with
all their might to get them to peal… even though they don’t peal, they still
INSIST we are going to be fined. I’m searching frantically through my phone
trying to find pictures, it’s not that the fine was big that bothered me, but
the fact that we were being bullied! And just like that they tell us we can go.
No idea what Nunu said, no idea what changed their mind, but off we went.
We got home a bit after dark, exhausted beyond belief and
overjoyed to be back home.
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| Nampula has a Shoprite, Pemba has one opening this year. I was so excited to check it out, it is a proper grocery store! |
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| A little glimpse at the capulana factory. Next blog will have more details! |
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| Just outside Nampula, you find lots of people selling fresh cashews. They all basically just try shoving their cashews at you. |
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| It's quite overwhelming! But yummy and SUCH a bargain! |
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| Kept trying to take video of the trip, wishing I had a dash cam. Then I had an idea... 2 pony tails, 1 cell phone and 1 review camera = dash cam! |
