Mission Visa - Phase Two

So I almost had my passport back. The missing part was a visa. I bought a mts 700 ticket at Fatima's for the bus to Maputo, which would be leaving the next morning at 4:00. At 3:30 I was up and running and waiting for the bus at Fatima's. It got there about 45 minutes later. The drive to Maputo was uneventful but long and slow. It's not a particular Fatima's bus like I thought it would be. It's an express bus from Inhambane to Maputo, meaning it wouldn't stop as much as a small chapa. At first there were only two mulungu (white) girls. But then it gradually filled up with local people whenever we stopped to pick some up on the way out of here. We drove past Inharrime which I remember from our trip to Muguambe with Black Jack and Martin. At some point I bought a refreshment, which should have cost mts 25, with the smallest bill I had – a mts 100 note. Another lady bought one with a mts 50 banknote. The kid who sold the drinks ran off to some other people to get some change, but while he was busy getting change, the bus drove off. That was some quite expensive drinks.

Mission Visa - Phase One

By that time I had finally finished my dive master course and had planned to go down to Maputo to announce that my passport was lost or stolen. Lack of luck or good luck, the road in Xai-Xai had been washed away by the floods, meaning there was no land transport to Maputo for a while. Flying without passport was out of the question. Instead I called the embassy on Monday morning. The call brought me one step closer to depression. They told me they could issue a new passport, which would take two weeks to get here, but that the visa would be handled by the local authorities. I told her about Abdul and the whole situation I was in (being two months late as well). She said they would be calling Abdul, which they did, and gave him until noon to hand them my passport over. Otherwise, I would have to sort out my visa problems myself and would probably have to pay a substantive fine of mts 1'500 per overdue day (about CHF 30.-). This would get expensive if I had to pay the whole amount for two months overdue.

Mission Visa - Introduction

When I got here I met this guy called Abdul. He's a friendly type and seemd to be involved in quite a few local projects. His neat rasta haircut is well kept and he looks very decent in all aspects. Some time later I learned that he helps people out with their visa situation.

The visa system for tourists is so that you can get a single entry 30 days visa which you then can extend, or a 90 days multiple entry visa. Arriving here, I had to replace my 90 days multiple entry visa made in Geneva by a new single entry visa because they said it had been falsified (someone had really scratched a number and I suspect it's the Mozambican embassy in Geneva in trying to correct their mistake). With the multiple entry visa you can only stay 30 days at a time in the country, and then you have to leave and get back in again. With the single entry visa, you can go to the immigration office to extend it. But this only works twice. After that you have to go out of the country. If you use this method you will have more difficulty in getting a new visa at the border, and may have to go to a Mozambican embassy in one of the neighbouring countries.

A wedding ceremony

The journey

My first experience of a true local tradition was a wedding ceremony. A few days earlier, Black Jack (Franzisko by real name), who is working for a local tourism agency providing us (Tofo Scuba) with many customers, invited me to join him for a traditional wedding ceremony in his home village. He also invited Martin, a german fellow who is close to ending his six months internship with them. He arranged for us three to meet at the bus station in Tofo at 6 in the morning of that Friday. When i got there at 10 to 6, Franzisko was already sitting there waiting for me and Martin with fishes for his family.

First day in Mozambique

LAM (Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique) have got a small aircraft with the back of the left propeller support slightly burnt. Can't see the right one, so I cannot tell in what kind of state it is. But maybe that's just how it's supposed to be.

I don't know what kind of craft it was, I was about to take off in. I was sitting in seat 14A which is located under the left wing. The craft is not even half full. As expected, the crew speaks mostly Portuguese, but the captain always says his messages in English after having said them in Portuguese. Although the English version mostly was way shorter than the Portuguese one.

CouchSurfing in Johannesburg

Braai with Laurentia and Robert

CouchSurfing, ever the best way to go discover a new place. You get right to the point within a few hours of meeting your host. I didn't see much yet, but knowing a bit how it works down here in SA (South Africa), I feel quite good while recognizing things that are the same around Namibia and in Cape Town.
Robert fetched me at the airport. His heavy Afrikaans accent in English takes me some time to get accustomed to. His first wife passed away, and he's now been married to Laurentia for 4 or 5 years.

New project

Mozambique

Un nouveau projet s'est profilé dans mon esprit ces 4 derniers mois. Le but en est de voyager sans but précis et surtout sans date de retour définie. Les diverses étapes sont bien entendu secrètes, mais en gros, j'ai parlé de mon projet à Ben qui a vécu en Afrique du Sud. Quand j'ai mentionné la plongée, il m'a dit qu'un de ses amis vivait au Mozambique et qu'il y avait été plongeur. L'ami en question, Lorien, travaille maintenant dans une agence de voyage à Tofo et conseille à ses clients d'aller à Tofo Scuba (www.tofoscuba.co.za) pour plonger.