Trip to Nampula Mozambique

So we made it back to Mozambique!

We flew out of Lexington and eventually landed in Johannesburg, South Africa, where we spent the night at a lodge just outside of town. It was kind of neat, actually, to wake up to some cool and fresh air and walk around the lodge where they had some local game.


From J-burg we flew to Beira and spent a few days there both catching up with and saying good bye to friends and other missionaries before beginning the two day trip up to Nampula. That first day we stopped off in Gorongosa--the district that we had spent quite a bit of time working in since arriving in Mozambique. We were able to meet up with a couple of former Mozambican co-workers and it was neat to see them while the boys ran around and got out some energy.

We arrived at the Zambezi River in the early afternoon. You have to cross it by barge and that particular day the barge workers took an extra long lunch break. So we waited in line for about an hour and a half before finally crossing. It was another good little break for the kids, though, as they had one more stop to get out and ran around. We watched women washing clothes and little kids playing on the banks of the river--right beside the signs warning of crocodiles (The Zambezi is notorious for crocodile and hippo attacks!)

We also watched as all kinds of animals were loaded onto trucks and readied to cross the river. Particularly interesting was a herd of goats who were quite unceremoniously hauled up on top of a large truck where they were tied up and left to endure the rest of their journey.

After two days of travel in our car, we finally made it to Nampula where we stayed in some guest housing for about two weeks before moving into our own apartment. We are so thankful for the safety of the trip and excited to be back here in Mozambique.

We don't have quite the same "view of the Indian Ocean" as we had in Beira (Nampula is about three hours inland from the coast) and I know we'll miss the sea--dirty or not. But we are enjoying the interesting rock formations and mountains that this area is known for. And we're looking forward to our next trip to the ocean!