Four and a half of us (Matt, an employee here at the park,
Anthea, the wife of Mike the helicopter pilot, Megan, a visiting student from Trinity
Collage in Dublin, me and Caden) headed
to Chimoio on Friday morning. And this trip was exciting for me because we were
getting to town by a little bit of a different route than last year. We met at
the Chicalango restaurant at 8am and had a quick bite to eat before hitching a
ride with a scientist who was driving down to the Pungue river.
Caught mid-sneeze.
Little man still has his breakfast muffin.
Walking the last little bit to the boat.
Just your average trip into town.
After crossing the
river, which was wide and shallow and had a much stronger current than it
looked like, we walked for about 10 minutes to the hospital where Andres’ truck
was parked—he was letting Matt borrow it for the day.
At the hospital Matt showed Caden how to pump
water like the locals do. And then off we went down this horrendously bumpy
dirt road. Now, when I say “horrendously bumpy” what I want you to visualize is
a cowboy trying to hold on to a bucking bronco. That’s how bumpy it was!
And Caden fell asleep anyway. Sometimes I don’t get that
child. I’m sitting next to him trying to hold on to my teeth and he’s nodding
off in his carseat.
Once we were in Chimoio we, of course, took care of the most
important things first and stopped at an ATM. Matt stayed in the car with
Caden, and Anthea, Megan and I went for money. At the ATM Megan had a creepy
encounter with a man who had a crisp suit and a lazy eye. He was as affectionate
as a drunk, but he knew what he was about because when she jumped back from his
oily smile he took her place in line… like a punk.
For the first time I considered how lucky it was that I didn’t
know Portuguese, because if I were fluent, I would have wanted to give him a
piece of my mind for sure!
So after that… interesting experience, we went FABRIC
SHOPPING. Woo!
I learned a lot about Anthea’s shopping abilities on this
trip. She doesn’t really speak Portuguese either but apparently good bargaining
doesn’t require that both parties speak the same language. She was winking and
smiling and pointing out flaws in the fabric and getting discounts left and
right. Her skills were a wonder to behold, especially for me since I have never
been a good haggler. I’m too American, I guess. I either assume the price is
the price, or that offering a lower price will somehow insult the shop owner.
Like Daniel Son under the tutelage of Mr. Miyagi, I have much to learn from this
Bargain Master.
Surprisingly, I didn’t actually get any fabric for myself on
this trip. I went into that shop with things like curtains and throw pillows on
my mind. I didn’t see anything that fit the bill for either, and didn’t feel
like transitioning my mind to fabric just for fabric’s sake. Shocking, I know,
but I wasn’t worried. We’ll be here for a while and I’ll get another chance to buy
capulanas. At least I got some fabric for another scientist who hadn’t been
able to come and had sent some money and a short shopping list with me, and
Caden and I both had fun looking around at everything. He kept climbing over
the flatfolds and saying, “Ooh, this one’s pretty!”
Sorry for the bad picture. I didn’t remember to take any
pictures until after we’d already left the shop. Then I had to hurry back and
take a quick shot through the iron bar door that they’d closed because they
were all going to lunchtime. At least I remembered to take a picture at all
this time. If we go back to that shop again I will try to take a couple more so
you can all really appreciate the size of this shop. The amount of fabric in there
is just overwhelming!
After they’d shooed us out of the shop so they could close
for lunch, the plan was that we would stop at this pizza place Matt liked and
get some lunch of our own. But when we got there it was all closed up! We were
all a little bummed, but Matt also knew of a really good place that served this
amazing chicken, so we went there instead, but not before doing some veggie
shopping at a local market. This place was the real deal, folks. Just look at
those pictures!
I had shopping lists from several people that wanted fresh
produce, and Matt and Anthea were both so helpful in finding the veggies and
carrying the bags. Matt speaks Portuguese muito bem, so he did a lot of the
questions and translating for us, but I remembered how to say a couple things
and was so proud of myself when I understood the answers.
It’s the little things in life that make you happy.
After that we had lunch. That. Chicken. Was. Amazing! And
they gave us so much food! We got three large plates of this awesome chicken,
with salad, rice and French fries on the side, which was more than enough food
for four and a half people. Lunch cost us 880.00 Meticais, which is about
$30.00 US. Not bad, huh? I wish I’d gotten the name of that place…
Oh well. Matt knows where it is. I’ll just bug him for the
address if I need it.
After that we went to the grocery store and then we drove
back to Gorongosa on the main road, which was as full of car-size potholes as
it usually is, but was not nearly as bad as that dirt road was. And last but certainly not least, we stopped at a roadside stand for some fruit.
Bananas! Bananas that weigh more than Caden!
Crossing the Pungue on our way back to the park. This time we drove over the bridge instead of taking the boat.
Caden fell
asleep on the way home as well, and woke up just in time to see a porcupine
right outside of the park gate. It was dark, so I didn’t get a picture, but you should
definitely Google the African crested porcupine. It is really neat looking.
See you then.
No comments:
Post a Comment