To view my children, that'll be, 1 metical, a papaya, and some flour please

We slept surprisingly well (but not that great) considering there were 3 of us on a twin bed, until about 5:30am when we got up to try to find a ride to Chiponde.  We got in an open back chapa, aka a pick-up truck, fairly quickly and it filled with about 30 other people, their luggage and we ended up basically hugging boxes of fish and bags of onions for the next few hours.  On our trip, I got to see several monkeys along the road and when we finally got to Chiponde we got through customs and then made our way to the Mozambican side. 

Most comfortable way to travel...

Here the same man that was there the time before, remembered us and we told him, “See we told you we would be back.”  We joked with them for a little bit, then I was asked for a half American half Mozambican baby by one of the younger men working there and then we were on our way.  Right outside of the office, as we were walking by, one of the big trucks transporting goods from Malawi to other places asked us if we were going to Cuamba and when we said yes, they told us to climb in.  We got in the back on top of sacks of cabbage and potatoes.  

My new Mae, the one furthest from the camera

Several other people were picked up and we made a lot of friends and had a lot of stares on the trip home.  I made friends with this old woman who ended up saying she was our Mae and when ever we would stop and several children would just stare at us and we would be joking around with them, she would say in the local language, “These are my children, you need to give me flour to look at them.”  It became a very big joke and at one point we stopped and there were a lot of teenage boys and men standing there staring at us.  We were talking to them and she arranged a lobolo (dowry) of 1 metical and 1 papaya for Tania and I to marry these two guys.   I guess that’s all we were worth to her.  She received the metical but is still waiting for the papaya… so I think only I am officially (by lobolo rules) promised as of now. 

one of the smallest crowds of kids we attracted along the way

We finally arrived in Cuamba after probably the most comfortable ride I have ever had in Mozambique that wasn’t in a private car.  I could move around as I pleased and the sacks of cabbage/potatoes provided a nice bed to lay on and rest if you found just the right spot.  I have to say although one of the reasons I went to Malawi was to go on a safari and see some animals, even though we didn’t get to do that, I would not change our trip for anything and I still can’t believe what became of our trip.  There is always next time…