¿Vocé fala português?
(You speak Portuguese?)
The tall black man looked at me inquisitively, somewhat dumbfounded that this sandy, t-shirt clad, blond haired girl sitting in the back of a rickety white truck had responded to him in Portuguese.
¿De ondé vocé é?
Eu sou dos estados unidos.
¿Mas, fala português?
Si, estou estudandou português na universidade com uma profesora brasiliera.
¡Que bom! Vocé fala como uma brasiliera. Aqui nos falamos mais como pessoas de Portugual.
(Where are you from?
I am from the US.
But, you speak Portuguese?
Yes, I am studying Portuguese at my university with a Brasilian professor.
Oh, good! You speak like a Brasilian. Here we speak more like people from Portugual.)
Ernesto, my new acquaintance laughed and smiled heartily. It was dusk and the sun was quickly disappearing behind the sparse trees and clumps of bushes. The open land around us was interupted by the dark tar of the loan road and several layers of barbed wire fence reaching about 12 feet high and cutting into the skyline. Between the layers of fence lay a brown wooden building with restrooms and a customs office. Uniformed men walked by with heavy boots. Some wore stearn faces to match their rifles, but others were more jovial, glad that it was nearly 5 o’clock and the end of their workday.
Our car was parked next to a small, rather delapitated wooden shack. It sat haphazardly 50 feet from the first fence, which marked the South African border with Mozambique. Our group, which consisted of our host Mama, her sister Ngoli, their uncle Lucky, two young men from Manguzi, Lauren, Elizabeth, and myself, were in and around the car, chatting with Mama and Ngoli’s friends from Mozambique, who had decided to spontaneously cross the border for the evening. The border crossing, which would have cost me about $450 rand (about $70 dollars) for a visa, is free for South African and Mozambiquen citizens, and both groups had evidently taken advantage of it. The friends spoke together enthusiastically in a mixture of English and Zulu, making plans for the rest of the evening.
Our host mama gathered the group’s attention.“Dinner is re-ady,” she announced, prompting our Mozambiquen friends to head towards their cars and our group to move in the direction of the small shack and appetizing smells. I got up slowley, ducking my head as I jumped out of the truck. The movement dislodged the sand that had lodged itself between my toes and in other parts of my body, remnants of our adventures in Kosi Bay.
I had been surprised earlier that morning when Mama informed us that we were spending the afternoon in Kosi Bay. Manguzi is quite close to the coast line, but I tend to forget that. Up until that point my knowledge of this rural city consisted mainly of our host family’s house, Manguzi hospital, the “Supatrade Spar” Grocery Store, the bustling market, and the winding dirt path ways connecting my points of reference. Driving north out of town, towards the coast, Elizabeth, Lauren, and I pointed excitedly to new sites that were new to us.
The beautiful view at an inlet in Kosi Bay
“They have a Steers!” Elizabeth exclaimed. I turn to see the Steers tucked into the back of a gas station. Elizabeth is excited not about the fried chicken and South African fast food, but because they have vanilla frozen yogurt for 5 rand a cone (about 80 cents). Under Elizabeth’s disciplined tutelage, we have been trying to stick to a healthier diet here in Manguzi. Given the fact that we are grocery shopping and cooking for ourselves, this has been feasible while staying without our budget. Paired with our healthy diet, most days when getting home from work, Lauren, Elizabeth, and I do planks, sit-ups, squats, push-ups, dips, and other exercizes. We turn on ChanelO, our host family’s favorite TV channel which plays lots of American music videos, along with music from a variety of African countires. At some point, a Steers frozen yogurt would be a delicious treat and reward for our health conscious efforts. Driving out of Manguzi, we also noticed other interesting shops and decided next weekend, when we have some free time, we will need to explore the town more.
Today, however, was a chance to explore the natural beauty outside town...
(to be continued)
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