Little did I know about my new country, Mozambique , but really quickly I realized that cycling here will be interesting.
First of all, the official  language is Portuguese and most of the people talk their mother tongue. In this country I shall be cycling for a long time and for long distances, crossing it from the south to the north. Mozambique is a warm place with warm people , lots of green fields and

coconut trees. My first 1000 km were on the “highway” of the country, connecting the capital, Maputo , to the rest of the country. This road was something to talk about, long distances without any villages on the way, only people that live in the bush. Sometimes they’d get to see crazy stuff like goats on trucks and bicycle… The road is not hilly so the local use the bicycle for short distances and to get water from the well, so it was refreshing to cycle with local and children always race me and the locals shout with joy of our “competition”.
Because of the civil war that they had here, some places are still contaminated with mine-fields, so camping in the wilderness was a bit dangerous. Usually I enter a settlement with straw and mud houses and tell them that I want to sleep there. I always bring some food to share and seeing my big smile they feel like I am a guest of honor, which usually results in singing and dancing. Sometimes I am shocked that I am dancing in Africa with people that I didn’t know yesterday but they feel like I know them long time.
For the western eye the locals are very poor and they don’t have anything but they have what they need and they feel OK with that, only in the cities you may feel that people are different , they drink a lot and 78% of the people are unemployed.
Rural Africa can be sad and happy both at the same time. When you look at the map one may think I am cycling on the coast but this beautiful coast is usually about 20 km away from me and I could see the ocean only for a couple of times.

There was this one time when a car passed by me and was waiting for me in at the end of a small hill. Hendrik and Ean from South Africa were interested who is the brave guy that was cycling in Mozambique . After short conversation they invited me to see a resort that they are building in an island between the ocean and big lake. These people have a great vision and an amazing location. Its interesting to see what will be here in the coming couple of years…Kaydecope.com

knee problems

I felt some pain in my left knee so I was happy to rest in this amazing place and I knew that me and Hendrik will stay in touch and that I will return here one day to write my book. After I get back to my world (I need to get more stories to my book..) the pain started to be too much and I stopped in Inyambani city to see a doctor. After 5 hours of waiting in the local hospital the doctor came. Touching my knee for 3 seconds he went to see my bike and told me to change the position of my seat…I was happy to feel the difference in my knee and was happy to not delay my way.

A funny story

The next settlement of houses after giving them some rice a women asked me if I eat chicken. “Of course I do” I said she then shouted something to her children and they started to chase the chickens… I could not say that the chicken was not a fresh one…

Malaria

4 days ago I was sitting in the shade and reading my book, trying to rest in the heat. When I stood up I felt pain crossing through my lower back. It was as if someone was stabbing me in the back. I thought that it was something to do with my muscle and decided to continue cycling. 300 km later I knew that I can’t go on anymore. This building was standing there, besides the road. There was a white guy, Aaron, and his wife Sarah, with some amazing plans for the local education and building a school for the locals. The said that there is no problem for me to camp at their place.

After placing my tent I lied down on the ground and felt that I can’t move. Every tiny motion was like a journey of pain. Aaron came to see how I feel and when he saw my face he took me for an American doctor that asked me some questions about my back pain and told me that I had a dangerous type of malaria.  I was appalled, since I was taking pills that should protect me from Malaria. Now I know that there is not 100% medicine for this killing disease.

Malaria is number 1 cause of death in Africa and you get it from mosquito’s’ bytes. The doctor gave me strong pills and told me that I will be ok in some days. It seems that because my physical work every day my body was weak and was more vulnerable to this disease, I was really lucky to meet Aaron because of him I discover this fatal disease quickly enough before it got to my brain and then I would not have been writing this blog. ….Once again I felt that I was close to a fatal moment.
Now I am resting and healing before starting again. I will be ok and ready to continue to dream with open eyes.

Love you all
jinji

Tags: Africa, Kay de Cope, Mozambique

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 15th, 2009 at 16:54 and is filed under Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.