Mosamba

this might be the coolest sign I've ever seen

Yesterday I deviated a little bit from my work plan and joined a government envoy that was tasked with taking a cow 95KMs through the Maputo Elephant Reserve to a remote village for the  inauguration of a new hospital. First we had to pick up the animal.

I just assumed we were going to pick the cow up and throw it in the back of the truck, but apparently we also had to slaughter it. That part of the ordeal was a bit gruesome, but a good experience nonetheless. Have you ever seen someone cut through the neck of a live cow with a dull blade? It’s pretty gross, I almost vomited.

Omnivore's Dilemma?

With the bloody cow and his two handlers in the back of the truck  we set off through the elephant reserve. I’m not going to lie, I was a bit entertained by the fact that we were driving through a wild game reserve with a freshly killed cow in the bed of a truck. It seemed like lion bait. I was ready to film a potential lion attack, but it didn’t happen. We did however see an elephant. It was from a distance and there was only one, but it was still pretty cool. One of the dead cow handlers claims to have seen another one coming out of the bushes, but who can believe those guys? They were scared shitless the whole time about getting attacked.

You can barely see it, but there's the elephant

After several hours we got to the town of Maxangula on the northern tip of the reserve. This place was a real back water. I tried buying crackers at a market, but the girl that worked there didn’t speak Portuguese, she only spoke the local dialect which even the Mozambican driver barely understood. The new hospital looked pretty nice and the people seemed excited about it. They were even more excited about the cow. I don’t think they eat meat very often in Maxangula.

We bought a six pack of 2M for the ride home. The ride was absolutely beautiful.

The Reserve