Thank you for all of your support over the last several months. It has been great getting emails and seeing supportive and fun comments on this blog. I hope that through this blog you were able get a peak into the world of Mozambique and learn about microfinance. If anyone is interested in more specifics about Mozambique or the work that I did while I was there please let me know. Since I am no longer in Mozambique and no longer a Kiva Fellow this will be the last post I make to this blog. I know, pretty sad, but keep reading to learn about my new blog.

I am currently in Europe and will remain here for the next several weeks. During that time I have some exciting decisions to make about my future and where my next adventures will take me. I have started another blog at ndlopfu.com to document my current experiences in Europe and to start defining what my next steps will be. Don’t know what a ndlopfu is? Neither did I until a few weeks ago. Visit ndlopfu.com to educate yourself!

Here is what I consider to be my final, Mozambican highlight reel. Enjoy!

Thanks again for all of your support!

The reality of the political system here is that it’s a mono-party democracy. Frelimo, the party that is currently in power, is essentially uncontested. The only other party with any sort of power is Renamo,  which is the civil war opposition turned political party, and no one wants to vote for the guys that lost the civil war. So, the elections are on October 26th, until then the country will be well fed by Frelimo. You will also see the majority of public surfaces papered up with the face of Armando Emilio Guebuza (Frelimo’s presidential candidate), who strangely looks like professor Klump from the nutty professor.

Emilio 1

Emilio 2

Upon boarding the bus at 5am on Friday morning I heard chatter coming from a few gals with funny British accents in the back row of the bus. These gals were quickly enamored by my charm and officially became my friends at 9:30am while I enjoyed my breakfast beer. My new buddies are co-eds studying medicine and veterinary sciences (is that what it’s called?) at Bristol University in the UK. The 5th member of the Tofo Beach gang was Andrew, someone that I had met in a hostel the night before getting on the Tofo bus and that the British gals had met several hostels before in South Africa. He’s traveling from Capetown to Egypt.

Tofo is supposed to be one of the nicest beaches in Africa, but when you compare it to something in Brazil it is average at best. On top of that the sun barely came over the two days we were there. We did however get to see humpback whales breaching off the coast and some dolphins floundering around. It was pretty fun. Here’s a short video.

Missava- World

Mahungo- Information*

Nguenha- Crocodile

Ndlopfu- Elephant**

Lihlaza- Green**

*I’m already using this for something

**I will be using this for something soon, be prepared!

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