8 October 2012

Today I went on my first Mozambique-y hike and had my first encounter with wildlife.  About 6 other vols and I walked down to the waterfall.  It was a nice walk, but I wasn’t prepared for how far away the waterfall was, or how hot the walk would be.  I woke up late (8:30) to a text from someone in my language class “I’m headed to the waterfall, I’m almost at your house”.  I tracked down my sister and said something like “Can I go to the waterfall?”  she hesitated, looked at me cross eyed said Yes and then… it’s really far.  I didn’t have the language to ask how far or anything so I filled up my water bottle grabbed a granola bar and headed out.  I felt guilty all morning because I didn’t take a bath or eat breakfast before I went.  My sister was probably mortified for me. 
We walked for a ways, decided we didn’t know where we were going and then turned around.  Right when we were getting back to the outskirts of town we ran into a group of about 5 other vols who were also going to the waterfall.  We joined up with them and headed back down the hill.  A windy road took us down a mostly gentle hill with sparse vegetation (read: sunbaked).  My water bottle was getting empty.  It was getting hotter.  I had no idea where the water fall was but I knew that it was not close and I was already about 3 miles from home.  From somewhere in the back of my brain Andrew Skurka was reminding me that survival starts with using what’s between your ears to stay out of trouble.  I was already more than halfway into trouble with not enough water or food to get back out.  I made it to the bottom of the hill, checked out the falls and then turned around immediately and headed home. 
The falls were pretty but somewhat mysterious.  Everyone had heard from their host parents that the water was somewhere between bad for swimming and downright toxic.  I think my Mae told me that someone from Maputo got in the water and died the next day.  Maybe it was the 4 mile walk back up the hill in 100 degree heat without water that killed them.
Luckily, I stumbled home before I passed out from heat stroke.  My Mae and Pai were not impressed when I came in and chugged a whole bottle of water and then practically passed out on the back porch.  I ate some lunch (cucumber salad and potato salad with bread) and then took another nap in my room for about 2 more hours. 
I’ll try the waterfalls again, but with more water and a better plan.  My Mae says that people go to the falls in the afternoon and then walk back as the sun is going down.  Smart.
Later this evening, as I was pouring water into the wash-basin for my bath (the basin sits inside a bathtub), I noticed a black squiggly thing in the tub.  My first thought was “Ribbon worm?  Weird, those are marine".  Then I realized it was a baby snake.  A small, wriggling, black baby snake.  It was coiling up, shaking its tail and striking with its baby-snake-head.  That’s how I could tell it was a snake.  Otherwise it looked like it could have been a broken hair-rubber-band or something.  Not big, not scary, but definitely a snake and definitely alive.  I wasn’t sure what to do with it.  I knew I didn’t want to take a bath with it (maybe it COULD bite me?  I don’t know).  I knew I probably shouldn’t drop it in the water bucket (drowning it would be cruel).  I knew I probably shouldn’t drop it out the bathroom window—maybe it would move into the wall and then turn into a big snake there and I definitely wouldn’t want to meet it again in a month or so (was it a black mamba?)  So I scooped it up in the water-jug and carried it out to the living room to show my Pai and Bro.  I held the jug out to Bro (remember how tiny this thing is) and he jumped about 3 feet in the air and moved to the other side of the room.  Pai grabbed the jug tossed baby-snake out into the street.  So, that was my first wild-life encounter here in Moz.  I hope they're all as easily dealt with.