Monday, March 12, 2018

'Highway' to H.... Nampula!

Well, as you can tell by the subject of this email I finally did the roadtrip from Beira (the middle of Mozambique) to Nampula (the top of Mozambique).

We flew out to Beira to pick up the car (the same car I drove to Beira from Maputo).... But our flight was delayed (I hate you LAM) so we arrived at about 22:30, President Senna interviewed a Sister who was going home this transfer then we all went off to sleep at about 00:00.... I then woke up at 04:00 to start the drive---great idea Elder Howell, just wonderful.

Google Maps is a wonderful thing, but it makes some predictions about speed that often aren't too true for Mozambique. The map said it would take about 14 hours, cool, leave at 4, get there at 18 before dark.... HAHAHAHA WRONG.

We got going on a nice big road for about 25 minutes then we had to turn onto a dirt road, okay, fine, its 180km (111 miles), give me 2 hours... Wrong again, it took 5 hours or more.

The path (calling it a road would be a straight up lie--I hope you're seeing this Google Maps) was filled with so many bumps, holes, mud pits and such. For the first 2 hours there were men on bikes with sacks of charcoal and men using bikes to walk massive cut logs... Tiny vilas (villages) then it went to not even marked mini mini villages. Just people mainly in tiny cement houses or shacks, communal well being pumped.

On and on, well other than getting 100% stuck in a mud pit, past the top of the tires.... Couldn't even open my door... It was bad. Somehow after a minute of panic we somehow backed out (shout out to the angel that guards my car!)

After that things went 'smoothly'.... Very bumpy but progress. We thankfully didn't get stuck again.

A few hours after the mud issue we got to an area with a ton of monkeys running along the road, that was cool, a nice change after nothingness. To loosely quote a movie 'There is nothing in the journey to Nampula and no man wants nothing'

After a total of 17 hours of driving we got there.... It was a long long drive (but making it to California from Utah on a good road will be easy now!). I got a bit of sleep then flew back to Maputo after a day to get back on top of things with the Medeiros.

Other big news from the week---Transfers! Elder De Paula will be serving in the Matola Zone now and I will be going to half stay in the office. I will stay in the mornings, eat lunch (thanks Matilde!) then leave to an area called Zimpeto. Its a new branch that broke off of the Magoanine ward (where bispo Tualufo is). It should be good to ease back into a normal area... Not that there is tons of time, but I've got to try. I will be with Elder Da Rosa, he is from Brazil, Rio Grande de Sul---Cidade Rio Grande. He is awesome, he came here at the same time as me. It will be a fun, but a very hard working transfer.

Ate Ja

Elder Howell

PS: I will try to get more of the drive photos uploaded once I get them.
















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