Mike's Moz Blog: Brenda's visit April 2013

Not long after we arrived in Mozambique we were contacted by a friend of ours, Maria, whose mum, Majorie, was friends with a lady called Brenda. Brenda had shipped a container to Mozambique of charity donations, including bicycles, computers and books for schools. Getting the container into Mozambique had not gone smoothly so Brenda was visiting Mozambique to try and make better arrangements for future containers. Majorie wondered whether we might be able to help? Majorie had totally looked after us when we visited Darlington in the UK for her daughter Maria’s graduation party arranging for us to stay with one of her friends. I have no proof but, despite living in Darlintgton, Majorie is clearly highly connected in the Mafia. I have seen all the Godfather movies and recognise the signs. Her daughter Maria lives in Rome and this was clearly the “Godmother” calling in a favour. This was a request we could not refuse. So we offered our help and a place to stay for Brenda

Brenda is a wonderful and redoubtable person. She is involved in Mozambique through her church which has links with the Xai Xai Diocese and her work and fundraising for Ampleforth Abbey’s “Mission to Mozambique” providing support for schools and education. The first part of the week was spent with me driving Brenda around Maputo visiting shipping agents with Brenda blagging her way into offices and the port authorities. After some initial frustrations and conflicting advice about the best way to get the containers into Mozambique, and us getting lost several times, Brenda managed to get some good contacts and advice and future arrangements should be much smoother.

Brenda had met the warden of game reserve in Mozambique on a plane trip and he had invited her to come and stay at the reserve. So at the end of her stay we went for a long weekend for what turned out to be a great adventure. Unfortunately Jane was working so couldn’t go. The reserve is called Xonghile (which in the local Shangaan dialect means ‘The place of Beauty') and borders the famous Kruger national park in South Africa. It is just under 300 km from Maputo and should be about 4.5 hours drive but it took us over 6 hours because we managed to get lost.

On the wrong road!

On the way we passed a refugee camp. In January and February 2013 Mozambique was hit by devastating floods, the brunt of which were borne by the people of Chokwe and Xai-Xai in the Diocese of Xai-Xai. Nearly half a million people were affected, over 100 people died and nearly 200,000 were made homeless. Many of these people still remain in refugee camps, living in make-shift tents. The floods, and the plight of the refugees, has not been widely reported in the global media. We spoke to the people in the camp and had a look round. While they have been provided with water they have very little else living in shelters made out of sticks, tarpaulins and plastic sheeting. The camp is the middle of nowhere and the people are stuck with no work and no money to return and rebuild their original homes. Brenda is hoping to provide some help and when she asked what they needed was given the simple answer of everything.

At the reserve we stayed in a tented bush camp surrounded by a fence with an outdoor tented kitchen and

campfire area, a loo block and an amazing outside shower and bathroom. Our hosts Graeme, and his wife Danni, who are both vets from South Africa were fantastic. They gave us breakfast and dinner round at their house not far from the camp nearly every day. Graeme manages the reserve and has a staff of some 30 people. They are trying to develop the reserve for tourism and have pretty much built everything from scratch and have been working with the local comunity. Poaching of Rhinos and elephants is a terrible problem and they had some hair raising stories to tell.

The reserve shares a border with the Kruger national park in South Africa and is used as a route from Mozambique by Mozambican poachers. They work closely with Kruger park to try and catch the poachers but it is an uphill battle. In the past they have caught poachers in Mozambique and handed them over to the local police only for the poachers to “disappear” or “escape”. Graeme and his family have been threatened by the poachers. Despite this he would still prefer to catch them in Mozambique because they are much more likely to be shot if found in Kruger. They often know or suspect who is involved in the poaching because they are the locals with the houses and 4wds. A planned early morning walk in the bush had to be aborted because when we got to their house Graeme was about to leave with some of his guys after a group of poachers kitted out in his bullet proof vest and shotgun! Something I just cannot imagine being able to do. To our western mindset poaching may be abhorrent but the majority of people in rural Mozambique survive by subsistence agriculture living in reed huts. When your main concern is where your next meal is coming from it is hard to take a long term view and the comparative fortune that can be made from poaching must seem irresistible.

Graeme still found time on another day to take us on a bush walk which was just brilliant. We were given very strict instructions on what to do if we encountered anything dangerous. Graeme did have a big gun with him but said it was most useful in making a loud noise to scare off anything that fancied us for breakfast rather than shooting it. I assumed the most dangerous things would be lions or rhinos but learnt that leopards are the real baddies. They are used to hunting baboons and a human is not much different. They grab you by the throat and use the claws on their back legs to disembowel you – nice!

On the drive back from the walk we saw an elephant at a waterhole and managed to get some great pictures.

During the daytime we went for unaccompanied drives around the reserve and saw plenty of wildlife including antelope and several exotic birds and also managed to get lost. Danni, and Vera, a vetinary student that was staying with them, also went with us on a “sundowner” drive – basically an excuse to have a drink while watching the sun go down. Another evening they came round to the bush camp with the equipment and food for a Barbecue which we had sitting round the campfire.

On the Saturday we went with Graeme, Danni and Vera to the local village Massingir to see the local craft embroidery project and community centre in Massingir that Danni had set up with the local women, and to see the presentation Graeme was giving to a local school on poaching which involved a mini play.

I was given the job of keeping some of the local kids out of mischief while all the arrangements were made for the presentation. I started with a small group of 10 but ended up with about 30 or more kids who had wandered over to see what the strange guy was doing. I kept them amused by taking and showing them pictures of themselves on the camera which they never seemed to get tired off and playing daft games.

On the last evening we tried to repay some of the wonderful hospitality by cooking a meal for Danni, Graeme and their kids in the bush camp of with all the remaining food we had left – because they had been feeding us all the time we had hardly used any of the food we had brought with us. Dinner was slightly delayed as when they arrived at the bush camp after nightfall they told us they had seen a leopard walking along the main track in the reserve. We all piled into the cars and went in search of the leopard which we eventually caught up with and followed along the track for several minutes. The leopard was totally unconcerned by us and eventually just disappeared into the bush.

The beauty and tranquillity of the bush camp was amazing. There is something timeless and comforting about

Misty morning

sitting round a campfire on a chilly evening. Because it was a full moon the evenings and nights were very bright but before the moon rose you could clearly see the milky way and hundreds of stars. In the tent at night you could hear the animals calling. In the dawn before the sun rose there was often a mist which gave the bush camp a dreamlike feel. It was all very different from Maputo and I will never forget the experience. Itwas great to have met people like Graeme and Danni.

Our return trip to Maputo on the Sunday was fairly uneventful apart from we left later than we should have because we were given breakfast by Danni and Graeme which sort of extended into lunch. As a result we ended up doing the last part of the journey in the dark which is not a good idea. Our official travel advice is not to drive after dark outside Maputo and I now know why – never again hopefully. The main problem is that there is real danger of running someone over as many of the rural roads are busy with pedestrians from local villages who you can’t see easily and who are forced to dash across the road between cars. Some of the vehicles on the road either have no working lights or drive with full beam. Anyway god looks after drunks and fools so being both I was doubly protected and we arrived back in one piece.