Dear Diary,
Our boat is swaying. The winds are heavy. Luckily we are almost to Mozambique. Our plane landed in South Africa a few hours ago. I’ve decided to take a boat to Mozambique, instead of driving. With all the pretty beaches and the clear, blue, crystal water, I thought, ‘Why not?’ We are in the Mozambique Channel, and land is near. Ah, the smell of the ocean and the warm breeze blowing through my hair, and blowing my journal pages over the pencil. It feels great to finally be working for National Geographic, and to be writing my first travel article in Africa.
~later that night~
It is my first night in Mozambique. I am staying in the Dugong Beach resort. It is right on the coast, and it has breath taking sites.
Once we loaded off the boat, I stayed along the coastline. There was a cute little shack on Dugong Beach, where I had lunch. I was served Matata, a traditional dish. It means ‘seafood and peanut stew’. It was delicious. It was served on rice with spinach on top. The lunch was finished with Malasadas, which are the Mozambican version of donuts. They were not quite as big as donuts, and they didn’t have holes in the middle. But, they were still a sweet, delectable treat.
After lunch, I took a sail boat out in the Mozambique Channel with a few of the locals. I brought my camera to take pictures for my article. I have so many; it will be hard having to choose the final ones for the magazine. I also saw a Dugong out in the ocean. They are similar to manatees.
It is amazing how brightly colored the flowers are, swaying the breezes, lifting their scent to the air, attracting animals and people alike. Beauty surrounds me. Oh, how I wish I could never leave a place like this—a perfect paradise.
I love sitting here on the beach, my toes wiggling in the sand, the hot sun beating down on my face, my pale skin burning, and I doing my favorite thing, writing. It is such a peaceful place to be. The calm, cool ocean glides over the white sand. It nibbles at the tips of my toes, but is not strong enough to stay, so it flows back into the ocean.
The sun is preparing to set. I’m watching the sky turn orange, purple, and pink. The few clouds there are stretch over the horizon and absorb the colors. Waves splash into the distance. Spinner Dolphins just out of the water, and make a splash as their diver makes a clean cut back into the water. What a paradise this is.
~Katie
Mozambique's hydrocarbs company, Empresa Nacional de Hydrocarbonetes de Mocambique recently signed an agreement for $30 million dollars. The agreement was with PT Kalila Energi Ltd., an oil company stationed in Indonesia. Mozambique has given them permission to drill and look for oil and natrual gas in their land for the next eight years.
Music and dance is very important to their culture. Men will preform a dance with costumes and cultural masks called mapicos. Preforming arts are a big part of religious and social practices. Some common musical instruments are drums, string instruments, and saxophones. Lots of the music is influenced by Portuguese music.
Mozambique has great vegetaion across the country. They have many forest, with some of the most common plants being mahogany, ebony, and ironwood. Many different kinds of trees will grow in the varied climate.
The climate of Mozambique is Tropical to Subtropical. The dry season is during their winter, from April to September. During the dry season, the temperatures along the coast are, on average, 80º F. The rainy season, from October to March, has very high humidity. During the rainy season, the coastal temperature is about 88º. The temperature is a littler lower farther inland during both seasons.
Mozambique is an old country with a unique history. It is a beautiful country that started with the San people. Vasco De Gama, a Portugese explorer landed on the coast of Mozambique in 1498, and by 1505 Mozambique, and a few other south African countries, were Portugese colonies. They were a Portugese colony for 470 years until they recieved freedom. Their first president was Samora Moises Machel.
Just a few years after independence, a civil war broke out. The Mozambique Resistance Movement, Renamo, had opposed the government. They wanted to stop their goods from going to Zimbabwe. South Africa was supporting Renamo. Renamo's main target during the war were civilians, government installations, and the economic infastructure. The war finally ended in 1990 when the support had collapsed in South Africa. After it ended, they wrote a new consitution in November of 1990.
