Abou the Graphite Miner

So once again we packed our bags and got on the move, this time with one of the earliest starts of the trip: 3 A.M. This was because there were a series of inconsistencies on the departure times, given by different islanders, and it was not clear when the public boat would set out from Ibo. Therefore, there we were by the harbour at 4 A.M., viewing a beautiful sunrise over the mainland of the island. It was a reappearing comment within conversation that we were not going to leave Mozambique without experiencing a sunrise, and finally there it was, breathtakingly seizing the minute of the hour. It was important for us to be in Pemba as early as possible, meaning we could run a meeting in with Oikos, an Italian NGO that has a lot of presence within Mozambique, and to meet a pair of volunteers from a Spanish-Italian locally-based NGO: Semillas de Esperanza, whom run a centre for abandoned and highly vulnerable children, as well as a leper centre, both in Pemba, and a series of educational programmes in Cabo Delgado.

On the harbour, we finally managed to put together a group of locals and hired out a private chapa (it was a regular chapa, but it was supposed to take a group of people that didn’t turn up). This was on the verge of the timeframe allowed by the tides for the boat to be able to pass through the shallow sea laying between Ibo and Tandanhangue. The return boat ride was not as smooth as the one to Ibo, we kept touching the sand below the boat, having to redistribute the people across the hull to ensure the smallest fretwork; in addition, at one point the outboard motor came to a sudden halt, which thankfully only lasted a handful of minutes. Upon arrival to Tandanhangue, the boat didn’t manage to reach the harbour, and instead a pair of young men walked a barge over to where the boat had run aground, and picked us up to then take us to the dry harbour. These turned out to be the same men that were operating a ‘my-love’ chapa, which are open-back trucks that carry people around. Although slightly more of a temerity, it turned out to be a much more pleasant journey than expected. The open air made up for the lack of (comfortable) seats (but then again, closed chapas aren’t that comfortable in terms of sitting either…). To our surprise, despite being stopped several times by police, we had little trouble with them (there is usually a fairly thorough questioning process that takes place). Upon arriving to Pemba, we found out that the man sitting on the front seat was actually a transport policeman, who had waived us past all his colleagues during the almost 5 hours of journey! Our “pleasant” experience of the chapa ride was to come to an end when we picked up our ruck-sacks, they had been lying in a puddle of fishy (literally) water. The stench was horrific. We decided to momentarily ignore it until we made it to the hostel.

Before heading to the hostel we stopped to pick up the shirts that we had at the tailors’, from our previous stay in Pemba. In a timely Mozambican manner, it was no surprise that even though the alfaiato had over a week, he was still finishing up the buttons when we arrived! Needless to say, the shirts turned out awesome! There was little time to celebrate, we had our meeting scheduled with Oikos immediately after lunch, and we had just about enough time to reach the hostel (pre-ordering our food), check in, have a short (useless) attempt at cleaning our bags and get changed for the meeting.

At our meeting with Oikos, we followed a similar structure as most of the meetings we have had throughout the trip, where we presented the project and then engaged in a discussion of troubleshooting and a Q&A, where we cleared out any doubts on the project and at the same time found out more about the work that Oikos does. We had the chance to get good insight on to their ADAPT programme thatis heavily involved in environmental impact, following the analyses of experts in the field. The meeting was very insightful, and gave us a handful of ideas that could be proposed as projects. We hope to hold an ongoing conversation with Oikos to hopefully aid with one of the most important themes haunting planet Earth in this age.

Whilst Jaime and Alberto were at the meeting, Xavi still recovering a little, had two calls in order to organise the reconnaissance expedition to Kenya, to approach social entrepreneurs and incubators, to give a new dimension to the platform, especially on the complex implementation side.

After these, we needed some air, a little break. We were exhausted. We made the most of the last hours of sun going for a final swim in the straight of Mozambique, taking advantage of the high tide. It was a glorious swim, reigned with even better vibrations that had been present throughout the trip, where even a stray dog, as cute as possibly could be, celebrated with us ecstatically. It was a reflection of the hard work that had helped build one of the most amazing experiences the three of us had ever gone through. We could feel ourselves at the doorway of something with great potential, a potential that could only be fulfilled with hard work and astute thinking; always with the ulterior cause in mind.

Following the swim, we groomed ourselves and prepared for our flights the following day (still drying our smelly bags); to then have a drink and dinner with the volunteers from “Semillas de Esperanza”. It was a very pleasant and informal encounter, we discussed our experiences in Mozambique, learning a great deal about how the day-to-day of a volunteer is on the field; the reasoning and rhetoric that reigns behind their actions and the motivations to do the work that they do. They were also close to their return to Spain and we had a great laugh, exchanging anecdotes. As with all the other incredible people we have met on this journey, it is refreshing to see people caring so deeply for those they know close to nothing about.