Three weeks ago my mother's worst nightmare came true: braking down 100km from anywhere in rural Africa. However, unlike in her dream where a man comes out and kills us all, a very nice NGO car stopped, temporarily fixed the car, gave us the name of an engineer and a man who spoke English, and helped us back to the town we had come from. If anyone feels like donating to ADRA, they are the wonderful NGO which saved us. If anyone is passing through Mocuba and needs the name of an engineer let me know.
After a two day drive from Malawi, we finally reached the Ilha de Mocambique, in undeveloped and rarely visited Northern Mozambique. This is the island which gave Mozambique it's name, and would have been extremely beautiful aboout 300 years ago. It's 600m x 2km, and yet squeezes on 7000 people.
The Island is currently a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and so protected from any mass developments. The plans at the moment are to restore it to former Portuguese glory. Everything is there, structurally, but the extent of lack of care, and the number of people living from this tiny space has taken its toll. We stayed in a restored house, which is owned by the Italian architect Gabriele (www.mozambiqueguesthouse.com). He is part of the rehabilitation of the Island, and if he has his way, the Island won't be ruined. Give it ten years he says, and come back and see a transformation.
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