Bobble Heads

Today I head back to Maputo. I check out at 11 and make the 15 minute walk to where the schapa’s pick up in Ponta. There is a schapa waiting. A woman and her two children are already inside. After a half an hour, I ask Nunu if we will have to wait for the schapa to fill up before it leaves. He says no. At about 12:45 we leave with about 6 people and the back seat filled of bottles for return. Nunu and I are in the front row this time and I have a window! I’m thrilled beyond belief about how much space I have! I can't believe how empty the schapa is, and I think "This is gonna be the best 3 hour ride!"

"Downtown" Ponta - The store with frozen water is just to the left.
I saw one other cluster of stores in a different part of town, but
this is center of town where locals go to buy things and catch a schapa.

About 20 minutes later Nunu points and says, “This is the border to South Africa.” I’m instantly confused… we aren’t going to South Africa? Why are we here? What? Turns out that the schapa goes from Ponta to this border stop to get more people! We pull in behind another schapa that is also going to Maputo. Apparently that schapa is waiting to fill up (it only has like 1 or 2 spots) and then once it’s full then our schapa can fill up and go to Maputo. 

We park under a shade tree and there are about 10 small buildings. Not only do they sell food and drinks but I also notice that one building has a pool table. I ask if there is a bathroom inside… this guy tells me, “No” and then points at this bamboo outhouse. He goes on and on about how great it is, how clean things are. I honestly thought I was just going to have to go outside, so I was happy there was an outhouse, but this guy just kept talking.

I didn’t go immediately, I only wanted to go once and so I was waiting till we were about to leave. So then people felt they needed to convince me to go… that and I’m pretty sure they were convinced I was scared so they were laughing. I eventually went… would I call this outhouse clean… not really… but hey it was 4 walls… I’ll take what I can get.

I think it was around 3:00 when our schapa finally left for Maputo. Before the trip even begins we’ve already been sitting on here for 3.5 hours! My neck pillow doubles nicely as a seat cushion. This time around we only had 16 people (and 2 were small children) in the back of the schapa. 


As we drove I kept thinking about bobble heads, I’m sure that is what we all looked like… a schapa full of life sized bobble heads.

Heard of cattle, the rest were off to the right. It's REALLY
hard to take pictures while on the schapa!

Almost 2 hours into our trip, we stop in the same area as on the way. For the first time I get out of the schapa. I'm not going anywhere but a stretch is much needed. Almost immediately after I get up the little boy, Juma, sees my purple neck pillow laying on the seat. Juma picks it up, everyone here has me so worried about people stealing my things, my instinct is to gesture that it's mine and ask for it. But I quickly realize he isn't going anywhere with it... I'm surprised that he knows what it is. Even though I've been sitting on it, he puts it around his next and a smile instantly spreads across his face. Some people laugh, I think his mother asks him to put it down, but I just stand and smile to show that I'm okay with him playing with it. He didn't even do anything with it, but he thought it was funny and so did everyone else... it was a nice comic relief. Either that or people realized I was sitting on it and maybe that gave them a good laugh, who knows!


About 15 minutes before we arrive at Catambe, I realize that Juma is throwing up. I feel so helpless, I want to do something, but don't know how to ask if I can do anything.  The mom came prepared and she had a big plastic blow. She asked the driver to pull over and with the quick rinse of her bowl she dumps it's contents out the window and we are ready to go again. I offer Juma some toilet paper to wipe his eyes and mouth... poor little fella.