Quarterly Update

Since Bekki and I find ourselves with very little time between work and play, we have not made time to update the blog for about 3 months. So, maybe we can do it AT LEAST once a quarter =)

Well, let's see here....since last we blogged, Bekki and I have gone to great lengths planning to not be in the States for a whole year, ordered a container half-full of goodies to be shipped to us, unexpectedly gone to the States over the holidays, been accused of being pregnant, gathered up another dog, driven round trip from Houston to New Orleans for lunch one day, got our generator "fixed", learned how to buy mangos, spent an entire day processing mangos, searched all day for a broken canoe, traveled to the northernmost island in Mozambique, made a game out of betting on games, gone shrimping, and discovered all the wonderful leaks in the roof of our house.

Bekki and I decided that due to my limited vacation, we would travel home once per year, using the rest of my vacation time doing the "Africa Thing". We began way back in May making plans to only come home during August for Bloys Church Camp. When we were home that time, we packed our bags as best we could with miscellaneous comforts of home, said our good-byes and decided we would be back next August. Along about November, our comforts of home were running low, so we had Rachel and Larry bring us some more (new movies, craisins, taco seasonings, and soon wished we would have thought about mustard...).

Around the end of November, we realized that when we packed to move to Pemba, we really had packed as if we were only going to stay for a month or so....Not years. Well, we needed more of our belongings, so I pulled a few strings in Anadarko and, to make a long story short, we have a container coming over on the next charter vessel full of drilling supplies. We're sharing the container with two other couples and some of our other friends. We spent all of December trying to come up with everything we would "need" for the next few years including a lot of our kitchen appliances, non-perishable food stuffs, 220 volt appliances, and even Glycerin to tan my snake skin. (Don't ask, it's a long story that Bekki is not too thrilled about) Anyway, we got our list together, ordered practically everything on Amazon.com, and made plans for it to be loaded into the container. I can't tell you how much planning was involved to make all the pieces come together.

Some times, God's plans don't really fit with ours. He called my aunt, Margie, home on December 23. Bekki and I had found out about her being sick on the 19th, and Anadarko paid for us to immediately travel home. We arrived in Buchanan Dam to be with family on the evening of the 22nd. It is obvious to me now that the company I work for truly has its employees' best interests at heart. Anyway, the holidays were bittersweet. Bekki and I loved being home to see everyone, but we just wish it could have been for different reasons.


After spending time with my family, we went to Houston to see Bekki's family. Curtis and Cindy's house was piled high with boxes from our container orders. Immediately upon entering, we could tell they were acting strange. The first thing they wanted us to do was go look at all the boxes. One box in particular was conspicuously placed where it could be seen better than all the rest. This box was a Baby Scale. It happened to be sitting on a box containing about a year's supply of baby formula. Bekki and I didn’t think anything of it because the baby scale was purchased to be used at the vet clinic and some friends of ours just had a baby and had ordered the formula. However, when we turned and looked at Cindy and Curtis, they had questioning eyes. Bekki's mom said something to the effect of, "Well, are we the first to know since we received all these "hints" or the last to know since you've already seen and been with Alan's family?"...Needless to say it was really quite hilarious and we had to tell them the truth, but it sure would have been interesting to string them along for a bit.

We really wanted to see Bekki's sister and her family who were a few hours closer to Texas than normal. Our niece, Emilie, was dancing at the Sugar Bowl half time in Louisiana and Bekki's sister,who is expecting again, is the dance team coach. So, we loaded up Bekki's brother and drove from Houston to New Orleans to have lunch with the Anthony's. We had a blast eating at a Pizzaria and walking around experiencing New Orleans. We went to the aquarium where Isabelle thoroughly enjoyed herself. Then we went to Café de Monde and had coffee and some amazing beignets covered in powdered sugar. Nothing but sweet grease. You can't beat it. Unfortunately, after hanging out for a few short hours we all had to go our separate ways, but we sure did enjoy the time spent together.

Shortly after we returned to Houston, I had to call Bekki's vet partner here in Pemba about some container issues. Before we had left for the states, Bekki and Kathryn had brought home a runt of a puppy, who I quickly named "Otter" due to the fact that for weeks on end his ears were the size of pinky nails, his eyes remained shut, he couldn't walk right and therefore he was swimming around on our tile floors, and he was constandly wet from the bottle spilling and Bekki cleaning him up. Plus, he'd already worked his way into our hearts. I started saying, "This is Sadie, and this is my "otter" dog". Its hard not to get attached to something that needs bottle feeding every 3-4 hours... While speaking to Kathryn on the phone she said that she had arranged it with Otter's owner that we could just keep him. How could you say no to that? So now we have a geriatric dog and a toddler puppy. As you might imagine, they don't really see eye to eye. Otter is on his 4th life now (runt of the litter, 2 run-ins with Sadie, and while Kathryn was babysitting him over the holidays, he got under-foot and she accidentally stepped on his head)...we hope his near death experiences are over. He's one tough cookie though, you can't keep him down for long. Just the other day, coconuts were falling out of our coconut tree and the guardas came to get Bekki to tell her that Otter should probably not be playing under the coconut tree--even they've realized he's had some bad luck! Gabriel, our favorite worker, volunteered to climb up the tree and knock down the loose coconuts the next day. The guardas are really loving having Otter around, they love calling to him, telling him "good-ey boy", and telling him to "come here" in an English voice that mimick's Bekki's almost exactly...and sometimes it even works! When he comes to them their 'pat' is more like a hard pounding on the head, but Otter doesn't seem to mind. For not ever having interacted with dogs their whole lives, these guys have really taken to Otter.

We returned to Pemba in mid-January, right at the end of mango season. Unfortunately our favorites, the big, juicy, yellow ones, were all gone. However, the green ones were still around. After a bad experience with fermented green mangos, we stopped buying them, Then someone told us to not by the soft ones, but only the firm ones. This seemed to work. All the firm green mangos were delicious. However, at the end of the season, it was difficult to find them and the price was already getting expensive (50 cents each instead of 30). One day you'd see mangos in every hand and mouth and pitts all over the road, the next day they vanished! Everything here really is very seasonal!

One day, I needed a local gardening tool, so I drove down a back road where there is a large local market. As we were dodging pedestrians, motor bikes, and chickens, I saw a wonderful, HUGE, pile of mangos. When I tested them, they were all firm so I asked the price.... 15 cents!! I didn't have the wherewithal to purchase a lot that day, but I promised myself I would be back. Up until this point, Bekki and I had been buying mangos in small quantities (20-25) per weekend to either dry or can. As mango season was coming to an end, our friends Sarah and Jeff thought it would be a great idea to get together and package a lot of mangos one weekend, maybe form an assembly line for efficiency. They said the had loads and loads of mangos, and wondered if we wanted to get some and have a mango packaging party. YES!! The following weekend, Bekki and I loaded up my 160 qt cooler and my 50 qt cooler into the Patrol and went mango shopping. 200 green mangos perfectly filled up both coolers. When I arrived at Sarah and Jeff's house, I found out that they actually don't know what constitutes "loads" of mangos. They had about 75 or 80 yellow ones. When they saw my pile, I think they immediately regretted the offer of their help on the processing. Well, it took about 4 hours to cut the seeds out (I strongly recommend a mango de-seeder for those of you who need to cut up a lot of mangos.), take the skins off the fruit, and bag them up. Not only did we have a really great time, but we are now stocked with lots of frozen and dried mango--maybe it will last us a whole year. Bekki ate more than she bagged, so I'm not really sure how long we'll actually have mangos around...

The following week, we decided to pull the trigger on some furniture that we're having custom built for us. Bekki is having a Japanese Tansu-type stairstep cubbord made of Umbila wood and we're planning on building some shelves with "caskeenhas" which are local fishing canoes (not sure on the spelling of that). Often you can find used caskeenhas that might or might not still be in use for a few hundred mets which is about $5-10.00. That Saturday, I went with Warren, one of our friends who's also a carpenter, to locate the best broken canoes. We spent the whole day driving along the beach, talking to local fishermen, stopping every now and again for a cold beverage, and even getting stuck once. By the end of the day, we had promises of 11 canoes. However, to date, we have seen zero. Oh well, it was still a nice Saturday.

The next weekend after that, we went with another couple (Wessel [pronounced "Vessel"] and Vanessa) to an island managed by some of our friends. The island's name is Tecomaji which means "bring water". We drove 8 hours along some nice roads, and some not so nice roads. I'm sure I left half of my tires smeared on the pavement form hitting the brakes because of potholes. Upon arrival in Palma, we were greeted by the manager of the island in a heavy downpour. We waited for it to stop, but after about an hour, it had not let up at all, so we decided to get wet. We had porters carry all the bags and gear to the waiting boats, and we followed along behind giggling and playing in the rain just like a bunch of tourists. Half of us loaded on one boat, and the other half on the other, and we raced to the island which was about 6 miles away. About half way through the trip, we drove out of the rain storm and into the sunlit beauty of the Indian Ocean. We could immediately tell that Tecomaji was a place we wouldn't soon forget. With it's pillars of petrified reef and crystal clear water, it sets itself apart from the other landscapes of northern Mozambique. The first evening, we played a poker game, had some adult beverages and hit the sack since we were tired from driving all day. However, before we went, we had specific instructions to put our soap up so the rats wouldn't eat it. We never did see a rat, but definately saw evidence of it the last night we were there since we forgot to hide the soap. The accommodations are open-air chalets with outdoor bathrooms. There is no way to keep the critters out. We slept so well every night we were there, it was incredibly peaceful; sounds of hermit crabs clinking, birds singing, and waves breaking was what we went to bed to and woke up to every day.

The next morning, I went snorkeling while Bekki laid out on the beach, read, soaked up some sun, and became fascinated by all the hermit crabs. At around 9:00 we decided to take the boat out for a snorkeling trip. We went out near the drop off and proceeded to thoroughly enjoy ourselves. That evening, we sat around the camp fire and talked about the island wildlife. Turns out they have coconut crabs there. Not much is known about them, but it appears they are on the endangered species list, so we went looking for one on a night drive. Instead, we found python on the road. Those in the party that aren't excited about snakes quickly decided it was time to go back to camp.

The next day, we went fishing over near a lighthouse on the mainland. I caught some live bait, and Bekki and I took turns reeling in different kinds of reef fish that were all colors of the rainbow. Once the live bait was gone, the fishing took a drastic turn to the slow side, so Wessel decided if you can't catch them, we might as well shoot them. He got all his spear fishing gear on and dove in to see what was around. He is a free diver, not a scuba diver. After numerous dives (averaging a minute and a half each), we decided to change locations. At the new location, he spotted a fish and dove right down to the bottom and shot it. I took the boat over to collect him, and noted on the depth finder that the depth was 25 meters (82 feet). That is one heck of a dive. After that we went to shallower water and looked for more fish. I astounded Wessel by my ability to free dive. He wanted to see how deep I could dive in case I ever had the chance to go spear fishing with him. My whopping 12 feet earned a "You can drive the boat any time" with a big smile. Bekki was snorkeling this whole time and marveling at the marine life including all sorts of fish, coral and even a sea turtle.

Back at camp, after a lovely evening of beer-battered fresh fish, Wessel and I decided that "tonight we go coconut crab hunting and we don't come back until we've found one". We jumped on the gator, sans ladies, and off we went. On and on we drove until we stopped to check out a big land crab. I made a funny by flicking it with a stick onto Wessel's bare feet. Ha Ha Ha, we had a good laugh over that one, so we climbed back into the gator to move on. Then Wessel couldn't get the gator started.

"Ha Ha Ha, That's funny Wes, but come on, let's go because I have to drive a long way tomorrow, and we need to see this crab and go to bed."

"I'm not joking"

Me sitting calmly, sipping a beer...."Seriously, let's go"

"I’m not joking"

Another calm sip "I know you better than that, you are just mad about the crab on your foot"

"I'm not joking"

"Yeah, you are, I see you doing something with your hand."

"Ok, you try"

It was at about this moment that I realized he was actually not joking. So, we were stuck. Now, how do we get back to camp? Since neither of us really knew anything about the island, we decided to back track. It was the only sure way of not getting lost. We walked for about 45 minutes to an hour (in our flip flops) before we finally got back to camp. In the morning, after towing the gator back to camp Guy,the manager, told me that, "had we gone the other way, we would have had about a 10 minute walk. Oh, and by the way, clean out your cooler in the back of the gator, there is something really stinky in it."

As Wessel was not awake yet, I decided to tackle the box by myself. Having opened a nasty cooler or two in my day, I stood way back and with the smallest part of my pointer finger, I gently lifted the lid. The first thing I noticed through my already scrunched nose and squinted eyes was that the cooler looked surprisingly clean. The next thing I noticed was that there was no smell. Finally, I saw the coconut crab sitting there with a plastic bag firmly clenched in it's claw. AWESOME!! After playing the same dirty cooler trick on Wessel with great results, we got the crab out and played with it. They get their name from the ability to open coconuts with their claws, so getting pinched by one is not a good idea. Hence the plastic bag. When we questioned where it came from, we were told it was under the gator that we were driving when it broke down. I don't believe this, but it makes for a funny story, so we'll stick to it.

That morning we were up, packed, and back on the mainland by 10:00am. We had 8 hours of driving ahead of us. Guy and his family took their plane back to Pemba. About 45 minutes into our 8 hour trip, we got a very amusing and sarcastic phone call from Guy saying he had already had a shower and was wondering if we were doing all right. "Thanks for the concern, but don't call back anymore". The only moment of note on the return trip was when we saw a chameleon crossing the road. We asked ourselves why, but there was just no answer.

One thing that has become tradition here is to bet on different games. Sometimes it is card games. Sometimes it is Settlers of Catan. But the bets are never for money. Only services or food or a mixture. For example, the guys recently won an entire day catered by the ladies while we watch rugby and fishing shows. The ladies recently won an all expense paid weekend to be planned by the guys. It's not always guys against ladies. Sometimes each couple is against the others. It is a very enjoyable way to add another level of excitement to the monotony that Pemba can sometimes bring about.

Last week, we had some exceptional rains here. I'm excited about the rain, but I'm not excited about the effects on the house, so I'll keep this short....Our roof leaks in at least 5 different places. ugh. The best part about the rains is the fact that I drive a company Nissan Patrol with a snorkel, so you can just imagine the kind of mud puddles I can cruise through!

Our most recent adventure was last weekend when we were told (by Guy) that the place to catch shrimp was up one of the rivers that feeds Pemba bay. Wessel, Vanessa, Bekki and I jumped in Wes's boat and headed up the river. It turns out that while I don't doubt that there is a shrimp somewhere in the river, there sure aren't very many. It was, however, a very pleasant trip through the mangroves getting to see yet another aspect of Mozambique that we had yet to discover.

At the moment Bekki and Kathryn are caring for three dogs that have broken legs with casts on (imagine how much fun it is to walk these dogs in the rainy season) and three five week old puppies that need homes. Otter and Sadie are happy and healthy. We are still loving life in Pemba and we are getting ready for and awaiting the arrival of my parents who come in about 3 weeks! I've started Bekki's cactus garden and hired a mason to build us a stone braii inside the cactus garden. Our garden is doing great, every day there's a handful of okra ready to be picked, the cantelopes are really tastey, and we're hoping the watermelons will be too. We've tried a new fruit called atas, supposedly it tasts a bit like litchi, but we haven't tasted litchi fruit, just the juice which is really good. The mangos are gone, but the guavas and "abacates" (avacados) are coming in. Next weekend we might be getting together with Sarah and Jeff to braii a warthog leg (weather permitting), so that should be interesting...

Well, that's about all the fun that I can type about in one setting. Until next time....