Le Tango around the World!

I left Johannesburg’s this morning at 8.40 to go to Pemba Mozambique. Another 5 hours of flying or so! I wish the plane had arrived about 30 min earlier yesterday, I might not have to overnight at the hotel… oh well. I did not really want to visit Jo’burg by myself, it is not a safe place for a single woman! So, instead I stay in my room at the hotel, at least I had internet connection!

So, off I go to Mozambique and no problem until Maputo. But now, here I am sitting at the business class lounge at the airport ☺ because we had to disembarke, the plane having some mechanical problems! Ah ah ah …. If my mom was here she would say “ Anne-Sophie it is never easy to travel with you…. There is always something happening!” I guess it is sometimes true, but frankly with the amount of traveling I do, of course things are going to go wrong! And after all I am in Africa as well!
Ok now, I am back in the plane! They had told us that it would take 35 min to fix what needed to be fixed, and 10 min later… all is good at least I hope.
If all goes well, I am now off to Pemba and will continue this later. You’ll see, I’ll post pictures too!

So, now I am continuing my post, while in Mozambique.
The rest of the trip was great, no problem at all. I arrived in Pemba (north of Mozambique, close to the border with Tanzania, on the Indian Ocean), but my luggage did not!!! aaarrhghh…. I go them only on Saturday afternoon. I had to go to one of the local stores here and find something i could wear! It was funny to have to shop in Pemba! Definetely not the same choice of clothes as in Europe eh eh eh… I wouldn’t find any funky outfit there!

So, then the meeting started. I was in Mozambique for my last meeting that I organized for the World Bank. The delegates arrived on Saturday and Sunday and the meeting was from Monday through Wednesday.

Now let me tell you a little about the place. Pemba is a small town in the North of Mozambique, on the Idian Ocean. You can see the hotel where we were staying on one of the pictures below. But when at the hotel, you did not have the feeling of being in Africa. So, of course I had to visit the town a little bit and walk around.
You can see on some of the pictures how people live in that part of the world, but also, look at the faces of the children and how big a smile on their faces they have. It is just amazing and makes you think more than one about our ways of life where we have way too much and it is difficult for us to smile and be happy with what we have! Well, for sure I have decided to go for the less than the more!! Because I won’t have a place to see that I can call my own for the next year or so…. I guess I’ll see how I can keep the smile on my face !

So, more about Pemba. The food was just wonderful. Fresh fish and fresh seefood. My dinners were usually Crayfish/lobster tail on the grill with some rice and veggies!! Then one night we went to a local restaurant where they served fresh fish, and again… crayfish/lobster tails, and crabs, and fresh grilled calamari, caperinias…. for about $15!!! what a treat.
One of the things I tried to do is to wake up early and watch the sunrise over the ocean. I usually don’t like to wake up early, and for me sunrises usually happen when I come back from milongas after dancing all night not having to actually wake up an leave my bed to watch it! but I thought that it would be something nice and it was. The thing is that the sun rises at 5.00am there, and sets at 5.30am. We were very close to the equator, and so, if you don’t wake up early to do something, after 440, the light is almost gone and you can’t do much anymore.
Then I left on the Thursday to get back in DC on Friday… my last official day at the world Bank. More on that later!