May 28
I spent a miserable night last night. On my way to bed I discovered that our electrical outlet quit working, so I had to go downstairs and sleep in the middle, airless, windowless, storeroom/bedroom. The mattress (if you can even call it that) was so thin I could feel the bed slats, so I decided to put the mattress on the floor. I did get a fan and had it on all night. I woke up aching. I then changed, went upstairs and turned on the faucet…no water. Shit. So I decided to check into Casa Do Mar a day early. I then did a two tank dive this morning. The ocean was a bit rough, with swells. The first reef was 30 minutes out, called Outback. No mantas, leopard sharks, bowmouth guitar sharks, leatherbacks or whale sharks. Sigh. But I did get some nice photos. The dive went quickly, there were only 4 divers, the leader and the “sweeper”, but one of the men blew through his air quickly and had to go up, then the other guy had an equipment problem, so after 20 minutes we were ascending. It is a deep dive, maybe 90 feet. After the dive we cruised around looking for whale sharks, but no luck. Second dive was called Giant, also deep. We were headed up after 20 minutes. You can’t stay on those deep dives very long, especially after you’ve already done a deep dive.
After we returned I went directly to Casa Do Mar and checked in. I went to the house and packed up quickly, had one of the guys from the guesthouse come and get my bags, then I spent a glorious 15 minutes under a hot shower. Ahhhh. The bed is heaven…it even has more than one pillow, and the mattress is great. I fell asleep pretty quickly, then Leslie knocked at my door to tell me they were having a barbeque at 630p. I am having electrical plug issues here, they don’t have an adapter for a 3 prong US plug. I’ll have to figure that one out.
Right now I am sitting on the balcony of the guesthouse, listening to the surf, and enjoying the breeze. The volunteer house is always hot and stuffy, so this is a treat. I am so happy to be back in the land of amenities.
I have learned so much from this trip, although not what I thought I would learn. I have done some small amount of research, but there have been no whale sharks to id or tag, and only two manta rays on an ocean safari. I have added to my knowledge of humanity. I have come late to the realization that life goes on no matter what you do and what you try to do. People are born, they suffer, and some suffer more than others. Happiness is a moment here and there, it is not a stable state of mind. I have seen cruelty in Mozambique, but there is cruelty everywhere. I have seen terrible poverty and ignorance, but again, it exists everywhere. For as long as there is no general will among people or nations to change the conditions of poverty, ignorance and cruelty, there will be no change. What can we do as individuals to alleviate some of the pain in the world? Well, I know what I can do, though it is small. I plan to give money to Suzanne and Martina, volunteers at the orphanage in Inhambane, so they can buy fruit for the children. The children eat rice and water, no fresh vegetables, no fresh fruit, no milk. So, those children will receive fresh fruit. The money donated to the orphanage seems to disappear into the pockets of the employees, and there is a “chef” who prepares the rice, but we don’t want the fruit to go into their hands. It will be purchased daily from the market and given to the children during lunchtime. It is a small thing, but it will help those malnourished children. I can also bring awareness to the plight of our ocean, and our marine ecosystem.
I cannot fix it myself, but I can tell others about it. I am seeing the result of overfishing, of targeting sharks and rays on this coast…there are few left. DON’T EAT SHARK FIN SOUP. It is so disgusting, anyway. Shark fins should stay on sharks, and sharks should stay in the ocean where they belong.
