Ponta D'Ouro, Mozambique

Last weekend nearly all of Swaziland went to the beach for the weekend in Mozambique. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but seriously. There were like three different groups of expatriates and definitely at least 30 people that we knew including the doctors from the Taiwanese Medical Mission, 'the Italians,' the Baylor crew, and a bunch of other friends in between. Unlike in September of 2009 when we first visited Ponta with 24 friends, each group found their own accommodations and then simply met on the beach or in the bar.

Our group included Stephanie (PAC Doctor), Erin (PAC Doctor), Garrett (Clinton Foundation) and Cooper (TechnoServe). We rented a really nice place on the beach called, Coco Rico and had sweet, sweet air conditioning!

Our bedroom

Bathroom (also included an enormous tub and stall shower)

The drive to Ponta is 5 hours; 3.5 of which are on a dirt road, potholed tar road, or sand road. It's not THAT bad of a drive, expect at night or in 'weather' (both of which applied on Friday evening). It was a bit stressful between the fog and the dirt being kicked-up on the dirt road, but we made it in one piece (with one minor detour) and were all ready for a beverage by the time we rolled-in. For example, the last time that I drank was at Martin's wedding in October and yet I ordered myself a double, vodka and tonic.

Before

After

The town of Ponta itself is tiny. There are no paved roads, only sand and the local population is just enough to support the tourist industry which provides the economy for this remote destination.

A couple of picks to give you an idea...

The church

Tree in town decorated like a Christmas tree

Kikois shop (i.e. pashmina)

I purchased a kikois from this artisan as his set-up was quite impressive. He dyed his own string and then spun it on a bicycle

Then he hooked it up to his loom

And wove away!

While it was a quick weekend, getting away to the beach always feels like a proper vacation since it is so different from the landscape in Swaziland. Plus, you can't beat calamari for lunch and prawns for dinner.

Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe that we just celebrated our second Thanksgiving in Swaziland (but, we did!). And just like last year, our friends Michelle, Stephanie and Erin opened up their homes to the droves of Americans in our expatriate community. Michelle, Stephanie and Erin live in neighboring apartments; which makes it convenient to cook with two, neighboring kitchens. Last year, Jason (of Jason and Fiona - PAC Doctor) and I cooked 3 turkeys and one 'turducken.' But, if the truth be told (one year later), Jason really cooked 3 turkeys and one 'turducken' and I ran around after him in the kitchen trying to help, but really just cleaning up. This year, with Jason and Fiona living back in California, I was nominated to cook the turkeys. Gasp. I'd actually never cooked a turkey before...I mean, it is a pretty grown-up exercise and with Liz Dillon around, there's really never been any need for me to take on this task. So, let the record show that 2010 was the year that I cooked my first Thanksgiving turkey. And, I cooked FOUR of them.

Despite a couple of frantic Skype calls to my 93 year old grandmother in Florida (where my parents were celebrating the holiday), everything went smoothly. I made all of the stuffing on Wednesday; which left Thursday for turkey preparations. My mom taught me well, because everything turned out dillylish (Beth, that was for you). Thank goodness.

We approximated that 75 people came together for our Swazi Thanksgiving celebration! The four birds went a long way.

Here are a few shots from my cooking extravaganza. Let's pretend this is a cooking show.

The key to good gravy is roasting vegetables in the turkey juices so that when it comes time to use the drippings as your gravy base, the drippings are extra flavorful.

You can easily make homemade chicken stock with the neck, giblets and any leftover celery and onion you have from the stuffing preparations

Here was my turkey prep station including butter, salt/pepper and fresh rosemary and thyme. The string was used to tie-up the legs so that the bird held together.

The herbs went underneath the skin and then I rubbed the turkey with butter and salt/pepper. In my case, I repeated this step four times!

If your oven doesn't close, just grab a chair to keep it closed!

Then you're done. Well, actually, if you live at altitude then you are done a WHOLE lot quicker. Forget the '20 minutes per pound' crap. Seriously, if it weren't for the meat thermometer 4 footballs would have been served. Without a doubt.

Yes, I am posing with my first turkey

Don't worry, I even forced Doug to take a picture with me and the turkey. Keri and Eric got in on the photo shoot with a homemade apple pie

Once everyone arrived, it was time for carving!

Dan (PSI), Nick (TechnoServe) and Doug took care of business.

Spread a la ping-pong table

Obviously, I was the first one through the serving line. Gobble, gobble

Malalotja – Michelle’s Going Away Party – Potholes

On Saturday 20 November 2010 a huge group of us went to Malalotja for an overnight in celebration of our dear friend Michelle’s time in Swaziland. She’d been here working with Baylor for 3 years and made a lot of friends during her stay; therefore, it was a big, fun group. As you’ve seen on our blog before, Malalotja is one of our favorite places to hike. We’ve also stayed in their cabins once before for an overnight during our second weekend in Swaziland. On Saturday, we all gathered at the new restaurant that just opened in the park for a braai. Some people just came for the day; while others stayed overnight in the cabins and went hiking on Sunday morning (we were part of the latter group).

Table for two with bent shovel seats and Swazi baskets as decorations

Teena (PAC Doctor – Mozambique), Nick (TechnoServe), Erin (PAC Doctor – Swaziland) and Maya (Clinton Foundation)

Peter’s Mom, Peter (USAID) and Stephanie (PAC Doctor - Swaziland)

Piluca, Lucia, Doug and Michelle (all PAC Doctors in Swaziland)

Laura (Clinton Foundation) and Keri (Consultant, Special Education)

Erin, Stephanie, Michelle, Terry (PAC Doctor – Swaziland) and Solomon (Terry’s son)

The three Alison’s and Calista/Peter’s little girl, Aviva

The event was planned as a potluck, so there was not a lot of work and plenty of time for hanging out and holding babies (a favorite pastime).

Asher is Jessi and Uri’s little boy (a little lug of a 4 month old and so precious)! I try to kidnap him every chance that I get.

Sometimes, I’m forced to share him with Erin

Tao and Uri were doing some of the grilling. The piece of meat on the braai in this picture is called a ‘Texan.’ Literally, that’s the name on the package when you buy it in the grocery store. Oh how our American stereotypes travel far and wide…sigh.

There was also a little ‘American football’ action as dusk loomed

After the braai, the day visitors went home and the rest of us piled into our respective cabins in preparation for an early morning hike.

On the window ledge of one of the cabins there was a bird's nest with tiny, little eggs

And the mom wasn't even scared away!

We awoke on Sunday morning to hike to the ‘potholes’ which are a series of pools flowing from a stream and waterfalls in the park. Doug had hiked to the potholes once before, but it was my first time. It was a piping hot day so it was a perfect day for a swim. I am pretty sure I’ve never hiked with this many people! Rumor had it we were 28.

Hikers

Scaling the wall to make it to the first pothole

Pothole!

View of the gorge

Tao grew up in Swaziland and has been hiking to the potholes since he was 3 years old; therefore, when he took a flying leap off of the 30 foot ledge, nobody was surprised.

Duane jumped second and being a representative for the Commonwealth Games we expected some acrobatics out of him

Then, there was me (plugging my nose). I was the third person to jump and apparently (as I was later told) I was the person who opened the flood gates to all of the ‘normal’ people jumping. Great, thanks.

Doug also jumped as a trio with Duane and Tao, but I clicked the picture a moment too soon!

Peanut gallery cheering on the jumpers

The water was freezing, but on such a hot day it was a good place to be

The hardest part was actually getting out and climbing back up the rock face!

After a dip in the first pothole a group continued on to the second pothole while a smaller group turned back. Fortunately, everyone made it back safe/sound (even though some were sunburned and exhausted having bit off more of a hike than desired in venturing to the second pothole).