It’s 7.30 am and we’re on the bus to the airport for our flight to Maputo. My alarm went off and I was straight in the shower, changed and out. Packing last night was definitely a good idea, because I definitely underestimated how tired I would be.
However, I couldn’t miss the breakfast so I made sure to leave enough time for that… I mean it’s all about the mini muffins after all! Every single stage of this process, every hotel = mini muffins! Just like the previous morning the food was amazing!!!! Well worth getting up at 6am for.
Nigel’s phone didn’t automatically change his time, so when we phoned him asking if he was ready to leave he was like why are we leaving at 5am? Thankfully we ended up leaving only 10 minutes behind schedule and with no traffic it meant we still made good time. Jess was kind enough to make and pack a sandwich for him to go, I don’t think shes out of ‘mum’ mode yet!
Queue us standing in Joberg Airport with Yvonne giving her speech about how airports should be the most organised places but they are the complete opposite! Which at first sounds weird, but really … she has a point. If you know how many people are coming in and out… why only have 2 check in desks open?!
We all made it onto the plane with no problems, well after our check-in rants! We began our journey to Maputo, when checking in Jess, Nigel and myself all allocated seats next to each other. Meaning one thing… Flight drinks!
We arrived in Mozambique to meet Laure and Ari. Coming through baggage reclaim and security we got described to look for a crazy french woman with red hair… we were definitely not disappointed. I wouldn’t say she was crazy, more straight to the point and doesn’t have time for bullshit. Which would prove to be utterly hilarious in the oncoming week.
We picked up the hire cars and flung our cases in the back, ready to head straight to lunch! Me, Jess, Samantha, Percy joined Yvonne in her car, where I was allocated DJ… little did I know that would be my role for the rest of the week!
For lunch we went to this amazing little restaurant just behind the beachfront.
We all sat round the table for our first meal as teamMoz, where most people ordered a 2M beer, a Nando’s favourite from Mozambique. Not being big on beer I stuck to water to keep hydrated.
After food – which was amazing – we went to the beach for a few hours! The cool water was amazing in the heat, definitely needed as it was 38 degrees.
We had plenty of time to swim, and play with the bat and ball – me and Jess got to 21, absolute champs. Due to it being the weekend and the weather being good, the beach was scattered with families, all laughing, having fun and living in the moment.
From the beach side we headed to Guesthouse 1109, our accommodation for the week. It was over an hour of bumper to bumper traffic but it didn’t bother us in the slightest because the surroundings was amazing. We had music playing through Yvonnes speaker, with everyone singing along and taking in their surroundings.
The full coastline was full of people and their families having fun drinking, eating food and taking in the sun! oh – and singing! Every single person we saw along the coast this day had a smile on their face and looked like they did not have a care in the world.
We arrived at the guesthouse just after the sunset, and started to sort out the rooms and our plans for the evening. Me and Jess got allocated the apartment (#roomies), which was huge inside! We had the full bottom floor of the complex under the top deck!
We got settled in and showered ready to meet on the deck for tablet/survey training.
Running through each of the surveys and how we would process each day, we all worked together and worked together even more when it came to ordering food!
We ordered pizza from Mundo’s, and if someone ever tells you Yvonne is a feeder. BELIEVE THEM!
An early night was well needed ready to go full speed ahead tomorrow morning.
Becky's Blog 