Ponta d'Ouro
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Laura
07 December 2013 | Mozambique, Ponta d'Ouro
Sunday morning I made myself comfortable in a 7-seater on my way to Mozambique. I traveled with 5 other girls; Yula, Tumi, Gcinizwi, Bakhita and Noma. The drive was long and half the time we were all sleeping, which was actually a very cute sight :) Whenever I would open my eyes and look around me, I’d find 5 girls cuddled up together and sleeping like little children :)
We had to cross two borders, the South African and the Mozambican border. When I crossed the SA border I got unpleasantly surprised... The border official casually told me that I only had 10 days left of my 90 days visa in South Africa! I was shocked as I resided in Swaziland the three months I’ve been in Africa. I didn’t know what to do, I needed to go to South Africa again to see my family! My head was pounding with so many thoughts, what to do, when to arrange it, who to ask for help etc. Anyways, even though I had stress and my whatsapp wouldn’t work in Mozambique, which meant no communication with my parents about the most recent trouble I encountered, I tried to calm down and just forget about it.
When we finally got our Ponta d’Ouro (Ponta) stamp in our passports, we had to wait for the shuttle van that would pick us up from the Kosi Bay border. Only it wasn’t a van but a regular 4x4 Jeep that picked us up. We had to squeeze 4 people in the back and 2 in front to fit, it was tight but we had so much fun! The driver was a rough guy, driving and speeding wildly through the breathtakingly beautiful sand dunes.
The roads were like a maze; sand, grass and hills everywhere. It was a bumpy ride; because of the sand we would frequently be drifting from side to side which gave me butterflies in my stomach, it was comparable to a ride in a rollercoaster (not even exaggerating!) I had respect for the driver, who knew perfectly well where to turn and which road to take. To me everything looked the same.
Finally we arrived at our lodge in the accommodation: Coco Rico. Us girls got so excited when we saw our little house for the week! We had three big rooms, two double beds and 2 bunkbeds. On top of that a huge livingroom and two bathrooms! Then a bit later the boys arrived; Jason, Chima, Emiliano and Trevor (and even later Tanaka). I didn’t really know the boys nor the girls before, but I had no idea that I would get so close to them all in just one week :) They accepted me into their group so quick and on the second day they even started calling me Lau and LauLau, plus pronouncing my name in the correct Spanish/Dutch way! This gave me a warm and happy feeling as nicknaming to me means someone feels comfortable around you and it shows a sweet kind of affection :)
During the day, if it wasn’t too hot, we would go to the beach to chill with other ex-students from Waterford. We swam, sunbathed, played soccer and beach volleyball, but most importantly we relaxed and chilled. We also went to the market a lot, to get some freshly baked bread and other stuff for in the house. Or we would go to one of the cute cafe-restaurants along the way to the market; to have cappuccino and chocolate cake at Love Cafe for example. If it was too hot to even want to stand up for a glass of water, we would chill in our awesome airconditioned house, listen and sing along to Drake and have awesome conversations.
During the night we would go out to have amazing seafood, dance and party to celebrate the end of their two years of IB at Waterford :) We had drinks that drunk us, especially the local Pinto rum with raspberry soda called R&R. We would go to Neptunes or Cafe Cafe, two restaurants which turned into bars at night. After a couple of hours of dancing, we would move the venue to the beach where we would talk, laugh, dance, sing “Just hold on, we’re going home!” touch the Indian Ocean with our toes (then accidentally coming home with wet shorts...) and spread love to each other.
The memories I made this awesome week with my Ponta family... They will always make me laugh and smile and I want to write some of them down to never forget :) (for people who didn’t come on the most epic trip ever, you may stop reading if you like, these memories might only be nice if you were there, sorry for the inconvenience.)
The exciting yet scary story the boys told us about the near accident on the way to Moz, how funny Emmy’s reaction was (Jaaysuunn!) and how calm Jason stayed and saved their lives.
Chima’s way of eating cereals: preparing Chocopops with tons of sugar and then putting it in the microwave to warm it up! Not to speak about how much sugar he puts in his tea ;) and the way he taught me to do one of his funky dancemoves ;)
Gcinizwi’s hilarious laughter, whenever she laughed, I laughed. She could laugh on and on about something, sometimes even with tears rolling down her cheeks :)
Jason being the master of YOLO.
Trevor randomly singing Drake songs which made us all sing along, or that time on the beach when we wanted to sing Adele but didn’t know the lyrics ;)
The awesome games we played while ‘turning up’
Tumi teaching me the wonderful Siswati word: Uyahlanya! which means: You’re crazy! and us supporting each other when we were worrying and panicking about Yula. (We were dramaqueens btw, no worries)
Bakhita telling me funny stories about literally anything, taking me to Love Cafe and Terragons for the best cappuccinos and brunches and cooking delicious food for us with the few resources we had in the house.
Tanaka’s tears.
Yula and me talking Spanish, tickling Chima, having deep conversations and the wonderful honesty we shared with eachother <3
Emiliano dancing the craziest dance in Neptunes, which makes me laugh even while typing this! (So lucky Yula filmed it!)
The Waterford slang all these guys taught me in just one week :)
When Tumi and Noma fell hard (I’m sorry if you had pain but it was so funny!)
The one rainy day when we decided to chill in the double bed with the five or six of us, we laughed, we talked but most importantly we built trust.
I can’t even start to describe how I bonded so quick with these guys, because honestly I don’t know either. I just know that on the last day, saying goodbye was very hard. Us girls stayed one more night, we had a lovely, funny and exciting night together, but it did feel a bit empty and sad without the boys and without the rest of the ex-Waterford students. I Love you, my Ponta family!
Lots of Love,
Laura
We had to cross two borders, the South African and the Mozambican border. When I crossed the SA border I got unpleasantly surprised... The border official casually told me that I only had 10 days left of my 90 days visa in South Africa! I was shocked as I resided in Swaziland the three months I’ve been in Africa. I didn’t know what to do, I needed to go to South Africa again to see my family! My head was pounding with so many thoughts, what to do, when to arrange it, who to ask for help etc. Anyways, even though I had stress and my whatsapp wouldn’t work in Mozambique, which meant no communication with my parents about the most recent trouble I encountered, I tried to calm down and just forget about it.
When we finally got our Ponta d’Ouro (Ponta) stamp in our passports, we had to wait for the shuttle van that would pick us up from the Kosi Bay border. Only it wasn’t a van but a regular 4x4 Jeep that picked us up. We had to squeeze 4 people in the back and 2 in front to fit, it was tight but we had so much fun! The driver was a rough guy, driving and speeding wildly through the breathtakingly beautiful sand dunes.
The roads were like a maze; sand, grass and hills everywhere. It was a bumpy ride; because of the sand we would frequently be drifting from side to side which gave me butterflies in my stomach, it was comparable to a ride in a rollercoaster (not even exaggerating!) I had respect for the driver, who knew perfectly well where to turn and which road to take. To me everything looked the same.
Finally we arrived at our lodge in the accommodation: Coco Rico. Us girls got so excited when we saw our little house for the week! We had three big rooms, two double beds and 2 bunkbeds. On top of that a huge livingroom and two bathrooms! Then a bit later the boys arrived; Jason, Chima, Emiliano and Trevor (and even later Tanaka). I didn’t really know the boys nor the girls before, but I had no idea that I would get so close to them all in just one week :) They accepted me into their group so quick and on the second day they even started calling me Lau and LauLau, plus pronouncing my name in the correct Spanish/Dutch way! This gave me a warm and happy feeling as nicknaming to me means someone feels comfortable around you and it shows a sweet kind of affection :)
During the day, if it wasn’t too hot, we would go to the beach to chill with other ex-students from Waterford. We swam, sunbathed, played soccer and beach volleyball, but most importantly we relaxed and chilled. We also went to the market a lot, to get some freshly baked bread and other stuff for in the house. Or we would go to one of the cute cafe-restaurants along the way to the market; to have cappuccino and chocolate cake at Love Cafe for example. If it was too hot to even want to stand up for a glass of water, we would chill in our awesome airconditioned house, listen and sing along to Drake and have awesome conversations.
During the night we would go out to have amazing seafood, dance and party to celebrate the end of their two years of IB at Waterford :) We had drinks that drunk us, especially the local Pinto rum with raspberry soda called R&R. We would go to Neptunes or Cafe Cafe, two restaurants which turned into bars at night. After a couple of hours of dancing, we would move the venue to the beach where we would talk, laugh, dance, sing “Just hold on, we’re going home!” touch the Indian Ocean with our toes (then accidentally coming home with wet shorts...) and spread love to each other.
The memories I made this awesome week with my Ponta family... They will always make me laugh and smile and I want to write some of them down to never forget :) (for people who didn’t come on the most epic trip ever, you may stop reading if you like, these memories might only be nice if you were there, sorry for the inconvenience.)
The exciting yet scary story the boys told us about the near accident on the way to Moz, how funny Emmy’s reaction was (Jaaysuunn!) and how calm Jason stayed and saved their lives.
Chima’s way of eating cereals: preparing Chocopops with tons of sugar and then putting it in the microwave to warm it up! Not to speak about how much sugar he puts in his tea ;) and the way he taught me to do one of his funky dancemoves ;)
Gcinizwi’s hilarious laughter, whenever she laughed, I laughed. She could laugh on and on about something, sometimes even with tears rolling down her cheeks :)
Jason being the master of YOLO.
Trevor randomly singing Drake songs which made us all sing along, or that time on the beach when we wanted to sing Adele but didn’t know the lyrics ;)
The awesome games we played while ‘turning up’
Tumi teaching me the wonderful Siswati word: Uyahlanya! which means: You’re crazy! and us supporting each other when we were worrying and panicking about Yula. (We were dramaqueens btw, no worries)
Bakhita telling me funny stories about literally anything, taking me to Love Cafe and Terragons for the best cappuccinos and brunches and cooking delicious food for us with the few resources we had in the house.
Tanaka’s tears.
Yula and me talking Spanish, tickling Chima, having deep conversations and the wonderful honesty we shared with eachother <3
Emiliano dancing the craziest dance in Neptunes, which makes me laugh even while typing this! (So lucky Yula filmed it!)
The Waterford slang all these guys taught me in just one week :)
When Tumi and Noma fell hard (I’m sorry if you had pain but it was so funny!)
The one rainy day when we decided to chill in the double bed with the five or six of us, we laughed, we talked but most importantly we built trust.
I can’t even start to describe how I bonded so quick with these guys, because honestly I don’t know either. I just know that on the last day, saying goodbye was very hard. Us girls stayed one more night, we had a lovely, funny and exciting night together, but it did feel a bit empty and sad without the boys and without the rest of the ex-Waterford students. I Love you, my Ponta family!
Lots of Love,
Laura
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10 December 2013 - 20:38
Kudzani Pickup:
Just wanted to let u know i read it :)
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