Volunteers dive in to beautiful Tofo Bay

COUNTRY: Mozambique
PROGRAM: GapBreak & UniBreak
PROJECT: Marine Conservation and Care Work
WRITTEN BY: Katy Holden

As a uni student from New Zealand, arriving in Mozambique has been a definite shock to the system, but in the best possible way.

Our journey into this beautiful country started in the city of Inhambane. But city is a loose term compared to what we are used to at home. The airport is tiny, a little blue building with one room that was both arrivals and departures, and one security screen point that worked both ways. This makes for a very hectic time when flights are leaving and arriving at the same time! Administration and protocol is very, very different here, with visas being administered in the arrival and departure lounge. When combined with the very intense heat, this made for quite the entrance into Mozambique.

Tofo is a small but bustling town that thrives on tourism. It boasts a great surf break, as well as what is arguably one of the world’s most beautiful beaches and an ocean teeming with life. We’ve arrived at the end of the South African holidays, meaning that tourist season will soon draw to a close. But at the moment, the town is still busy with people from all over the world who have come to surf the great breaks and dive in the gorgeous Indian Ocean. That’s half of why we’re here, too. This week has consisted of getting our PADI dive certifications, so that soon we’ll be able to dive with the beautiful creatures local to the Mozambique coast. Our first ocean dive on Friday gave us a great taste of this, with a visit to a 9m deep reef that was home to a whole host of beautiful tropical fish. Soon we hope to see sea turtles, manta rays and of course, whale sharks.

After arriving on Monday, we took Tuesday to explore. We took a local chappa- the name for the local taxi buses- back into Inhambane to explore the city. The chappa itself was an experience worth remembering. In a fourteen seater van, about twenty five people were piled in, all sitting and standing on top of each other. Every time we thought that it was well and truly full, the driver would stop and let a few more on. This made for a very hot ride! When we begin our childcare work soon, this will be our daily mode of transportation.

Volunteer life is great so far, with six of us living in a straw-thatch roof house. We’re less than a five minute walk to the beach, so naturally we’ve been swimming every day. I’m the only one from New Zealand, with four others from Australia and one from Norway. We’ve been sampling the local night life and eating delicious local food, which mainly consists of seafood, seafood, and more seafood. This is a fishing village, and everything comes straight from the sea to our plates. Whatever the fishermen catch that day is whatever we’ll eat. This is another reason why the marine conservation work that we came to do is so important. It is crucial for the community to create a sustainable environment to perpetuate the tourism that the sea life provides, and this involves education about sustainable fishing.

We’re all very excited to see how the next five weeks unfold!