By Lisa Hoffman Mullis
We’re bumping down a dusty dirt road in northern Mozambique when the Toyota van we’re riding in starts overheating. My first thought is “What’s going on? This is a Toyota for goodness sake!” My second thought, as our driver Asman rolls the van to a stop on the left shoulder, is “Uh-oh. How far back was that last village we just passed through?” As we climb out of the van all you can hear is the steamy hiss of the engine vapors and the flies buzzing. Otherwise, silence. In other words, no one’s around. As I look around for a place to pee I half expect to see tumbleweed blowing across the road but in reality, it’s only a lone baboon. Who knows when we’ll come upon the next village. If we have to get there by foot, it’s definitely going to be a long way off.
Fortunately Asman had purchased a large 1.5 liter bottle of water at a stop we’d made a couple of hours ago. He’s got just enough left, he thinks, to rehydrate the engine and get us to the next village. Despite our warnings to wait until the engine has cooled, he risks second degree burns as he wrenches the cap off the reservoir. He is determined and he tells us, or shows us rather, that he’s more concerned about his passengers’ comfort than his own. I can tell he’s anxious to get us out of the blaring sun and heat and on our way to Nampula. For us, breakdowns, flats and unexpected stops are a normal aspect of travel in emerging destinations. For him, this is unacceptable for his guests, and you can tell he’s a little embarrassed.
After some clankity-chugs, the engine revs into a pleasant drone and Asman has gotten us underway. To our surprise and relief, the next village is less than 10km down the road. We stop again, this time under the shade of a marula tree, and the locals, who’d been conducting their business on either side of the road, come to cluster around the van. Women and children huddle around our left; a large group of men and teenage boys press in on us from the right. The men approach Asman as he gets out and requests help. He explains the situation and the need for a few gallons of water. At least this is what we surmise from the inflections in his tone and his illustrative hand gestures. For a handful of small bills in meticaish, one of the men goes to fetch a plastic jug of water. These plastic water containers are ubiquitous throughout the north because taps are not. It’s a big deal to share your water when it takes so much work to get it. And most folks don’t have autos so they’re unaccustomed to expending a precious resource on engines.
While the men help Asman with the engine, my husband and I patiently bear the scrutiny of curious eyes. White people are by far a minority and tourists in these parts even more so. Soon the engine has chugity-chugged back into life. Asman motions for us to go and we mark our departure with gestures of farewell and gratitude.
About an hour and several engine checks later, we hit tarmac and the drive smoothes out. We settle in for the rest of the long-haul transfer to Nampula and resume our marvel of Mozambican scenery, the villages and people and animals that flash past our windows.
Asman’s resourceful, positive nature, the villagers’ curiosity and their willingness to help are illustrative of northern Mozambican’s cultural values. After almost 15 years of civil war that decimated both human and animal populations, Mozambique is making a rapid recovery, in large part due to its citizens’ determination to improve their livelihoods and to restore and conserve Mozambique’s valuable resources. Whatever the war’s atrocities, you don’t get a sense that the people are left with any residual bitterness. Rather they are warm, welcoming and quick to please without coming across as subservient. And particularly in the north, where tourism is just beginning to flourish, travelers are treated like family.
Whether or not locals understand how tourism dollars impact their country’s economy and thus, eventually themselves, they are genuinely curious about outsiders and readily willing for positive interaction. They are proud of their culture and eager to share it. They like to practice their English or teach you some Portuguese, and they’re excited to show you the many beautiful aspects of their country from nature-based architecture to cultural dances to fascinating flora and fauna.
Ibo Island Lodge
Our overland journey to Nampula that day was one section of a larger traverse that began with a relaxing and intimate one day stay at Pemba Dive & Bush Camp (www.pembadivecamp.com) where the proprietor treated us to a genuinely friendly and colorful welcome. From there we transferred to Ibo Island in the Quirimbas Archipelago, which is zoned for World Heritage Status and home to one of the oldest and arguably most atmospheric towns in Mozambique. There we had the great pleasure of spending several days at Ibo Island Lodge (www.iboisland.com).
Ibo Island Lodge is one of several community-based tourism enterprises in Mozambique. The Mozambican government requires any tourism lodge established and run by foreign interests to provide some type of program or service that benefits the local community. Ibo Island Lodge was actually built by the community and employs a great percentage of local population in all manner of positions from chefs to wait staff to tour guides. The Lodge has built an English Montessori school to provide education for the children and while English is not their native tongue, its vital to tourism development and greatly increases the odds for students to eventually be hired on at Ibo Lodge or other tourist-based business in the Archipelago.
Other projects the Lodge has initiated are a community agriculture program largely focused on cultivation of the island’s Ancient Arab coffee plantations, marine turtle research and conservation, and a silversmith jeweler’s initiative where the Lodge provides silversmiths the materials and tools needed to create gorgeous, one-of-a-kind creations for sale to tourists.
Tourists are encouraged to visit and learn more about all of the community-based projects. Indeed many of the day’s potential activities involve touring the silversmiths’ workshops or visiting the school. But when one is not immersing themselves in the ins and outs of the various projects or exploring the island’s Arabic and Portuguese history, Ibo Island Lodge provides a luscious, atmospheric environment in which to soak up the tranquility of island life. Situated right on the waterfront, the Lodge comprises several historic mansions once built for and occupied by Portuguese government officials. All facilities have been modernized yet the architecture and décor meticulously retain the essence of its storied past. If that sounds melodramatic and romantic, the reality of it is no less than that. The breezy verandas, double-door entries that open out to the beach and gauzy mosquito netting draped over the king-size four-poster beds are sensual and understatedly opulent. The food is no less excellent, creative and elegant.
But for all the five-star comfort, the Lodge is committed to sustainable facilities management and energy conservation and it operates within the normal rhythms of village life where electricity is a considered convenience, not a given. This only adds to the allure of the Lodge and the feeling that you’ve been invited to fit yourself into life here rather than coerce the experience into one of your own design. To me, this is an important aspect of having a truly authentic connection with the land and the people in which I’m traveling.
Guludo Beach Lodge
After several days on Ibo where we vacillated between guided interpretive active excursions – sea kayaking the mangrove forests, snorkeling, bicycling around the island and beachcombing – and lazy indulgences like reading and afternoon naps, we headed back to the northern mainland coast to spend the next several days at Guludo Beach Lodge (www.guludo.com).
Guludo Beach Lodge is the creation of Amy and Neal Carter-James, a young energetic couple who passionately believe business can help alleviate poverty and enable environmental conservation. After establishing Bespoke Experience, the parent company of the Lodge, the Carter-James’ hired local tradesmen and craftsmen to build eco-friendly facilities that consist of a main lodge, a series of Bandas (rooms) that each open out to the white sand beach and various staff quarters. Afterwards many of the builders where retained as staff and Guludo Beach Lodge continues to employ a great number of the people from the surrounding villages.
The accommodations are ingeniously designed to balance comfort and luxury with environmental integrity. The most notable example being the solar-heated, hand-powered showers where sun-warm water filters through a perforated coconut showerhead. There is a definite sense of hand-craftedness, a purposeful use of natural resources and a respect of the flora and fauna all of which give you a feeling of cozy, downhome intimacy you don’t often experience until after you’ve spent a good deal of time somewhere.
All of Guludo Beach Lodges’s community outreach programs (and there are many) are coordinated through the Nema Foundation (www.nemafoundation.org), an organization the Carter-James’ established as the philanthropic arm of Bespoke Experience. The Nema Foundation has accomplished an incredible amount of work in the few years it’s been in existence. In addition to actively working with 12 villages and building a new school, providing malaria and nutrition education and support, and establishing a handicraft enterprise, Nema has also completed the building or rehabilitation of more than 25 water points and pumps that provide clean, fresh water to more than 12,000 locals. Nema owes a lot of its success to the communities they partner with and to the dedication and support of Guludo’s guests and island visitors who are moved by the story, the apparent needs and challenges and then are compelled to make a contribution. But the key to it all has been the Carter-James’s unflappable spirit and the dedication they have to Mozambique—the land they now call home—its people, its wildlife, its culture. This passion permeates Guludo’s air, influences how guests are accommodated, which activities are offered, how they are delivered and the opportunity to make a heartfelt connection with the local people.
Needless to say, we were deeply impressed by the strides Bespoke Experience has made in the communities surrounding the Lodge and through the Nema Foundation. They are an exceptional example of successful community-based tourism. We were equally impressed with the surrounding beauty, the friendliness of the locals (they teased us good-naturedly about walking so far barefoot on hot sand and welcomed our curious observations of their local fishing customs), and the stunning array of wildlife we saw in the waters during our SCUBA dives.
Probably one of the best parts of Guludo was what we came to call “forced relaxation.” For two people who consider a computer and a cell phone vital organs and who are used to cramming in as much to-do-list items in a day as possible, having long hours for reading, sun soaking, beachcombing and napping in between organized activities was perhaps the most foreign aspect of all. Before arriving at Guludo we struggled with how to do this thing called “relax,” but afterwards we were truly getting the hang of it.
Nkwichi Lodge
Departing Guludo, we set out on a 48-hour journey to the shores of Lake Niassa (also called Lake Malawi) on the other side of the country where we’d be holing up at Nkwichi Lodge (www.mandawilderness.org) for the next five days. Most African travel adventures involve some sort of arduous overland journey—it’s almost a requirement. We were willing to meet it, and we steeled our resolved to deal with the worst. But after an 11-hour van ride full of the stereotypical heat, bumps and lumps, an overnight stay in the capital Nampula, a one-hour flight, a four-hour car ride and lastly a one-hour boat ride, I have to admit our biggest adventure was our van’s minor breakdown and our driver Asman’s subsequent resourcefulness.
As it is with long complicated journeys to out-of-the-way places, the destination is generally more than worth the hassle to get there. Nkwichi is no exception. Exceptional is more apropos—it’s one of those places out of a dream or a storybook you can hardly believe is real. Ironically, at this point in our travels we were both reading a sort of story book about the fantastical adventures of Stanley and Livingstone. So when we read that Livingstone had dubbed Lake Niassa “Lake of the Stars” and then we got to see with our own eyes what he meant, it was truly a book coming to life.
On the shores of the lake, Nkwichi Lodge is nestled among pristine forest teeming with birds, vervent monkeys and reptilians of all sizes. The white sand beaches are punctuated with rock pools and ancient boulders where one can snorkel, swim, canoe and even drink the tropical-blue waters that are home to the greatest variety of indigenous fish species of than any other lake in the world. Up and down the stretch of shoreline around Nkwichi run trails that are the local byways connecting villages and allow for day-excursions or safaris into the Manda Wilderness Reserve, a 600 square km game reserve created by the founders of Nkwichi Lodge in alliance with the local communities to restore and protect the wildlife in this area.
Nkwichi is the financial cornerstone of the Manda Wilderness Project and the Lodge’s proceeds have allowed the Project staff (mostly local villagers) to develop the Manda Wilderness Agriculture Project (MWAP) which has assisted more than 350 farmers with tools, information and sustainable farming management strategies to conserve, improve and increase the yield of their lands. Indeed Nkwichi is able to purchase nearly all of its produce from the large organic garden that is part of the MWAP’s training center.
In addition to MWAP, Nkwichi funds along with private donations have enabled the establishment of a health center where locals train and are trained on basic healthcare, HIV/AIDS and midwifery. Six schools have been built or are currently under construction to address the insufficient opportunities for education. A mill house for processing the locally grown maize and cassava, a football team and more than 40 kms of road and tacks built in recent years are examples of other projects that fall under the Manda Wilderness Project umbrella and which Nkwichi funds have enabled.
As a guest of Nkwichi, you have many opportunities to visit the various projects and see first-hand how the efforts have impacted the surrounding communities. It’s humbling and thought-provoking to have this dual experience of five-star luxury service in Nkwichi’s fantastically creative eco-friendly accommodations and bear witness to life in impoverished villages. But it’s inspiring to see what the Manda Wilderness Project has accomplished here and know that the monies we’ve spent at the Lodge or buying handicrafts in the villages are being put to good use.
For the community-based enterprises on Ibo Island, Guludo and in the Manda Wilderness, labor, construction and materials were and continue to be locally sourced. This simple fact gives some insight into the key to their success: the local people are invested physically, emotionally and in many cases financially in the projects they help to develop, implement and support. The initial ventures may have been funded by outside interests, but ultimately it has been up to the people most directly affected to ensure their success. The net result exemplifies how public-private partnerships revolving around small enterprises that employ relatively small numbers of employees can improve the quality of life of thousands of individuals while at the same time providing visitors with experiences to last a lifetime.