I Shouted My Joy: Slice

I meant to tie the last post with this one but it just didn’t fit. So after a couple of weeks traveling we arrived at a place called Tofo. It looked nice on the tronz, but pictures do not express how great it is. It really felt like a slice of heaven on earth or what I would call a thin place (from Celtic Christianity, also I really like Celtic Christianity, you should check it out) I really like the description of a “thin place”. Its a small little coastal town in the southern part of Mozambique that’s has a few little hostels and that’s about it. We had small straw hut bungalow with a straw mat floor over the sand that overlooked the beach. This was about $11 a night. I had read that there was a company that offered snorkeling with whale sharks (I think a whale shark is hybrid breed that a mad scientist from Germany created by breading a killer whale and a great white shark, not confirmed), manta rays, and dolphins. If this was going to be anything close to the previous game drives we went on, we might be able to see some seaweed and jellyfish. My expectations were low as we hopped in the boat. After 10 minutes, they can’t get the engine to crank. Sweet, good start. We have to get out and wait almost an hour for them to fix it. In that time I shared my awesome sand castle building skills with some folks from Holland. (Benefits of taking local beach trips every summer) Right as the waves broke through the moat and castle wall, the boat was ready to go.

We cruise out and drive around for no more than 15 minutes when the guide causal says, put on your fins and snorkel. Everyone scrambles and I was stuck with one fin way too large and one way to small. No Problem. He say “the whale shark is just there, jump in”. I’m thinking yeah right, and slid into the perfect chilled water with my mismatched flippers. Right when I jumped in, I looked around and saw nothing. The word liar came to mind. Then I turned all the way around and then realized just how big whale sharks are. This giant fish was swimming straight toward with its huge blood stained teeth. (Nah, I’m lying, whale sharks are filter feeders, but they are pretty damn big though). It was quite impressive. At that moment all my years of summer swim team paid off. They let those who are able, to just swim next to the whale shark as it was just cruising along. This equated to me, my roommate and a guy named Dr. Dennis who has spent his entire life studying whale sharks. There we were, just swimming about 300 meters with this peacefully quite giant of the ocean.

We repeated the process 3 more times with 2 more whale sharks and a herd (maybe the word school?) of dolphins. Too be honest dolphins aren’t that cool, they are way too fast. We also saw a monster humpback whale with its 3 day old baby calf just cruise right by the boat. All in all I would call it a success trip out.

The other nice thing about going to thin places like Tofo, is that you get to meet awesome people. People who take great risk for great reward. People who love to travel and can tell you crazy stories from across all continents. For example: Dave. Dave grew up in Edinburgh Scotland, had a normal life, studied biology in university and got a job at Xerox when he graduated. He worked there for 2 years and one day just said that he was done. He sold everything that he had except for a bag of clothes and got on a plane to South Africa. 3 years later, he is leading ocean safaris for one of the upscale dive companies in Tofo. I felt like I heard countless stories similar to Dave’s. People who are civil engineers who work really hard 8 months out of the year to save up to travel the other 4. People with non-profits in exotic areas with great need who have some time to themselves to unwind and can easily hop over to places like Tofo.

I know I’m repeating myself here but out of the I would guess 100+ people that I met only 3 were American and 2 had to spend a night in the Maputo jail. I met many people from all over the world, even people from not so developed countries like Ecuador and Pakistan.

So I guess what I’m saying is, what’s the deal America? Why can people get their travel on? Let go and go. Meet some new folks. It might make them more human and as an unfortunate side effect, you might care more about them.

I met this girl named Sarah, maybe from Germany? She had saved up a lot of money and decided to go surfing up the eastern coast of Africa. (Sweet deal right?) In her travels she met many street kids who are obviously struggling to make ends meet. They touched her heart. Instead of spending a majority of her time surfing, she spends time hanging with the street kids along the coast, teaching them new skills. They walk the beach together to find cool shells. She then teaches them how to make necklaces and bracelets to sell to people. She also tries to teach them a little bit of English so they can sell the things they make. She’s making little entrepreneurs out of them. I ended up buying 5 bracelets from some kids she helped. I know it’s not perfect but hey I think it’s great. She will continue on her surf trip up the coast but now she has greater purpose in her travels.

I want to leave you with that, the limitlessness. What can come when you take a risk, dive in and listen to your heart.