Mozambique/South Africa border

Here's the sand roads in Mozambique leading away from the South African border. We didn't want to stray off the road because there are still land mines from the civil war all over the country, including in this region. You'll note in the picture below that coming TO Mozambique in South Africa, the road is paved and the road IN Mozambique is sand. Obvious indication of this fact: South Africa is a much richer country. But more interesting, the road in South Africa wasn't actually built until late 80s and early 90s, when the South African government was funding and supplying troops to RENAMO, a paramilitary group intended to destabilize Mozambique. That was all part of the civil war. What's interesting to me is that the road got built only because South Africa was afraid of the commies in Mozambique. Otherwise, they would have left that region pretty much to rot.

Here's the road on the South African side, to the Mozambique border.


Another interesting thing about the border: Africans from all over the continent manage to get into S. Africa from this border point. When we walked down the main street of Manguzi, there were Nigerians and Tanzanians galore hawking their wares.

Also interesting about the border: The Catholic church doesn't recognize it. The diocese of Star of the Sea Mission extends to both sides of the fence. I spent an afternoon talking with the head priest at the Mission and he told me many interesting stories about the community during the Mozambican civil war of 80s/early 90s. The hospital on the South African side is also the only hospital--so Mozambicans cross both legally and illegally for medical care.

And sadly, the HIV rate is extraordinarily high--among pregnant women ages 15-34, the rate is 39.9%.

Abby and Jerel and I saw a really interesting scene in Manguzi, which helped us to understand some of the sexual dynamics going on that might lead to such a high rate. We were trying to get into a particular road, which led to the house where we were staying, but it was blocked by a bread truck. Jerel got out and asked the bread guy to move the truck a little so we could get onto the road, but he had no interest in complying. Slowly, he kept gathering bread receptacles and stacking them in the back of his truck. And then he just started hanging out at the back of his truck, like he had all the time in the world. Another truck was parked between his truck and the store, and the sidewalk ran in between. As he lazily waited at the back of his truck (I'm sure enjoying every moment of making the two abelungus (white people) and one umuntu (black person) wait), a girl started walking down that sidewalk to pass between the two trucks. He leaned across so that he was blocking the sidewalk. She kept her eyes down and tried to move to the side to get around him. He held out his arm to keep her from going. She tried moving under his arm and he wouldn't let her. I was beginning to feel horrible, watching this harrassment of this young girl (probably 16 or 17). She wouldn't look at him. He kept moving so she couldn't pass him. Finally, some other people came and he let them pass and she was able to get around him and keep moving. But I knew I had just witnessed the kind of dynamics that led to a) South Africa's having the highest rape rate in the world and b) South Africa's having some of the highest HIV statistics in the world. It was horrifying to watch but fortunately, it didn't get any more dramatic than that because I don't know what we would have done. I don't know what we could have done. It's a violent society.