Moz, Part 2: Pebane Fishing Lodge

I had said 3 parts, but now there's destined to be 4. The following series includes photos taken of & from Pebane Fishing Lodge, where Johannes worked all of last year building furniture and where we resided for the week there. It's a private residence only used twice a year and is a phenomenal space consisting of raised platforms & walkways above the sand. All in all there are 4 huts -- 2 for living quarters with 4 bedrooms and 4 baths, plus 1 common hut with massive kitchen/lounge/dining areas, and 1 storeroom (which Johannes actually built).

It's a beautifully built and designed lodge, using almost all local building techniques and materials. The roofs are made of woven mats of grass and the walls are made with carefully bundled reeds, 2 layers thick. Meanwhile, all the other fittings and furnishing are Grade A compared to anything the locals would enjoy, including 5 refrigerators, luxury showers, flushing toilets, satellite television, and an ice machine. The area of Pebane only received electricity 2 years ago, so most local housing still has yet to catch onto the 20th century way of life.

The local economy is barely driven by money. Fair trade is the word of the day as most local people live a life of subsistence. Chickens and goats, as in South Africa, are the insurance policy against drought and famine (I think the rooster call is the national anthem of Africa, by the way). The Portuguese left stacks of coconut palm farms and from that the people of Pebane derive much of their diet and building materials. The Portuguese also left behind some killer bread recipes, which seem a staple, although the flour is obviously purchased and not grown in sandy, dry Pebane. Cassava root, regionally known as Mandioca, provides starch. Peanuts and some type of green bean add protein, but the main stay of protein comes from fishing. Men fell large trees and from that they hack-out primitive canoes, which they row into sea every day for their catch. While I barely tasted any fish, I got windfall of loads of prawns, for which Mozambique is well known. Tiger prawns, peri-peri (chili) spiced prawns, cooked with the head on and all, prawns with chips, prawns with rice, prawns with coconut...am I beginning to sound like Bubba Gump of N'leans?





More photos to come in Part 3 of Pebane, the town.