A Lesson in Humility: Cobue, Mozambique

This week, we decided to organize a short day-trip to the nearby city of Cobué, Mozambique. Our motivation came from all of the Mozambican traffic in the hospital lately. Each day, in both the lab where I have been working and the maternity ward where Katherine has been working, we receive patient after patient from Mozambique. Some have come the previous day or that morning for the sole purpose of being treated in St. Peter’s hospital. As we have reported before regarding the 50% of Mozambican patients the hospital serves, we will refer you to the previous post. But here, I will describe the journey to and sites in Cobué.

After collecting 15 liters of fuel and 500 ml of oil, we walked to the shore where our boat was “docked.” The small, wooden fishing boat had a few planks across it for seating and a small 15 hp Mercury motor on the back. We quickly realized that there were a few leaks, and so I ended up using a plastic milk container to bail us out more than once. After the collection of some oars for the case of emergency, our driver and our housekeeper Charles who was coming with us hauled the boat in from its anchor and we hopped in.

Our first stop, we learned, was to stop at another part of the island to collect a Malawian border pass for our boat. This would not have been a problem, except for the fact that we had spent about 2 hours earlier that morning getting our own Malawian boarder passes and dealing with immigration officials. Why we did not also pick up papers for the boat at that time, no one will ever understand. (Katherine and I always say that when things seem strange, it is because nothing in Africa is ever as it seems!)

Finally we set off for the Mozambican mainland, but with four more passengers than expected. When we stopped for the boat papers, two young women and their little sisters approached us asking if we would give them a ride to Cobué. They had missed the earlier boat, and decided that they would just sit on the beach and wait for someone else going there to hitch a ride. We think it was worth it, though, because they saved about 12,000 Kwacha ($24).

The ride across the Eastern side of Lake Malawi felt heavenly, though the rumbling of the motor did seem a bit concerning. With a strong breeze and the fresh scent of the outdoors, we arrived at Cobué about 40 minutes after setting out. We noticed when we arrived that the Mozambican government is currently working to build a dock for the Chambo boat that services Mozambique, Likoma Island, and mainland Malawi. Everyone is confident that the huge slabs of steel that are being put out into the Lake will provide much easier access to the boat for all its passengers and cargo.

As we got out of the boat, our driver hoisted it onto a deserted patch of sand and tied it to a branch he had stuck in the ground. You may laugh, but we definitely imagined we were the hopeless accomplices of Malawian conquistadors taking over Mozambique! We needed to self-report to Mozambican immigration, so Charles led us to the office where we had to wait for an official to show up! Each of the Malawians received a free entry stamp on their border pass, while Katherine and I received a Mozambican visa in our US passports for $30 USD each, along with a “docking fee” for the boat, around $14 USD. YIKES! Our friends told us we got the “Mzungu” price (white foreigner price).

At that point, it was 1:30pm and everyone hoped for lunch. A quick examination of our surroundings, however, told us that lunch would be nearly impossible. So, we set off to tour the village. Cobué was very small compared to Likoma Island and had little of Likoma’s constant foot traffic and small business enterprises. We did see several signs though of a greater and more deep seated poverty there than we had on Likoma or in Mzuzu. Our first clue was the lack of any electrical lines in sight, and the second was the prevalence of bore-hole hand water pumps every so often.

After passing the secondary school and several beautiful stretches of beach, we climbed some crags and hills and reached the health center of Cobué. What we found, to our great dismay, immediately confirmed for us the necessity of Mozambicans travelling to St. Peter’s Hospital. There was one delivery bed and two recovery beds in the maternity ward, which had few supplies. In a separate building, the only hospital employee working at that hour, an aide, showed us the 4 beds in the general ward, all covered in dirt and with half-used bags of solution waiting for future patients. Finally, we talked about the only nurse in the area while standing in a decrepit room with two dirty beds, one for cleaning wounds and one for examining patients. All together, we noticed only two drugs in the health center and two liters of fluids. Someone mentioned to us that the people become angry with the nurse because she often turns her phone off and is nowhere to be found. Katherine mentioned that she must be overworked and feel so guilty for not being able to work 24/7 for her community. At the same time, we agree that she is making a decision necessary to preserve her own health and usefulness.

We walked a little further and happened upon the boarding area of the secondary school we had previously encountered. We met the caretaker of the children and he showed us the one shelf of books that made up the library, the kitchen, the study area, and the rooms of the students. He explained that secondary education in Mozambique is conducted in Portuguese, even though many of the students speak only Chichewa, due to the proximity of Cobué to Likoma and Malawi. The student’s caretaker showed us into Cobué’s Catholic Church, the only building in the village that one can see from Likoma. All of brick and wood with beautiful stained glass the church stood as an incredible picture of the Portuguese heritage Mozambique holds.

Soon we realized that there was nothing else to see. It was only 3pm. Thus, we walked to the market in Cobué, a pitiful place compared to Likoma, let alone compared to Mzuzu. We stopped there for some bread and coca cola, fuel for our ride back to Likoma. Before we left though, a woman approached us. She was a friend of Charles’ from Malawi who is currently living in Mozambique. She moved there several years prior to pursue her passion for teaching nursery students. After beginning a small school, and educating several of Cobué’s youth, she began to realize that she was being taken advantage of by the community. Unfortunately, nothing she could do could convince the community, especially her students’ parents, that she needed help financially and materially to make the school a success. She was forced to close to maintain her own life and sanity, and now is selling vegetables at the market while she figures out what to do. When she showed Katherine and I where her school had been, under a wooden shelter near a mango tree, tears glistened in her eyes and hope filled her voice. It was a humbling meeting.

During the ride back, Katherine and I remained quite quiet as we contemplated our day and how, if at all, it would affect our work. Indeed, we think it will help us to better relate to our patients at St. Peter’s and to better understand just how lucky the Malawians living on Likoma are compared to the Western Mozambicans. We know the tone of this post may be a little more somber than previous ones. By it, we do not mean any disrespect to the people of Cobué. In fact, just the opposite, we hope to show that just spending a short time in their environment has given us a new and lasting perspective.

The boat we rode to Mozambique (which you can see in the distance).

Cobue, Mozambique

Pumping water for the village is often the task of women and children. The secondary school is in the background.

Mozambique is on the Eastern side of the Great Rift Valley.

Labor bed in Cobue's health center.

This is the general ward in Cobue's health center.

Cobue's Catholic Mission

Our new friend and her incredible school turned vegetable patch.

"Downtown" Cobue

On our way back to Likoma, we passed by the Ilala, an old passenger/cargo ship that traverses Lake Malawi daily.