BEELAYUH (spelled phonetically…)

So the word “beelayuh” means getting a free ride by a complete stranger here in Mozambique. Often times this free ride can come in a number of different varieties – backs of pick-up trucks, in an air-conditioned Land Cruiser with a Mozambican, Portuguese or South African. Now I know coming from the U.S. where hitch hiking is not a common occurrence (and I think might even be illegal), here that is not the case and often times this ride can be much more comfortable than being jammed in a chapa that was originally meant for 15 people and actually have 26 people – not to mention safer. Okay so over the Christmas weekend I spent my time in Xai-Xai beach with some other volunteers and the other volunteer that I am living with and I decided to get a beelayuh to our destinations. After standing on the side of the road for about 20 minutes flagging down whatever car would pass we got ourselves a beelayuh straight to Xai-Xai, which couldn’t have been any more perfect. I like to call him “Speedy Gonzales” because he lives in Chokwe (the large town closest to mine) and works in Xai-Xai meaning he drives this normally 2 hour drive in a private car in an hour and a half during the day and in 45 minutes at night (mainly dependent on the number of cops on the road during those hours…). Speedy was very nice bought us waters at the gas station and gave us his number for whenever we wanted to head back to Xai-Xai. Because of how fast I got to the beach I arrived way earlier than the rest of the group and was able to get a head start on my Christmas tan. My friends who were coming from the same place, but wanted to leave a bit later took chapas and it took them about 5 hours! Oh yea so on Christmas eve a friend of mine and I decided to go to town from the beach which is about 6-8 km trek on our way back we were once again belay-ing and happened to get a ride in a brand new Hummer-3 with air-conditioning, leather seats and a new Akon song playing…will be sure to continue to keep you all updated on my beelayuh stories!