This episode recounts my journey through Mozambique with my South African friend, Errol. We left Cape Maclear in Malawi and travelled south into Mozambique. Little did I know realise I was entering a frontier land.  Mozambique gained independence from over four centuries of Portuguese rule in 1975, then descended into a civil war from 1977-1992. Over a million people were killed between the two warring parties and five million displaced, with forced marches and child soldiers, and destroyed infrastructure across the rural region. The war ended with the collapse of Soviet and South African support with peace talks ending in the Rome General Peace Accords. The United Nations spent the next two years helping to rebuild the country.  We arrived in the country as the UN was pulling out. We travelled down to Beira and then along the coastline down to Maputo. During that time, we passed impoverished rural villages scraping a living on their farmland, and old derelict Portuguese buildings with no windows and bullet holes in the walls. We grabbed a lift with a guy who was tasked to find the remaining land mines buried in the countryside. He was slightly crazy but who wouldn't be with a job like that. I had noticed quite a few maimed people, mostly missing some of their leg. It was a sobering reality check of the realities of war. At Vinancular, we went over on a boat to one of the islands close by, Magarque or Benguerra. When we tried to land, we were chased off by security guards and told it was a private island. However, we slipped away and moved to the other side of the island where we spent a couple hours of bliss. It made me wonder how these beautiful islands were not developed being so close to South Africa. At Xai Xai (pronounced shi, shi) we went to a campground right off the beach and backed by dunes. The first few days spent here were wonderful. We celebrated my birthday with a couple of South African lads on a weekender and a huge yellow-finned tuna caught by Errol, stuffed with vegetables and cooked on the coals. It was delicious. Errol left to do some business in Maputo for a few days. I had enough food and money to last that time. Unfortunately, Errol was away for ten days. I ran out of money and food. I remember living on a small baguette a day until I could not even buy that. I had to choose between food and water so I ended up just drinking the local water out of the tap (something that is not advised to do at any time). I was feeling sick for quite awhile. I thought I first had malaria and took anti-malaria medication to stop it. Then I felt the lack of food and drinking the local water was the reasoning for being sick. But it did not go away.  I started looking around for how I was going to get out of my pickle. I could not leave as I had no money to pay for the camping. I thought of selling my camera. I had now run out of money to buy bread. At the local bar, some South Africans who lived there offered to smuggle me out on a boat at night. I felt uneasy with these people and did not trust them. I did not want to have to put my life in their hands but I was running out of options. Just when I thought I would have to escape with these others, Errol returned. I was so happy. Errol really was a saviour. We left the campsite and travelled to Maputo, where he found a lift for me into South Africa. But that is another story... My lessons through Mozambique were immeasurable. Just going through Mozambique in the aftermath of a civil war was a sobering experience. Seeing the bullet holes everywhere, the maimed locals from land mines and the empty derelict buildings with a non-existent banking economy except for the blackmarket, was an eye-opener. My experience at Xai Xai was some of my lowest days feeling uncertain and desperate. Yet I somehow survived unscathed.      --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/justine-murray0/message