lady carrying sack on head

This is a typical sight on the streets of Maputo.  We are traveling down the street in our truck looking at the sidewalk.  It is not uncommon to see women with their baby tied to their backs and a huge load of something balanced on their heads walking down the street, more so out of town than in town.  Only the women balance things on their heads.  If the men put things on their head, it is with a hand to balance it.  You rarely see men carrying their babies with them.

We had a most interesting day today.  Naldo, our interpreter, knew of an orphanage.  We went to see it today.  We started out at 8:00 am and headed to the ferry.  We were about ninth in line to get on the ferry.  We waited about 45 minutes to get on.  It cost 270 meticais for the truck and 5 met. for us to ride.  That totaled was $7.50 one way to get over there.  This video shows the "SQUEEZE" onto this ferry.  There were about 11 vehicles trucks and cars, on the ferry in a 25x30 spot.  The people had to walk onto the ferry while the cars were being loaded.  Watch out!! There was no place to stand.
The ferry took about 15 minute ride across the ocean to the island.  Then we drove down a dirt road to this quaint little orphanage.  There are 30 girls there of all ages.  It is a private orphanage sponsored by a Spanish group that built it and funded it for the first little while.  Now their funding has run low but they are doing a great job sustaining themselves best they can.  They have a little garden, a basketball court, a beauty parlor where they do hair for income. It is open to the village.  Nunns from the Catholic church are workers there giving of their charity.  It is not Catholic per se.  We were impressed with their industry.  We will see if they call us with any needs we can help them with.

On the way home, we waited 2 hours to get on the ferry.  Whew!!!  I took some pictures of woman carrying their wares on their head while we waited. They packed in 12 cars this time.

carrying her wares on her head