Police...

One lazy Saturday we decided to go to the beach, to Murrebué, about 20mins away. I borrowed the Landrover and we see who all is going – so Will says he will take his car too. But he wants to go the long way round and drive on the beach, so the girls pile into the Landy and off we go. There is a Police checkpoint just as you leave the city and they stop everyone, but today they weren’t there – yay! But then as we were nearing the turnoff when we saw a little uniformed man wave us down… he asks to see my license and the car’s papers. No problem.


“There is a problem here, these papers do not say there is a roof rack added to the car. And also the payload weight written down is 1 ‘4’ 80 and on the car is says 1 ‘9’ 80. We go talk to the chief”

I get out the car and follow him to the side of the road where his supervisor is standing with another lady cop. “Please sir, let me call our head driver, he speaks better Portuguese than I do”… “No, your Portuguese is good”. Well at least I got a compliment out of it. I still try to convince him that the ‘4’ is just a poorly written ‘9’ and that I was so so so so sorry that we didn’t amend the papers to include the roof rack. He’s not buying.

He suddenly asks me, ”are you married?”
No I’m not married. I’m too young.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”
I don't have a boyfriend either.

“but you are so pretty, will you be my wife?”
Actually there was a guy I like a little bit.

“but we can just sleep together”
NO! I have a boyfriend.

“your boyfriend is in Pemba?”
yes…

“why is he not with you?”
ummm… he has to work today

“so do you sleep with him?”
NO.

“But how do you know if you like him if you don't sleep with him?”
I am a Christian, you must only sleep with your husband.

→ The other 3 police officers were cracking up; they thought it was the funniest thing ever. And they still had my license and the car’s papers else I would have punched him and ran.

“OK, so do you want to go on a date with me?”
No

“Don’t you like me?
NO.

“Why not?”
umm…

“So do any of the other girls in the car want to marry me?”
No, they ALL have boyfriends.
Please I just want to go to the beach to relax.

“But your paper’s are wrong”
I am so sorry.
Please can we go to the beach?
I will fix the papers on Monday.

“OK. Go. Maybe we can have a date some other time”

They hand back the papers and I get back in the car. I think that from now on the extent of my Portuguese when dealing with police will be, ‘now faa lou por chew ges’ (I don't speak Portuguese)

I really felt horrible, like he had molested me in some way with his words and the invasiveness of the questions. And there was nothing I could do about it either, anyone else I would have punched, but he had my driver’s license, and I was in an Iris Landrover, with the Iris logo on the door, so he would know where to find me…

And just incase you were wondering, I DON'T have a boyfriend. I invented him for the moment!

Other than that the rest of the day was good – the beach was good, Bala got to go swimming for the first time and we ran on the beach. She doesn’t like the waves too much but when the tide is out there are tons of sandy bars with puddles she swam thru.

I decide that I don't want to go the short way home, just incase the cops are still there – besides driving on the beach sounds like fun. I am following Will’s pickup and on the first sandy hill we come to I stopped too soon and got a bit stuck – but I put the DiffLock on, 4 High and there I go, reverse out the sand. Then the DiffLock off and I pick up speed and we clear the sand bar easily. There is a silence in the car as the girls process what just happened. But I love it! The tide had come in too much for us to drive on the beach itself, but there was a path right next to the beach we drove on. One part was on an angle, I’m sure it was close to 40 degrees, because it was scary, felt like we were going to roll, but so much fun! I like this kind of driving, off-roading!!!

Sunday after church I was invited by the same bunch of people to have a barbeque on the beach – Will had bought a whole goat and we grilled that on a huge grill they had made for their 4th of July party. It was so good. The goat I’ve eaten in the villages and at the center has always been in a stew, so to have a huge chunk of grilled goat was fantastic! The dogs loved the bones, the one we gave Bala was nearly as big as she was!

We dug a deep pit in the sand on the beach and after the BBQ we moved the hot coals over there and built a fire. It was great, the stars were out, there was NO one around, and the moon was a huge red ball, reflecting over all the rock pools formed by the outgoing tide. It was beautiful.