A Virtual Tour

As requested by my lovely mother  (who claims she can picture my old site – Moatize, but not Cateme….it should be noted that she actually visited Moatize), I’m attempting to give virtual tour of Cateme.  Now, the really important thing to know about Cateme is that there is NOTHING here. You might think I’m exaggerating, because, ya know, I’ve been known to do that… but I’m not. There are no little shops, no where to buy prepared food… Nada.

Here’s what happens.  You leave bustling Moatize heading toward Malawi. And seriously, Moatize has a lot going on. The main road is full of shops and little restaurants.  About 20k down the road, you turn off the nice paved road onto a dirt path.  Continuing down the path, you see nothing but brush and the occasional mud hut.  While its only 17k, it takes about 30 minutes by car… and about 20 minutes into the bush-drive, you might think you’ve been kidnapped and that no ‘community’ is ever going to appear.  But at last, the path veers left and you cross some railroad tracks (that obviously came out of no where).  And BAM! Welcome to Cateme.  There’s a little painted welcome sign and everything. 

Cateme has been referred to as everything thing from the Twilight Zone to the Mozambican Pleasant-ville. Why? Because it’s probably the strangest and most unnatural village in all of Mozambique.  I mean, the place “opened.” As in, the village of Cateme opened in 2010.  Come on, that’s bizarre.  Every other village I’ve ever scene is very unplanned.  Mud houses pop up every where, there is no set roads – just things that look like goat paths, and once enough people are there, some kind of market/beer-selling establishment appears.  It seems like a pretty organic process. Cateme, on the other hand, is a resettlement community.  Basically, 200 families, who lived in one of these organically formed villages, were all moved at once into previously built homes in an extremely ‘planned’ community. 

Once you cross the railroad tracks, the dirt road appears to continue straight forever.  You are now entering Cateme. On your immediate left, you pass a model home (built as an example and now sits empty) and our Plaza – a strange piece of “modern art” that is the center of our community celebration.  The town square, if you will.  On the right, is a white-washed structure that looks like a stage/grandstand.  This was built this past March for the President’s visit in May.  This permanent structure has been used for a total of 2 hours. 

Continuing straight down the road (lets be real, there’s no other direction to go), you’ll get to the schools.  On the left, the Secondary School and houses for those teachers – and on the right, the Primary School and their teacher housing.  Also on the right, our “Police Station.”  (Yes, the quotation marks are necessary; it’s just a little box of building).

The next stretch of road is just houses.  Each family has a main house, an outdoor kitchen, an outdoor latrine/bathhouse, and depending on the size of the family, a one extra unattached bedroom.  That’s generally reserved for a grown son and maybe his young wife. Each house sits on a pretty sizable chunk of land (what we might call a yard…. A non-existent concept here). All the houses are situated the same on the land and all are painted white plus one extra color. This is why it looks like Pleasantville.

Coming up on the right hand side of the road – the Health Center.  This actually appears to be a pretty legit establishment (ignore the goats wandering through said center). There are two nurses who work there, each with her own house (the same layout as the teacher houses).  Fun fact. One of the nurses has a chest freezer – for to chill beer, of course. So if you need to sit and have a beer, you call up this chick and she moves some chairs outside on your front porch and serves beer.  Bonus – if someone is looking a little rough (the beers are extra large here), she will offer you some sort of free food.