Mauritius: The Middle of the Indian Ocean

French. Creole. German. Italian. English. There were just a few of the languages I heard on a daily basis while in Mauritius, an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean that no one has ever heard of. Think of Hawaii – wait, no, don’t. The beaches (such as Flic en Flac and Mont Choisy) were the most amazing and perfect ones that I have ever seen. The water was so blue you could look right down into it. Breathtaking doesn’t even come close. Warmer than bathwater! I ended our 3-day trip with a trip to Mont Choisy where my friends and I went inner tubing on the perfect azure waves. I flipped twice and probably drank enough saltwater for the rest of my life, but it was a great ending!! Backtracking, on the second day I did a day trip to “Parc Adventure” or Adventure Park in the southern part of Mauritius. With carabineers, we went across rope bridges, slippery logs in the treetops, and ziplines. It was so much fun!! A group of us stayed at the back and has a great time. We got rained on, dirty, just COVERED in mud. After that we were taken to Flic en Flac beach for 2 hours and got to swim and lie out in the sun. Each trip I do, I feel like I make more friends and it’s just great. That night, it was 2 of my friends birthdays, so we all went up to Grand Baie, an adorable beach town, to celebrate. That was great, too.

 

The central Market in Port Louis was awesome. I did a lot of bargaining and came out with items that I got down to 1/3 of the original asking price! The food I ate was wonderful; I had some Chow Mein-type dish and some Samosa-type pastries (points if you know what those are!). We are some random foods at the food market which was great, too. Also had some amazing pizza on Tuesday night where I used “un peux Francais” to get buy, since no one else knew any French! The basics get you very far. English is the official language, but French and Creole are widely used due to the fact that 68% of the population is Indo-Mauritian. The bargaining was a great way to practice for the upcoming countries. Most people rented villas at the beaches, but I didn’t. EVERYONE got bitten by bugs, the running joke was “Don’t get the Chicken Nugget/Chicamunga virus” which we had been slightly warned about before Mauritius – there was no problem, everyone used bug spray and we STILL got bitten up! Some people are covered on their legs, I just have some on the backs of my calves from the Adventure Park trip!

 

On the first day, I went wandering around the Caudan Waterfront of Port Louis and the Market. It was hustling and bustling, lots of people (1.2 million on the island) and everyone was buying goods and bartering around us. I pretended that I was from South Africa, and sometimes I spoke German to confuse the sellers. It was so much fun. In the afternoon I had a Service Visit to the SOS Children’s Village in Bambou. It was very interesting. There were seven 2-story houses where 6-7 kids lived. They go to school during the day and play/do homework during the rest of the day. Each house has a “mother” (not biological, all the kids are orphans and most of them had been abused and neglected) and an “aunt” who is there while the “mother” works. I spoke one of the mothers who was very nice and told me all about how the village runs. The kids come at young ages and stay until 18, where they are given savings and move into a middle house. It’s a sad situation, since none of them are able to go to college. All my service visits definitely put things into perspective!

 

Mauritius was a good median. It wasn’t that long, but the strong Indian culture and the Market will help the culture shock when we arrive in India in 7 days (and 1.5 hours of time change)… The seas are extremely rough right now, with swells at approximately 11-13ft. It’s incredibly cloudy and raining a little bit, but still in the high 70s with some humidity. A lot of people are seasick, including professors. Now it’s study time – I have 3 midterms over the next 4 days. Next stop, the 2^nd most populous country in the world!!