True Adventures

Mozambique’s biggest challenge…

On a friend’s recommendation, I went and volunteered at a school in Chimoio called Centro Internacional Njerenje (this is a really beautiful local tree, in Shona language), which is in the central province of Manica (for those of you who like to look at map). Chimoio is just 70km from the border of Zimbabwe and therefore brings a totally different dynamic than Maputo and its strong old colonialized Portuguese influence. To be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect, but what I found was impressive. But it helps first to understand the context of conditions here.

Mozambique is full of lovely people whose education levels are deplorable. Those that do have education have incomplete education meaning they don’t get a well rounded one, so that although they may be "smart" they may have missed out on things like taking initiative, being savvy with different audiences, wanting to take on responsibility, and understanding the bigger picture of why you are doing something and not just being mechanical. An example is that people love doing data entry jobs which many of us might see as one of the most thankless jobs ever. I am generalizing of course but one sees these immense human capacity challenges in all levels of society, even in the best of the best such as ministers and others. This is not to say there aren’t some exception people but sadly the majority tends to bring down the average.

The school I worked at is run by white Zimbabweans, mostly Afrikaans white Zimbabweans. The sad story of Zimbabwe in the past 4 or so years has been heartbreaking to many. Most people have had their land usurped, been kicked out of the country or are left there to suffer. Mugabe has really done a job, not to say anything of the triziliion inflation level, making world records. There are sparse supplies such as food and gasoline in Zimbabwe and people are making do best they can. As a result many have decided not to tolerate such a disagreeable environment and came over to Mozambique, however bringing a fraction with them of what they had in Zimbabwe. The usual news around the world covers the difficulties the black Zimbabweans are enduring by living there but there is little told about the white disenfranchised Zimbabweans who are not wanted there by the government, many of which are farmers that don’t have what to farm. Most of the staff at the school are these white Zimbabweans.

This is truly a story of making lemonade out of lemons. This school was put together 4 years ago, the first year with 3 students. They moved one year ago to a new location and have made such a wonderful environment for the now almost 70 kids, it’s truly a labor of love. I stayed with the directors, a husband and wife, who couldn’t have been more dedicated to what they have created out of nothing. Many of the kids are borders and stay for the week or semesters at a shot as their families are in other parts of Mozambique. It’s a lot like sleepaway camp in that there is such a nice dynamic amongst the kids, and the directors maintain a lively sports program as well. I helped out with the official rules of baseball. When the teacher told the kids that next semester they would be able to steal bases, one of the kids asked if that meant they were to take them home with them!

There were other great perks of the amazing 64 hectares that the school property occupies sitting on a plateau, such as watching the most amazing sunsets, enjoying the fruits and veggies from the farmers’ fields, and most of all seeing the milky way at night. I have been in places with as many stars as a planetarium but I don’t think I had ever seen the milky way itself. Like a strip of thin clouds but ones that magically appeared in the same place each night and only there. Really incredible, with the occasional satellite passing by but they were harder to spot (see pics of main building, directors house, hostel where borders stay, the cattle and gardens, sunsets with slivers of the moon, and of course the kids out playing sports here http://www.flickr.com/photos/vida-internacional/sets/72157601701546019/). I also learned about water divining and was able to do it! See this link for a longer explanation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing - I wouldn’t have believed it if I weren’t doing it!

In summary, it was such a great experience and hope to help out the school however I can when back in the states. The reason I’m such a fan of this school is because this school is a rarity in Mozambique, able to take low to avg students and raise them up in a healthy environment. Truly something Mozambique needs more of!

From turf to surf…

As school was at the end of its term and well without an actual job I couldn’t stay there forever, I planned to finally go to one of the nicer beaches of Mozambique. Mozambique has such a large chunk of the coast it’s a crime not to see some of its treasures. So from Chimoio, I went to Vilanculos which is a small town on the coast with the Bazaruto archipelago to its east: 4 beautiful islands with little disruption from man.

I took one of the day trips out snorkeling and to see a bit of the islands. You don’t really get to see much of the islands except the CRAZY tall sand dunes that line the edge of the islands. As you approach it looks like you are in the dessert (except of course for all that water). In the middle of the islands is a lot of wild brush but makes a beautiful contrast. The day I went I sadly had Murphy and his frustrating law not on my side as it was the windiest of all 3 days I was there. At least I can safely say that the snorkeling was a seriously good workout. But all in all it was good, the fish were amazing, such great colors as we were in a coral reef, and starfish of colors I didn’t even know they came in.

As for the water, well what I can say, looks like the Caribbean truly, a bit colder but still "refreshing." So many shades of blue and green. One could go crazy taking pictures there which I kind of did but it’s hard not to. But I loved that I saw the color which was the exact replica of the blue green crayon in the 64 Crayola box. Hopefully many of you know all 64 and also have a favorite. Ok, now I’ll let you all see the pics…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vida-internacional/sets/72157601690973138/.

Wrapping up all things Africa…

A few other odd things I have learned about here are the sports of cricket and rugby. They are about on opposite ends of the spectrum as cricket is a game that continues over five days(!) and rugby is fast and the clock barely stops (like soccer). Rugby, for those of us who grew up watching American football, even if out of duress, is hilarious because rather than the various standard formations that the team follows, basically all the players wildly chase the only poor guy with the ball as he is only allowed to pass it backwards! Who think of these things? But it is satisfying when he makes a "try" (ie. touchdown) and then a "penalty" (ie. a field goal). But in contrast, it’s fun compared to cricket which for those of us that baseball is slow, well cricket is LONG! I have some understanding now of "overs" and the "wicket" but other than that, it just looks like the same thing happens continuously for 5 days! Sorry if I’ve insulted any staunch fans.

Ok, kudos if you’ve gotten all the way to here, amazing how one week can be so packed. Now I’m off to Capetown, S. Africa and Nairobi, Kenya for a week each, which should be a blast as I’m visiting people in both places. For all of you that don’t know already, I’ll be back in states the third week of Sept. and most of the time staying at my mom’s (I think) so until/if I have a cell phone number, that’s probably the best place to track me down. I’ll be back and forth between DC and NY so I’ll for sure try to see everyone. Enjoy the rest of what’s left of summer and please keep it a bit warm for me! See you all soon!

Much love from the land of unemployment…

Lions, Tigers and Bears?

Well, not exactly. But I have taken two trips in the past month and seen lots of amazing other animals. First stop…Swaziland!


Swaziland, what a beautiful country! The capital city Mbabane has a population of 50,000 people, and the country is about a 3 or so hour drive wide, obviously very small scale. It’s fairly mountainous, really red dirt and the views are really simple but stunning. The people are incredibly friendly and welcoming. Really hard to imagine when you are there that about 40% of the people are HIV+. Apart from the kindness of the people, Swaziland is famous for its candles. I got to visit the candle factory (very different from Lancaster, PA if you’ve been there) since the candles are not dipped but put together with squares of wax. They also not surprisingly make some in the shape of many of the African animals – they are incredibly creative with their designs.


I went with my friend Peter and we stayed in one of the wildlife reserves. Really pretty countryside and you see warthogs right outside your door in the morning. We stayed in a Rondavel, which are roundhouses as you can see in the pics. Peter did a mountain bike race and I went on a hike and saw all sorts of animals, such as wildebeest (aka gnu), nyalas (like deer but bigger and with stripes), zebras, ostrich, impala and some unidentified other animal in the antelope/deer family. Really amazing to be alone and all of a sudden come upon an animal many times my size and wonder who was more daunted. I did get a couple grunts from a wildebeest that was particularly irritated by my presence. I enjoyed that! See fun pics here!http://www.flickr.com/photos/vida-internacional/sets/72157600347981415/

Here we come Kruger Park!

A few weeks later, I went with another friend David to Kruger Park, South Africa! Kruger Park is 350km (217 miles) x 60 km, i.e. just about the same size as the whole state of New Jersey! Needless to say, in a weekend, we didn’t get to the majority of it, but we did cover as much ground as possible and had quite a few close encounters with some very large animals - elephant, buffalo, kudu (also in the deer/antelope family), white rhinoceros, giraffe, zebra, impala, funny looking birds, eagles, monkeys, baboons – even babies, and hippos! Sadly we did not see any of the cats – such as lions, cheetahs or leopards, which are the hardest to spot. We had to save something for next time, right! But I think you’ll see how close we did get to the animals we saw…http://www.flickr.com/photos/vida-internacional/sets/72157600551724108/

Day to Day in Maputo

Aside from looking for animals, I went with some friends (Ilana and Ramah featured below) to a beach about 30km from Maputo which is really pristine. We brought a mini grill and spent a really leisurely Sunday taking walks and enjoying each other ‘s company. And the burgers we made were great!


Workwise, life has gotten much busier here. We had an event for Dia das Crianças, which means Children’s Day – what a nice idea for a holiday, especially since the kids got the day free, sadly not the adults. Our safe water program scheduled an event at one of the local schools and the turnout was great. I even got the video on my camera to work for a bit so you can see what some of the dances look and sound like. But you can see in the pictures our large drop of water that goes around and gets people involved in promoting treatment of water. It sounds kind of silly but when you’re there, you can see why people get really engaged in it all.



One of the most touching things was one of the events was that prizes were given out to the students that scored 1st, 2nd and 3rd best on each of 4 subjects in school. For the 1st place winners, they even announced their scores. One girl who was much younger than the others who got 1st in one of the subjects, when her name was called, she burst out crying unable to believe she had won. She was so moved she could barely speak, it was really touching. May sound a bit corny but it was really nice to see that good scores in school were valued and rewarded.


Finally, I did get to meet Mrs. Laura Bush who came to support the President's Malaria Initiative. She and daughter Jenna came to town here and were very personable and supportive of our program. The preparations for their visit down to the most minute detail were insane but I suppose such is the life of the First Lady.


Plans? Highly overated…

So what’s my plan? Well, as you all know me well, my future is always a bit in the works and not completely set. But I did get a 1-mo. extension at my work here so likely I’ll finish that out and then do a bit of traveling before coming home (probably Capetown, S. Africa and Nairobi, Kenya!). Although I’m still figuring out whether staying here and working might be an option, in the event that that doesn’t come to pass, I’d probably head home around mid Sept. So keep enjoying your summer in the meantime and I’m always interested to hear what's going on there!

Getting to know my surroundings

Odds and Ends…
Since my last entry, I’ve had a few more adventures but I thought first I’d make some interesting observations about Maputo. Prices of certain things are really funny here. For example it cost me about $0.55 to buy a 1.5 liter bottle of water (cheap), but I very reluctantly paid $5.00 for dental floss (sadly the one I really wanted was $7 but that was just crazy). Another example, a bar of soap costs $0.40 and shower gel costs about $8-10! Ouch! Basically you always have to do a lot of math when you’re shopping or you may come home with very little money!

I’ve been doing more driving (I have borrowed a car from some friends on vacation which is a great luxury for a few weeks) and am now quite used to the left side of the road. Occasionally I want to shift gears with my right hand, but I quickly realize my hand will hit the window if I try. Now I just need to master try to stay on the left side of the side walk when I walk. It’s not a rule here but people tend to follow the side they drive on when they walk, as we do.

I attended a wedding here this past weekend, which was disappointingly not that different than typical wedding protocol. The one difference is that no one could hear any of the ceremony. So after about 10 min, all was said and done and it was all about the reception. The funniest moment was that there was quite a mix of music, African and other, and the crowd really got into it when Michael Jackson played. I wasn’t expecting that. Some of the older men even got out and danced in the center of the dancing circles that formed, and kudos to them. Who knew Michael was so popular here?

Food poisoning from fish is about the least fun experience I have ever had. I won't disclose the gory details but needless to say, not something I hope to ever repeat and we'll leave it at that. I'm glad to say I've survived and am feeling human once again, however I'm going to take a break from the coastal cuisine for a bit!

(I neglected to mention last time that if you hover over the photos in the links, you should be able to see titles when I have given them, just fyi. )

HHH?...
So I am now an official member of the Hash House Harriers. If you are not familiar with this group, it exists in some 100+ countries, and it’s basically a group that meets usually once a week to walk/run. The idea is for people to meet each other, and be able to do some exercise in a safe way. I subscribe to all of that, but it also comes with all sorts rituals like, getting a circle and singing some raunchy songs and making different people each week chug beer. Here it’s about 40% Mozambican which is pretty good, and the rest foreigners and you go to a different place each week where a path is set up. I think it’s a great idea, it’s a bit of an “old boys’ club” feel in reality so I’ve only been once but it was fun. Some people get very serious about it and go each week. I will unlikely be one of them. But I have started doing some jogging on the beach which is a wonderful past time, except that you have to time it with the tides!

Bilene...
A few weeks ago for a day trip a few friends of mine and I went to Bilene (pronounced bee-lenny), which is in the province of Gaza, just outside Maputo (about 2.5hrs drive). There is a lagoon there with much cleaner water than in Maputo and one hotel across the lagoon that you can have a leisurely lunch at and look out over the lagoon. We did just that as you will see from the pics (see the first 8 photos of http://www.flickr.com/photos/vida-internacional/sets/72157600188573517/internacional/sets/72157600188573517/internacional/sets/72157600188573517/) and then took a short walk around the area and head back before dark. I’d love to go back and stay the night, very nice relaxing spot and water was great even though we only had time to put our toes in.

April 25 - Africa Malaria Day!
For this event, I went up to the province of Zambézia and stayed in the capital called Quelimane (pronounced kel-ee-mahn-ee). This is about a 1.5 hr plane ride from Maputo and is still only about ½ way up the country. We went there to help organize the events for Africa Malaria Day, which is a time to raise awareness about malaria. The event was held in Mocuba, about 2hrs driving from Quelimane, and the Minister of Health came, which makes it a semi-big deal! There were speeches and cultural events – dancing and singing. I even tried to take a few videos on my camera, but unfortunately I did it wrong so next time (sorry!). But you can see many a photo here http://www.flickr.com/photos/vida-internacional/sets/72157600188573517/ after the Bilene photos and it will give you an idea of the place, the attire (women wear traditional skirts called capulanas that have all sorts of patterns on them), the people and the overall atmosphere. It was a good day and nice to see a bit outside of Maputo but hard to know if any real awareness is raised amidst the overall pomp and circumstance in these kinds of events.

Some days the cynicism wins, other days the idealism. Such is life in the world of development work…until the next entry, beijos.

April 2007 - First Impressions

Welcome to my first blog. I don’t really like the word blog but I suppose that’s what I have to call it nowadays, huh. Well, it’s more like a look into my travels, thoughts, lifestyle and adventures. Feel free to skip to the pics if you’re in a hurry (I take no offense), but if you’re up for more, I’ll describe what life is like here and hopefully it will give you all an idea.




First stop…Durban, South Africa! Here I got to spend 4 days with my friends from grad school, Holger and Andrea, and their two ADORABLE kids Zoë, almost 3, and Noah, almost 1. As you can see from the pics they are really fun kids and full of smiles for everyone. We had a great time together: picnic in the botanical gardens that are beautiful, really yummy Indian food, tour of the beach after some serious weather conditions, the University KwaZulu-Natal, and Holger’s polished culinary skills with ostrich meat! (*For more pics of Durban, click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/vida-internacional/sets/72157600093877541/ in a new window.)


Was a wonderful stop before getting to…


…Maputo, Mozambique!
What can I tell you about Maputo? The city is based on a grid system for the most part so it’s an easy place to learn. For a capital city is not very big, which makes it for me a much more likable city as opposed to many African capitals that are way too densely populated. My neighborhood is where many expats live so very residential nice homes, but for me it makes it a bit transportation challenging. Unlike Latin American where transportation is of poor quality but fairly frequent and easy to learn, here there are only small minivans that serve as buses and you basically never see a white person on them. I don’t actually think they’re that dangerous if you know where you are going but it’s not as obvious a system to learn. Kind of hard to explain. So basically, I usually take taxis, get a ride or borrow a friend’s car.





My apt! (*For more pics of my place in Maputo, click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/vida-internacional/sets/72157600094289422/ in a new window.)


Which brings me to one of my new adventures - driving on the left side of the road. It’s somewhat deceptive because it’s actually very easy to adjust to the other side, however the harder part is that all the stuff in the car is backwards (eg, the windshield wiper thing is on the left and the turn signals are on the right side of the steering wheel) and the clutch is on the left. So you can always tell the newbies by how often their windshield wipers go off when they are making a turn. My first go was ok, although a bit rough, but my second outing was MUCH better. It also helps the more you know where you’re actually going.

Food: There are some open air markets here as you might expect but not that easy to get to except on weekends so sadly I often go to a regular supermarket. Grocery stores here are not all that different to the states and we even have a very expensive one or two that are more like the Whole Foods of Mozambique (of course from South Africa). My favorite food which is in abundance here are the fresh grilled shrimp since we are on the coast. They also make an appetizer with shrimp much like a croqueta (in tapas language) which is ridiculously addictive. Aside from the seafood, I haven’t eaten much of the traditional foods here because you would either have to know where to go or get invited to someone’s house. And again, I can’t help but compare it to Latin America, but although people are warm, there is a much greater divide here (and this I’m gathering is true throughout Africa) between white and black. So whites are not integrated into the culture as you can do in Latin America. I think it just takes more time here. I have been invited already to two colleagues’ weddings in May so that will be a fun experience.

Weather: Sorry for all you in the northeast, I know it’s been crappy. We have had a fair bit of rain as well (I learned that my 1 bdrm apt leaks in many places when it rains a lot), but really no complaints. Temps are usually between 25-30 degrees Celsius so about 80s all time and sadly enough when it gets lower, it does actually feel cool relatively. (Although the other cool morning, I couldn’t believe one of our drivers for work had the heat on in the car, that was really excessive!!!) The next few months will continue to cool off a bit so likely it will be more like 70s but the rain will stop soon so it will just beautiful. The plantings here are amazing, as are the yummy tropical fruits.

Language: Actually I’m having a fun time with the Portuguese, although the accent was killing me for a while. Sometimes it’s a bit frustrating having to explain yourself multiple times in multiple ways when your point seems so clear to you but people are very patient and rarely do I have to resort to English. I can see definite improvements already even from when I first got here, which is always encouraging. But the nice part is that it doesn’t stress me out and I’m not at all as mentally exhausted as I thought I would be good. Plus having to immediately start working in the language is one of the best forms of baptism by fire! Plus I get TV channels from Mozambique, Portugal and Brazil for extra practice. I also get channels in Spanish, French, Italian, Hindi, Arabic and some I’m not even sure what, in case I feel like branching out.

Work is good! I’m enjoying the plethora of challenges in front of me. I really like the people on my team, about 8 people. I work on the Maternal Child Health team and our projects focus on safe water systems and combating malaria. To give you a few interesting stats for you to understand the issues…
Pop. of Mozambique is 19.4 mil, 44% of which are btw 0-14yrs old, where more than 50% live below the poverty line, where the age expectancy is 47 and malaria is THE biggest cause of death of kids under 5 years old. I don’t have all the stats on water handy but given the floods in February in 2 of the 9 provinces, we have a lot of emergency funding to provide water purification solution for general use and to prevent cholera. Needless to say, there’s a lot to be done in a country that’s 800,000 sq. km. Doesn’t look big on the map but it’s VERY large and very infrastructure challenged in terms of easy transportation. Education levels here are not that great and although the staff I work with are generally very competent, there are things embedded in the work ethic we are all familiar with in the western world that very much did not make into theirs. So managing is a tricky thing especially knowing where you can push people and where genuine weaknesses are. (*For more info on what PSI does here, click on http://www.psi.org/where_we_work/mozambique.html.)

I’ve met a lot of interesting people outside of work and so far I’d say my closest friend is from the Isle of Man. Don’t tell her but I’d never even heard of the place. It’s a small island country off the coast of England (she sounds English), which has its own passports and its own currency, all for 74,000 people! But she is very nice and has introduced me to other friends from Zimbabwe, US, Canada, and Ireland. I’ve met a few other people, many from South Africa as there are many here, Latvia, and I have a friend from Honduras (who I met in DC) who also happens to be living here, but 3 hrs north. So it’s not been easy showing up and meeting people but I’m making inroads and am enjoying it. I do struggle with the whole Mozambican and others divide as you’ll notice my list didn’t include Mozambicans. I think that’s just a much longer road.

Ok, so more interesting than facts are a few stories…
My first weekend here I woke up at 5:30am on Sat (I know, unheard of for me) to go to watch a building that hasn't been used for 30yrs implode. It, for Mozambicans, was like taking away the WTC in terms of the view and using it as a landmark. The sound of the dynamite even from afar was LOUD and since the elevator shafts had been filled with cement so that no one would use the building, they were left standing for a few seconds after the building disappeared into the mist but eventually went down as well. It was a BIG deal and the rubble will take them a long time to get rid of. This will be the site of the next US embassy.

This past weekend I went to Catembe, which is a peninsula jutting out opposite to Maputo city. The beach there is a bit cleaner (not as much litter) and I found tons of amazing shells. There is no shortage of jellyfish that get pulled up by mistake by the fishermen’s nets. You take either a small ferry to get there or a larger one that can accommodate vehicles. I went with a friend and we went on the small one on the way there and enjoyed a nice leisurely lunch (food took 2 hrs to come!) at the one hotel that’s there. On the way back the bigger ferry was there. As it was unloading passengers, one of the cars ran over this guy’s foot as he was getting off. It wasn’t clear to me whose fault it was but I was told by a Mozambican guy who befriended us that it was the driver cause she should have known he wasn’t going to wait for her to exit. I’m sure not that I was agreeing with his logic but I didn’t argue. The guy who got run over was writhing in pain for a while, passed out and eventually was helped off. Mostly people were arguing as opposed to helping. It was quite the scene. *(For more pics at Catembe, click on http://www.flickr.com/photos/vida-internacional/sets/72157600094360838/ in a new window.)

So I’ve not been asked to anyone’s second wife yet as I was the last time I was here. I’ve had some not so great taxi rides, nothing scary or dangerous, but more like incompetent so I now have 2 drivers that I know who I can call when I want to go out to not have to deal with the hassle of the random drivers that show up. Little by little, things fall into place, and all the stuff in between keeps life interesting and me on my toes.

Nightlife here is fun. Lots of live music (jazz, African or the occasional salsa), usually for free or for a very nominal cover charge, and dancing is in groups so nice to not have to be part of a couple. Everything starts really late, like midnight so if you’re going out, you know it’s going to be a very late night.

Ok, if you’ve made it his far you’re a trooper and will be happy to provide some new material the next time I write. I’m going in a week up to the middle of the country in the province of Zambezia, the city of Quelimane (for those of you with atlases) for Africa Malaria Day, which will be a great opportunity to see our projects there as well as a slice of life outside the capital city, probably more representative of what goes on in the country. I can’t wait! So all in all, things are very good here!

Hope you are doing well and I think of you often, in all of your corners of the world!
Sending much love from the land of camarões grandes (larges shrimp)... until next time!