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 the
re 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!
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