The answer you've always wanted.

One last thing I forgot to mention, and that is the answer to that question we ask every year...

... Do they know it's Christmas time at all?

Since I am, afterall, spending Christmas in the land of this

The answer is... well... you wouldn't know just by looking. There are very very few Christmas decorations around. A few lights, a few santas painted in windows, but very little. The only Christmas music I have heard came from my own laptop. It's so hot that it's hard to think about snow. Oh the weather outside is frightful. Ya, it's 35 degrees!

Needless to say it's a little hard to get into the Christmas spirit but I am trying my best. I did manage to find this yesterday:



Actually, Christmas in Mozambique is not Christmas. The holiday is called Family Day.

So regardless of decorations and music, have a Happy Family Day!! Feliz Natal!!

Christmas Dinners and other recent activities

Hello again!

Lots to report today. The week was pretty busy trying to get everything wrapped up before the holidays begin. On Thursday we were invited to lunch by one of the local supporters of AIESEC who has been helping us a lot. On the way to the restaurant, we ran into a local celebrity! He saw us and actually stopped his car to say hi to us and took a picture with us. And what do you mean you don’t know who MC Roger is? He’s the one who sings this of course!



Eventually we made it to the lunch, which was at a very nice and fancy restaurant where the meals were a quarter of our monthly salary each! (not that that’s saying much). Anyways, it was really good. I had “three pepper steak” and apple pie for dessert.

That evening we had our alumni Christmas dinner and invited all of our new members. Most of them were able to come and it was nice to see everyone all together again and we did a small gift exchange. I ended up with a small souvenir that says Mozambique.

On Friday evening we went for our team Christmas dinner, so Daudo took us to a very Mozambican restaurant called Xima Bar. I had something called a “radical sausage” which, I have to say, was pretty radical. Daudo gave us all Christmas gifts (swanky colourful sunglasses from Malaysia) and then we all had icecream.



On Saturday we met up with Tania (our Portuguese friend) and we went for lunch in Costa do Sol (the beach). The traffic down the one road there was crazy, so we ended up going someplace a little closer but still nice – a little restaurant along the edge of the beach. There was a nice view of the city and a lot of guys walking along the beach selling things to tourists. At first it was pretty normal… a painting here, a wood carving there. And then they started to get weirder. Want to buy a 4 foot statue on the beach? What about a coffee table? Or maybe an inflatable horse?

Wanna buy a table?


After lunch we went to the Mercado Pao Preto (Black Wood Market) which has a lot of local arts and crafts and many hundreds of sellers ready to give you the very best price, only 200% more than it should be! I did manage to get one new top for 100 mets ($3) which was pretty good. I’ll have to go back another time with a local to know how much things should really be.



Pick out your souvenir now :P



I mentioned before that there is a HUGE competition between the two cell phone companies here. One thing I noticed at the market was there was this whistling that I recognised. Then I realized I knew it from one of the cell phone commercials. They had the guys who sell the credits on the street going around whistling the jingle, which us actually pretty clever.

After the market we went to see a basketball game, but not just any basketball game. It was the final of the national basketball league of Mozambique! The place was packed! It was Maputo vs a team from Beira and the fans were really getting into it. The game was really good, with the Maputo team going up about 10 points in the first quarter. Beira cam back in the third, getting to within 4, and then fell back again. Then they made a last minute surge in the fourth, coming within three points with just a couple minutes left, but Maputo held on and forced their way back to a 6 point lead before the final bell… and the place exploded!! It was really awesome, and we made it on TV several times sitting in the crowd!

Saturday evening we were joined by two Kenyan AIESECers doing their internships in South Africa. We went out for dinner and then for some dancing. Today we walked with them around the city and I talked with them a lot about Kenya. It was nice.

Tomorrow (Monday) it’s back to work a bit to finish off a few things, then on Thursday Lilian and I are heading north to Nampula, the capital of Nampula province. We will go on the 24th to Beira, in the centre of Mozambique, where we will spend Christmas with our friends from Portugal. Then it off on the 26th to Nampula. We haven’t made any definite plans yet but we have a few ideas of places to visit. We will be back by the 10th at the latest, so look for another GIANT blog post from me in the middle of January,

Until then, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks for reading!

A Very Mozambican Weekend

On Friday night we went out to a place that had a 20 piece African drumming group performing. It was really cool. They performed for about 30 min, and then they put on the regular music and the guys drummed along with it. A couple of locals started dancing along.

Saturday was pretty mellow. I stayed home and watched a few movies and just relaxed. By then on Sunday we were off to the beach!

We went to a small resort called Macaneta. To get there we drove about 40 minutes on the road towards Xai-Xai, and then took a turn off and a little six car ferry across a river to the beach. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the sand was so hot you couldn’t take your sandals off. And the water was sooo warm! Warmer than I thought possible for the open ocean. We did a little swimming and then spent most of the day relaxing on the sand. Lunch was at the resort restaurant and was a little pricey but VERY good.



In the later afternoon it started to cloud over so we decided to head home. We got back to the little ferry at five and ended up getting stuck there. The ferry takes six cars a trip… and we were the 25th car. So we had to wait for 5 trips. Plus at one point the plants growing in the river got stuck on the propeller and they spent about half an hour cleaning it off.

One car got stuck in the mud and had to be towed out by another car. Other than that brief excitement, we just waited around and tried to catch the hundreds and hundreds of crabs that were hanging out beside the road. We finally got on the boat at 8:00, very ready to go home. And I thought the BC ferries were bad! And the river was only about 50m wide. But it was a good day and we were all exhausted.

Need a little push?


This is our last week of work before we start of vacations! We are still not exactly sure what the plan is, but hopefully we will be heading up north and seeing a little more of the country.

One thing I forgot to mention on Friday… The police trucks here are just pick-ups with a bench bolted onto the back for the cops to sit. On Friday I was walking down the street and there must have been an accident or something because a cop truck came racing down the street. But they didn’t have any siren, so the cops sitting on the bench were all blowing whistles as loud as they could. That’s one way to do it I guess!

I'm back!

Hello again,

Sorry for disappearing for a while. We have internet at home, but after we use up our month's suppy it cuts off. We lasted 8 days. It died on Tuesday. So on Wednesday I went to the university to use the internet... and it wouldn't connect. Nothing. So yesterday I went with Daudo to a place that has free wireless, and for whatever reason my wireless couldn't detect the network. So... the end result is that I haven't had internet for the whole week! Crisis!

This week was actually pretty mellow. Daudo got back from the Netherlands on Tuesday and we have been eating these awesome Dutch waffles and licorice :) I have been meeting with potential exchange participants for interviews and working on some documents (reception booklet, wikis, etc.)

So anyways, I'm still alive and I'll try to write more soon :)

P.S. No pictures because blogger is being stubborn today

Scientific discoveries

There are many birds in Maputo. They can be seen and heard all over the city. They come in many sizes and colours. But there is one sky flyer of particular interest that I have never seen in such numbers elsewhere, seen here:



I like to call this, plasticus bagius. This light and nimble creature can be found on every block and every corner. The species vary in colour, the most common being black, white and blue. They often form groups, swirling in circles together. Most of the time they prefer to stay close to the ground, occasionally trying to land on moving cars and people. Sometime, a free spirit among them chooses to soar higher, as many as 10 or 15 floors, as seen here:



They don’t appear dangerous, but their numbers are growing quickly. Perhaps the city will have to look into some kind of extermination program in the near future. Until then, these noble creatures will continue to freely roam the skies of Maputo.

Educational Structure

Here in Mozambique, there are both public and private universities, but how they are set up is a little different than I have seen in other countries

In Brazil, the biggest and best universities are the public ones. To get in is extremely competative. The top students are at the top universities, in general. This means that the students at the public (and therefore completely free) universities are the students who went to the private highschools, because the quality of the education is better there.

Here it's a different story. There is also an entrace exam to get into the university, but there is a strong preference for students who are coming from the public highschools. Some of the best students from the private highschools are rejected in favour of the "less advantaged" students. This means two main things. First, there is more access to quality education for the students who lack financial capacity. Several of the students at the public universities here live in the slums. On the other hand, it means that the students from the private highschools are, in general, forced to attend private universities as well, where the options may be fewer (in terms of areas of study). The atmosphere between the private and the public universities is very different, and the attitudes of the students as well.

While I see offering a free university education to those with less financial capacity as a good thing, it also seems a little strange to perhaps exclude some students who might benefit a lot from the environment of the public university, which is more competative and pushes the students more. It also creates a distance between the more advantaged and less advantaged students.

Of course any system will have it's advantages and disadvantages, and overall I think the Mozambique system is probably more positive than negative. I would love to see my kids in the Kenyan slum have the chance to attend university for free. Here, if they make it through highschool, they might just have the chance. Part of alieviating the poverty of the slums starts with educating the people who live there and providing them with more opportunities. This is definetly something I will try to find more about!

South Africa!

I forgot to mention one thing (well, probably more) on my Friday update. When Lilian and I were walking in to ISCTEM on Friday, we say someone cutting the grass of the headquarters of one of the big cell phone companies. Normal right? But he was cutting the grass with a machete!

Friday evening proved to be very busy. Daudo rushed home saying he had received a call from AI (AIESEC International) saying that the African representative on the steering team couldn’t attend their meeting, and that he was the only other MCP from Africa that could come, so that evening we went to the travel agent and booked him a ticket to the Netherlands! He’s gone until next Monday.

On Friday night I made sweet and sour meatballs and Vera was very amused. She asked me what I was making, and I explained what a meatball was to her. She asked what I was putting in the sauce and when I told her, she gave me quite the face. Then I started ripping little pieces of bread, and she raised an eyebrow, then more when I dumped an egg on top, and more when I dumped the meat in after it. But she was also excited to learn. She stayed late because she wanted to cook with me and she asked us to save her some so she could try it on Monday. Then she had to run off to church.

Saturday was pretty quiet. I spent most of the day reading (Mordacai Richler, very good).

Today, Sunday, we went to South Africa!! We left early in the morning and drove to a park close by. Not Kruger Park (this time) but a smaller one that was free to get into. We spend a couple hours there, and saw some animals. Impalas, zebras, warthogs, onyxes.

These two were totally posing!



Who are you lookin’ at?



We stopped for lunch at Wimpy’s and randomly found one our new members there. Weird. In the afternoon we tried to go to Kruger Park so we went to the Crocodile Bridge Gate. Except there was no bridge and the road was completely washed out by the river.

Crocodile “Bridge” Gate. I think someone missed a memo.



Crossing the border was no trouble, but took some time. Getting the stamps on the way back in took forever, but that was the case for everyone there. While we were waiting, we started talking to some of the other people there – a Brazilian guy and a couple on their honeymoon from Israel. Their visas were taking forever, so their bus left without them. They were told they would have to wait for the next bus and hope there were seats free. So we gave them a ride to Maputo instead. It was quite funny, because they were asking us about touristy things to do in Maputo and Mozambique and we just went “uhh…. well…..” because we haven’t really done much touristy stuff ourselves. They knew more about the best beaches and hot spots than we did!

So it was a good weekend overall. Now Daudo is gone for the week, so it’s going to be a productive week I am sure ;)

P.S. We have been having a LOT of thunderstorms here. One on Friday and again tonight. We lost power but only for a few minutes. But the bolts were right over head and the thunder was almost deafening! I wouldn’t want to be caught outside in one of these. Knock on wood.

Quick Update

On Wednesday I had a meeting with Daudo and we decided to meet at a restaurant a ways from our house. I set out walking along the road and ran into one of our new AIESEC members along the way. She was going the same direction so we walked together.

We arrived at the restaurant and we were just chatting while waiting for Daudo when a guy came over who was selling some small paintings. He started showing them to us and then a very strange thing happened. The AIESECer asked me, "do you like them?" and the guy kind of exploded (and in English too). It went something like this :

"Why are you asking her if she likes it? If she likes, she'll buy it. You shouldn't interfere, telling her if she like it or not. You think I don't know? You think I just sell stuff on the street? Well I have an education and I go to school. But I have to pay for my school so here I am trying to earn some money in a good way, not in a bad way. So just let her decide for herself if she likes it."

He spent the entire time talking to her and forgot to even sell the painting to me (which I wouldn't have bought anyways). When he finally finished yelling at her, he just walked away. Very random...

Daudo and I had our meeting and then he said he had a surprise for me. He took me to the two museums downtown. Unfortunatly the Natural History Museum was closed (booo..) but the Geology museum was open (and free!) so we went in and had a look around. They had a few interesting fossils and a lot of interesting looking stones, including a HUGE amathyst. I'll have to go back to the natural history museum another time.

On the way home we had a very interesting discussion about cultural differnces. He asked me if there was anything that I had experienced here that was completely different. I replied that there wasn't that much new, because I had already been to another former Portuguese colony, so I was familiar with Portuguese cultural quirks like kissing for greetings, and I had been to another African country, so I was familiar with things like eating with your hands. There are a few small things that are unique to Mozambique, like the special way that men shake hands or some of the types of food, but nothing really big that was totally new for me.

Lilian and I were also talking the other day about the things we hear the most often and came up with a list of three:

- How do you like Mozambique/Maputo?
- We are so happy to have you here!
- If you need anything, just call me

We hear these from pretty much EVERYONE we meet. Yes, Mozambicans are very friendly.

I am also improving my portuguese a lot now. I am trying to speak it more and getting more comfortable with the words. Still a long way to go, but I'm getting there.

Entao, pode ser muito logo eu vou escriver um post so em portugues!

Hi Hi Xai Xai

This weekend I went to Gaza. No… I didn’t make a surprise trip to Israel, don’t worry. Gaza is another province of Mozambique. (Amazingly enough, Maputo is in Maputo province!) Yes, that means that I took by first trip out of Maputo. And yes, that means you are in for a mega post. Prepare yourselves!

We (Lilian, Marco and I) were invited by two Portuguese friends to go to a place near Xai Xai (pronounced Shai Shai), the capital city of Gaza Province, about 3 hours drive from Maputo to the northeast. We headed off on Saturday morning, it the pouring rain. On the way there we saw truck loads of people wearing raincoats and huddling together. The road to Xai Xai was actually a lot better than I expected! On the way we passed a HUGE stadium being built by the Chinese. They have their own little village there for all the workers. We made good time to Xai Xai, but the get to the house we were staying we had to take a road that was more potholes than road. There were a lot of puddles on the road and sometimes we actually drove beside the road instead of on it because the dirt was flatter.

The effect of the rain on a local market



Every once and a while there was a tree covered in white plastic bags. I’m not certain what they are for, but I think they designate stall where people are selling food, usually vegetables or cashew nuts. Overall the landscape was greener than in Kenya. Kenya was definitely savannah. Here it is more like “light forest”. Not quite a forest, but more bushes and trees and grass than on the savannah. Once we finished with the pothole road we had another 15 min or so along a dirt road into the middle of nowhere. There were a lot of small farms and a bunch of HUGE anthills. Quite a few of the small farms were set up traditionally, with a small fence of bushes surrounding a compound of building made out of mud and with straw roofs. Most of them had a mixture of straw and metal roofs, and mud/brick buildings.

The Neighbours



The house we were staying in was made of concrete though. It belonged to a guy who had studied in Portugal and spoke English. He had a big piece of land and was in the process of developing the farm on it. He already had a huge variety of vegetables and fruits, plus pigs, cows and chickens. He was also trying to develop a business around rural tourism, where tourist would come for the weekend and work on his farm and experience rural Mozambique, but in a comfortable way (the house had running water, electricity and satellite TV). I guess we were the guinea pigs, because in exchange for staying at his house, we had to do some work around the farm. We couldn’t do much on Sat because of the rain, so we stayed inside and talked and one of the Portuguese guys played some guitar. That night we had a big dinner that included duck, so you can add that to the list of meats I have tried now, right after ostrich and crocodile. The next day we also had piglet, called leitao (or, as I like to call it, “big milk”… but I think only Celso will get that joke). Gito’s (the guy who owned the farm) neighbours had a super traditional setup, so I got some good pictures by sneaking over while they weren’t there. Also, we went out after dinner for a while and came back after day. As we were driving along the dirt road to the house, we could see frogs jumping every which way. I also found some really weird and huge beetles (I think they are beetles?) for Bonnie.

Mangos all in a row!



Did you know pineapples grow like this?



John, Paul, George or Ringo?



On the second day we did most of our work. Lilian and I were in charge of sanding down an old door to be repainted. The two Portuguese had to build a wall around a garden using bricks and cement. Marco was put on pig feeding duty and then weeding the garden. Once Lilian and I finished, we joined Marco and helped in the garden. After being FREEZING and wet on Saturday, Sunday was HOT!

After hard work in the morning and a big lunch, we decided to head to the beach. It was about am hours drive away, so we got there around 4pm. The beach was Gorgeous! I was in photography heaven, and took tons of pics. The sand was so nice and the waves were huge! We went to a small inlet and some of the others went swimming. I preferred to wander off in search of the best pictures. On my way I found was seemed to be some kind of archaeological site! Well… at least someone’s stuff had ended up buried in the sand. It was a strange collection of things… toys, plastic bottles, clothes. I took a bunch of pictures of that and the sun over the water.

The Beach!



We didn’t start back until about 6pm, which meant we were coming home in the dark. The girl driving told us this was dangerous not because of robbers or anything like that, but because Mozambicans like to cross the street with no warning, even across major highways at night. We did end up honking at quite a few people, hurrying them along. We also ran into some huge swarms of some fly/moth type things. Our windshield was well decorated by the time we got home.

Once we were back in Maputo we were starving, so we all went for Chinese food just to finish off the weekend. It was really good and not too expensive either!

Ok, I think 1000 words is enough for now. I’ll do my best to upload lots of pictures (since I took 124 in two days!)

Now, leave me comments!

More Beach Pics!





My very own Laetoli footprints.... or not



This is Lilian and I

Rain rain go away...

Today it is POURING!!! The streets are like rivers in some places and getting to UEM today was fun walking around giant puddles in the sand. I would have thought that sad would be more absorbant... I guess not! In some parts of downtown apparently there is some flooding, but I haven't been down there today.

This is our fourth staight day of rain and it's a little depressing. The city does not look beautiful in the rain, haha. Today we are annoucing the new EBs and for anyone in AIESEC, you know what that means. Except, instead of buckets of water, we will just need them to step outside for a moment. Too bad we couldn't have a nice sunny day to make the big announcement!

The funniest thing though, is the poor ladies we see when we are walking around. Normally they wear a cloth wrapped around their head. Usually colourful, with some tassles and such. But today, they are wearing them made out of plastic bags! It's looks pretty funny to see all these ladies with plastic bags on their heads, including our very own Vera!

And even when the rain is light everyone goes around with umbrellas. They are obviously not used to the rain here.

Here's what we walked through on the way to UEM this afternoon:

By request... more pictures!!






Also, the election results are official now. Guebuza won with more than 75% of the votes. Pretty much as expected. The opposition guys made a big fuss about it, but so far nothing has happened.

P.S. Zero Comments on my last post?? Come on people!

Discovery Days

Wow.

I haven’t had this feeling in TOO long! To many, it’s just another new member training weekend for AIESEC. The same sessions – AIESEC Way, AIESEC XP – but yet, something different. I had to stop and think for a moment… this new member training… is happening in Mozambique. It’s happening here, because of us. These members are discovering AIESEC, just as I did so many years ago, because of our work here. This is why I am here.

They came knowing almost nothing. Yet as soon as we started to dance, they joined. As soon as we cheered, they cheered. As they learned more about what we do, I could see the interest growing in them. When we talked about why AIESEC is relevant in Africa, the passion was clear. Was AIESEC relevant in Africa? YES! Do we want AIESEC in Mozambique to thrive? YES! What a feeling!

It’s a very special moment for Daudo too, after working for two years towards this goal, to see the first members of AIESEC in Mozambique at our first conference.

There is a long way to go yet, but I am very happy and excited about what we have achieved here so far. Our chair is an alumnus of AIESEC in Portugal. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect from us or from the delegates, but tonight after everyone was gone and we were going over the feedback forms filled with positive comments, he said he was really happy and excited with both the members and us.

I think these students have never experienced anything quite like AIESEC before. Even though the conference is small, with no fancy hotel, it has all that magic of a first conference, and then some. I saw one delegate listening to a session this afternoon and he was smiling. Not because someone said something funny, just because he was appreciating the ideas that were being presented to him. I just sat for several minutes and watched him smiling, and it made me feel so good.

I hope we are building a community here that will continue to produce those smiles.

*******

Now it’s Monday. Yesterday was another intense and emotional day. In the morning we ran the simulation which I was responsible for. It’s so nice seeing your hard work realized! Plus it was really great to see the members working together, doing their activities, trying to divide the tasks, make decisions, achieve the goals they had set. It was the first time we could really see how they work, how much they had learned the day before, and how committed they were to getting things done.
For part of the simulation they had to receive an intern. I wasn’t expecting much, because they hadn’t received any specific training on what they needed to do. Lilian and Daudo played the interns, and what a reception they had! Both of them were picked up at the “airport”, shown all around the “city”, given a nice place to stay, introduced to all the AIESECers, taken to their first day of work, and taken out for a Mozambican dinner. They were so caring for these “interns”!! I am already jealous of the first interns who will come here. They are in for a treat! And over all, they did really well in the simulation. What they didn’t know they asked or came up with creative solutions. Of course there were some disagreements within the teams, but I think it really showed them that working on a team is not easy and that they have a lot still to learn.

After the simulation we talked about working on teams and how the team should maximize the strengths of its members. Then we did some goal setting (which I don’t think they had ever done before) and wrapped up the weekend. Daudo gave a really emotional talk about the impact of AIESEC and the opportunities that these new members had. He also spoke a bit about how he felt, after two years of hard work to make AIESEC in Mozambique a reality and now seeing the members there in front of him.

I truly believe that this weekend we ignited a little bit of fire in these people. As everyone was leaving, several people thanked me for helping to bring AIESEC here. It was a really powerful moment. One guy told me that Mozambicans have been waiting for an opportunity like this, and now it was here. It makes me so proud to be a part of this. I know we are just at the beginning and there is a long, hard road ahead. We will have our problems and our challenges, but I believe in these people and I see a lot of positive things happening very soon!

And now, I would like to introduce to you for the first time ever….

AIESEC IN MOZAMBIQUE!!!!!!



P.S We got internet at home today!! That means I can be online in the evenings (morning PST), I'm looking forward to talking to you soon!

Another week closer to making AIESEC a reality!

Hey, sorry for not writing for a while. I was barely online at all last week because we were very busy with interviews.

On Tuesday we had our infosession at ISCTE and booked the interviews, 25 in total for 6 positions. We did interviews all day Wed and Fri, as well as Thurs morning. Thursday afternoon we hosted an event around global issues at the other university, UEM. It was a great success. We had about 50 people come and three great speakers, all AIESEC alumni. Since I couldn’t understand, it was my job to take picture, which was fine with me! So after a very long week we we glad to have our weekend break.

We had a pretty mellow weekend. I made shepherd’s pie and Yorkshire pudding for dinner last night. On Saturday night we did some dancing and I tried to learn some typical Mozambican styles. One is originally from Angola and another is more of a modern version.

Today we have to select the best candidates to form the two new executive boards of AIESEC in Mozambique! This week we will officially have the first members and this weekend is our new members training conference. I’m really excited. During some of the interviews, we met some amazing people and I was thinking to myself “I can’t wait to work with this person”.

This week is mostly planning the conference and starting to do EP recruitment with the graduating students. Next week I will have lots more to report.

A couple other things:

If anyone remembers way back to my Brazil blog, I mentioned that it is very common to have small cars. There were hardly any SUVs or trucks. Here is the opposite. The driving is crazy, so everyone wasn’t to have the bigger beast. SUVs and trucks are the norm and smaller cars are rare.

Mozambicans are also more patriotic than Kenyans. One guy told me this was because the current president, Guebuza, made an effort to increase patriotism among the people. But whereas Kenyans tend to identify themselves by tribe, I have not heard about any tribal groups here. Everyone says they are Mozambican. Mozambique is actually larger than Kenya (I think) and I think it is more nationally unified.

Sorry no pictures today. I need to download the latest ones but they are at home!

Saturday was pretty laid back. We went to a big supermarket to buy some groceries and things for the house. I bought some candy while we were there and made my teammates trick-or-treat for it. Somehow it wasn’t quite the same though :P

On Sunday we went to a park near our house and watched some sports. We saw some basketball, which was pretty good except the ref called way too many fouls. Then we moved next door to see some football (soccer). We watched a guys team, and then a girls team play. The girls game was better, and went to a shoot out! And on the way home we were attacked by a bat! Well… it kind of flew close to us…

Other than that we did some work and just relaxed a little. Now it’s back at the university. Yesterday I stayed home and worked on my computer because I had some documents I needed to finish. Today we have our infosession for students at ISCTEM. Hopefully a lot of people will show up! Today is the last day of interviews at UEM, so in a few more days we will have our EB selected! Exciting, our first members! I am in charge of planning the new member training weekend for them. Should be a lot of fun!

Wow a short update, something must be wrong with me today!

Have some pictures then:




Basketball!



Soccer!



Sunday breakfast!

Back again. Tell me if I am writing too much. These entries always seem to end up much longer than I expect them too.

I was thinking the other day that Mozambique is in the wrong time zone. Geographically, it is under Kenya, which is GMT+3, yet Mozambique is GMT+2. It might be so that the time is the same as South Africa, because Mozambique and South Africa do a lot of business together (in fact, most of the products we buy here are in English because they come from South Africa). Or, as Daudo suggested, it might be so that the time zone is closer to Portugal’s. Whatever the reason, it means that the sun rises really early here and also sets quite early. In Kenya the sun started going down at 7 and it was dark by 7:30. Here it’s closer 6 and 6:30. That means longer evenings with lights on and more electricity used. Oh well, they must have a good reason for it.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post, about the trip to Costa do Sol. While I was being squished on the way home, I noticed one of the ladies with a big bucket of fish untied a knot in the end of a cloth she had covering the bucket. Inside was some money – a bill and a few coins. She took it out, counted it, took out one coin for the chapa fare, and retied the rest back in a knot.

Today was the election. As far as I know it went smoothly. Marco watched the news today and he didn’t mention anything being wrong. Apparently the results won’t be announced for another 2 or so weeks though. I was surprised by that, but I guess it takes them a while to get all the votes in from some very rural places. There were UN reps in the country to observe everything. If there is any controversy, we won’t be hearing about it for a little while yet.

But because it was the election today, it was a holiday so last night we went out with some Portuguese people to a karaoke place. When we got there, they didn’t have any electricity, so we had to wait outside. Once they got it back it was quite nice. It was funny hearing some people trying to sing in English when obviously they didn’t understand it.

Last but not least, the milk they drink here is very creamy. The regular milk is called “leite gordo” which means “fat milk”. The “low fat” milk is 2%.

Tchau

P.S. This moring it is spitting a little, and everyone is going around in coats and with umbrellas :P


More Costa do Sol since it seemed popular last time.


The heart banana bread I mentioned last time.

Weekend Update

So, lots to report this time around. On Friday night Daudo brought us home some Mozambican beer to try. One was pretty much the same as other beers, but the dark beer had an unusual flavour… coffee! Yes, coffee beer, which actually tastes better than it sounds.

On Saturday morning I went with Daudo to do the weekly house shopping. We bought a few things for the house (a non-stick frying pan, a lasagne dish and a muffin tin in the shape of hearts) and then we went to get the food. On the way there we saw a big commotion – lots of people gathering and yelling. Daudo asked what was happening and the guy said that there was a thief that has been caught. The whole street was filled with people, and you could find anymost anything being sold on the street – movies, pots, plugs, belts, jeans, etc.

They do have supermarkets here like back home, but they are more expensive, so we went to this little place tucked away downtown. It’s like an old style general store, except much bigger. We went in and sat down with a lady at the computer. We told her everything we wanted (5 kgs of rice, cereal, tuna, sugar, etc.) and then she typed it all in and gave us a print out. We took the printout to the cashier and paid the amount. Then we took the printout to another table and gave it to a guy. We sat down on a bench while the store workers went and collected all the things for us. We checked we had everything, and then made our way home.

Later that afternoon, I went with Lilian and Marco to Costa do Sol by chapa (the Mozambican matatus). Costa do Sol is a little community on the coast just outside Maputo. The beach was quite nice, though the water was quite dirty. I touched the Indian Ocean! There were a lot of small bars and restaurants along the beach, as well as people selling all sorts of things. We walked along the beach for about half an hour and then caught the chapa back home. On the was back it was so crowded that I thought my bones would break! Not so fun, but apparently Marco and Lilian made friends with the chapa driver.

For those of you who don’t know (which is probably everyone), Mozambique is having their national elections on Wed this week. There are several political parties, but the only one that really counts is Freelimo. They were the party that led Mozambique to independence and have produced Mozambique’s only 2 presidents (the first of which was a strong AIESEC supporter by the way). Freelimo has a huge backing and so really no other parties stand a chance. But campaigning here is definitely not like campaigning back home. On every wall, every lamp, every street corner, there are Freelimo posters. Guebuza, the president, is on the side of buildings, on billboards, everywhere. There are trucks of people that drive down the main streets with people singing and waving Freelimo banners. Tons of people walk around wearing Freelimo t-shirts. This morning on TV we even found out that you can buy a CD of Freelimo songs! I can’t imagine there being a song about Stephen Harper!

Lilian and I went for lunch today at Karim’s house. Karim is the president of Social Sciences at ISCTEM. Afterwards, we met up with Marco to go to a Freelimo concert that was being held in a park nearby. We wanted to see Guebuza and hear some local musicians. Unfortunatly, by the time we got there, most of it was over, but there were still a lot of people there cheering about Freelimo and littering the poor park with posters and flyers and postcards and envelopes of Guebuza.

Last night we decided to make banana muffins. The turned out very well, and looked very funny as little hearts (since the only muffin tin we could find was in heart shapes). Now tonight there is a thunderstorm outside with some sheet lightning. Hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow since Lilian and I have to walk to ISCTEM.

This week we are doing more classroom presentations and continuing with recruitment, plus doing some interviews. Wednesday is a holiday though, because of the election so we have only four days to get everything done.

Tchau!


The view from Costa do Sol

Some observations

During the days I always see things and think “Oh, I should write about that on my blog” and then when I actually sit down at the computer, I can never remember what it was. Such is the case now, but I have thought of a few things to share with you.

The sidewalks here are very wide, yet there is never enough space to walk and we often end up walking on the edge of the street instead. The main reason is the cars, as I mentioned before. But there are also a lot of people selling fruits, vegetable, extension cords, paintings and several other random things on the sidewalks. Also, every five steps you find someone (usually a young guy) selling cell phone credits for one of the two companies.

On the way to ISCTEM, the university where Lilian and I are working right now, we pass by a policeman who stands in a little booth. Around the booth is a box painted in red on the sidewalk. Nobody is allowed to walk through this box. If you do, he yells at you to get out. One day Lilian asked him why he had the box. He replied that if people were in his box, he couldn’t do his job. Maybe there is some good reason for it, but it is still pretty funny seeing this guy there everyday protecting his little red box.

The other university, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), is a lot bigger and is sitting in a large field of sand. It’s like walking through a dessert to get there. Marco is working there right now. We did some presentations last Friday and he has been receiving a lot of applications. At ISCTEM things are moving a little slower. We finally have our posters up, and this week we are presenting to classes. Just two applicants so far, but we are expecting many more over the next couple of weeks. A lot of the students seem very interested in AIESEC, which is awesome. It will be a matter of making sure we select the right people to get us started.

Finally we are starting to interact with the students and get a better understanding of them. Of course the others have the advantage, since I can’t talk to all of them… yet. One thing that surprised me a little is the variety of people here. In Kenya, pretty much everyone was black with the odd mzungu around. Here, there is a lot more variety. Everything from very dark to very light, with a large Indian and Middle Eastern community. If I showed you a picture of the students here, I doubt anyone would guess they were Mozambican. There are also a lot of Portuguese people here. And of course the odd Asian as well. So overall, much more diverse than Kenya was.

Speaking of Kenya, I was thinking this morning about what I missed from there that isn’t available here. Not including specific people (because that is not fair), I have to say I miss the English (duh) and also the Kenyan tea. I guess that what I get for going to a former Portuguese colony… no tea culture. The downtown of Nairobi is cleaner than the downtown of Maputo, including garbage and air quality, as well.
Daudo mentioned at lunch today that just yesterday he witnessed some corruption in action. He said that we has shocked that the two men discussed their “arrangement” right in front of him, like it was not big deal. Just goes to show why an organization like AIESEC in so important for countries like Mozambique.

And lastly, because I always end up writing too much, something completely non-AIESEC and non-Mozambique related. I have become totally addicted to Great Big Sea! I can’t stop listening to them J Also, I finished Davita’s Harp last Thursday and really enjoyed it. On Friday I started The Picture of Dorian Gray and I finished it on Sunday night. I am going through my books much too fast! We have more free time in the evenings that I expected and no internet at home, so I have been doing a lot of reading. I might have to make a trip to South Africa to stock up!

P.S. Tried to upload a picture but 20 min later no pic. Sorry.

OK, here is the picture that wouldn't upload yesterday, to demonstrate what I meant about the parking :)



And for Bonnie... some bats we found in the park!

Team Days and First Week

So the free Internet in our apartment died and now we are a little more limited in terms of access.

We spent the last weekend on our team days. We stayed at home and talked about our goals and plans for the next few months. On Friday morning, our session included walking around downtown and seeing some of the tourist sites of Maputo. We saw the City Hall and a nice white church. The a house made entirely out of iron and designed by the guy who did the Eiffel Tower. Turns out it wasn’t such a good idea though, as nobody has ever been able to live there because of the heat. Now it is a ministry for the government. We went to a park where you are not allowed to walk on the grass (what a waste!) but it has trees from all over the country and some of them are really gorgeous. Then we went to see the war memorial and train station (apparently the 6th most beautiful train station in the world) Then we wandered over to the Municipal Market, where they sell vegetables, fruits, meats, fish, seafood and cheese all fresh made. It’s quite the place! And apparently very cheap, though we didn’t buy anything.

On Saturday we went to a large store near the coast, so I had my first glimpse of the Indian Ocean. We bought a few things for the house and then continued with our sessions back at home. At the end of the Team Days Daudo gave us some videos and letters from our friends back home with words of encouragement. It was so sweet! Thank you guys!

Now we are on our first real week of work. Lilian and I are working at ISCTEM, which is a private university specializing in science and technology. The boys are at UEM, the largest public university. These first weeks are all focused on recruitment, which is my department, so I have been doing a lot of planning. Lilian is making the posters and flyers, Daudo and Marco are coordinating the other campus. Next week we are going to visit the classes and tell them about AIESEC. Things will be crazy for a couple of weeks and at the end we hope to have selected the new executives for two new local committees here in Maputo!!

We have also been busy filling out house. We have bought garbage cans, pots, plates, bowls, spices, sugar and a million other things. It’s seems like every time we leave the house we return with something new. We finally got a stove!! So now we can cook out own food instead of always eating out. We also got a TV because Daudo likes to watch the news. We just have the antenna stations, and it is all in Portuguese so I haven’t really watched much. I haven’t done any baking yet because we don’t have any baking pans, but I’m hoping to get some soon and fill the house with muffins and cookies J We had a little trouble with some small uninvited guests in our house, but we have been slowly dealing with them.

Hmm, what else. One random thing: It is strange to have a person named Marco in my house. Every time someone calls “Marco!” I think that he should reply “Polo!”.

I mentioned last time about the crazy parking on the streets. Well I found out why that is. Apparently until very recently only the very wealthy had cars. Then Japan came up with the brilliant idea of selling their used cars in East Africa. All of a sudden anyone with $500 could buy a car. The wave of cars was so fast that nobody had time to develop any kind of system for it.

The main streets are kind of interesting as well. They have two lanes going each direction in the middle, then a barrier on each side with breaks every once and a while, with one more lane on the outside. I saw the same things on the Marginals of Sao Paulo. The idea is that if you are going a ways, you stay in the middle so the traffic flows. If you need to turn off, you go on the outside lane, which moves slower.

Even though it is quite hot here (though today was unusually cool) nobody seems to wear shorts. Like Egypt I guess. The office we have been working (temporarily, until our office is ready) has super duper air-conditioning and is SOOO cold! We have been walking to the office, Lilian and I, each day. It’s about 30-40 min depending how fast we walk. Today on the way home we of course stopped of in this big store full of cheap imported stuff from China and bought some more things for the house.

The cell phone system here is just nuts. There are two companies. One old (Mcel) and one new (Vodacom). Every few days, one of them just stops working for no apparent reason. Because of this, almost every Mozambican carries two cell phones, one of each company. Cell minutes are a lot more expensive here than they were in Kenya! There it was 1 shilling per minute, which would be the same as 50 cents per minute here. Yet it’s more like 6.5 Meticais per minute! But on the other hand, you can buy a big bag of fresh vegetable for about $2.

Last thing and I promise I will stop. Portuguese is the official language, but people in different regions of the country speak different local dialects which are mixed with African languages. When bargaining on the street, the sellers know they can charge you more if you can’t speak the dialect. Even Daudo can’t speak it because he is from the north. Luckily for us Vera speaks it, so she does most of our “street shopping” and gets good prices.

And I’ll stop before you all explode. Till next time!

Oh P.S. The other day I wanted to order peach juice, and I was thinking the word "peach" so I said "sumo de peixe por favor" but peixe is not peach, it's fish! Mmm, fish juice!

The apartment

So yesterday evening, after a long day of running around and picking up bags from various places, we moved into our new apartment. We are on the third floor of a something like 8 story building on one of the main avenues of the city. That means things are pretty close and we can walk most places.

The apartment has three bedrooms. The biggest one was claimed by the boys (how did that happen?) and the girls are in the smaller second bedroom for now. The previous owners were in a bit of a rush to leave, and didn’t finish removing everything, so they stashed a bunch of stuff in the third bedroom and will come back for it later. Once we get it back, it will either be another bedroom for me or Lilian, or we will make it the office. The office was our original plan, but Lilian and I are a little squished in the second room so we will see.

The apartment came furnished, but we will have to change a few things. Some things are a little old and we have done some rearranging. There are screens on all the windows and doors so we don’t have to worry too much about bugs. Our room (the girls room) has a big closet but no shelves. There is a big double bed right now, but ideally we will change it for two singles. There are also two end tables, a chair and a chest (full already). The boy’s room is basically the same except a little bigger and they have a balcony. There are two bathrooms, but one is much nicer than the other. We have hot water and good pressure.

The living room and dining room are together. The dining room was really crowded when we arrived because they had a big table with a long chest and a long display is a long skinny room. The boys took the long chest into their room, so now we can move the table out a little and have more space. The living room has a stone coffee table, a couch and three chairs, all bright orange! There is another balcony as well. Off of the living room is the third room. The kitchen is a little small. It has a stone counter, single sink, an oversized fridge/freezer, a table and chairs and a shelf-type thing. The light is broken right now, so it’s a little dark. Behind the kitchen is the area for washing clothes and hanging them to dry.

The lady who works at the house is named Vera and we have yet to decide exactly how we will work with her. Today she was here in the afternoon with us. We went to the office in the morning for a meeting at ISCTEM and then stopped to buy some things on the way home. We have a lot of things we need! Plates, cups, cutlery etc. The furniture is included but we have to get the rest. So we loaded up with stuff and spent the afternoon cleaning and doing some unpacking and organizing. There is still a lot to be done though before it really feels like home. Especially when we know the other people are going to come back to get their stuff still. This weekend we are having our team days and then next week it’s back to the office for lots more AISEC work.

Cultural tidbit for today: The cars here are parked everywhere. On the side of the street, on the sidewalk and even on the median in the centre of the road. It’s pretty strange to see.

Primeras Dias

Four days now here in Maputo. I left Nanaimo at around noon on Wednesday and flew that night to Seattle. Early the next morning it was off to Washington. I was hoping for a nice view flying in, but I couldn’t see anything of note, except some baseball diamonds. A couple ours later it was off again, this time to Dakar in Senegal. We had to stay on the plane while they refuelled though, so again I didn’t really get to see anything. Then on to Johannesburg. The Joburg airport is really amazing, so new and modern and huge! Some guys from the national team (MC) of AIESEC in South Africa came to pick me and took me around the city a little. Then we went back to their house and I tried to sleep. I had to get up early again the next morning though, because I had one more flight to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, my home for the next months.

The airport in Maputo, we’ll say, was not quite up to the standards of Joburg. It was a small, one story building that looked to be from the 70s or so. I walked to the terminal and went through the passport control and then had to scan my bags again on the way out. My team hadn’t arrived yet, so I waited for a little while outside the airport and some locals talked to me, or at least tried to, in a mixture of broken English and broken Portuguese. Then my teammates arrived, Daudo and Lilian, along with an AIESEC alumnus from Portugal and a random guy from Zimbabwe that somehow tagged along.

We dropped off my stuff at an alumni’s house, where I would be staying with Lilian for the first few days. Then we went apartment shopping, and found one with three bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room and area for laundry, for about $500 per month, which is a very good deal. It’s about a 20 min walk from downtown and a 30 min walk from the office.

Then we went to Daudo’s aunt’s house, by chapa (Mozambican matatus). It was very squished but we met a guy who spoke English and was very nice. Everyone was looking at us as we spoke English on the chapa. At Daudo’s aunt’s we had Xima (Mozambican ugali) and some other traditional foods. His four-year-old cousin is sooo cute! Then we headed back to town to our host’s place and had dinner with her and some of her family. Her place in on the 7th floor of a building (with no elevator) and has a really nice view of the city.

On Sunday we were invited for Daudo’s uncle’s birthday party. We drove with his cousins to a place a little ways out of town where a lot of his family were gathered and had a huge lunch with salads and meats and some pasta and lots of snacks and desserts. We stayed their the whole afternoon, just talking and watching everything. Once it got dark we headed back to town.

The next day Daudo came to pick us up and then we were to go back to his uncle’s place for a meeting, but we somehow managed to get distracted walking around town and stopping for lunch and taking some pictures. Once we finally arrived we had a short meeting to discuss recruitment. Then we went out for dinner with the Portuguese alumnus that had picked me up on Saturday. He gave us lots of tips for living in Maputo.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we walked to ISCITEM, the university where we will have our office and start our first local committee. We met with the executive director briefly, and I was astonished to discover he is from Chemainus!! Then we met with the president of the Junior Enterprises, who was very nice and eager to help us out. Our office wasn’t quite ready yet, but it will have internet and a phone. We walked around downtown by Maputo Bay and ran a few errands, stopping for lunch at a huge and very new mall (Maputo Shopping). In the afternoon we cam back “home” to do a little work and plan the next few days. As we are moving today (Wednesday) to our new place, last night we took our lovely host out to dinner. She picked a place a little out of town, part of the casino. It was incredible. I had a steak that was probably the best I have ever eaten in my life! And it was about $10! Very delicious!

Today we are doing a little work this morning (or in my case, finally updating my blog). This afternoon we are off to the bus station to pick up Marco at the bus station and then tonight we are moving to our new apartment! Hopefully everything will go well, and it will nice to be able to unpack and get ourselves established. We will have to do some shopping this weekend to buy things for the house, but we should be up and running shortly. The maid debate still continiues, and should be resolved this weekend (most Mozambican houses keep a maid, but I don’t think we need one). This weekend we also have our Team Days, to get to know each other and to start doing some more detailed planning now that we are more familiar with the city and how things work here.

OK, so that covers what I have done. I also have tons of observations about the city and the people here. I think I’ll save them for next time because this is already pretty long. I will just start with this:

The main streets in Maputo are all named after famous communists. Karl Marx avenue (where we will live), Vladimir Lenin avenue, Salvador Allende avenue, and even Ho Chi Minh avenue!

I’ll try to write more as soon as I can. We are looking into possibilities to get internet at home, but it will be a little while before we decide and get it set up. Hopefully pictures to come too.

Bye for now from sunny and warm Maputo!

Edit: Just FYI, it is 39 degrees today in Maputo. Melting... even inside....

Back in Action

Hello again! It's been six months since my last post, but as most of you already know, I'm heading back to Africa in just under two weeks. This time I'm off to Mozambique, in the south east corner of Africa.

I'll be working on the Expansion Team for AIESEC there. AIESEC, which I have been working with for more than 5 years now, is present in over 100 countries around the world. AIESEC was started in Mozambique in 1999, but after a couple years it dissolved due to various problems. So 10 years later we are going to try again!

Our team is headed up by a Mozambican who discovered AIESEC in Portugal. We also have a Portuguese guy and a Brazilian girl and, of course, me. I'll be doing Talent Management and Exchange, which means I'll be in charge of recruiting, training and tracking members, helping them to learn and then (hopefully) go on an international experience. Should be a great challenge.

I'm flying on Sept 30th, arriving on Oct 3. and staying until next July (assuming no visa problems). It'll be intense right from the start, getting used to a new environment and getting AIESEC started. The students go on their summer vacation soon after we get there, so we have to be quick!

I think Mozambique will be similar to Kenya, with local flavour. The language is Portuguese, so I will be brushing up and doing a lot of learning right away. As for other similarities and differences, you can bet I will be discussing them here once I see for myself.

I don't know what the Internet will be like there, but I hope to be able to write updats on a fairly regular basis. As always, I look forward to and encourage your comments!

T-minus one week to go!

First time I have been online in a week! Well, on the weekend we had the cocktail for AIESEC Daystar. It was more of an alumni event that a partners event, but it was nice to see everyone and meet some of the alumni. The LC only started in 1994, so their alumni are still pretty young. After the cocktail we all went out as a big group for some dancing. It was a lot of fun and I really liked the music that they played.

On Saturday I just hung out with some of the AIESECers. Then on Sunday my hosts held a party. Some ladies came to the house to prepare food, but I just watched. I stayed for a bit of the party, but everyone was speaking in kiswahili, so I decided to sneak away for a while. I went for a walk with Patrick around the neighbourhood instead. I know my trusted routes that I always go, so her showed me a few other places I haven't been to. We visited the horse races and found a couple of craft shops. I mentioned to Patrick that before he called me I had planned on going to see a movie... and he told me he had never been to one. Never! I can understand why - even here they are not cheap and when you live in the slums, something like that is not even considered. So I decided to treat him to his first movie theatre experience. We went to see 12 Rounds, which I knew nothing about but turned out to be not bad, and Patrick was like a little kid, yelling and laughing and smiling :)

Monday was a boring day in the morning, because the teachers were finishing their exams and I had already finished. So I sat around and tried to keep myself busy by taking pictures. But Monday evening was meeting time, and we stayed until 9:30pm at the school finishing the strategic plan. And it is done! At least the first draft. There might be a few minor changes but the bulk of it is there.

On Tuesday (yesterday) morning I stayed home to finished typing it and then went to the office to print it and take it to school for the teachers to see. I also gave out some goodbye gifts to the kids - pencils, pens, erasers. In the afternoon I went to a friend's house to do some baking - snickerdoodles! (Bonnie, are you proud??) And after we had finished I tried to get home but the matatus had gone on strike, so all the buses were crammed full and weren't stopping for me. So I ended up staying at her house instead!

Today was the last regular day of school, except it didn't turn out to be so regular. In class three we learned cooking today! All the kids helped to make chapati, rice and some green lentil things. I helped a bit and took lots of pictures. In the end we all ate a huge lunch together. It was really nice and I think the kids liked doing something a little different. Tomorrow is the parents day to come to the school to pick up report cards and talk to the teachers. I might also be interviewed for a documentary (ahh!!)

After that I have only until next Wed left! I'm trying to make some plans, but nothing for certain yet, so I guess I will have to tell you later what I decided. I'll try to blog again before I leave, or finish off once I am back home.

Oh, and I only got ONE comment about eating crocodile?? What's wrong with you people!!

It never rains but when it pours

It's really interesting to see how much Kenyas are tied to the weather and their environment. As I think I mentioned last time, a lot of the financial difficulties the school is facing right now do not stem from the financial crisis, they stem from the drought that has been hurting Kenya for the last couple months. Well last weekend it finally rained... and a LOT. Talk about a freak rain shower - it went from nothing to thunder and lighting in a flash! Anyways, now we have lots of puddles and it's very muddy. The mud is so sticky that it feels like I am wearing platform shoes because I have an extra inch along the bottom. But I prefer it to the dust so that's fine by me.

The last couple of days have been NUTS!! Because the weather changed so suddenly, guess what, I caught a cold. So I rested up all weekend and didn't do much. By Monday I was feeling better but still really tied. One of the teachers needed help giving the exams to her students so I got stuck taking care of BOTH Class 3 and Class 4 at the same time, going back and forth and trying to pull activities from nowhere to keep them busy. Then we stayed after school until 8:30 working in the strategic plan. Then today I came to school to find out that I had to do it again! I had already used up all my ideas!! Haha. So but the time lunch came I was exhausted. A few of the AIESECers came to visit though, bringing a new intern from the UK to visit. Tomorrow I will go to help them with some recruitment activities. On Friday we also have a partners event, plus there are the exams at school, so I should be pretty busy!

That's about it for now, I'm pooped!

Tastey Treats

On Tuesday night I went out for dinner. We (another person who works at Humanist and his girlfriend and I) went to a pretty fancy place that is listed as a "must visit" in my tourist guide. I had baked potatoes, pizza, chips (fries)... oh and also Ostrich and Crocodile :) For the record, ostrich is very delicious. Croc is not bad either!

After eating we went to watch the live taping of a comedy show that is very popular here in Kenya, called Churchill Live. It was packed so I couldn't see all that well, but it was really neat to see the set and see some of the interviews live. Plus I missed the show when it aired on Thursday so good thing I saw the real thing first.

This week was pretty good. We did review in classes. I tried to make it interesting my having the kids solve math problems to find the hidden pirates treasure (except the didn't know what pirates were... so I had to explain) and do some math crossword puzzles. We had game shows and also did some actual practice questions.

For puzzles I did another logic puzzle, and introduced them to simple sudokus, with only 1-4. It was actually the first time I had ever done a sudoku, haha.

We have also been working hard on admin stuff, trying to work on the strategic plan and also get the schools financial stability sorted out. There have been lots of emails and letter writing to sponsors to ask for help and getting things clarified so we know where to go from here. Patrick has been asking for my advice on almost everything, which is good experience for me. Last night after puzzles we stayed at the school till late (using candlelight) and worked on putting strategies into the strategic plan. We have still some more to do - assigning tasks, deadlines, etc. - but we are almost there. I made a couple suggestions for new things to try at the school which were well received, so I was excited about that.

Other than that... the kids laugh when I try to say something in kiswahili, but I think they appreciate me trying. Patrick's son (who is around 2 years old) likes to shake my hand and then giggle uncontrollably. Today he visited our classes and the students thought this was hilarious (which I guess it is). He only does this when he shakes MY hand. One of the teachers also has a son around 2 who sometimes comes to the school, but he is terrified of me. He will run away when he sees me and when the kids try to push him towards me he starts to cry. I guess I am really scary!!

Next week I am going to take two of the teachers to the Internet cafe and help them to set up email accounts. They were asking me a couple weeks ago how email works, because they had never used one before. So I explained and they asked if I could help them make one. So hopefully next week we can find some time to do that. It's hard to imagine a life without email!! But it would be a good way to keep in touch.

I think that's it for now. Hopefully more soon :)