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!