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