Mozambique: Where it just can't possibly work

One area in Mozambique that needs a lot of work is the service industry. It is very obvious that the workers here don’t get any training and the expectations of them are very low. Things we take for granted in Canada, like waiters who bring you your food, people who serve you with a smile and staff who will actually help you if you need it, are rare here.

Often we have to repeat our order to waiters who forget or wave our hands wildly in the air to get the bill. The employees are usually cold, unfriendly and do as little work as they can. At restaurants and cafes, servers usually take ages to bring you your change, in the hopes that you will forget or give up and leave so that they can keep it (there is no or very little tipping here).

A good and rather humorous example of what I am talking about was shared by our intern who works in Tete, another province of Mozambique. He needed to attend a meeting at the head office here in Maputo, so the company flew him here and put him up in a hotel, along with a few other employees here for the same meeting.

He checked in and was given a key to him room. After opening the door, he discovered that there was a suitcase and clothes already lying on the bed. He went back to the front desk and explained that the room was already occupied and that he needed another room. After some time, they managed to find him another room. He got there and it was really hot, but the air conditioner didn’t work. He called the front desk:

“Hey, my air conditioner isn’t working”

“Oh…. Ok.”

“Are you going to fix it?”

“Um… we’ll call maintenance”

So he started unpacking and needed to get some shirts ironed for his meeting. He called the laundry service and they came and took the shirt. After a while he called the laundry service to see if it was done. The guy there said he had the shirt but wanted to iron it the next day. Our intern needed the shirt at 9:00. What time would the worker arrive tomorrow? 6:00am he said. OK, the shirt would definitely be ready by 9:00.

After a while longer and still no word about the air conditioner, he called the front desk again.

“Uh, sorry we couldn’t reach maintenance.”

Ok, no air conditioning then. He also said that he had sent a shirt to laundry and that the worker there had said he would have it ready in the morning. “That’s strange,” said the front desk, “because tomorrow is his day off.” Great. So our intern resolved to wake up at 6:00am when the new laundry guy came and ask him to iron the shirt before 9:00.

Just before going to sleep, he talked to a co-worker who told him he had ordered a wake-up call for 8:00 and also set his cell phone alarm just in case. When he met our intern the next morning, he said that he had received a call at 6:30 in the morning “Hello, this is your wake up call!” He had angrily explained that the call was supposed to be at 8:00 and went back to bed. At 8:00 his cell phone went off and he got up, showered, dressed and was just about to leave the room at 8:40 when the phone rang! “Hello this is your wake up call!”

So in one night they had the wrong room, no air conditioning, no ironed shirt and a wrong wake-up call. Oh, and did I mention this was a ***** 5 STAR hotel???

If you come to Mozambique expecting Canadian (or in general “Western”) standards, prepare to be disappointed! Just because you booked something or ordered something doesn’t mean it will be there. Adapt or be eternally frustrated!

Also, I found every kid's favourite store!

Bits and Pieces

Back again. Every once and a while I notice something interesting to blog about, but it’s not enough for a whole entry. I’ve managed to save up quite number of these little points, so I figure it’s time to clean house.

Back when I first arrived, I noticed two things about the Mozambican population. First, there is a large proportion of people who have twisted or missing legs, forcing them to walk on crutches. I wonder if this is a legacy of polio. I have a feeling it is, since I met a similar person in Kenya who told me he had it as a child. Also, the people usually seem to be above 30 years old. Second, there are a lot of albino people here. In Kenya I saw one or two in my time there. Here I have seen a lot more. I haven’t noticed any discrimination or staring though, possibly just because it is such a common thing so people don’t think much of it.

A couple months ago, the Mozambican government made a new law that required all drivers to have a reflective vest in their car with them so that if they have an accident and they are standing by the side of the road they will be seen. For a few weeks after the law came into effect, there were guys everywhere along street (always guys, never women) who were carrying around piles of reflective vests. It was quite the sight.

As most of you know, I quite like movies, but I rarely go to the theatre. Only if it’s one of those movies that’s so much more powerful on the big screen. Avatar was one such movie. I really wanted to see it on the big screen. There are a total of two movie theatres in Maputo. One shows only Bollywood movies. I went to the other to see if they were showing Avatar (because of course they don’t have a website). Guess what they were showing? The Soloist. Yes, a movie from 2008. Yay!

Vera is quite the character. She feels very comfortable with us now and loves to sit down and talk. Of course her conversation with me is a little limited, but she talks about all sorts of things with Lilian. She used to be a street seller and survived a knife attack. If we do something in a new way, she gives us this sceptical look. When she disagrees with us, she grunts. She calls Lilian and I “minhas meninas” which means “my girls” and she is already talking about how much she will miss us when we go. She is grateful for every gift, whether a candy, a banana muffin, or a candle for her to light at church.

The two interns wanted a maid to help especially with cooking, because they work until 7pm every day. Vera volunteered her daughter and we set them up. Vera and her daughter don’t speak Portuguese as a first language, so their Portuguese is a little funny (which makes it very hard for me to talk to her sometimes). About a week ago, Vera’s daughter was talking to the guys and saying that she wanted to “senhor senhora” which means “Mr. Mrs.” The guys were very confused. What? “Senhor Senhora”. What? Very slowly… “ralador cenoura” (grate the carrots). Ohhhhhh!!!

If you have a craving for a chocolate bar in Mozambique, you don’t stop by the check-out, you go to the refrigerated section.

The last couple of weeks have been focused (well, as much as I could) on a certain event that happened back home. It was very hard to follow the Olympics over here, in a hot, soccer loving country. I checked the website every day and Mom was sending me updates via email, but I couldn’t find any TV channels, even on satellite TV, that had more than a quick Olympic update. When it came down to the big game (you know the one), I knew I had to see it. I couldn’t watch it on TV. I couldn’t watch it online streaming (the signal was blocked outside Canada). So my Mom put her laptop on the coffee table in front of the TV and turned on the webcam, and I watched it through Skype. It wasn’t the greatest picture, but I could see and I even got to hear the cheers and screams like I was home. A little piece of Canadian hockey history, and I saw it. :)

The closest I could find to the Olympics here was this:



For whatever reason, this is on the gate to the pool that I walk by on my way to ISCTEM. It was built in 1932.

How to Drive like a Mozambican

How to drive like a Mozambican in 15 easy steps:

1. Even if it looks like the road is only wide enough for one car, actually it’s wide enough for two, or even three!

2. If the above ends up a little tighter than you thought, feel free to drive on the sidewalk.

3. The sidewalk is not for pedestrians, it’s for parking (and sometimes driving)

4. Pedestrians are like bombs in Mario Kart – you try to avoid them but if you hit one or two, just keep going.

5. Every once and a while you will see these strange stripes along the road, but don’t worry, they don’t mean anything.

6. Your horn is the best method of communication so use it often and loudly.

7. Green means go

8. Yellow means go

9. Red means go until the cars start coming at you in the other direction

10. If there is a car stopped about 100m ahead of you, please speed up into third or even fourth gear and then slam on the breaks so that you stop a few inches away.

11. If you need to drop someone off, please don’t feel the need to pull over. Just stop in the middle of the road until you are done.

12. You must put on the A/C even if the drive is just around the corner

13. You must have your car washed every day by the local kids

14. Pulling into the oncoming lane to make a turn is an excellent strategy

15. If your intersections don’t look like this, you are doing it wrong:



And now for something completely different...

This chapa is no more! It’s ceased to go! It’s expired and gone to meet its manufacturer! It’s a shell! Bereft of gas it rests in peace! It’s combustion processes are now history! It’s off the wheel! It’s hit the bucket and run it over! It’s shuffled off its engine coil, run down the highway and joined the bleedin’ caravan invisible. This is an EX-CHAPA!!

Bubbles

Mozambique, Maputo especially, is a world of bubbles. These bubbles coexist all over the city, but rarely do they touch.

The bubbles are, of course, based on the economic standing of their occupants. There is the rich bubble, with restaurants, coffee shops, office buildings, air-conditioning, maids and vacations. You can live in Mozambique and pretend you are in (hot) Portugal. You can have a brand new apartment, work for a big multi-national, eat out for lunch, drive a big car and never leave your bubble. It’s easy, and a lot of people do it. You never have to think about what is going on outside your bubble.

Unfortunately, as you might expect, a large proportion of the people who live in this bubble are white - Portuguese especially, as well as Chinese and a lot of white Mozambicans of Indian and Middle Eastern descent. Just now I was in a café to use the Internet and EVERY single person inside was white. Many of the biggest businesses in the country are owned and managed by foreigners. Of course you will find some true Africans in the rich bubble. The president is a good example, since he in the richest man in the country. However, you will pretty much never find any of these people near the other bubble – the poor bubble.

Inside the poor bubble is street markets, simple houses, chapas, Xima and, unfortunately, death. The people in this bubble can’t imagine owning a car or eating at “the Meat Factory”. They tend to think about the now instead of the long term. They work at washing cars, building new office towers, selling fruit and cleaning houses. They wear ill-fitting second hand clothes and capulanas. Their health is generally poor and most families are missing members.

If you get inside one of these bubbles, it can be almost impossible to leave it, by will or ability. It’s almost as if there were two completely separate economies running simultaneously in the country. One bubble is leading the country. The other is following along and making the best if it. One bubble is filled with 1000 meticais bills, the other with 5 meticais coins.

The question is, where are the buddles floating to, and will they crash into each other along the way? Will they grow farther apart, or one day merge into a great Maputo Bubble.

Xipamanine

The previous post took place on Saturday. On Sunday, I was invited by one of the AIESEC members to visit his house. He lives in Xipamanine, which is a slum not far from our apartment.

Actually, he invited me to go to church with him. I explained that I was not religious, but he said it was ok for me just to come and observe. As you might recall, I went to a church in Kenya to watch, so I thought it would be a good point of comparison. The church in Kenya was Protestant (a legacy of the English) and the church here was Catholic (a legacy of the Portuguese). The church itself would be considered simple considering some of the other famous catholic churches around the world, but was by far the biggest and fanciest building in Xipamanine. It was a brick and plaster building with a tall corrugated iron roof. There were stained glass windows and a number of carvings and paintings inside. The congregation was quite large, about 200 people I think. The priest was an elderly Portuguese fellow with a younger assistant and a few Mozambican helpers. All of them wore white gowns while the priest wore a long green gown. Some of the service was conducted in the local language, mashangane (excuse my spelling) and the rest was in Portuguese (or Latin, I’m not sure). Of course I didn’t understand much of what was said (though more than in Kenya, due to the Swahili) the highlight was definitely the singing. It was true African gospel. Not the kind of bluesy style of the southern US, but very African, complete with drums and maracas. I really wanted to record some of the songs, but I thought it would be bad form to do so in a church.

After the service, I met many members of my friend’s extended family. The concept of family here is much more open, as about 5 different ladies were introduced as his sister. Here close family friends are called aunts, uncles, cousins even without any blood relation.

Afterwards I was invited to his home for lunch, and the rest of my day was quite the experiment in traditional African gender roles!

As we were walking to him house, he told me that his house was very dirty and asked if I knew how to sweep. When we arrived, he gave me the broom and I was expected to sweep the house. Then we needed to buy some things to make lunch. We went to the local market, which was HUGE! It kept going and going! As soon as we bought something, he handed me the bag to carry. We had decided to make salad, so we had bought lettuce, green pepper etc. I said I would be willing to buy a few things as well, thinking it would be for the salad. “What about a chicken?” was the reply. So I ended up buying them a chicken - a live one (which thankfully I didn’t have to carry!)

When we got back to the house, guess who was to cook lunch? Well, me of course! I was taken to the kitchen and told “I don’t know anything about cooking, so if you need me I’ll be around”. Eventually one of his female relatives came home and she helped me. I was offered the chance to watch the chicken be, well, “prepared” but I declined.

Some interesting and rather bitter local fruit


Cooking lunch - charcoal style!


Lunch turned out very well in the end and it was a very interesting experience. I could very clearly see how the women in the family were spoken to differently and expected to do certain tasks without being asked. For one day it was ok, but I think I would explode if I lived like that!

On the way home, we ended up stopping for a beer with some old ladies and a gentleman who was kind of like the “village chief” because I was told that he was often consulted and asked for advice by the people who lived there. Finally I made it home very exhausted.

Me and the "cheif"


I was reminded a lot, of course, of Kenya while I was there. But here I could actually understand more of what the locals were saying, which is rather ironic. I have a standing invitation to visit again so we shall see when I next venture into Xipamanine.

The Park

The last few posts have been very much focused around work, mostly because I haven’t been doing much other than work recently. The best way to cure this? Have new interns arrive!



We went over for dinner to the guys’ (Miguel and Maico) place on Friday evening. We were a little surprised when dinner turned out to be cooked spaghetti with no sauce, boiled eggs and pieces of cheese! After dinner we went out for a bit and met up with Eduardo (the Portuguese guy). I had to be back by 4am to use the guy’s cable TV to watch the opening ceremonies… or so I thought. We returned and I tried every single channel, including at least ten different sports channels. I found cricket, golf, rugby, even sailing! But no Olympics!! L How disappointing! I should have asked my Mom to tape it at home so I can watch it when I get home. The best I could get was a sports news station which had a report about the Olympics (including news about the tragic accident… how sad) but no opening ceremonies anywhere. I hope they were good!

Today I went with the guys for a tour around baixa (downtown). We went to the river, the black wood market, the municipal market, the train station, the cathedral and the park, stopping here and there for a water and a juice. Maico has travelled a lot so he was really excited. Miguel has less international experience and only in Europe, so I think it was an eye-opener for him.



I’ve already mentioned all of these places in previous posts, but here I want to focus on one in particular – the park. It was built in colonial times, around the turn of the century. It’s right downtown and I walk through it every time I go to ISCTEM. What it is, however, is a real shame.

When it was first build it was obvious that the park was gorgeous. It’s about one block by three blocks, so it’s a good size. It has several paths and big old trees. In the centre of the park is what once could have been called the “crystal gardens” of Mozambique.



There are pools with lily pads, roman-style sculptures, stone staircases and a variety of different plans and flowers.





Now, the roof has fallen in, the walls are disintegrating, the glass is broken, the paths are overgrown and the ponds are full of garbage.







Not unlike the parks and buildings on Ilha de Mozambique, the park has been left to ruin, and it’s a real shame. Of course in a country with so many other pressing issues – hunger, poor housing, education – it would seem irresponsible for the government to spend money on rebuilding a park. Yet, it would be so nice for the city. It’s not that the park cannot be enjoyed as it is, but when it was first built it must have been a really beautiful place. In addition to the “crystal gardens” the park has a small stage, a covered walk, a big tree surrounded by benches and a nice pond.



Sometimes it’s so hard to look around and see what Mozambique could be, but isn’t. Perhaps in time, things will change, but I wonder if the park will last until that time.

Mais Gringos and LC Planning

The busy-ness continues!! On Thursday and Friday we had our LC Planning conference. It was actually supposed to be Wednesday and Thursday, but on Tuesday night when we were sending out the reminders to all the members, one of them replied saying ‘isn’t tomorrow a holiday and won’t the university be closed?’ Nobody told us!! We had no idea it was a holiday! And we had booked the rooms, told all the members, ordered the food and nobody said anything! Sure enough when we called the university they said ‘Oh was it Wednesday you booked the room for? Ya, the whole university will be closed that day.’ Soooo, we had to change the days. Ah Mozambique.

So, we had our planning days anyways and it went quite well. The members were a little overwhelmed with all the stuff we have planned. They are still at that ‘WE are supposed to do that?’ stage because they haven’t realized yet that they can. But I think they learned a lot and they came away having a much clearer idea of what’s going to happen in the coming weeks and months. Plus they spent the whole two days working in their teams, something they haven’t done much yet. We can see them started to bond and communicating better together. Some individuals who used to be very quiet and unsure are starting to speak up and express themselves because they feel comfortable now and they feel that they have the knowledge. I think it will be a big eye opener for them when we recruit the new members because they will realize just how much they have already learned.

While we were getting everything ready for the planning days (without Daudo because he is in Portugal) we also had two other big milestones! Our first interns arrived!! On Friday and Sunday morning we were at the airport to pick up our two Brazilians. One will be working in Tete, in another province, and the other will be working here in Maputo along with our third intern that will arrive on Tuesday. It was really nice to meet them and show they around the city. They are excited to be here and I think it will be great for the members to see the exchange program in action.

Two more crazy Brazilians, just what we need!



At the Train Station again



No hovercarts allowed here!



Next week we are finishing functional training and doing individual plans and then the week after that we start recruitment planning! I’m very excited that this time I get to be the coordinator and the members will be the ones doing the printing and putting up posters and doing classroom presentations and such.

More busy weeks ahead!

P.S. Last week it was really cold here. It got all the way down to 24 degrees ;)