I was walking home from the university yesterday and a student started talking to me. He asked where I was from and I told him.
A little later I was asking him what he studied and then he asked me. Then he asked me "And how are the American schools?"
"I wouldn't know, I've never been to one."
"Oh?"
"No, I live in Canada."
"Oh... but isn't it, like, the same thing?"
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Quick Notes
Sorry for the gap in writing. Things have been pretty focused on work this last week, and I know that that is a lot less interesting for you than it is for me.
A quick update. We did more than 30 interviews at UEM and came up with some very good people. Next weekend will be the new member training (Discovery Days). We started the interviews at ISCTEM and already have some good candidates, but we won’t finish until next week with them. I have focusing more on the conference as well. Today we selected our logo and slogan (you’ll have to wait and see) and we narrowed the possible venues down to three. One month till the conference, lets put it into the next year and get this thing going! We also started building the agenda and doing fundraising. I have a feeling that in April, my life will revolve around this conference.
I have a few more random things to share with you.
In Canada, when we want someone to come, we put our hand palm up and either curl our pointer finger with the others already curled, or we curl all of our fingers together. Are you with me? Here in Mozambique, it’s very different. When Vera first did it, I had no idea what she wanted. The put out their hand palm out with their fingers outstretched, and curl their fingers in as they pull their arm in to their body. I hope you understand what I mean. But to me it doesn’t look at all like “come here”. It looks more like a strange wave.
Here it is hard to find a gas station like you would find in Canada. The sidewalks here are wide (ideal for parking cars, as I have mentioned before). Instead of having a specific place for a gas station, they just build one or two meters into the wide sidewalk. The cars pull on to the sidewalk, like they do anyways, fill up and go.
If you want to take out money here, book off a whole morning or afternoon. In Canada, there might be a line of two or three people ahead of you and you wait perhaps 10 minutes to use the ATM. Here, the line-ups start early in the morning and can reach 20-25 people. Usually you have to wait an hour or more before you get to the machine.
In other news, Lilian’s Mom visited us for a week and brought me 1.5 kilos of doce de leite. Needless to say, there is a lot less than 1.5 kilos now.
A quick update. We did more than 30 interviews at UEM and came up with some very good people. Next weekend will be the new member training (Discovery Days). We started the interviews at ISCTEM and already have some good candidates, but we won’t finish until next week with them. I have focusing more on the conference as well. Today we selected our logo and slogan (you’ll have to wait and see) and we narrowed the possible venues down to three. One month till the conference, lets put it into the next year and get this thing going! We also started building the agenda and doing fundraising. I have a feeling that in April, my life will revolve around this conference.
I have a few more random things to share with you.
In Canada, when we want someone to come, we put our hand palm up and either curl our pointer finger with the others already curled, or we curl all of our fingers together. Are you with me? Here in Mozambique, it’s very different. When Vera first did it, I had no idea what she wanted. The put out their hand palm out with their fingers outstretched, and curl their fingers in as they pull their arm in to their body. I hope you understand what I mean. But to me it doesn’t look at all like “come here”. It looks more like a strange wave.
Here it is hard to find a gas station like you would find in Canada. The sidewalks here are wide (ideal for parking cars, as I have mentioned before). Instead of having a specific place for a gas station, they just build one or two meters into the wide sidewalk. The cars pull on to the sidewalk, like they do anyways, fill up and go.
If you want to take out money here, book off a whole morning or afternoon. In Canada, there might be a line of two or three people ahead of you and you wait perhaps 10 minutes to use the ATM. Here, the line-ups start early in the morning and can reach 20-25 people. Usually you have to wait an hour or more before you get to the machine.
In other news, Lilian’s Mom visited us for a week and brought me 1.5 kilos of doce de leite. Needless to say, there is a lot less than 1.5 kilos now.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Recruitment x2
So as most of you probably know, we are doing recruitment right now for the first members of AIESEC in Mozambique, since we already have the first EBs. We have been visiting classrooms and doing presentations, as well as putting up posters and handing our flyers. We also decided it would be good to host an event at each campus to raise awareness about AIESEC, engage the students and connect with our partners. Thus, the plan was set and the two events happened this week and last week.
The first was at UEM, the big public university. We had a good turnout and the presentations and workshops that we ran were good (according to the students). Almost too good I think, because we ended up with more than 100 applications to be members of AIESEC, even though we are only planning to select 20! The students are really interested in AIESEC, which is great! Now the hard part is deciding who to choose.
On Tuesday we had our event at ISCTEM, a smaller private university. It’s a tougher crowd to get excited about things, so we didn’t have quite as good a turnout, but we still ended up with more than 50 applications after two weeks of recruitment, which is good. Again, we will be selecting around 20.
Now the interviews are beginning and soon we will have 40 brand new AIESEC in Mozambique members! Very exciting! It’s my job to coordinate the recruitment at both universities, so this will be the payoff for several weeks of work (with a lot of help from Lilian as well). Of course things don’t end there. Once we have the new members, we have to teach them about the organization and what they can do. Part of this initiative will include our very first national conference, which I am also responsible for. We should have around 50-60 people at our 2 1/2 day conference at the beginning of May. I have an OC (Organizing Committee) working with me to plan everything. It’s going to be a big challenge, but I’m hoping that it will set the bar high for future conferences. As you might guess from my last blog entry, I’m a little concerned about the hotel we will be working with (which hasn’t been selected yet), but I think we will manage, in a Mozambican way, to pull it all together.
The first was at UEM, the big public university. We had a good turnout and the presentations and workshops that we ran were good (according to the students). Almost too good I think, because we ended up with more than 100 applications to be members of AIESEC, even though we are only planning to select 20! The students are really interested in AIESEC, which is great! Now the hard part is deciding who to choose.
On Tuesday we had our event at ISCTEM, a smaller private university. It’s a tougher crowd to get excited about things, so we didn’t have quite as good a turnout, but we still ended up with more than 50 applications after two weeks of recruitment, which is good. Again, we will be selecting around 20.
Now the interviews are beginning and soon we will have 40 brand new AIESEC in Mozambique members! Very exciting! It’s my job to coordinate the recruitment at both universities, so this will be the payoff for several weeks of work (with a lot of help from Lilian as well). Of course things don’t end there. Once we have the new members, we have to teach them about the organization and what they can do. Part of this initiative will include our very first national conference, which I am also responsible for. We should have around 50-60 people at our 2 1/2 day conference at the beginning of May. I have an OC (Organizing Committee) working with me to plan everything. It’s going to be a big challenge, but I’m hoping that it will set the bar high for future conferences. As you might guess from my last blog entry, I’m a little concerned about the hotel we will be working with (which hasn’t been selected yet), but I think we will manage, in a Mozambican way, to pull it all together.
Monday, March 15, 2010
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!
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!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
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!!
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!!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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.
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.
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