Africa Visit 2009

I'm coming home....

2009-09-24T09:09:00.004-04:00

but not before one last adventure in Cape Town this weekend. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we have no flight issues this weekend.

I have had a stomach bug for almost the last week and am concerned that I have giardiasis. I am hoping it doesn't ruin my weekend or cause me to have to start metronidazole. (All you pharmacists out there know why I wouldn't want to have to start the medicine this weekend).

It is amazing how at the end of your stay anywhere, your perceptions on the people you have met and experiences you have had changes. This is especially true of this trip. I think this is because i worked the whole time I was here. So, I had to deal with the normal frustrations and stress of any work environment. This caused me to have some bad moods the last couple of weeks (Jackie and kathleen can atest to this!) and have some days where I really just wanted to be back home. But now that my work is at an end, i have to say that I have really enjoyed my time here and will miss the people I have met. There are just some really really good people working in the CDC-Mozambique office. (They know who they are!)

The office had a going away happy hour for me last evening and people have been making a poitn of telling me good bye. It is amazing how you can think you didn't really help people, but in the end you still leave an impression on them (just like they have left an impression on me).

I won't get too sappy here. Instead back to Cape Town plans. (Can you tell I am super excited about this weekend??) Tomorrow, we are heading to Robben Island, then probably Table Mountain, and dinner at the waterfront. Saturday, we are doing an all day tour...Cape of Good Hope, the penguins, etc. We decided since we only had two and half days that we had to maximize our time and doing a guided tour was probably the best option for us even though Cape Town is supposedly easy to get around.

I come back to the office here Monday am for a brief meeting with my IETA supervisor and then off for my long flight back to the states.

Missing my Mozambique Partner!

2009-09-19T07:52:00.002-04:00

I haven't had the opportunity to update my blog since Bazaruto, but a lot has happened in the last two weeks. Once I got back from Bazaruto, I officially moved into "the CDC TDY house" with three other ladies--Jackie, Kathleen (CDC Atlanta), and Amy (here permanently). The house is ridiculously huge and also has mold. I will hold my comments on this house until I get back home. The one really good thing is that I have great roommates to hang out with.
I also completed one part of my assignment here. I had my presentation for the technical staff here on the various clearance processes required by CDC Atlanta for any on going research here in Mozambique. It wasn't the most exciting talk ever (nothing can beat the DDMAC talk that is part of the NDA course at FDA!!!), but I do think it was helpful for the staff here. I have had some issues with starting SharePoint for the office (a document sharing microsoft office program). I am feel bad about this, but alot of the issues were beyond my control. And I do have to say, no where on my CV did it say I had IT experience!
Last weekend, we had some fun going out in Maputo. One night involved dancing until 4 am. Needless to say, the next day we were all pretty much toast. Kathleen, Jackie, I went shopping the next day (Saturday), but I think I was in bed that night befroe 8 pm. I think I finished up my shopping, except for what I plan to buy in Cape Town. Packing situation has started to give me nightmares. Sunday, Jackie, Kathleen, and I ventured off the Macaneta..a beach town about an hour north. We had to take an old steam boat across the river to get there. Our guide (Freeo) was interesting and definitely had some opinions on how the US gov't could better help the Mozambican people.
I think my mefloquine induced dreams having finally subsided, but still having a lot of numbness and tingling in my hands. This actually seems to be getting worse.
I have been enjoying some great dinners with fun conversations with my roommates. One of the more memorable would have to be Escopia (sp???), where I ate a "chunk of meat" on a stone. And yes, that was the name of the dish.
I also finally got to go out to the villages for a site visit. I will save this for the talk that I know I will have to do for my divisions when I get home.
Yesterday, was a bit of disaster. Jackie and I had planned to fly to Tofo, but to make a long story short, I am in Tofo all by myself. I am trying to make the best of it, but I am definitely missing my MLP! (Mozambique Life Partner, as Jackie and I have started to call each other--Please note that this is a joke and I do not plan to have any other life partners in the future). I got up and dove this morning. Diving in Tofo is definitely an experience and like no where else I have been. The weather is crappy today, which didn't help. Let's just say, you know it is a different experience when you have to help push the boat into the water. We were also out in a bit of a storm, which made the ride back to shore a bit torturous. I have burns on my hand from trying to hold onto to the ropes on the pontoon boat (sp???). I didn't have the desire to go out for the second dive or do the ocean safari (snorkeling to try to see whale sharks). Another day, yes. Today, not a good day to be on the water. Visibility in the water is low and the waves were a bit too rough. Best part was seeing a humpack whale come fully out of the water about three times on our way to our dive site. Finally, I have seen a humpback! Too bad, I will have to come back to Tofo some day to see the whale sharks (it is what Tofo is known for all over the world). Oh well, gotta run. The girl here is trying to close the internet cafe for siesta time.

Weekend pics

2009-09-10T12:08:00.002-04:00

A picture is worth a 1000 words....

2009-09-10T11:32:00.004-04:00

Bazaruto Archipelago

This past weekend, Jackie and I headed up north to Bazaruto Island in an archipelago off the coast of Vilankulo, Mozambique. We had a rough time getting up there, mainly due to the unreliable Mozambican Airlines. We were told they were bad and we finally experienced how bad they are. We got to the airport in Maputo early for our noon flight to Vilankulo. When we got there, there was no check in line for our flight. After much discussion with a LAM representation, we were told our flight was changed to 5 pm. This was a problem. We needed to make a transter in Vilankulo to the island. To make a long story short, we found out we would not be able to fly to the island that day (no lights on the "runway") and we would be getting into Vilankulo too late. We ended up waiting all of that time at the airport, for fear that maybe our flight would show up and we wouldn't be there. We did see site the event, though. We got to see the big send off for the Queen Mother--the mother of the King of Swaziland.

Once in Vilankulo, we believe we got royally screwed over my a family from Portugal. The dad acted like he was helping me, by not letting me speak to the airline rep. (He made it look like he was communicating on my behalf since I can't speak Portuguese). Turns out, I belive he secured a nice cushy hotel for himself and his family for the night paid for by LAM and we were carted off to a hotel with prostitutes in the hallway. At least, the people that worked there were nice to us.

At least, the hotel staff was nice and we were able to get food that did not make us sick. Next morning, we flew to the island in a tiny cessna. The flyover was pretty amazing. It is probably one of the prettiest sights I have ever seen. Not sure if I can remember flying over the Great Barrier Reef, but it probably still didn't compare because I wasn't in a tiny cessna. Once on the Island, we were welcomed by the staff. Then I had about 5 minutes after scarfing down breakfast to get ready to go diving. The dive guy was very adamat that I needed to be ready in 10 minutes by the time he found me. I have to give credit to the manager who found out I wanted to dive when I checked in and made sure I got out that day. After diving, I just laid by the pool and on the beach. Then we went on a dhow for a cruise during sunset. The dhows are the fishing boats here. They are very rudimentary, but the sail very smoothly. Dinner was good and we had fun chatting with the pilots and the dive guy after dinner. Jackie and I were the only non-couples staying in the whole resort.

Next morning, Jackie tried diving and went on 2 dives with me. Not sure she got the scuba diving bug, but I think she enjoyed herself. She was able to get a lot of personal attention from the dive instructor, because it was just me and her with him on her first dive. We went out in little dingy boats. They were a bit bumpy, but fun. Of course, trying to get back into them after the dive was an experience. I am sure I looked like a beached well stuck in agony for a minute. The guys pull you up in..thank goodness...pretty sure I couldn't pull myself up the side of one of those things by myself. I had good experiences on all three dives. I was relieved after my recent episode diving in St. Thomas that went badly. The coral is pretty here. There were some light blues and really bright orange colors. The dives were shallow so a lot of the coral was still bleached from the sun. I got to swim right over a turtle. Seeing turtles always make a dive worth it for me.

We relaxed the rest of the day and enjoyed dinner and talking to the pilots and dive guy again that evening. The un-couples do have to stick together in a honeymooners paradise.

I am having some trouble uploading the pictures to this site. My next post hopefully will just be pictures from the weekend.

I completed one part of my IETA assignment on Wednesday. I did my big presentation for the staff here. I hope it was helpful, because it was tad bit boring for me. I believe i myself tuned out of it about 45 minutes into it and I was the one talking!! Having some big issues with trying to get some other things accomplished. I keep running into roadblocks in my set up of a new tracking system for the office's research activities. I am at a loss on how to fix it and am getting discouraged. I am supposed to start training the staff on the system on Tuesday. This is not good. I may be in for a long evening of work on Monday.

Ramblings From Last Week--8/30/09

2009-09-02T15:09:00.007-04:00

Pictures from Inhaca and Portuguese Island

Hotel

Monday, August 30, 2009

I seem to always be behind in updating my blog recently. This could be because the internet never seems to work at my current hotel. First, you have to actually pay for each usage and then after you pay, it never works. It has severely limited my ability to keep in touch with people back home. There is no time to email and check things while I am work, as I am under the crunch time to try to get everything accomplished that I was brought here to do.

Some more about my current hotel. The pictures do it more justice than it is worth. I am not normally a huge complainer (Okay, maybe I am, but not usually about hotels--some of my friends who have traveled with me can attest to this--I have no problems staying at dives). The problem is that my bed is absolutely horrible. I have come to believe that I am sleeping on a box spring with no mattress, as the coils eat into my body every evening. It was so bad that on Saturday, I was in severe pain for all of the day and could not move my neck. Southern Sun (my previous hotel locale) has been overbooked recently and cannot accommodate me. So I am stuck here for a little while longer.

Enough complaining, back to the week. Last Tuesday (8/25), Jackie and I were privileged enough to get a smile and a look from the new Madagascar President while trying to negotiate her a room for additional nights at the Southern Sun. (It would appear that the President is the reason the Southern Sun was overbooked and why Jackie almost got booted from her hotel room). I should mention that he looked like he was 16. We also had no idea it was him until after the fact. My favorite Southern Sun bellhop (Paulino--seems to like me though he can really not understand a word I say) had to clue us in to who he was. After doing some investigation, we find out he (the president, not the bellhop) is my age and just kind of declared himself President while paying no attention to the legal minimum age for President in Madagascar (40 years old). We must have only caught his attention because I am sure the two curly haired Americans must have stuck out like a sore thumb to him. I certainly wasn’t looking to catch anyone’s eye that evening. I had just worked out, showered, was in jeans and my oversized Grand Canyon t-shirt, had no make up on, my hair was practically dripping wet and was just looking to forward to some good old pizza at A Nossa Casa. Well, everyone says you meet your future mate when you least expect it..maybe this was my time! HA HA HA!

Wednesday, we enjoyed trivia night at my supervisor’s house. She and her husband hosted the evening for anyone in the US mission who wanted to attend. It was a good time. Of course, I could only contribute to the music and movie questions (which were an extremely minor part of the evening). I let all of the diplomats try to answer all of the questions about the UN. (It is really really sad how little I know about the UN). It was a really fun evening, even though my team won nothing. I am thinking about taking trivia night back with me to states, without the tough political and historical questions. I will be hosting pop culture trivia nights instead.

Friday evening was luau night at the Marine House, which apparently is actually a frat house that houses the few US Marines that are stationed here. The food was great, but the music was only so so. No good dancing music for us 30 something year olds. The DJ chose to only play techno. (Give me my80s!!!) So we ended up leaving and went to a little place that is at the old train station here. (Side note--the train station is absolutely beautiful--one of the few old buildings in Maputo that isn’t in massive disrepair. It was in a scene in Blood Diamond and another movie, which I cannot remember right now). We finally got to dance. In fact, Paula (our fun CDC colleague), Jackie and I started the dancing for the whole crowd. A good time was had by all, even including our lively debate about religion. Stayed out a little too late, but well worth it.

The next morning, Jackie and I took the Vodacom Ferry (they like to call it a speed boat, but they are delusional) over to Inhaca Island. I had to get up at like 6, which was a bit early considering our late night. I did it because I knew I could sleep once I got to the island. This was my second time to Inhaca, but Jackie’s first. We decided to stay the night in the one lodge that is located there. It was perfect weather. We took a boat (this time it was actually speedy) over to Portuguese Island, which is uninhabited. It was a former leper colony. Jackie and I fell asleep there for like 2 hours. I did manage to find this awesome shell, which was almost too conveniently placed right next to our beach towels. It almost looked fake and a little too good to be true. When do you ever find a shell in one piece right next to where you are sitting? I am still a little worried something is going to crawl out of this thing and multiply in my hotel room. (Yes, I do realize I may have problems getting this through customs, but hopefully I will not get caught).

Later in the day, we took a land ride to another part of Inhaca and went snorkeling. It was interesting to see a bit of the island and how people live. The big game for the kids is to run after the truck and try to catch it. Of course, they usually never do, but they seem to have fun trying. We had one little episode where we almost hit a dune buggy head on (sand roads barely wide enough for one car) and sitting in the back of an open truck on narrow roads was a bit interesting. I believe I got whacked in the head by tree branches about 10 times. If I am not mistaken, I believe the driver was getting a kick out of this as he kept looking back at us laughing. Oh well, still fun and well worth the drive. We snorkeled at Santa Maria. I was smart enough to request a wetsuit and was able to tolerate the cold water more than the others on the excursion. The coral was not pretty (did manage to see a couple of pink/purple patches, but they were rare), but the fish were kind of amazing. There were huge schools of them. There were also some really pretty orange/purple fish and some fairly large fish. I really wish I could identify fish, so I could document what all I saw. I did try to take pictures with a disposable underwater camera, so we will see if any show up the photos. The area where we snorkeled was beautiful. It is surrounded by this dead coral, which is black. The combination of this and the water and the sand really makes it quite picturesque. We left there right before the sun went down.

Later that evening, we had a lovely (and tasty) dinner at the hotel. Sadly, though, I believe I was asleep before 8 pm. I was exhausted and in pain. Unfortunately, this was the day of my neck episode and the bumping around in the truck ride did not help the situation. The bed at the lodge felt like heaven and I haven’t slept that well in weeks. It did wonders for my neck, as the pain subsided greatly by morning.

Next morning started with breakfast and a less than appetizing episode with some disgusting looking sausage. Seriously, what made me (miss I will not eat any meat that looks or sounds weird) order sausage off the menu. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen and literally made me gag at just the sight of it. Jackie was brave enough to actually try a bite, but I think she quickly regretted it. I couldn’t even stand to have it at my table and luckily the waitress quickly took it out of view.

The rest of Sunday, we were pretty lazy. I laid by the pool (it was a bit windy/chilly to be in or near the water even though the sun was shining brightly) and enjoyed my new favorite drink, passion fruit and sprite. It is non-alcoholic and YUUUUUMMMY! I wish I could take this back to the states with me. Then we boarded the ferry for a little bit of a bumpy ride back to Maputo. A highlight of the ride was seeing dolphins off the front of the boat. (I told Jackie sitting on the front of the boat was the way to go!) I actually almost got a picture of one. I think you can still tell it is a dolphin.

We also got to enjoy the sunset over the bay. This is still probably one of my favorite memories/moments of my stay in Maputo. Nothing beats watching the sun set over Maputo Bay from a boat on the water.

Oh well, my very uncomfortable bed is calling. I guess I should try to get some sleep. I will have to remember to touch on the house that we may be getting in the future (mold and all) and my trip to the border to renew my visa. I also will need to finally mention a little about some people who have made my stay here easier and more enjoyable (Franco-our fun taxi driver who tries to teach me Portuguese as a bonus for riding in his cab and Malate--my personal Portuguese instructor, who I have been paying to try to teach me Portuguese).

I have been officially extended here until September 28. I am okay with this. It will allow me a little more time to get this document tracking system fully operational and more time to train the staff and the woman who is coming to take it over. (She has just been hired and will be arriving in Maputo in the coming weeks). I luckily got my presentation completed last week, just waiting for comments from the CDC country director. It was pretty time intensive. I think because it was all new material for me. It is about all of the various types of research activities that are conducted by GAP in Mozambique and the various CDC clearance processes that are needed for each different type of activity. It is a pretty dry topic and I need to figure out a way to liven it up. I will be practicing it while I am enjoying the Labor Day weekend here and hope I don’t look as clueless as I feel on the topic during the actual presentation.

Lazy Maputo Days

2009-08-25T15:10:00.007-04:00

Sunday, August 23, 2009

This week began the start of my good byes to people that I have spent a good deal of time with here. First, Megan finally went back to Old Town Alexandria (after extending her trip about 5 times!). We went out on Tuesday night for a wonderful dinner in her honor. There must have been like 25 people there. She joked that she would never get that many people out for her in DC.

It was by far the best meal out I have had since I came to Mozambique. We ordered family style and had like 4 courses of some really great seafood and meats. The price was reasonable…less than 40 US dollars per person with drinks/wine. You couldn’t do that kind of meal/food in DC for less than close to a hundred. (yes, I wish I was exaggerating that amount). Only little issue we had that night was that Jackie, Steve, and I decided to walk from work to the restaurant. Not a big deal, except the visa nazis (AKA the very underpaid and corrupt Mozambican police) stopped us and wanted to see “our documentation.” I had my passport on me, but Steve quickly showed them our Embassy badges and the guy let us go. They like to try to get bribes out of the expats that are walking around without their passport on them. Honestly, it was almost unreal, because the policeman looked drunk and gave us a drunken salute before he tried to find out if we had our passports on us. Looks like the little note that we carry on our Embassy badges, may have actually come in handy. And no I am not kidding, this is part of the Embassy badges that I was given upon my arrival in Mozambique.

There are usually checkpoints all over the place, but we have always been in a car with diplomatic plates and have never been stopped before last night. I guess walking at night in Maputo is not a good thing for many reasons.

Friday, Jackie and I were trying to finalize our plans for our Labor Day excursion to the Bazaruto Archipelago. A travel agent was able to come through and find us a flight, which we weren’t able to do on our own the day before after we had walked to the LAM airline ticket office. That evening, Steve, Jackie and I went to Costa Do Sol for dinner. This is the place that is in every guide book as the place to eat in Maputo. Steve borrowed his housemates car and joked that he felt like he was a teenager having ask his mom to borrow the car. The seafood was good –even had lobster.

Saturday, our goal was to make it to LAM to pay for our flight…didn’t happen. I was too lazy in starting my day and the LAM office closed at noon. Also, missed out on the wood market. We still had a successful day shopping, though. Our colleague Paula picked us up and took us to a home jelewry show. We all bought some cute/nice things. Then we all (about 8 of us) all went out for ice cream afterwards. This reminded me of my typical Saturday outings to the Silver Parrot in Old Town with my friends back home. Missed having my girls there to give me advice on what I bought, but it still was a fun outing. Then we were off to Steve’s going away pizza party. He is headed to do more investigation on a mystery illness on the border of Mozambique and Malawi before heading back to Atlanta. (Click on Steve's blog via my page to see some pics from the party).

Sunday, I was pretty lazy. Laid around the pool at my hotel and had a late lunch at Cafe Sole (which is owned my one of the US expats here).

Some pictures of my new home (looks nicer than it actually is) and has a large number of stray cats running around.

On the walk back to my hotel, we ran into one of the common car accidents that occur here. We found some amusement watching them try to tow the damaged vehicle. Clearly, not AAA endorsed!

Strangest moment of the week, we went to eat at one of the places on the beach near the Southern Sun. After ordering our food and waiting for at least an hour, we realized that NO ONE in the restaurant had food. This couldn’t have been a good sign. Finally, our food came and I must say, I enjoyed my crab dish…thought it was a bit messy…even messier than Maryland crabs because this had sauce on top of the crab in a shell. Try getting meat out of crab that is covered in sauce. It wasn’t pretty. Would I go back there..not sure. I know Americans are impatient, but to wait over an hour for a meal is a bit over the top.

Best quote of the week…as Jackie and I were enjoying watching music videos (yes, music videos..they must actually still play them here in Mozambique--80s music videos, no less!) and eating dinner at A Nossa Casa (which I finally learned from Malate, my portuguese teacher, means OUR House—yes, I know I should have been able to figure this out on my own. I knew Casa=house, but had no idea what Nossa meant), she proclaimed--as an expat man in a safari vest came in to enjoy a meal—Just because you are in Africa and think you are going on a safari, doesn’t mean you need to wear a vest. You had to be there…very funny and so much like my humor.

2009-08-17T15:43:00.008-04:00

XIA XIA

Enjoying the sunset

Beautiful beach views

Xia Xia

Relaxing on the back porch

view from our house

After dinner relaxation

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Friday, I had a nice meeting with the deputy director here. He gave me some good advice about how to get my foot in the door for an international assignment, if I was interested. Of course, I was worried that he would find out that I hadn’t accomplished half of what I needed to yet. (Getting a little worried about this). Friday, is a short work day for us because we work 4 nine hour days Monday-Thursday. So we are done by 1130 on Fridays and the time flew by this past week.

Friday also means another weekend getaway. We planned to hitch a ride up to a beach house in Praia de Xia Xia (pronounced Shy-Shy). My supervisor and her husband rented a house on the beach and graciously offered to take any TDYer that was willing to go. As has been the recent pattern for the last few weekend getaways, we ended up with car trouble. (I am beginning to wonder which one of our group is bad luck). Their car’s shocks literally fell out on Friday morning and their other car is always having trouble. If there is one thing I have learned living here is that this place is so hard on cars. I would not want to own a car here. The roads are so bad that they cause numerous car issues that you would not normally have in the states. Then, you can’t get parts or find someone close by that can fix the car when it breaks down. So the purpose of this part of the story is that we got a little delayed on our departure on Friday afternoon. Luckily, a colleague lent us her car for the weekend. (Now that is a good friend!) We headed out of Maputo around 2:00 pm. Normally wouldn’t be a big deal to leave this late for a less than 200 km drive. However, the roads get very bad the closer you get to Xia Xia and we started to hit darkness outside of Xia Xia. Then we had about 40 km more to go on road that probably hasn’t been paved since the Portuguese left in 1975. There are also no street lights. In fact, the majority of the country doesn’t even have power. One of our colleagues commented on how outside of Maputo, you don’t see power lines. Something I didn’t notice intially, but once he pointed it out, I realized how little of this country actually has power in their homes. (The extreme poverty is one thing that will stick with me long after I leave Mozambique). Finally, we made it to the turn off for the house. Now, it was totally dark and we had about 7 km drive on a narrow sand road. I should also mention that we are not supposed to be driving outside of the city of Maputo after dark for security reasons. I don’t think anyone would have done anything to us, but we did have a couple of close calls with pedestrians. They are so hard to see at night until you are right on top of them. Since they have no where to walk, they walk in the middle of what little road there is available.

We finally made it to the house a little after 6 pm, but because it gets dark so early it felt like 9 pm. The house was really nice. The single girls were delegated to the loft of the house, where there were 4 single beds. We didn’t care, because we got to stay up late laughing and talking. It was probably the most I have laughed since I left home. Only problem with the loft is that is isn't made for people like me. I hit my head off of one of the wooden beams on Saturday and my head is still hurting 4 days later.

Saturday, we got up and went to the deserted beach in front of our house. The water actually wasn’t as cold as I expected. It was definitely warmer than the MD/DE coast in August. The only issue is that the water was a bit rough because it is the Indian Ocean afterall. You had to be careful of the undertow. Jackie and I took a walk along the beach before relaxing and resting on the sand. (Jackie will have to convey the story of the sad dying crab we found along the way). It is so crazy to go to such a beautiful beach and be the only ones for miles. Others in our group went out looking for fish to buy and didn’t see anyone for like 2 hours. Put a beach like that on the eastern shore of Maryland and you probably wouldn’t be able to find a place to put your towel and umbrella on a weekend. Our friends found no fish on their hunt, so we ended up with pasta. We had good conversation and then played a game of trivial pursuit before calling it a night around midnight. And yes, Jackie and I lost, but we staged a pretty decent comeback at the end. Steve has some great pictures of everyone from the weekend. Hopefully, he will post some of them to his blog and/or I get copies of them before I leave Mozambique.
Sunday, the weather was looking like rain and we woke up with no water. Not a big surpise for Mozambique. Power and water go out frequently (even in Maputo). We ended up leaving earlier than we had planned. We wanted to get out before the roads became impassable because of rain/mud. We all did joke that it really wouldn’t have been too upsetting to get stranded there a couple more days, though.

Some interesting sights on our drive home. I saw a man literally walking a vervet monkey on a rope he had made into a leash. Now that isn’t something you see everyday. There were little girls and boys dressed in all white leaving a church in one of the small towns along the way. I didn’t get a close enough look at the church to see what religion they were. How they keep their outfits that white with all of the sand/dust in Mozambique is amazing to me. I always end up wearing my meals, even when I don’t wear white. There was a woman outside of Maputo crossing the road holding a live chicken by its feathers. There was a woman outside of where we stopped for lunch in a wheel chair. We figured she had suffered from major birth defects, as she didn’t have any hands or feets. It is things like this that are hard for me to handle. The sick and the poor. I don’t think I could deal with these things everyday for any long period of time.
This weekend allowed us to see more of the countryside. As my supervisor says, Maputo is not representative of Mozambique. The majority of the country is decades behind its neighboring countries in so many ways. It is good to be able to witness it because it puts things in perspective. You wonder why the CDC and its partners can’t get services to the people that need it and then you realize that there is absolutely no infrastructure to help facilitate any services/programs.

The best part of the weekend is that we got to relax and have fun times with new friends. Here are some pictures from the weekend. (sorry, can't seem to move the pictures from the beginning of this post).

A Maputo weekend--for a change

2009-08-12T11:59:00.005-04:00

This weekend we stayed in Maputo for the first time in a month. My body was clearly telling me this week to slow down and rest and I headed the warning. I was feeling better by Friday, so I asked one of our CDC drivers (Lileza, who is also a music dj) where to go that evening. He directed us to the French Cultural Center for some live music. He assured us that it would be a good show after checking the paper to see the acts that would be performing. The French Cultural Center was very interesting. It had a little art gallery, out door courtyard where there was live music, bar, and a semi indoor auditorium for a concert venue. (It had a roof, but was opened on the sides). We were thinking it was a cool idea and someone should open up something like it in DC. The music was really good. The drummers and accompanying dancers were amazing. There is no way I could move that fast! Then there was a group of musicians called Acoustic Africa. They were also really really good and played forever. I pooped out around 1 am and had to go home. Turns out I only missed the last song, but it had looked like they were going to play all night.

Saturday, our colleague Cate took us to the wood craft market. We were glad that she offered to take us because she had an idea of what to pay for things and can speak Portuguese. I bought some cute things for gifts and probably should have bought more, but I was in sensory overload by the end. People constantly are coming at you trying to sell you their things. They don’t even give you time to think and they gang up on you. It’s not annoying for like 5 minutes and then it gets old. I was getting a headache and we had to take a break for a drink and lunch. We walked a few blocks through the city and you can so see how everyone says that Maputo used to be the place to be. Before the Portuguese left and the civil war happened (mini history lesson—Portuguese left around 1975 and the civil war did not end until 92), Maputo rivaled Cape Town as the place to holiday. There really are some amazing old buildings in the city, but they are all falling apart now. Everything has just been neglected and it is rather sad. (Kind of reminds me of my hometown in this aspect). I think people are anticipating that the city will get it’s second wind and will be a totally different (and awesome) place in 10 years. It definitely has potential and after spending time here, I really hope for the Mozambican people that a change is coming.
So back to the market. I did enjoy my interaction with the “bead guy.” He had finished a little giraffe while I was there and I of course, could not pass it up. (If you did not already know this, I am obssessed with giraffes, as all of my travelmates found out the first time I saw a giraffe in the wild). He also wasn’t pushy. There was a lot of nice wood statues, but I couldn’t decide what I liked/wanted. (We have no idea where the alien looking heads on all of the people statues has come from, though. People say this is unique to Mozambique, so maybe at some time in history, Mozambique got taken over by aliens). Hopefully, I will get back to the wood market before I leave and will actually be able to make a decision. After the market, we went to Casa Elefante to buy capalanas (the material that women wrap into a skirt). They were closing, though, so we didn’t have a lot of time. I got a few pieces of material that I think can me made into pillows. Hopefully, I can make it back there, too. But then again, maybe I shouldn’t. I am already having anxiety at the thought of trying to get everything to fit in my suitcases for my return.
Sunday, our colleague Jackie finally arrived after spending the night in a sketchy hotel in Jo-Burg. We met up with her and found another Atlanta CDC colleague along the way, who had just arrived in Maputo, and headed to eat at the fish market. I was NOT a fan of where they sell the fish (the raw squid made me gag and if I start to think about it, I will gag again), but in the back there are a bunch of tiny restaurants that will cook your seafood the way you want it. Instead of us having to go and bargain for the raw food, they restuarants will do it for you. Then they bring the fish back to make sure it is to your liking before they cook it. Like I would know what a good raw whole fish looks like. I normally buy my fish in fillets at the supermarket. J There is something to be said for eating fresh seafood, though. It took a while, but everything was sooo good. We feasted on clams, prawns, and a big ol fish.

After this weekend, I feel I have now had the opportunity to spend time doing “all things Maputo.”

And so it goes....

2009-08-05T12:00:00.004-04:00

I have had a rough couple of weeks health-wise. I knew I would get sick over here, but I assumed I would get some sort of GI illness. Not the case. I was getting better from my previous illness and then Monday night..BAMB. I got hit with a fever, chills, aches, etc. Went to the health unit yesterday morning and perplexed the staff. They couldn't tell if I had the flu or strep throat. They put me on Tamiflu and told me to come back the next day. Sure enough, the doc's instincts were correct and I ended up showing the classic signs of strep throat this morning. Now am on antibiotics and hope to be better soon. The staff at the Embassy Health Unit were so nice and just plain kind. (something you don't see too often in the states anymore). I was in really bad shape on Tuesday and they just let me sleep in their office. They didn't want me to be myself. Feeling better today and hope to go back to work tomorrow.

I just saw an email came out to the CDC staff here saying that many people have come down with a "flu-like" illness. I hope I am not getting blamed for this! But I don't have the flu, I definitely have strep. Plus, I think we all picked up stuff in Swaziland. A lot of the staff went there this past weekend.

One interesting side note in all of this: The doctor took samples from me to send off to Atlanta to see if I had swine flu on Monday before we came to the strep diagnosis. Well, the gov't here won't let things like this out of the country. So I guess if there ever is a swine flu pandemic in Mozambique, we will never really know.

Bush Fire Music Fest, Swaziland

2009-08-02T14:05:00.010-04:00

I just got back from a wonderful weekend in Swaziland. We went out for the Bush Fire Music Festival, which is basically an international African music fest. We stayed at one of the Swaziland game reservces--best known for their hippo pool. :-) There were about 9 of us and I was lucky enough to stay in one of the beehives (a traditional swazi hut) that they offer for accommodation there. Here are some pics:

Above right: warthog about to unkowningly bri
himself and become dinner!

We ate dinner and watched some music on Friday. The venue was at a place called House of Fire. It was a very unique venue. Friday was in an indoor venue that kind of reminded me of a bar you would see in OC, but decorated fancier. The acts were pretty good.

The proceeds went to supporting Young Heroes, which is Swaziland's first Internet-based initiative against HIV/AIDS. Therefore, there was a lot of talk about abstinence and how to prevent HIV. One odd part of the show was when one of the woman performers (who appeared to be in her 40s) said she likes to breast feed her mother and asked the crowd if they also do, too. I would like to think something got lost in translation there, but she was speaking English. You may be wondering why Swaziland of all places would have a 3 day music and arts festival around HIV/AIDs. The HIV/AIDS rate in Swaziland is about 40%. For a country this small (or any country really), that is just unbelievable. Swaziland is ruled by a King..yes, there are still some of these types of monarchies left in the world. However, it seems to be better off than Mozambique in a lot ways (other than the HIV rate). The roads, food, and shopping were all a ton better than here in Maputo. (Hence, why I ended up doing a lot of shopping this weekend. In my defense, proceeds from the majority of what I bought went to some sort of aid organization). I also noticed a lot more ads and things through out the country that were making people aware of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and what they can do to help control what is going on. I even saw a billboard telling people to take their ARVs all the time as directed. So far, I have not seen any type of advertising/health promotion about HIV/AIDs in Mozambique, which has an HIV/AIDS rate of about 17%. (Yes, I must start putting some facts within my blog to try to give you an idea of the situation). People in Swazi are definitely poor like Mozambique (people live in shacks, etc.), but they appear to be able to run businesses, farm, and things like this way better than Mozambique. The difference between the two countries in these regards is really astonishing considering they are border countries and Mozambique is the run by a "democratic government."

But enough of the culture lesson...back to the weekend. Saturday, we got up and had breakfast next to the hippo pool. Then we decided to take a hike and got a bit lost. The map the gave us was absolutely ridiculous. It made no sense and just had all types of different lines everywhere. Our little 1 and 1/2 hike turned into about 3 hours. It started out nice, but as we seemed to get more and more lost, I thought our colleagues that went off to the spa had the better idea. Then we came upon some zebra, who were quite inquisitive of us and followed us for a while, which was a bit scary-though it didn't stop me from taking advantage of the photo ops.

After our hike, we went back to the restuarant for a drink and got to be pretty close to some of the hippos. During our conversation, we also came to a conclusion that it would be pretty nice to be a hippo. You can be as fat and ugly as you want, but people will still think you are cute. All the other animals avoid you, because they know you could destroy them at a moment's notice. You spend the majority of your life sleeping, eating, and being in water. Doesn't seem too bad to me!

Then we went to do some shopping at a glass factory, then back to the music festival to hear some music, then to dinner, then back to the music festival. We saw Johnny Clegg, who is a very famous S. African performer (I had never heard of him) that has been around since the 70s. He was actually pretty good and I may look to download some of his toons. I think some of the songs were in English, but there might have been a bit of Zulu thrown in there. The venue moved outside and was packed. We even managed to meet up with our fellow IETA, Ed. (Ed randomly went up to some of our colleagues in a grocery store and asked them if they knew of any Americans living in Mozambique...and they were like yeah. It took a little bit of back and forth (due to our colleagues joking behavior), but Ed finally realized they were with Christine and I. How random is that?) We joked that Friday night it was an international festival for americans living abroad. I think we saw almost every Mozambique USG employee there. The crowd was definitely more local on Saturday and after Johnny, the acts were not as good, so we decided to leave around 930 pm. Here are some pics:

It started to storm right after we left and rained/stormed through out the night. We stayed nice and dry in our little beehive. But at one point, Megan and I were both seeing a floating light coming through the top of our beehive. My guess it was an alien, but we never did figure out where this mysterious light was coming from. Our beehive was pitch black without any lights on, so the whole thing was a bit bizarre. Megan even went out in the down pour to try to figure out where it was coming from but no luck. The center of our beehive, where the light was coming from was pretty high unlike the entrance door, so it isn't like someone could have playing a trick on us. Insert weird space alien music here. :-)

We woke up to heavy rain this morning. After getting to watch 4 hippos be very active during breakfast, (they are so fun to watch) we took it easy by reading some books by the fire in the main restuarant overlooking the hippo pool. Then after busting through a road out of the game reserve that was apparently shut down because of the rain, we were off for more shopping and then back to Maputo. I must admit, the whole..day of downpours..seems a bit foreign to me. It so common back in DC to have days of heavy heavy rain, but I have not seen any rain really in the 6 weeks I have been here until last night and today. (It is officially the mid point of my assignment). Driving into my Maputo, it looked like a riot had happened or something. Roads were blocked due to standing water and the streets...hmmm...how can I describe this...had trash EVERYWHERE..even worse than normal, which is pretty bad on a normal sunny day. Everything must have been washing everywhere. It really was not pretty. Maputo normally doesn't get this kind of rain/storms this time of year, so the whole thing is a bit odd. Also, I got a glimpse of what the local staff keeps telling me happens in the summer months here. They say the roads flood so high that no one can get anywhere. Trash+poor sewage and drainage=DISASTEROUS.

Also, Sheila+the ability to shop=disasterous packing situation. I may need to buy a third suitcase to lug the stuff home that I bought this weekend.

Oh well, an odd way to end my blog for today. But I am sleeeeepy..and must get some rest for the work week ahead and my long evening of packing my stuff tomorrow night in preparation for our move to the hotel. :-(

So many places to see and not enough time...

2009-07-30T04:44:00.005-04:00

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Well, my congestion won't seem to go away, but I am still tons better than last week at this time. This weekend we are heading to Swaziland for the Bushfire Music Festival. It seems to be a big deal, as almost the entire USG community here appears to be going. The weather is not looking too promising (low 60s and rain), but hopefully, we will find a way to stay warm and dry. We are staying at a game reserve known for their hippos. Hopefully, some good pictures will follow.

We will be moving on Tuesday back to a hotel, so I will have to say goodbye to Luna and Lobo. I am very sad about this. They are such good company, though they do expect constant attention and tend to wake me up every morning around 4 am to let them out. Last night, I refused to let them sleep in my room and actually got to sleep through the night with no interruptions.

The internet situation at the place we are going to is also not optimal. You have to pay for access, which just seems odd considering the other hotels in the city do not appear to do this. It also isn't cheap (over $10US for an hour). I may have limited access to update pictures, but will do my best. I am hoping that I get at least some reimbursement for internet/phone services while I am here and may just eat the cost of what isn't reimbursed. The good news is the hotel has a gym, which I need desperately. I will be so happy to get back into a normal work out routine.

Some pictures of our current abode, since I never posted any previously. You can see why I am not looking forward to the hotel so much. I will post some of the outside on another day.

I am finding my work more challenging than expected. If you saw the description of my assignment, it looks simple. However, I think I highly underestimated the state of disarray of the files here. Everything is a mess and I can't find most of what I need. I am trying to implement a new computer tracking system for all documents related to the research going on here, while cleaning up and organizing old files. I am also working on a training presentation for the staff here on everything (that I will have to present before I leave--it is already 40 slides long and is not nearly complete), along with drafting/finalizing instruction documents for the various procedures here related to clearance and filing. I am mainly focusing on various types of documents and procedures related to the research that is going on in Mozambique. It has helped me to get an idea of the various activities that they are trying to implement here and the challenges along with them. My supervisor is also assuring me that I will be doing site visits before I leave here. I think I will find this the most interesting part of my experience. I feel like I am failing her, though, because my progress on cleaning up these files has been slow.

I am getting excited as some fellow IETA participants are all making their way over to Africa in the next couple of weeks for their assigments, including a girl (Jackie) who is coming to Maputo. We are already starting to map out travel. :-) The only downfall of all of this is that there appears to be too many places to see and not enough time. I am having trouble picking and choosing where and where not to go. I am contemplating taking a personal vacation after I get back to the states to come back to Africa. Wonder how my boss and people covering my work will think about this. If I have learned anything from my stay here, it is that life is too short, be grateful for what you have as there are so many in this world that have nothing (but still are hapy), and take advantage of all opportunities given to you. With this thinking, I must say a vacation will be in my near future. :-)

Praia do Tofinho=Improved Health

2009-07-26T12:20:00.015-04:00

I really wasn't sure how this past weekend was going to go. We were scheduled to fly to Inhambane on route to Tofo and Tofinho beach around noon on Friday and the tickets weren't refundable. I woke up Friday morning actually worse than the day before. After coughing up what appeared to be blood and having really bad lower back pain, I decided a stop at the Embassy Health Unit was in order. I got there early and after about an hour of sitting with a very nice (and retired) doctor, I got some zithromax and codeine cough syrup. (I do believe, though, the doctor was trying to get me to go home and make my own cough syrup with alcohol and sugar...to which I kind of looked at him like he was crazy--haven't made an elixir since pharmacy school and have no intentions of doing it again anytime soon). Anyway, it may have been viral, but there was a small chance I was developing bacterial pneumonia and neither one of us wanted to risk me getting worse, so I got the zithromax. This isn't the place to try out the health system and since I was going somewhere with even less civilized medicine, I took my zithromax immediately and hoped for the best. I had already resorted to the fact that diving was not going to happen for me this weekend due to this little bug that I had picked up. :-( I also hoped Mozambique was not taking the Chinese approach to swine flu. I had joked to Christine that if we were in China, I would have been quarantined at the airport and never even allowed near a plane.

After the flight, which appeared to be delayed because the President or some other VIP needed to land at the airport, and a lovely ride through the countryside, we arrived at our home for the next two nights. We were staying at Cafe no Mar at Tofhino Beach. It only has 5 rooms and Christine and I were the only guests they had on Friday evening. It was really nice getting the personal attention from the two guys (Casper and Hine--pictured at the end of this entry) that are running the place. We had a lovely dinner in Tofo, but I must say I was feeling quite awful by the end of it.

I went back to my room, chugged some cough syrup and probably was asleep before 9 pm. Next morning, I felt better and actually had some color back in my face. The breakfast was lovely. This was the view from our little "cottage."

The marine life was amazing. We could see dolphins and whales from shore. Christine and I took a walk along the beach from Tofinho to Tofo..stopping to marvel at all of the different marine wildlife and the beautiful colors of the ocean, along with the wind and kite surfers.

Later, we went on a horseback ride along the beach and through the country side. I must say, at first, I was not liking this. I had never been on a horse before and they give you like ZERO instruction on what to do. Then they take you up and down a hill right away. Luckily, our guide, Alfredo, took ahold of my horse (Riverdancer) and led us along, because he could see I was a bit worried. It actually turned into a lovely ride. We got to go through the country side and see all of the little villages. The coconut, cashew nut, and mango trees were really beautiful, too.

Then we stopped to watch the sunset before grabbing a drink at one of the local beach hangouts before dinner. Again, was feeling better, but not great...so I went back to my room, chugged more cough syrup, and was asleep pretty early again.

We got up early on Sunday to watch the sunrise. I took a walk looking for whales before breakfast, but had no real luck. We were able to see them during breakfast, though.

After another quick walk along the beach, we had to head off for the airport. :-( Hine and Casper gave us a little personal tour of Inhambane before sending us off back to Maputo. The city is definitely forgotten and it is such a shame. Some of the old buildings are very beautiful, but time has definitely taken its tool on them.

For everyone back at FDA that may be wondering how work is playing into my little adventure..don't worry...I am still working...in fact, i will be working extra in the coming weeks to get caught up on the time I was sick last week. I am now way behind on everything that I have to get done here.

I keep thinking through out this trip that Mozambique has two faces. It has beautiful scenery, beaches, wildlife, and people (EVERYONE in Tofo and Tofinho were extremely nice and we felt safer there than in Maputo), but then simple things are just not taken care of...like the garbage in the streets or basic up keep of sewage systems, buildings, and roads. Everyone keeps telling us that before the war and before the Portuguese left, the country was amazing. I believe someone even said Tofo was once one of the Top 5 beaches in the world at one point. Maybe one day, Mozambique will somehow regain this glory. It seems more and more travelers are starting to take notice of the country for its beaches and amazing dive sites, so I think there is hope.

Sorry, for my side bar...but it was a lovely weekend, even though we weren't able to go snorkeling with the whale sharks like I had hoped. We would not have made it back on time on Sunday for our flight and the water was a little rough for snorkeling on Saturday. It is probably for the best for me (but not for Christine), as I probably shouldn't have been near water yet. I have vowed to go back before I leave Mozambique, so that I can dive Manta Reef and see the infamous whale sharks. God love Hine, Casper, and Christine for putting up with me and my sickness all weekend. It could not have been fun hanging out with a girl who sounded like she smoked a pack of cigarettes every day for the last 30 years. There must be some sort of magic healing powers of Tofo, because I feel a million times better today...or maybe it was just the zithromax doing its job. (Being a pharmacist, I guess I would have to say my improved health is due to the power of modern medicine).

It was bound to happen

2009-07-23T08:06:00.002-04:00

Well, I caught some nasty cold/virus. Not fun. I had to stay home 2 days (including today) this week and am a little bored. No TV and no ability to download movies/TV episodes. A word of advice for all the IETA folks that are heading out in August. Take videos with you or somehow download stuff on your computer before you leave the US. I thought I would use netflix, hulu, itunes, etc. and no luck. They all now block users outside of the US from dowloading from their sites. I don't know how they can tell you are in another country, but trust me, they can. I tried to dowload stuff after they gave me the warnings and they were able to detect that I was not in the US. I thought I would have some luck with itunes, but it looks like it is going to take 10 hours to dowload one movie.

I am still headed up to Tofo beach tomorrow. We are flying to Inhambane. The plan WAS to go diving, but if I am able to do anything by Saturday, it will have to be just snorkeling. I don't think it would be a good idea to dive when my lungs are as congested as they are. I don't see myself getting better that quickly either.

It is amazing how the common cold can knock you on your butt. All I want to do is sleep.

Kruger Birthday Safari

2009-07-20T12:50:00.017-04:00

Well, I had a great B-day weekend at Kruger National Park in S. Africa. Five fellow TDYers and I ventured off on Friday afternoon after work to the infamous park in hopes of seeing some of the "Big 5." After managing to get through the God-awful process of crossing the border into S. Africa with the help of some wise colleagues, we drove to our 'our cottage' outside of the park. (I have never seen a border crossing so bad in my life. Luckily for us, we got to go through the special VIP section or I might still be standing in line to cross the border). Our cottage was the perfect wilderness escape. We enjoyed some grilled chicken for dinner and had a nice early b-day celebration for me (as someone--I won't name names, Steve-- convinced us to eat the cake we were able to buy in S. Africa a day early) on Friday. Then we went star gazing. The night sky was absolutely amazing. You could see a million stars, the milky way, and shooting stars. I made some wishes on those shooting stars, so we will see what happens. :-)

We got up early on Saturday to get to the park before sunrise. There were still over 50 cars ahead of us waiting to get into the gate when we got there. After about an hour and half wait, we were finally free to drive around the park in our little VW. I suggested that we take one of the dirt roads inside the gate and it turned out to be one of my better decisions. About 5 minutes into the drive, we literally ran into a herd of buffalo crossing the road. There had to be at least 200 of them in the herd. We watched them for about 20 minutes before the road was cleared for us to pass.

Then we went on and saw almost everything imaginable, except for the lions and other big cats--they are harder to find and see. My b-day wish to see lots of animals, especially giraffe (my fav) came true. They say a picture says a thousand words, so I will just post some here without much narrative. I will be uploading more to shutterfly in the next couple of days, which you can access by the link to the side of this webpage. The bird pictures are for my mom and friend Jenn--who is one of my few friends who actually took the time to sign up to follow my blog. :-) And yes, this is a big hint to try to get more of you to become one of my blog followers.

After a day of seeing all sorts of animals, we went back to our cottage that backs up against Kruger. We decided to walk down to the park border (only like a 5 minute walk) to see if we could see any animals. To our luck (and astonishment), we were able to witness a herd of about 30 elephants very close up. It was amazing and the highlight of the day. There were even baby elephants. Sooo cute, but also a bit scary to be that close.

Sunday, we did a game drive in an open safari vehicle. Not even a flat tire on one of our vehicles could stop us from seeing more wildlife. It was a bit cold, so the animals were a little scarcer, but we got some close up pictures of zebras. We were able to hear the lions, but still no sightings. We missed them by only 5 minutes.

Then it was back to Maputo to get ready for another week of work.

All things considered, this was probably one of my best b-days ever. Still miss celebrating with everyone back home, but if I had to be away-- this really couldn't have been beat.

P.S. I hope everyone enjoys the pictures, because they took me a ridiculously long time to upload tonight for some reason.

No wonder they transport you to S.Africa for medical care....

2009-07-16T13:10:00.005-04:00

Saturday, July 11, 2009

So onto Saturday. My day started with walking into a conversation of how Satan is trying to interfere with the good work everyone is doing…just like he always does when he is losing control of a situation.

After quickly skirting this conversation, I was off to visit the nursery, where there are 4 babies…all of who arrived at the orphanage is very bad shape. I enjoyed playing with these babies. One little girl had a very odd cylindrical protrusion coming out of her stomach. At first, I have to admit that it alarmed me and made me not want to play with her. I have no idea what this was from, but she was very alert and she was interactive with us….probably the most alert of all of them. They also have a baby that is only a couple of months old. We couldn't play with her. I guess her mother died during birth and her dad dropped her off at the orphanage because he couldn't take care of her. He does come to visit and they hope to have her living with him at some point.

Then I took a break before we headed out on the chappa to go to the hospital in Maputo (the main hospital for all of Mozambique). The chappa is an experience in itself. They are these tiny buses (actually more the size of a big van) that get packed to the point of people practically falling out of them. I will have to take a picture of one soon and post it. We were packed in pretty tightly and uncomfortably for a bit of the ride. And yes, I am very aware that it is a big no no to take these chappas, according to the security officers at the US Embassy. But it was actually not that bad...and after some of the people cleared out, I eventually was able to get a seat and feel asleep! I am just like a baby..if I am in any automobile and not driving (hopefully), I am out cold. You can't beat a 45 minute bus ride for a mere $0.20 US.

The mission was to spread the word of Jesus and it appeared to convert all of the patients to Christianity. I just went to do some internal prayer for the sick and to see what the main hospital here looked like. The hospital is about 60 years behind the US. Not much there and I didn’t see any staff/nurses. We went to the derm ward. The sick looked very depressed and sad. The patients were sleeping on extremely basic beds with nothing else in the rooms. It really did look like what I envision a mental ward looking like in the 60's in the US. I was touched by “james.” He did believe in God and was a very nice, happy man, though sick. I told him I would pray for him and he seemed happy by this. When we prayed for him, he began to cry! Now, why James was lying in his hospital bed in a suit, I cannot explain. I found it odd that everyone had appeared to have been staying there awhile, but no one was in any sort of hospital garb. Christine had a less than pleasurable experience in the bathroom, but no need to recount that episode. ..unless of course she would like to share it during an IETA workshop next year. :-) I left thinking that we really have it good in the US. Hospitals are always a depressing thing, but ours look like a stay at the Hilton in comparison. I really hope that everyone that we met has someone who comes and visits them on a daily basis and that they all get better soon. I also left there thinking now I know why all of my paper work said that medical care was non-existent in Mozambique....if health issues arise, you will be transported to S. Africa or another country with adequate facilities. Being part of the DOD system, I am hoping they will transport me to Germany if something happens.

As I am sitting here writing, my colleague is having a lovely conversation with a woman from Australia about hearing God speak to her and telling her to go help poor people. I guess I am just too cynical to believe God has the time to specifically talk to me.

So I have realized that this is probably the biggest difference between myself and some of the other volunteers here. (I have not told any of them I am Catholic, though everyone is asking me what church I go to back home). The majority of Catholics aren’t about converting everyone to Catholicism. The orphanage and its volunteers (who come from all over the world, mostly through church activities) are very into trying to get everyone to “see the light” and spreading Jesus’s message. I guess it is good that someone is spreading a message of goodwill and the orphanage does a lot of amazing work for these kids. To see it in action, is really quite remarkable. I just am more of the mindset of helping your neighbor, no matter what religion they are. I can admit that the people that have dedicated themselves to this work are far better than me and you would have to have an extreme faith to be able to deal with this every day or even for a week.

We have a service in the morning and then are headed back to Maputo afterwards. I need a break and am all “Jesus-ed out.” Hopefully, God won’t strike me down with lightining for saying that. Now, if that isn’t the perfect example of Catholic guilt, I don’t know what is. I will leave this as my final example of how Catholics are different than other Christians…others luckily don’t seem to bare this guilt burden! :-)

PS: Sorry, for the religious thougths today…normally not like me…but considering the circumstances, probably understandable. Also, if I have offended anyone, my sincerest apologies.

The Weekend at the Orphanage

2009-07-15T14:36:00.009-04:00

I am a little behind on posting about my activities this past weekend and week. I figured before another weekend was upon us, I better update this thing.

Before I start, I want to direct you all to one of my followers, Steve (lower right hand side of my blog). Steve is also in Mozambique with IETA. You may want to check out his blog because he has more pictures posted (some of me which are sooo bad that they are quite comical!).

I wrote in a paper journal this weekend and am just going to transcribe my thoughts from the weekend to this blog.

Friday, July 10, 2009
As if my week wasn't depressing already, I ventured off on Friday to spend the weekend at an orphanage. (This is the same orphanage that we made a brief visit to a couple of weeks ago). Now, in hindsight, probably not one of my better decisions…but I thought staying home being idle wasn’t a good thing either. Sometimes when you are down, it helps to feel better by doing something for someone else. I could have gone to an MJ tribute on Friday with the majority of the local staff that I work with, but figured I this was my only chance to go and stay at an orphanage in Africa. The ride to the orphanage was about 30-60 minutes outside of the city, depending on the traffic. You drive through all of the neighborhoods that you picture in your head when you think of Africa. I have no pictures….it doesn’t seem right taking pictures of people who live in extreme poverty…just to bring them back to the states for people to be apalled at them. Plus, these pictures will be engrained in my brain forever...no need to put them in my scrapbook.

Now, I should also mention the orphanage is run by a faith based organization…which again, I didn’t think that much about this. As the weekend went on, I realized..hmmm..Catholics really are a bit different than other Christians. You will see what I mean as you read on. (Yes, Mark A., I can hear you saying, I told you so!)

We arrived in time for dinner. The volunteers can eat with the kids, which we chose to do. Well, it was a special day on Friday...the kids got a whole fried fish each. It was like it was Christmas Day. They were so happy. Normally, they just get a plate of rice, with a little sort of some vegetable/gravy topping. (When I say plate of rice, I mean a PLATE of rice). Of course, I am sitting there thinking how am I going to get rid of this fish without wasting it....we all know the site of the fish eyes staring at me on my plate will freak me out. Well, I don't know what got over me, but I started to pick at the fish and began to eat it. I did have to draw the line at eating the head, though. No matter how bad I felt for throwing that fish head away while these poor kids needed food, there was no way I could eat it. I do regret not having my camera with me at dinner. I would have got some awesome pictures of the kids trying to see who had the biggest fish.

Afterwards, we went to a youth celebration in back in Maputo via some chartered buses. I did enjoy the music, singing, and dancing that the youth were participating in. It was amazing to see such young kids so excited about their faith. There were a cute group of kids with shirts that said, “Jesus ama Me,” who were adorable.

The sermon was a bit of sensory overload for me, though. There was a loud, theatrical Brazilian preacher and then an English translator. The problem was that the preacher kept yelling over the translator. I believe the only thing that I heard and remember him saying is, "when a woman says no, she really means yes." Hmmmm....probably NOT what you should say to a room filled with mostly teenage boys. I really really hope something got lost in that translation. I really wanted some peace and internal reflection after the news I heardthe day before, so this sermon was just too much for me. Catholics, unlike a lot of other Christians it would seem, are more about internal prayer and reflection. This is what I grew up with and I have never been into priests/preachers/whatever yelling at me. To each his own when it comes to religion, as I always say. The sermon just wasn’t what I needed right now. I guess when you are upset, you find comfort in the things you know and are familiar with. Under different circumstances, I am sure my experience may have been different and I may have been more opened to listening to this sermon..though no matter what religion, the preacher would have lost me with the, "When a woman says no.....

After dinner, we went back to the orphanage and the room we are sharing with 5 other volunteers. Rooms are quite "lovely." We each get a spot on a bunk covered by a bednet. And of course, nothing beats the communal showers/toilets. I like how they have cold and hot showers. I guess in the summer here, people actually use the cold water only showers. I am only kidding..it isn't that bad and I don't mind "roughing" it for a couple of nights.

I signed up to volunteer at the newborn house tomorrow morning and to visit the main hospital in Maputo during the afternoon. I believe it is going to be an emotionally draining day.

A little clip from the youth celebration:

With the good comes the bad, the very bad

2009-07-12T12:21:00.006-04:00

Friday, July 10, 2009.

Well, it has been a week of ups and downs.

My colleague Chrsitine and I moved into a great house this week. I will start with the good…as you should always start with good news, right? We are house sitting for a colleague and her family who are back in the US for home leave. We have two lovely dogs

Luna aka attention hogger

Lobo aka Sheila’s Favorite

We will be here until the first week of August. The house is huge and is soooo much better than the hotel. The dogs have been great company for me because my week had taken a bad turn.

Unfortunately, the same day I was moving, I got an email that morning from a friend back home that was titled, “sad news.” Well, that can never be good, but I still opened it while sitting in my cubicle at work. (This is one of those times when you realize how nice it is to have your own office—too bad here I don’t). I definitely was not expecting the news that I did receive and quickly learned how it really feels to live oversees. The feeling of being so far away when you get bad news is not a good feeling. I don’t know how people cope with this part of oversees work. You feeI totally helpless. I won’t go into the details but I got news that a friend had passed away suddenly. My heart goes out to everyone in the Ballston 'hood that are going to have a rough time in the coming days, weeks , and months.

I nixed happy hour plans last night and stayed home with the dogs. Lobo gets very sad when his family leaves, so we were good company for each other.

Tomorrow, I may be off to volunteer at an oprhanage. Still debating on whether I am up for it or not.

Prettiest Moon ever

2009-07-12T12:19:00.002-04:00

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

On our way to a colleague's house for dinner tonight, we got to see the prettiest scenery of a full moon over the ocean. It really was breathtaking. Too bad my camera skills were not good enough to capture it.

More pictures

2009-07-06T11:05:00.009-04:00

Pictures from our visit to the orphanage with the US Embassy crew.

4th of July Weekend

2009-07-05T09:38:00.006-04:00

Well, there were no fireworks for me this year, but I still managed to celebrate the US Independence Day.

Our weekend started early with an event at the US Amabassador's residence on Thursday. The house was very nice, but no one is living there right now because there is no US Ambassador to Mozambique right now. We joked that we would house sit until they get a new one. (I'll try anything to get out of staying at the hotel for 3 months). There were many dignitaries, Ambassadors from other countries, and apparently a drunk Chris Matthews (aka Hardball fame) in attendance. Now, I should cut Chris Matthews some slack as I didn't come across him until the end of the event, but it did look like he may have had one too many for the early afternoon hour. At one point during the event, I ended up talking to about 6 ambassadors from different African countries. I felt very low on the totem pole and wondered how I managed to get myself into this situation. They were all very nice to me, though. I also got to meet a lot of other US citizens who are working here for either the Embassy, CDC, PEPFAR, or USAID. All in all, an enjoyable afternoon. I didn't take any pictures, because I figured it was probably not appropriate.

There was also the official pomp and circumstance...but I couldn't understand most of it, as it was in Portugese. They even handed out books/pamphlets about Barack Obama. They had a book of Obama's words (someone took the last one as I was debating on whether I was allowed to take it or not) and I thought how different this is than the books on Bushisms that were published during the previous administration. Though the Bushisms always made me laugh, it is so nice to actually have a president that can speak intelligently and isn't laughed at other parts of the world.

Friday, was a day off for us. I ventured to the market in town, which was a bit overwhelming. The guidebook was not wrong when it said you can find everything there. I opted to stay with the produce and bread, but you could get hair products, toiletries, wigs, souveniers, etc. I wish I could have taken more pics, but I don't think it would have gone over well with some of the vendors. Also, my pictures do not portray the amount of vendors or the crowdiness (sp??) of the market. My pics were from the front end of the market where the vendors were more spread out.

We walked back to my hotel with a stop at a Thai restuarant. Along the way, we noticed lots of little crowds forming in various places--one on a street corner, women trying to get into stores--but we had no idea why. The city was definitely bustling since it was not a Mozambican holiday and just a normal work day for everyone but us.

Saturday (the 4th), I woke up to rain...the first time since I got here. It cleared up, though, before our cookout/picnic started. The Embassy hosted the event at a gated community, where many US employees live. There was BBQ chicken, "American" music , and games. The Marines sold drinks. There was even a hard core game of volleyball, but we decided to stick with the
croquet and ping pong.

As we were leaving and starting to walk back to my hotel, the rain came and we were kind of stuck under a tree trying (but not succeeding) to not get wet. Thank goodness a lovely CDC employee picked us up and saved us from getting completely drenched.

Today, I decided to take it easy. I tried to find the nearest Catholic Church...and not sure if I found it or not. I thought it would be interesting to see a mass over here, even though I would not understand anything. The hotel wasn't good at giving me the times for the services, so I figured I would guess and think there had to be one around 11, right? Well, I found the church and it appeared the service from 9 am (the last one of the morning) was still going on at 1045..clearly this is not the US Catholic Church. Also, I had no idea from the name on the sign if it was even a Catholic Church or not. They did appear to be singing hymns, so I will try again next weekend.

Then I ventured off to the GAME. What is GAME, you ask. No, it is not some sort of sporting complex. It is the MZ version of Wal-Mart or Target, but not as big and doesn't have as much stuff--no clothes or anything like that. I was able to stock up on Coco Cola Light, so I was happy.

After a cab ride home with my goodies, I walked to Cafe Sol and had a chicken burrito for lunch.

On the way back, I figured it was time to attempt to buy something from the street vendors that sit outside my hotel. I was trying to polish my bargaining skills in my head, but not sure how well I did..since the guy took the first counter-offer that I gave him for what I ended up buying.

I walked a ton today and now my feet are needing a little rest. So, I am stting by the hotel pool looking out at the ocean and watching a big ship sail slowly by (oddly close to the shore) as I type this. It is a bit chilly, so I am very glad I brought by zip hoodie and some comfy warm pants. I think I will rest here until the sun goes down.

Oprhanage Visit 6/29/09

2009-07-01T15:05:00.002-04:00

The Embassy arranged a visit to an orphanage in Maputo for anyone in the "US Mission" that wanted to go. We dropped off donations from the US government community. I do not have any pictures, but hope to have some soon. A colleague was able to take some pictures, which was nice and I hope to get copies of them at some point. The oprhanage was a lot bigger than I expected. It housed 300 kids and had a school that was respsonsible for teaching 600 kids. Most of the orphans were boys (250 boys to 50 girls). I found this surprising, but they say the reason is because the girls can be of use for domestic work, etc. Therefore, families are less likely to disgard girls. When you think of an orphanage, you normally think of a sad situation. Don't get me wrong, the living quarters were very minimal for these kids and it is a sad situation. However, you realize that they are better taken care of in the orphanage than they would be anywhere else in Mozambique because of the extreme poverty. This orphanage also tries to match the children back up with a family member (pretty amazing). Adoption isn't common here and the government will only let residents of MZ adopt the children. We were given a personal tour by the current head of the orphanage. We also got to visit with some of the kids, who clearly did not want us to leave. A few of the little girls enjoyed playing with my sunglasses. I felt very bad just going for a few minutes, because the kids were very upset when we left.

I left there thinking that there are some really amazing people in this world, who really just live to help other people. They are too few and far between, but they are responsible for making huge differences in this world. It inspired me and also made me realize how little most of us do on a daily basis to help our less fortunate neighbor.

Here is the website for the orphanage: www.irismin.org. It is a faith based orphanage and operates purely on donations. They can always use donations of money, items, etc.

Weekend Continued

2009-07-01T14:50:00.002-04:00

Sunday, I went to the National Museum Art and the Natural History Museum in Maputo. The art in the museum was very dark and everyone in the paintings looked very tortured. We determined that a lof of it was from the civil war era of Mozambique, which is fairly recent. It made me realize how lucky we are in the US that we have been immune to such war and torture for almost two centuries. I am not sure how to explain the Natural History Museum, except to say that another name for it could be the National Taxidermy Museum. There were lots of dead stuffed animals. There was a small exhibit that had all different kinds of sea shells collected in Mozambique. I decided to spend the most time looking at these. I was afraid the mixture of my malaria medication and dead stuffed animals would lead to some crazy nightmares. They had an exhibit of elephant embryos that were preserved in formaldelhyde. I could explain why they had this, but it would take up too much space in my blog.

Then we went ate some prawns...Mozambique is famous for these and other seafood. My prawns came with the heads on. And yes, I still ate them and got rid of the heads all by myself. Steve even has a picture for anyone who won't quite believe that I was able to handle this. I guess when in Mozambique, do as the locals. However, when I return to the US, I may still need a good friend to cut the heads off of any shrimp for me. (You know who you are!)

Then finally, we finished out the weekend at a local pizza/pub watching the US lose to Brazil in the finals of the Confederate Cup. It is amazing how popular soccer (or futbol or whatever you want to call it) is here with all of the US folks. I guess it is one of those sports that is easier to follow oversees than in the US.

First Full Maputo Weekend: MJ, Inhaca, soccer, etc.

2009-06-30T13:06:00.011-04:00

Before I start with my ramblings about the weekend, I have to say today is the first day that I woke up and saw any clouds in the sky. They weren't even storm clouds, just normal puffy white clouds. Since I have gotten here, I haven't really seen any clouds before today. The wind can be a bit nasty and very strong, but it is usually always sunny and clear.

Well, I have managed to keep busy, which is good for me. Everyone knows that I don't like to be a home-body. Friday was a short day at the office. Went out to dinner and what were they playing on the TV...yes, a tribute to Michael Jackson with all of his videos. Can't get away from him, even all the way down here.

Saturday, I took the ferry over to Inhaca Island, which is off the coast of Maputo. The ferry ride was a bit interesting. First, there appears to be two ferries that go to the same place. One that only appears to take locals for about a dollar and another ferry that clearly takes all of the visitors which costs $50 US for a round trip. They say the local ferry can have problems and doesn't have regular safety checks, but I have my doubts that these things account for the difference in price. It made it in about the same time as ours. Plus, there didn't appear to be any more concern for safety on our boat. We were joking with a family traveling from India and the UK about how there was no safety briefing and that we had no idea if there were lifevests or boats on board. We also had to take smaller boats from the big boat to get to the shore. Usually not a problem, but it was quite the site to see and witness. (Reminded me a bit of our Galapagos experience with the "Chaos on the dingy!")

Thanks to our new friend Quintess, a fellow traveler on our boat from S. Africa, a local boy (Noah--something tells me that was not his real name) walked us around the village on the Island. I kind of new we were in for a scam when the local boy kept walking us in a circle trying to find a taxi. (If you saw the place, you would know taxis don't really exist here). Then he took us to a man that was going to charge us 40 US dollars to get a ride to the marine museum. (Cabs in Maputo are only about $6 US). Since we were low on cash and time (we only had a few hours on the Island), I opted out. It was still interesting to walk through the village, though. Got to buy my coconut from the village market place. And what did we hear blasting through the village...yes, more Michael Jackson. Even in this remote place, where it didn't look like people had electricity or running water, they could still play MJ music and knew who he was. We also got to witness a wedding celebration for a couple in the village. They road through town with everyone following them singing and dancing. We actually saw the wedding cakes being loaded onto the ferry with the locals in Maputo and wondered what the cakes were for. Here are some pictures of the village:

Here are some pictures of the beach and coastline. As you can tell, it is a very beautiful place and I was fascinated with all of the wooden boats.

By far the best part of the day was riding back on the front of the boat and witnessing the sunset over Maputo. I really felt like I could stay and watch it for hours, but the sun sets so quickly here this time of the year.

To be continued...

Pictures from Maputo

2009-06-26T10:36:00.014-04:00

Pictures from walking tour of the city. As you can tell, the downtown of Maputo is small. The big building in the first picture is the tallest building in the city. Some pictures are from a small fort in the middle of the city. It is now a memorial to various people and wars. We came across it as they were setting up for some sort of program for the Mozambican Independence Day. There are many streets named after notorious dictators. You don't see this often! We spent some time at the train station, which isn't used often anymore. It had the feel of something from long ago. The Cathedral is deemed "the ugliest buidling" in the city. I didn't think it was ugly, but apparently its past is ugly. Women who were not virgins were forced to labor in the construction as their punishment. We didn't go inside, because a priest was standing outside and we thought that meant service was either starting or just ending. The thing you cannot miss when walking around the city is the trash and broken glass bottles everywhere. Also, the roads and sidewalks are difficult to maneuver and are in need of repair. I tripped numerous times and not just due to my normal clumsiness. You can click on each picture to see a larger version.

First Week Ramblings

2009-06-26T09:25:00.004-04:00

Had a great day yesterday. Got out to walk the city with my colleague, Christine. Christine is in charge of the IETA program in Atlanta and is here until August. It was warm and by the time we sat down to eat lunch, we were parched and hungry. I am going to estimate we walked about 4 miles. We both have noticed it is very dry here and causes you to drink so much water you wish you were a camal. Met a young man from Kansas, who is helping in an orphanage here, on the middle of a street in Maputo. Christine and I were trying to figure out where we were and he realized we were from the US. I love how people are like..don't look like a tourist or an American. Yeah, I really don't think that is possible in this situation.

Then we went over to a colleague's house, where our other IETA colleague Steve showed off his pizza making skills (complete with dough flipping) and made some delicious home made pizzas for us. We ate outside on the patio. (Don't worry, very safe. You have walls around the houses and a guard for each home occupied by a US government employee). Nothing like an all American meal and good company to make you feel at home. :-)

Came back to my hotel and starting watching the coverage of Farrah Fawcett's death. Then stayed up watching the news on the death of Michael Jackson. Even though he was an odd and scary man in his latter years, I do associate his music with my growing up (I was part of the first generation that grew up with videos and MTV) and couldn't turn off the news last night. I don't think I went to sleep until after 130 am my time. Had a short day in the office today (thank goodness). Then ventured off to the Shoprite all alone (if you don't count my taxi driver) and got some snacks/fruit/drinks. I also got some peanut butter and jam, but the jam is a bit scary. It is in a can and I am guessing it is kind of like the cranberry sauce in a can. Also realized that jelly here actually means jell-o. You have to drive through the really poor area of Maputo to get to the Shoprite. The streets are dirt and hard to pass. The Shoprite has all the normal basic things (meat, veggies,fruits, drinks) as other grocery stores, just not as many things or varieties of things. (Someone please mail me some good food ASAP!)

Little cooler today and very breezy and the ocean looks very rough. Getting the start of a sore throat and hoping this is not the start of a more serious infection/cold. It is hard not to get paranoid here when you know you are coming down with something.

Hoping to get out to a real restuarant tonight for dinner.

Next post will be just pictures I have taken this week.

The Beginning

2009-06-25T02:24:00.003-04:00

Bom Dia,

Good Day everyone! I decided it might be easier to keep in touch and tell everyone what I am up to here in Mozambique this way.

Well I have been here since Sunday. The flight was uneventful (except for my crying while watching Marley and Me), but long (14 hours from JFK to JoBurg). I have begun to believe that economy seating is a new form of torture. I met some nice people on the plane, who were going to Africa to do some sort of relief type work. I met a grad student from MD. It was her first trip out of the country and she was going to Malawi. What a place to go for her first venture out of the US. The people that I met helped me to feel a little better about my decision. I was definitely not wanting to leave on Friday evening and Saturday morning when I got to the airport. I was thinking...why in the world am I doing this. I must be crazy. Of course, I was up all night on Friday packing (the Myers-Briggs P in me), so I am sure the lack of sleep was not helping my mood.

I arrived in Maputo, Mozambique Sunday afternoon. (Maputo is the capital of the country). I almost got taken by some over zealous taxi drivers at the airport, when I was saved by my CDC driver who was running a little late. I was so tired and not thinking clearly. I was also the last one to get through immigration and figured he had left me! Of course, they would not do this. Luckily, he got rid of the other drivers, got my bags for me, and took me to my hotel. Driving into the city, you definitely see the poverty right away. There were kids playing in the mud of a road being constructed with big plows working away right around them. It was almost like it was their beach and they were building sandcastles. My hotel is pretty nice, but it is definitely not the true "Maputo" experience. It is very toursity and a lot of international people stay here. I may get moved, but that will be a story for another entry.

The weather is amazing. It is in the 80s, sunny, breezy, and no humidity (my hair is loving this!). The views are absolutely beautiful. The city sits on the Indian Ocean. The downfall is that since it is technically winter, the days are short. It is getting dark by the time we get out of work at 515 pm. It is not safe to walk around alone or at night, so figuring out logistics on how to get to the store, etc., have been challenging. Also, I am still catching up on the lack of sleep from Friday-Sunday. I am off today for the Mozambican Independence day and will hopefully get my bearings around the city. You have to get drivers to take you most places and stores are definitely not common. I am starting to regret my decision to ditch a ton of stuff at home, because my bags were too heavy. Also, it didn't do me much good, both of my checked bags were still overweight. FYI: United charges ABSURD fees for this.

I am off to walk around the city with one of the girls that is here with me. She is in charge of the CDC IETA program in Atlanta and decided to take an assignment to see what we all go through. IETA is a training program for DHHS employees (mainly CDC, but they let some of us misfits in from other agencies) aimed at preparing people for more permanent over sees assignments and/or more short term stays, as needed. I am also here with one of my fellow IETA participants, who is a division director in Atlanta. This has been helping with my transition. Also, everyone in the office has been very nice. Various people assigned here on a more permanent basis have had us over for dinner three nights this week and everyone has been extremely welcoming. (I will write more about all of this and work later).