I'm coming home....

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!

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

A picture is worth a 1000 words....

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

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

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.

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

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....

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

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. :-(