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. :-(
More very cool pics. What a neat "hotel", if that is what you call it.
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