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.