Home | Mozambique | Maputo

So, in case you live in a cave (and I hope its comfy you techno-fearing luddite),
here's a bit of news f or you. This just in: Blogs are becoming more and more
popular. (And you thought they would just go away. D'oh!). Did any of you see
the link I posted to the Blogs Of
War site? (Did'ja click on it?). It has some really interesting material
they have collected (everything, so they claim) about the war in Iraq and has
tons and tons of comments from both the far right and far left wings of... just
about everything you can imagine. (including links to marines in Iraq who are
keeping blogs). Also, on a more local note, Jamy & I have begun to discover
that there are a few other ex-pat bloggers here in Mozambique. For example,
there is a Peace Corps Volunteer by the name of John
Dutton, that is blogging his whole experience up in Chokwe, Mozambique.
After reading his blog, Jamy & I contacted John and asked if we could come
and visit him and his site, sit-in on some of the classes he teaches and ask
a few questions of his students about their views on AIDS to help further Jamy's
project. He responded with a resounding yes! (John is in a unique 'blogging
situation', as he doesn't really have Internet access at his site and is having
someone else maintain his blog for him... But his blog is great and his experiences
really worth while reading). So, as we sat in our apartment making plans to
go visit this digital stranger, John in Chokwe, that got me thinking: if John
Dutton has this great blog that enabled us to find him and visit him... perhaps
there are others out here in Mozambique that are also keeping blogs. (If you
haven't clicked on any links yet: The community
chest (aka blogster, aka dungeon master) says - You must return to the top of
the page and re-read it. You do not pass go. You do not collect 200,000 metticais.
BTW, what's up with the exchange rate? I'm losing my shirt on Ventnor Avinida.

Blogs, blogs, blogs. And indeed, there are a lot of them out there... out here,
I guess. After a little searching, I quickly stumbled upon the blog of Cameron
in Mozambique. After reading through a good portion of his experiences I
realized he might very well be right here in Maputo. So, I shot him a quick
email about how I found his blog, and he returned an email back to me and asked
if I would like to come to his party on Saturday night. Isn't this too cool?
Friends meeting up, not just via the Internet, but via blogs! So, go to the
party we did. (Writing like Yoda,
I am). Jamy and myself, as well as some new friends of ours, Sara, Jakob &
Fatima all went to Cameron's party. It was a blast. He lives in a huge flat
just a few blocks away and was throwing a belated birthday party for his younger
brother who was visiting from Cameron's hometown of Glasgow, Scotland. There
were probably about 70 people there (and a DJ pumping out the tunes), mostly
Mozambicans eating cake and dancing. It was just what the doctor ordered. Sara,
Jakob & Fatima are very new in town and were eager to meet & greet some
local people and practice their Portuguese. But be careful what you wish for...
as Fatima quickly picked up her very first SMS Stalker...(after being here only
a week! Oh, the price of beauty). So considering we didn't get to the party
till midnight, it should be no shock that we stayed there way tooooo late. But
Cameron is a great guy who is doing some really interesting computer work here
in town. We didn't have a chance to "geek out" at the party and talk
about what we do... but we made plans to hookup for a beer in a few weeks when
we get done with all our many upcoming travels.

So the next week I finished up a huge flash project I was working on. (Click
here to view it, but be warned it's 12MB and was designed to be run from
a CD, NOT the we. However I figured with your big American bandwidth a few of
you might want to invest the time and take a look). It is by far the biggest
flash project I have ever undertaken. And it took me way longer to finish than
I had anticipated. But the client was paying good money and fortunately for
me, everything here runs on Mozambique-time, so I had the extra days I needed
to finish the project before the big meeting. And with a clear desk (er, I mean
closet door resting on suitcases and water jugs) and a clear conscience and
we were off...

To Chokwe & Beyond: Bright and early Wednesday Sept. 9th
Jamy and I rented a Toyota Taz from Imperial Rent-A-Car, borrowed an atlas from
Rob & Macha, made some sandwiches and drove off into the unknown. Sure we
have driven thousands of kilometers into South Africa, and hundreds of kilometers
into Swaziland and back... but this was our first endeavor into the heart of
Mozambique... and our first road trip alone (as foreigners who are barely able
to speak the language). But the trip was really quite easy. It only took us
about 2 hours to get to Chokwe, 30 minutes to drive past the tiny little town
we didn't even see and another 20 minutes or so to drive around that village
looking for the main street where our hotel was located.

After familiarizing ourselves with Chokwe's lesser traveled ruas, we found
our hotel and sent John an SMS message announcing our arrival. We sat down at
a café, ordered beers, and people-watched. Then we noticed WE were being
watched, intently, by a young boy sitting on a bench next to us could not take
his eyes off of us. We weren’t sure what his deal was, but it started
to creep us out. He had an angry sort of look and his eyes never seemed to blink.
Then we had a long staring contest. Then, we got the idea that maybe he was
hungry. We ordered a sandwich and gave it to him and he was the happiest boy
in the whole world right then. His sad, angry look melted away as he gobbled
up his grilled cheese. We sort of adopted this boy for the rest of our time
in Chokwe, feeding him every chance we got. Anywho, after a while at the café,
we spotted a fellow gringo walking down the street, and knew this could only
be John so we introduced ourselves. After some small talk we headed down the
street to go and view his place where he lives with another Peace Corps Volunteer
(PCV), named Nanosh.

[image1_left]

We hung-out with John and Nanosh for a while and grilled them about what they
do in Chokwe. Nanosh made us some real coffee (none of that instant stuff for
their guests) and we sat and talked about life in Chokwe. John teaches
Biology and Chemistry at a large secondary school in town. Nanosh teaches English
at a smaller agricultural secondary school in town. John is almost done with
his service, but Nanosh still has a year to go.

We took a nice tour of their place and made plans for the next day. After that
we went out to eat in one of the town's half-dozen restaurants. The food was
good. The wine was flowing and fortunately for us, the horrible band that always
plays at the restaurant (john & Nanosh told us all about them) were taking
the night off. So we got to eat in peace and talk more about the situations
facing people living in this region of the Gaza Province of Mozambique.

Thursday morning we woke up and went to school. Sitting in on John's classes
was quite an experience. (It's been a long time since I had a biology refresher
course, and my first class ever in Portuguese… Jamy already told you about
how
I didn't bring pen or paper to my last Portuguese class). It’s also
been a long time since I felt like a superstar (ok, not since I
got to play guitar with Chico's band) and to our surprise, John’s
students hollered and cheered when we entered the classroom. Later, when we
went to Nanosh’s school the students failed to cheer (to our disspointment)
and it didn’t help that Nanosh introduced me as the President Of the U.S.
and Jamy the First Lady. Anyhow, John’s classes are packed to the brim
with students. Upwards of 70 students per class. And due to all the cement (if
you’re from Texas, like Jamy, you’ll consistently pronounce this
word with the emphasis on SEA, like SEAman, and people will look at you funny
every time) the sound in the classrooms is pretty bad. But to his credit, John
is a master at commanding respect and keeping the students quiet and attentive.
Apparently John has not only learned Portuguese... he has also learned a little
Shangon (one of the many Bantu language dialects that Mozambicans still speak
in rural villages. While he will tell you he only knows very few phrases, his
students on the other hand will tell you he speaks very well. They are obviously
very impressed with him and very happy that he is learning "their"
language and that is their teacher. The kids are very eager to learn and put
John to the test on a daily basis.

After class John had us sit in the front of the room and take questions. The
first question was “how old are you?” when it registered that Jamy
was indeed 5 years older than moi, there was a hush and a giggle. "BUT
WHY??" One boy even said “that would never happen here!” It
was funny. Just to make English conversation, one boy asked Jamy what her Mother’s
name was, which was cute and random. One girl asked about my earrings, her friend
whispered to me later “she thinks your cute, why don’t you give
her a little kiss?” Which is also cute, but it's not at all uncommon for
Mozambican people here to seriously suggest Jamy & I have other boyfriends
& girlfriends. But in a country that is debating a policy shift towards
Polygamy, what can you expect?

[image2_right]

After lunch we were able to meet with the student activists that are a part
of a program called "Escola Sem SIDA" (School without AIDS). The activists
are voted into positions and meet on a weekly basis to discuss problems &
solutions and develop dramatic skits and themed dances to help spread the message
throughout their community. Here is where I would tell you all about the things
we discussed with them... but that's Jamy's job and you're just going to have
to wait for the book to hit the shelves.

I can however, share with you all this little anecdote: While talking to the
kids outside after school, we huddled together under the nearest tree for some
shade. We all took seats on SEAment blocks and started to talk seriously about
the problems these kids face... However, unbeknownst to us, the cement blocks
we were sitting on were covered with tiny
little marching ants. I don't want to go into specifics... but imagine trying
to talk about very important issues that concern health, life & death, such
SIDA, with a bunch of ants crawling around in your pants! IT wasn’t pretty.
But it was pretty funny.

On Friday we went to visit Nanosh's school. What a different world it is one
the other side of Chokwe. The school is a fraction of the size of John's and
the classes only have about 15 to 25 students. And like I said before we weren’t
superstars. The school where Nanosh teaches is an agricultural school. So while
the student body is not nearly as large as the normal secondary school, it is
far more diverse, as people travel from all over Mozambique for the opportunity
to study agriculture.

[image3_left]

After class Nanosh took us to a friend's house. A guy from Zimbabwe, named
Kingston who has been living in Chokwe for the last 2 years or so. As most of
you know, Zimbabwe is having a lot of problems right now and many of its people
are emigrating to other countries... So, Kingston, his wife & their little
baby boy have allowed a friend of theirs to stay with them for a while. Onias
Mkoki is a Zimbabwean artist traveling through Mozambique. (Jamy offered
him a room in our place... so you might be hearing more about him in the coming
months). He invited us in to eat some chicken (they had just killed and cooked)
and look over his paintings. Jamy & I had already seen one of his pieces
at John & Nanosh's place and we really liked it. So after looking though
his work, there were 3 pieces we really wanted to buy. But we only had enough
money for two... it was a hard decision... but we think we made the right call.

But the whole buying a painting, tasting their chicken, and offering them
our home-thing took way longer than we had anticipated (that and waiting in
an hour-long "line" at the only bank in town... and all of a sudden
we were in a rush to get out of town and make it to Beline before the sun went
down. So we hopped back in the car and drove Nanosh back to his place. Jamy
went inside to say goodbye to John and I took the opportunity to snap a few
more photos of some kids playing in an old abandoned car in front of their house.

After a few shots of the kids, I decided to show some of them their photos
in the tiny little screen on the back of my digital-camera... and wham! The
kids went nuts! I'm not sure if they had ever seen their own photo before. This
one little kid was screaming so loudly I wasn't sure if he was happy or mad
about the fact that his likeness was not safely locked inside this little metal
box. But the smiles that ensued told all. They were as happy as happy could
be. And the blood curdling yells called every available kid in the neighborhood
to my side. Jamy, John & Nanosh also came outside to see what all the racket
was about, and there I was, the Pide-Piper of Chokwe, surrounded by over a dozen
screaming gleeful children. What can I say, kids like me.

[image4]

And with that as our send off, Jamy & I were then speeding down the road
to the coast. Chokwe is in the middle of the country next to a large river.
But since we were already further up north in Mozambique than we had ever been,
we decided to make the most of it and take a slight detour and swing by the
coastal resort village of Beline, rumored to have some of the most beautiful
beaches. Well, we didn't make it there before dark. The sun set on us when we
were only about halfway there. So that was a little scary. Fortunately we made
to Beline with no problems. The town is a resort town... but it is also very
small. We drove around and found a hotel near the beach and sat down to have
some seafood. Logastinos, Prawns, Calamari & Fish were on the menu that
night and Jamy & I ate it all. (That was when my parents finally got through
from Florida to let me know they had survived Frances and were attempting to
outrun Ivan). Run Forrest Run! Or was it Lola?

[image5]

The next day we woke and headed straight for the beach after a nice prawn omelet
at one of the newer resorts overlooking the water. Beline in the winter time
is a ghost town. We had the entire beach to ourselves. And Beline has a very
unique beach, it has a giant sandbar that protects its beaches from the rough
Indian Ocean waters. In fact, is a completely crystal clear and calm lagoon
with excellent pools for swimming. Well, we didn't go swimming... but we did
walk along the beach and get our feet wet. We stayed in the sun till we felt
a little crispy and then we piled back into the car and headed home to Maputo.

And that, my friends, is the Mozambican scoop.

So as some of you may not know, Jamy & I are headed to San Francisco this
Friday to go see Jamy's older sister Stacy get married. (yes they have their
own web site too! www.RichAndStacy.com) Sorry we won't be able to make it up
to DC or NYC to visit... but man we are already flying all over the globe just
to get from here to there... I could not even imagine making any more stops
than we already are. So, I guess we'll just catch you guys later! Hope you had
a great summer and always, thanks4playing.

PS: There are a ton of new photos in the M2A
Photo Gallery.

PPS: There are over a dozen new African, Portuguese & Brazilian songs on
the M2A
Juke Box.

PPPS: There are also 9 new videos of ferocious wild-animals we saw at Kruger
Park (which I daringly risked my life in order to film and post) in the M2A
Video Gallery. (More about the elaphant that almost ate our car later).

So, if you don't hear from us in a few weeks... you should have plenty of digital
hoopla to keep your prying eyes occupied while we are away. And if you just
can't wait that long, I'm sure I will be able to squeeze in a quick post from
San Fran or Florida where all those new 'free community wireless hotspots' that
are popping up.

Peace~Out

~ds & jkb

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