Sunday, November 26, 2006

3 weeks in...

Spent today and yesterday at the Southern Mozambique VSO conference. Lots of presentations about people’s work and exchanging of ideas, which was interesting and productive, but also quite long-winded discussions and reviews of bureaucracy etc. Was good to meet the longer-serving volunteers, many of whom have been here for 2 or more years - good anecdotes, insight and tips. Also good meal afterwards last night – first dose of traditional Mozambican food. Really liked some of it – coconutty spinachy stuff, cassava, crab, but some dubious dishes like gizzard or something – chicken throat anyway – and this white pasty concoction that’s a real staple across Africa I think. It’s made out of flour and water, maybe maize too? I don’t know but I remember someone saying it’s the same stuff we use to paste up wall-paper at home if that gives some indication.

Have had a good week – more Portuguese basically and some interesting sessions (and some hopeless ones). One lecturer came from a local university to talk about the history of Mozambique. He made some enlightening comments about the relationship between the country’s demography and political allegiances. The 2 main (only) parties are Frelimo and Renamo. Frelimo started out as a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary group, supported by communist states. It originally won independence in ‘75 and has been in power since. Renamo was a reactionary guerrilla group who fought against them during the ‘civil’ war (were funded by pro-capitalist states – Zimbabwe, South Africa, US) then became the opposition party following the war’s end in ‘92. In light of the recent history, they are viewed as bandits (continually sabotaged Mozambiques’ infrastructure etc during the war, it was a mess) by some sections of the population, largely southern and northern regions, and supported in the central region, which was their stronghold. Their electoral support has declined in every election though. They don’t have a clear ideology/set of policies and are badly organised and Frelimo is really strong. Having such a weak opposition could prove destabilising for Moz, which has made a remarkably swift and stable transition since the end of the war to a reasonably functional democracy. Frelimo just had their annual party conference and some prominent members were sacked, so it’s looking a bit dodgy… Watch this space eh!

Found a new wonder-market. It’s half open, half little tunnel sections, with great produce – good quality, variety and very cheap – and people chat to you, so I was able to have some more staccato pidgin-Portuguese exchanges They are unduly rewarding! Imagine actual ‘conversations’!

Work-wise - am learning more about the realities of working within Mozambican systems, both from emerging problems with some people’s paper-work (I seem to be ok so far…) and tales from older volunteers. As you might expect, processes are often lengthy and haphazard. Lots of institutionalised corruption.

Oh, have met several people from VETAID (actually a British organisation and functional!) including both my immediate boss and the country boss. I will be working with the local partner organisations (the people who are supposed to implement VETAID’s strategy) in Portuguese, which currently seems like a bit of an impossible task. But, I’m told by people it’s been done before and I will learn quickly!

The staff in my office in Chokwe are Mozambican, apart from one Rwandan and my boss there who’s Kenyan. I met him yesterday as he was at the conference representing VETAID. He was really nice and jolly, and his being English-speaking will be v helpful. He said he was currently organising me my accommodation – according to the ‘stipulations’ which VSO must have made on my behalf, including. security considerations like burglar bars on the windows (although don’t picture a jail – most houses have them here and they’re actually quite quaint white lattice affairs!) being in the centre of town (not that Chokwe is very big by all accounts) and… 2 – 3 bedrooms?! Not sure why I need that but at least there’ll be room for people to stay. So come! It seems that flats/houses don’t actually come with just 1 bedroom here anyway, they just don’t really exist.

I’m writing this on my laptop in my room. The cultural centre next door are having one of their parties and are currently blasting out Haddaway’s ‘What is Love’. It’s reminding me of a family holiday to turkey when I as about 13. As usual, the dogs are barking along at top volume. The dogs are so noisy here. Loads of people have guard dogs, but next door have 9! Yap yap yap… how excessive! I was ready to shoot them in my first week but have now mellowed into resignation.

Oh, meeting the VETAID people clarified xmas a bit for me. Don’t actually have that long off - 23rd Dec - 2nd Jan, so am looking into joining some of the other volunteers on my scheme by Lake Malawi and maybe going to Vic Falls for New Year/full moon party. Nothing’s organised yet though as I need to clarify details with them and look into travel arrangements. On that note, think I’ll do that now otherwise it’ll be chicken-for-one in Chokers!
It’s Sunday afternoon. Last night I went clubbing! Didn’t expect to do be doing that in my first couple of weeks in Mozambique but it was amazing fun and an interesting introduction to certain sectors of Maputo.

Tara and I went out with Katerina, our well-established, savvy Dutch flatmate. First we went to ‘Club Naval’ – the sailing club down by the port. It’s a rather swanky place with a pool and contained some of those people previously thought to be in marble compounds. There were Mozambicans too though – it was actually a rather more mixed bag than I’d anticipated from the exterior. They played Mylo and some other western stuff on a loud, crackly sound system with African music videos projected onto a wall. People gathered round the pool tables, where we sat and drank bottles of 2M beer (not the norm for me but it’s cheap and quite nice here) talking to Katerina’s kiting crew – they all kite-board at the weekend (all feeling quite Australian?!). They’re largely South-African, few Portuguese and couple Dutch. The South Africans were rocking the early 90s look which, back home, the Shoreditch fringe seemed to be reclaiming from the depths of uncool. I amused myself with the idea they’d been lapped and were now bizarrely hot to trot.

We then got picked up by her Mozambican friends and went on to Coconuts, Maputo’s one super-club. It’s one of those places with trees inside. We drank ciporhinis (sp??) and I attempted pidgin Portuguese – basically utterances made up of ‘I, you, we, go, here, there, good, dancing, bye’. One of them spoke good English though and was the total man about town – he got us access all areas and weaved through the bumping and grinding crowds hi-5ing and hugging people. It was literally Jonny in Dirty Dancing! (coconuts are nearly watermelons – haha, one for the girls)

There was a catwalk during the evening, which was kind of good and kind of strange! It started off with all these guys strutting up and down and whipping off Mr Mozambique shirts. They were exuding so much machismo it neared farce! I was thinking ohgod, wait for the women!! Then they came and were beautiful model-types in fabulous African-esque high fashion, which was a pleasant surprise! This live act then played ‘afro-funk’ music – bongos over big baselines and rapping on a reverberating mic. It was cool, very tribal.

Then, there was a power failure! The music stopped and the whole club plunged into darkness. After a collective ‘ooh!’ people got their mobiles out as lights, the bongo men struck up, someone started juggling on stage with luminous balls, and with much whooping everyone partied in the dark for a while. After about 15 minutes everything came on again in a fitting crescendo!

We alternated between the main club and the ‘Lounge’, this other bit that played poppy dance music, hip hop and Mozambican music (which I like, very ‘feel good!’) through the night. ‘Jonny’ gave us a lift home around 5.30 along the coast in bright sunshine with Rod Stewart blaring. People were washing cars etc – everyone gets up ridiculously early here. Don’t blame them though, it’s bright light at 4.30 and cockerels crow all over the city from about 3 onwards.

It’s been altogether a pretty Western weekend really. The weather’s been cooler and overcast with sporadic rain. Yesterday’s planned outdoor activities, which had included markets, a fish lunch and going to a hotel pool, turned into a trip to South African department store, Game. Even after just a week and a half in Maputo it was quite exciting to be surrounded by so many consumer goods! Imagine what I’ll be like after a year spent in the province…

Game is quite expensive really, which was reflected in the clientele. Like in club Naval, there were Portuguese ex-pats, South Africans, Indian-origin Mozambicans (been here since before the Portuguese apparently – spice routes from Asia) and some black elite types (many linked to politics). Amongst other things, like Cadbury’s fruit and nut, I got some killer insect repellent that’s banned in Europe. I’m going to fumigate the flat of mosquitoes and whatever else after waking up with several new bites yesterday morning. Also got some normal soap for washing clothes (in bucket) as the local brand Omo is rather industrial - full of bleach and reduces your garments to limp wisps of thread.

So I’m deeming this 5 weeks of training my ‘transitional’ period. Maputo is Africa meets the West so it’s a good introduction to the country. It’s very different and exciting, but you can still get and do a lot of the basic things you’re used to. Tonight I’ll be washing clothes, internet-café-ing and revising some Portuguese ready for the oncoming week of lessons. Just off to meet a Kenyan volunteer called Bernard now. He’s doing research for VETAID, the organisation I’ll be working with, so I’m going to ask him a bit about them. More soon.
Well… this will be a record of my year-long stay in Mozambique. I’ve been in Maputo for just over a week now and am finding my feet, learning the ropes etc. It’s generally really hot - sometimes humid and overcast - with the odd downpour.

There are 14 other VSO volunteers who arrived around the same time. It’s a nice group, people from a variety of countries: UK, Spain, Canada, Uganda, Kenya and the Philippines. We’re gelling well, amusing ourselves and each other with the daily trials of life. Usually banal things seem quite eventful here!

Maputo overall is quite attractive. Well, the city proper anyway. It’s a lot more developed than I’d expected and smaller. It’s largely low-rise, with wide, busy roads. There’s a lot of villa-esque architecture covered in flaking pastel paint - kind of like the ice-cream colour dilapidation of Havana, but without the vintage quality. Those are generally the nicer areas though – there are other bits with big shabby brown tower blocks and empty crumbling structures. I haven’t been into the suburbs yet but we drove through one part on the way from the airport that was row after row of corrugated iron shacks. Most buildings are modern but everything’s poorly maintained, despite ongoing (noisy!) construction. Pavements undulate and crack over pipes and roots. But, one of the best things is how green it is! Trees line the sides of every road; all different kinds including loads of fruit trees (laden with mangos at the moment - have to cover your head pronto when one drops) and gorgeous bright blossom everywhere. Plus it’s by the sea which gives it a slight beachy vibe and openness, and seafood.

Street sellers are all over the city - many permanently stationed on the roadsides, others wandering around. Wares consist largely of fruit – mangos (for those too lazy to shimmy up and collect them) and oranges laid out on cloth; bananas, along with tomatoes, potatoes and onions on wagons and collections of biscuits, sweets and mobile top-up cards in little stalls. Teenage boys wander round with miscellaneous goods of striking variety – adaptors, dolls, sculptures, shoes… They are very persistent, especially in (bright neon luminous) light of our whiteness. The batique sellers in particular are incessant! A few around where we live are starting to leave us alone after numerous abortive sales attempts, but it’s quite an onslaught.

These types of mini-enterprises are largely how people make a living in Maputo as there’s not much industry to provide employment. They are apparently facilitated by readily available microcredit. So Maputo is pretty well catered for in terms of goods and services. Though quality and choice are limited, seems you can get most things here. This is a bit of a surprise actually as Mozambique is statistically one of the world’s poorest nations. From what we’re told though, the capital (disregarding the slummy bits) isn’t remotely representative of Mozambique. Eighty per cent of the population lives rurally and relies on agriculture. Life in these parts operates pretty much on a subsistence/trading basis. There are regional hubs of commerce in the provinces though – I’ll be based in one and doing field trips to farms and villages, so should be a bit different!

Despite Maputo’s proximity to the South African border there don’t seem to be many white people around. There’s the odd Portuguese ex-pat, they gather in certain cafes, but think most of the SAs head to the beaches further along the coast rather than the city. There’s definitely some ex-pat money floating about though, so they’re probably all holed up in marbly compounds.

The temporary accommodation for VSOers here in the capital seems to have been a bit pot luck. Tara (Canadian girl) and I have been lucky. The apartment we’re staying in is big , nice, central, very secure and has hot running water. We’re staying there with a Dutch girl, Katerina, who has been here 2 years and has everything from herbs to tupperware! Other volunteers’ accommodation ranges from no forks to no cooker to no water… I must say the blokes have had the roughest deal with none of the above. They don’t cook anyway though. Instead they prefer to sustain themselves on the unofficial national dish of chicken (frango!) and chips. Can’t really understand why chicken in particularly is so ubiquitous, but it’s on all menus and sometimes the only thing on offer. Service is leisurely too, so they keep being late for language lessons after lunch.

Portuguese is going at break-neck speed, but I’m enjoying it. I can now make very simple sentences: ‘Manuela is a teacher’, ‘that is my chair’ etc. Progress indeed!

Books have become a prized commodity. We’re trying to snaffle out English language book shops (no luck as yet) and are trading them in the meantime. I packed a fair few (case was overweight but better books than curlers or something eh) so I’m revelling doubly in my book-rich security and benevolence!

Oh one really quirky thing here is the names of the roads. They all seem to be of political inspiration with loads named after notorious leaders. We have Avenue Mao Tse Tung intersecting with Kim Il Sung, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engles, Nkrumah, Nyerere... There are also several dates e.g. I live just off Avenue 24 de Julio. All christened in revolutionary fervour I think.

There’s a definite food theme emerging. Tomatoes, onions, green peppers, aubergine, potato and the odd squash. And cucumber. That’s pretty much what’s on sale. Recipes please... So far we’ve managed roasted vegetables, curried vegetables, vegetable omelette twice (you can get eggs too, and we hedonistically had ham in the first one). Katerina made a fabulous quiche one evening, but with cheese collected on a trip to South Africa (can get it here but muito dinheiro*) and pre-prepared pastry, don’t know if that’s a sustainable option for when I go to the province – aka - backwater.

Wondering what to do about Christmas at the moment. It’s quite funny timing as we’ll finish our training here in the capital a couple of weeks before Christmas and don’t fancy being alone in our new towns during the festive season! We’re thinking of going away, maybe to SA or somewhere within Mozambique for a week or something. Depends on my work situation, what start date they give me, so I’ll make enquiries. Anyone at a loss for Christmas is welcome to join me for a very random, hot one over here though!

Anyway, time to sail off to the land that was Nod, now Larium Wonderland. More anon. Post comments please, interaction!

*hey, just throwing it in, mixing it up, you know…