Just a little patience...ya ya

A phrase I've been hearing a lot recently is "This is Africa". Movie buffs will recognize it from Blood Diamond, others will identify with it as their mantra of time spent on this continent, where nothing happens as you would expect. I dont want to generalize because my knowledge of Africa is extremely limited, and I, like many, take liberties with the word Africa and apply it to a specific country when this huge continent encompasses many very different countries, cultures and traditions. But what I have learned from informed sources that know more of Africa than I, and what I am learning in my experiences here is that a little patience goes a long way. My landlord has been trying in vain to get internet installed in the apartment. For 6 weeks, she has made calls, visits, spoken to the company director, all to be told that internet can't be installed because the internet company is having internet problems. Why can't the internet company fix their own internet problems you ask? Because This is Africa. Once she spoke to the company president (her uncle) within a few days the internet was "installed," i.e. they dropped off a kit with a modem and cables. Why they couldn't perform this "installation" previously can only be answered with This is Africa. So now I have broadband at home with wireless to come in another day or two. Hopefully. But for my own sanity, I take the 'I'll believe it when I see it" approach.


Carrying on with the movie theme, the elevator in my building belongs in a horror movie. When it is actually working and I don't have to take the stairs to my 14th floor apartment, my entrance into the elevator is far from graceful. You cant touch the doors at the best of times because the old elevator car was "upgraded" with a new computer which is actually mostly incompatible and if you touch the doors it's only a matter of time before the thing stops working altogether. So, I have to shimmy sideways into the elevator car sliding my bags in ahead of me and behind me all while hoping to good god that the doors wont close on me since when they are half closed already you really don't have a lot of time to act if they do start moving and trying not to touch the doors so that the elevator wont break again and praying to myself that it will at least work long enough to get me to the 14th floor. It always has, and with a loud thud and shudder, the car stops on the 14th floor and after about 20 seconds the computer gets it message to the doors which finally open, halfway, so I can do my shimmy all over again to get out of the car and into the apartment. A lot of times I just take the stairs, for the exercise so I don't get too fat to fit into the half open elevator, and so that when it does stop working going up 14 flights wont be a big deal. After this 5 minute ordeal, I enter the sanctuary of my apartment where I enter the kitchen and am greeted by dozens, hundreds of these tiny, irritating little bugs crawling all over the place. I don't know what they are, nor do I care, and I have gotten used to them, sort of, although, now and then I want to scream when I find them all over my bread or fruit. But nothing I can do about them, so no point getting worked up I guess. This is Africa after all.




Saturday my friend Bruno (his blog) and I explored a little bit of Maputo and took the ferry across the bay to the suburb of Catembe. After I paid the 25 Cdn cents fare, it took a bit of mustering up courage to get on the rickety little boat sputtering up diesel smoke and jammed full of people, but I was comforted by the 3 lifejackets and 2 life preservers on board. Luckily I didn't see the guy bailing water out of the engine room until after I got off. We stood in line waiting to board and watched hoards of other people walking right past us to cut in line at the front. Us Canadians were initially flabbergasted at the rudeness of these people and the inefficiency of the system, but figured it was a Saturday, we had all day and This is Africa and they move to their own beat. So we made our way eventually to Catembe, the land that time forgot. It was surreal. Within 20 minutes we went from downtown Maputo with its highrises and crowded streets to a place where the roads are still made of sand and there are no highrises, only modest houses made of scrap aluminum, or straw or if you're lucky, cement and donkeys pull carts and goats and chickens run around freely. At the same time, it has a beautiful hotel and restaurant where we had lunch and enjoyed the amazing view and friendly felines. I fed them of course. After lunch, we walked back through Catembe about 45 minutes back to the ferry taking in the scenery and talking to a few locals who are so friendly and so happy to take a few minutes to talk to you. This is what I am experiencing here. Despite the obvious poverty, there is amazing beauty. This is Africa.

Way behind

Yes, it's been a while. First, my camera broke so I have no means of providing visuals to my commentary. Second, I picked up a small contract with the Canadian High Commission to help them prepare for the OECD DAC Peer Review. The Peer Review is conducted by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to monitor individual member countries policies and programs in the area of development co-operation and assistance. Clear as mud? This year they are reviewing Canada and CIDA chose Mozambique as a program for the DAC to review, since it is one of the best programs in the Agency. So I put together the presentation they are giving and prepared some briefing materials. Kept me busy all week. My body is screaming for a massage after sitting in front of my computer every day for 12 hours or more.
Other than work, I am getting more and more used to things, tanned and enjoying it. Last weekend I went back to my favorite craft market looking for some African art to adorn my bedroom.
I bought this painting and sculpted box. My former colleague, and friend Leanne is here on mission (how Bond)from CIDA , so we walked along the ocean to the market. The Marginale, the street along the ocean features a 800m mosaic done by a local artist and his students. It's awesome and the view along the Marginale is amazing.
The days and nights are getting cooler though. Winter is a comin', such as winter is in Africa. Found an ultimate team in Maputo. I thought I might have to start it here, soI brought my frisbee but I'm in luck. Discussing a friendly tournament with the team from Swaziland and from South Africa. Will be able to get around Southern Africa a bit in the next couple of months and hopefully to Europe to meet up with Daver in April or May.