Apparently my brain only has enough attention for 1 communication technology at a time. I, like so many others, have joined the Cult of
Facebook. While it is entertaining and I have been able to connect with a lot of people, it means that the blog gets neglected. The blog also requires much more time than the Book, but I have resolved to end the month long blog silence tonight. What have I been up to you ask?
The past month I have been traveling. I was in Pemba again for 10 days, then went to Barcelona for 9 days, then spent a weekend at a beach side resort. Pemba was for work again and this time was not anywhere near as amazing as last time. For 10 days straight I worked 10 hour days, including weekends. My house was on the beach but I didn't touch sand once. I was so depressed except for the litter of puppies and the kittens outside the house.
After Pemba I spent a well earned 9 days in Barcelona visiting with Dave and sightseeing. It was an awesome week, it was so nice spending time with him again! And Barcelona has everything anyone could want. It was a week filled with art, music, architecture, cafe con leche, pastries, tapas, chocolate, paella, shopping....ahhh.
Barcelona has an energy that you can feel in the air. We spent all day every day walking around and sight seeing. We saw so much I couldn't even try to tell all of it or include pictures.
I took over 300 pics and he took another 300 or so. We tried to siesta some days but there was too much to see! But man I was tired and my body ached. We went to the Olympic Stadium, an art gallery, a history museum, the aquarium, Sagrada Familia, Montjuic, an amazing hospital that the architect Gaudi designed. Barcelona has a HUGE Gaudi collection here. Many, many buildings were designed by him. It was an awesome week. On the flight to Barcelona I had an overnight in Lisbon that was also really great. I got to see my aunt and cousin who I havent seen in 20 years. They met me at the airport but I almost couldn't see them cuz my tiny little aunt
was drowning in a sea of about 200 waiting people. Luckily she had her tiny little flag to match her tiny little frame, that had my name on it. I recognized her anyway but the flag was cute. My cousin now has a son who I met for the first time. We all went for dinner and a quick moonlight tour of the city as we drove back to my aunt's house. It made me so nostalgic of being there as a kid and now I must go back to Lisbon. This past weekend my buddy Bruno and I went to Zongoene Lodge, which Taciana's husband manages.
It was amazing. The rooms themselves were quite nice and the food was awesome but the restaurant service was kinda bad, some of the worst I have had in Mozambique and there are a lot of bad servers here. I think one of the best things the country can do is to start a server school. And here, tipping isn't a custom so you can't even entice them to try harder. It can be quite frustrating. But I realize that service industries are still very, very new in Mozambique and the standards, well there are none.
Anyway the best thing about the Lodge was the beach. Mozambique has some of the most amazing beaches in the world, I will put money on it. 2500km of coastline makes it almost guaranteed, but they are desolate, untouched, beautiful beaches. My roommate says Mozambique is one of the most romantic places in the world and I think it could be true. If nothing else, you fall in love with the landscape. As if the awesome beach and clear water at your fingertips wasn't enough, there is a family of dolphins that make their home in a lagoon near the beach. Bruno and I walked over to try and see them but couldn't figure out where they were.
The tide was going out and the beach has a huge sandbar that loops back around to Zongoene. We were going to take the sand bar back to the lodge but had to cross a channel between the ocean and the lagoon. We approached and my desperately sad fear of dying a horrible drowning death kicked in and I refused to cross the channel. With good reason: the tide was going out, the waves were huge and strong, and we couldn't tell how deep the channel was. This was enough for me but only later did I find out that sometimes there are sharks too. So much to Bruno's chagrin, we had to go back the way we came. It was starting to get dark and in the distance along the shoreline I could see a bunch of dark specks on the beach. I said to Bruno something like, "Umm, see those specks along the beach? That's the herd of cows we passed on the way here. Now they're all on the beach blocking our way back." He said something like, "No fucking way!" and began to panic. (Unfortunately the camera batteries had died by this point so I have no picture album for the cow story. boo) By this point I was more calm as I wasn't worried about the cows as much as I was the tide cuz I know nothing about tides and was certain it was going to come back in and wash me away. Bruno helped to ease my concerns a bit with his theatrical production of the movement of tides using a bunched up beach towel and a water bottle. But it was getting dark very quickly and this was also making me nervous.
As we got closer to the cows we circled very wide, climbing a huge sand dune in the process, trying to steer clear of the steer. ha I was convinced that these cows, and bulls, were domesticated and wouldn't bother us at all, but Bruno wouldn't have any of it, keeping his eye on them at all times. Well, we managed to get around the cows and bulls and although we vowed never to speak of the incident again, Bruno spilled the story as soon as we got back to the Lodge where we learned that the cows and bulls are so tame that you just have to lift your hand and they start to move. Stupid Canadian city folk, that's what they were thinking about us. In fact, that's what I was thinking about us. But it was a lovely weekend overall and if I didn't have these stories then the blog would be sooo boring.
This weekend I am heading to Kruger Park again to see some wild animals. The weekend after I am going to Inhaca Island here in Moz to spend a weekend with my former CIDA colleagues whoa re all here on retreat. I left too soon.
And the weekend after that, I am going to Johannesburg with Bruno to see his girlfriend Kat and my friend Gerhard. Once those trips are over, I am moving to Pemba for 3 months to work on a special project. Cuz I am here to work actually. Although the traveling is a MAJOR perk. From Pemba I can easily get to Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya as well as the northern sites in Moz that I want to get to.
Oh ya work. The project is the Entrepreneur Development Initiative that works to help entrepreneurs in northern Mozambique start and expand their businesses. I will be working with seaweed farmers and rural shop owners, reviewing and helping them to write business plans for their business expansion. Seaweed and rural shops are 2 areas that there is a lot of production so we want to help them grow as much as possible. It will be great work experience and I will get to travel to the communities and talk to the people that our project is trying to help to get a better perspective about development. I always wonder what people actually think about development agencies. Now is my chance to ask.
But I have to say I will miss Maputo. I am finally starting to feel comfortable, settled, with a circle of friends, a social life, a life in general and stuff to do. Pemba has nothing to do but it will still be great. I am downloading like a mofo these days so I can watch when I get there. Anyway, I've been at this for an hour. That's my past month in a nutshell. You all who were nagging me update my blog better leave a comment! Miss you all! See you on Facebook! :-)
This past weekend I had the pleasure of joining my old team from CIDA Ottawa (L to R - John, Philip, Jonathan, Eliane, Bev, Leanne, me) on Inhaca Island, just a 15 minute flight from Maputo. The sturdy 19 seat plane landed at the huge, and prepared, Inhaca Airport without much excitement or need for safety equipment (thankfully). 
We stayed at the lovely Inhaca Lodge, although we had to watch for falling coconuts. It is winter here now and the temperatures have begun to drop, sometimes going down to 6-8 degrees at night. Mornings are cool, and I arrived wearing 3 layers including a fall jacket I bought to weather the cool Barcelona nights. I am the first to admit I have become a wuss to the cold, and my fellow Canadians were reminding me constantly that I am from Winterpeg and how could I possibly be cold when it's 18 degrees out. It doesn't make any sense I know, except that I have acclimatized to the lovely tropical weather. And I have always been more of a beach bunny than a ski bunny. 
Nevertheless the days warm up and I managed to stay warm. We spent the day off the island on another island Santa Maria about a 15 minute speed boat ride away. The boat dropped us off on the secluded, isolated beach where we had our own lagoon and a(n awful) picnic lunch. We spent the afternoon sunning and snorkelling around. It was my first time snorkeling and it was awesome. I saw angel fish, zebra fish, amazing coral, and other fish I have no idea what they were. The coolest part was being completely surrounded and circled by a huge (500+) school of sardines. I wish I had had an underwater camera. After a tiring day at the beach we headed back to the hotel to rest. I napped on the beach waiting for the sunset and was awakened by a friendly neighbourhood dog who looked and played exactly like Dambu. 
Dinner and breakfast were included on the room rate so we dined in the hotel restaurant where I had some traditional Mozambican dishes. Chima (sheema) looks like mashed potatoes but is basically like the paste we made in kindergarten. Its a mixture of water and maize flour and is one of the staples. Curries are a common dish as well, and they served a crab curry. My favorite Mozambican dish is matapa, a spread-like mixture made of pumpkin or young cassava leaves ground with garlic, flour and peanut and/or coconut oil. It's perfect with chima and one of my favorite meals.
On the return we walked back along the beach, about a 4km walk but a beautiful day and scouring the shore for new and unique shells. It was another awesome weekend spent discovering Mozambique. In a few days I move to Pemba where I can begin discovering the northern part of Mozambique and surrounding countries.
