So, this I am writing without knowing when I will post it. We've been in Chimoio for almost a week already, staying at a place with the inspiring name Pink Papaya. Chimoio could not be more different from Maputo. It is a typical small town in the middle of nowhere.There is a main street with the governor's house, some restaurants, people selling clothes they lay on the sidewalk, Vodacom commercials on all the walls (the national cellphone operator). Walking down the street you pass by maybe five or six banks. Why, we wonder, until we ask someone who tells us that it is because most of the time only one of them works. The Standard Bank is our saviour.
Another difference from Maputo is that people are out in the streets night time. We figured out it is because here people live in the centre and not only work there. And they play pool. At least the men. The women are at home. Taking care of the kids of course. What else to do when you get your first child at 17? I am not trying to be sarcastic here it is just that I am, as so many times before, amazed with how different our worlds can be. The more we learn about how people liver here the more unrealistic it gets that we could contribute by saying how things should be done here. We don't know anything.So we try to put up our humble side and take in what we hear to at least do as good as possible.
If you then walk ten minutes outside the town centre you are out on the countryside. Dirt roads, fruit vendors. Kids playing with tires, rolling them in front of them. All of a sudden comes a man in a suit on a motorbike rushing by. If I haven't said it before Mozambican people are stunningly well dressed. Suits, dresses, hairdos, shiny shoes, they have it all.
Here in Chimoio we've already run into some interesting people. Staying at a Backpacker's place we met our first real backpacker for this trip. Talking to this man, an Irish guy, made lots of memories come back to me from my previous travels. And, I realised I prefer this way of travelling. Having a goal with the trip makes it more fun, and just the fact being here as a student, opens up much more opportunities to meet interesting people and talk about things that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. It takes much more effort to talk about more than "Where have you been?" and "Where are you going next?" as a backpacker. You could, of course, but it's just not as common I guess. Could also be that I just like to think of myself as a bit important, haha.
We've also met a German-Portuguese girl who we hired as our very untrained interpreter and had our first interviews in Portuguese. It is a funny feeling talking when you have someone in between but it went better than expected.
During our interviews we always ask the respondents if they think that the conditions of the roads are influencing the potential of using small-scale hydro power. The aim of this kind of electrification is to reach the remote areas where the national grid haven't reached so you can't really expect an autobahn to the site where the power station should be. Quite the opposite actually. We have heard stories of people having to carry the equipment for tens of kilometres, people giving up and the respondents' heroic stories how they have continued walking even though it has been tough. They told us they bring an umbrella if it is raining. Clever people. And even though everyone we spoke to agree that it is a problem, they do not see it as a problem that can't be overcome. They take their umbrella and walk. And then, if it is a good site, well, then they build a road. I had one more intention telling you about these stories than that they are funny stories. And that is that we are actually going out in the field ourselves tomorrow. We are joining a company to a site where there is no power station yet to do measurements of head and flow. We have no idea how remote it will be, but I will be a bit disappointed if I can't share a heroic story of my own when I get back. If I can't I promise I will make one up. At least add some crocodiles to the real setup.
Oh, and we heard the president is coming here on Thursday. So then we expect everything to stop. We heard he is coming to uncover a statue in a park. The everyday job of a president, no?
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Leaving the capital
Last night in Maputo for a while. What do I hear, what do I see? I'm sitting in the kitchen with the small oven/hot plate used for cooking in front of me (there is a proper stove but there is some part missing for the gas so it hasn't worked since we came here). On the table is a bottle of water (always important) and a bag of piripiri cashew nuts. Beside me are the packed bags, ready for departure. I listen to the music from Kajsas computer and the fridge. This is our office. We've been sitting here all day long for a week now trying to sharpen our questionnaire and look at the answers we've got in our interviews from all possible directions.
Thibaud is in his room, he comes out once in a while and talks to us for a bit then gets back to his work. Kajsa and Maud are out getting pizza. It is Tuesday so you can buy one, get one for free at the restaurant on the corner. Otherwise we take turns in cooking, most of the time some kind of mixture of potatoes, aubergine, onion, manioc, tomatoes and avocado with rice. The avocado is heavenly here. I have a feeling I have to write an avocado post in a near future.
As you understand we stayed in the apartment the rest of the week even though our French couple came back, so now we've been five people living here. It has worked brilliant. We feel like we are a big family now.
Or at least I feel like we are one. Not sure what the others think but they are so sweet so I guess everything is just fine. We never imagined that we would be here for so long when we came here more than four weeks ago but it has all worked out really well and to be honest I will miss our apartment. I've started to feel like home here in Maputo. We know the streets. We've been out dancing with Arsenio at a local bar, learning the pasada. We've looked at traditional African dance to which we got invited by a Swedish girl and her dancing teacher who we ran into when we were out. We've had three more interviews and now we casually say hi to people at FUNAE when we get there and the guards at the Norwegian Embassy wonders when we get back next time. We've found the best chicken piri piri and we've had a few 2M, the local beer.
One funny thing about Maputo is the names of the streets. The communist times have had a big influence on the choice. To start with we live on Avenida Vladimir Lenine. And we walk to Karl Marx whenever we want to catch a chapa. The most frequently visited street must be Avenida Mao Tse Tung, which of course has a crossing with Kim Il Sung. And it goes on like this. Everywhere we go we just run into the communist leaders of the world.
Me and Kajsa start to see the signs of us spending too much time together. Yesterday we realised we sat talking about the best way on how to do laundry. People might say it is a sign of lack of topics for conversation. I see it as a good time to share our experiences on the noble art of getting your clothes clean. I mean, everything has its time and you can't expect us to talk about hydro power 24/7. Another moment when our ingeniousness flashed before us was when we discussed how good it would be to get back to work with the project after our mini vacation on Inhaca and Kajsa says "It is time for the second act of this project and it will be great and we will rise like a ... a fairly satisfied bunny".
I suspect that people who know Kajsa from before understands this. I don't. And at the same time I am starting to understand the way her creativity leads her away on sidetracks where fairly satisfied rabbits are common, and are hopefully a symbol for something mighty and powerful. I like it. And I accept that from that day the rabbit became our totem.
Tomorrow we are getting up at 2 am to catch the bus to Chimoio. Finally! We have 15 h of bus ride to look forward to and hopefully we will be in the metropolitan junction of Inchope by 7 pm so we can chose to get off (preferably) and take some kind of transportation the last hour to Chimoio or we may have to (if it is too late at night) go to Beira, stay the night there, and then take a chapa back to Chimoio the next morning.
Thibaud is in his room, he comes out once in a while and talks to us for a bit then gets back to his work. Kajsa and Maud are out getting pizza. It is Tuesday so you can buy one, get one for free at the restaurant on the corner. Otherwise we take turns in cooking, most of the time some kind of mixture of potatoes, aubergine, onion, manioc, tomatoes and avocado with rice. The avocado is heavenly here. I have a feeling I have to write an avocado post in a near future.
As you understand we stayed in the apartment the rest of the week even though our French couple came back, so now we've been five people living here. It has worked brilliant. We feel like we are a big family now.
Or at least I feel like we are one. Not sure what the others think but they are so sweet so I guess everything is just fine. We never imagined that we would be here for so long when we came here more than four weeks ago but it has all worked out really well and to be honest I will miss our apartment. I've started to feel like home here in Maputo. We know the streets. We've been out dancing with Arsenio at a local bar, learning the pasada. We've looked at traditional African dance to which we got invited by a Swedish girl and her dancing teacher who we ran into when we were out. We've had three more interviews and now we casually say hi to people at FUNAE when we get there and the guards at the Norwegian Embassy wonders when we get back next time. We've found the best chicken piri piri and we've had a few 2M, the local beer.
One funny thing about Maputo is the names of the streets. The communist times have had a big influence on the choice. To start with we live on Avenida Vladimir Lenine. And we walk to Karl Marx whenever we want to catch a chapa. The most frequently visited street must be Avenida Mao Tse Tung, which of course has a crossing with Kim Il Sung. And it goes on like this. Everywhere we go we just run into the communist leaders of the world.
Me and Kajsa start to see the signs of us spending too much time together. Yesterday we realised we sat talking about the best way on how to do laundry. People might say it is a sign of lack of topics for conversation. I see it as a good time to share our experiences on the noble art of getting your clothes clean. I mean, everything has its time and you can't expect us to talk about hydro power 24/7. Another moment when our ingeniousness flashed before us was when we discussed how good it would be to get back to work with the project after our mini vacation on Inhaca and Kajsa says "It is time for the second act of this project and it will be great and we will rise like a ... a fairly satisfied bunny".
I suspect that people who know Kajsa from before understands this. I don't. And at the same time I am starting to understand the way her creativity leads her away on sidetracks where fairly satisfied rabbits are common, and are hopefully a symbol for something mighty and powerful. I like it. And I accept that from that day the rabbit became our totem.
Tomorrow we are getting up at 2 am to catch the bus to Chimoio. Finally! We have 15 h of bus ride to look forward to and hopefully we will be in the metropolitan junction of Inchope by 7 pm so we can chose to get off (preferably) and take some kind of transportation the last hour to Chimoio or we may have to (if it is too late at night) go to Beira, stay the night there, and then take a chapa back to Chimoio the next morning.
Sunday, 8 April 2012
Inhaca and Swaziland
So, it all happened that we took a week off for vacation. Since the boat to Inhaca did not go on Sunday we left on Monday and stayed for four days until Thursday. And Inhaca, what a place. So different from Maputo. The boat ride took almost three hours and we arrived at this small beach town. We met our examiner who also happened to be there, but was just about to leave, and then two girls doing their Bachelor thesis on fishery out on the island. They showed us the small market and shop that made out the whole town together with one hotel. And that was all of it. A car came and picked us up and took us to the research station where our supervisor and his three collaborators worked.
It was so nice and relaxing to come to this quite place. It was almost like a scout camp. The research station consisted of one house with a kitchen and common room, one house with accommodation and one house with a laboratory, the reception and a museum with scary looking fish in formalin. And ten meters from the camp, behind some pretty thick bushes - BAM - there was the beach. Long, white and all for us to use. No people and no vendors. Nothing.
We spent the days snorkeling, looking at a mangrove forest, swimming, walking to the small town and trying to avoid the high tide.
Happy and relaxed we returned to Maputo and the city life on Thursday night.
I have no idea if you've celebrated Easter in any special way, but for Kajsa and I we kind of forgot about it. But, we knew that we'd already been here almost 30 days (it's crazy how fast time passes) so it was time for us to leave the country to get 30 new days by getting new stamps in our passports. So we did and reached Swaziland after an hour and a half in a chapa. Swaziland is a small country I knew absolutely nothing of before I came here. Now, I know just a little bit more than nothing. I know that they speak English. They have national parks where you can see lots of beautiful animals. They have very good music and you can listen to it on the bus. And it is very easy to get around the country. Stand by the road and a bus will come by and pick you up. Easy as that.
We stayed at a national park one night and saw rhinos, hippos, elephants, zebras, giraffes and other beautiful animals as well.
And got ourselves an Easter buffet.
Could not have been better. Then we took the same trip back and arrived in Maputo this afternoon. The trip there and back cost us about 6 euros per person. You've got to love cheap transport!
Tomorrow it is time for some work again. One interview is booked for Monday and after that we'll go hunting more people to talk to. Glad påsk everyone!
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| Taking photos of power lines is one of our favourites |
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| Snorkling at the lighthouse |
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| Best way of emptying boots from water |
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| In the mangrove forest |
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| In the mangrove forest |
Happy and relaxed we returned to Maputo and the city life on Thursday night.
I have no idea if you've celebrated Easter in any special way, but for Kajsa and I we kind of forgot about it. But, we knew that we'd already been here almost 30 days (it's crazy how fast time passes) so it was time for us to leave the country to get 30 new days by getting new stamps in our passports. So we did and reached Swaziland after an hour and a half in a chapa. Swaziland is a small country I knew absolutely nothing of before I came here. Now, I know just a little bit more than nothing. I know that they speak English. They have national parks where you can see lots of beautiful animals. They have very good music and you can listen to it on the bus. And it is very easy to get around the country. Stand by the road and a bus will come by and pick you up. Easy as that.
We stayed at a national park one night and saw rhinos, hippos, elephants, zebras, giraffes and other beautiful animals as well.
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| At the entrance |
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| Mad rhinos who wouldn't let us pass |
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| Elephants |
Could not have been better. Then we took the same trip back and arrived in Maputo this afternoon. The trip there and back cost us about 6 euros per person. You've got to love cheap transport!
Tomorrow it is time for some work again. One interview is booked for Monday and after that we'll go hunting more people to talk to. Glad påsk everyone!
Some seriousness
Kajsa said today that it is sometimes hard to know when we are doing things for our project and when we are having vacation. When we talk to people living here, Mozambican or others, we learn about the country, how things work. This is basically the same thing as we do during the interviews with the only difference that during the interviews we focus on one specific subject. And the fact is that all we learn about Mozambique will affect our resulting report. Because electrifying a country is so much more than just choosing the best technology and then installing it at the best place. The electrification itself does not lead to development and prosperity. There is more to it. Like the fact that the people should want to have it. And are interested enough to make sure the electricity supply is maintained. They need the knowledge and the feeling of commitment in some sense. All in all, there is a need for coordination between many different parts in society and many different parts within the development planning. And by talking to people we get to scratch on the surface of how Mozambique works and in this way how the people and society works. What realise what drives this country forward and what the people dream about.
We have discussed the fact that so many people are involved in the development of Mozambique. Walking in the southern parts of Maputo you come across UN building after UN building followed by embassies and other association head quarters. I wonder how that affects the everyday work here. I mean, there are people from Norway, Sweden, Italy, Germany, China, India, South Africa, all wanting to help and give advice and donate money and explain their way of doing things. And with every single country, there is a tradition of how to do things; the German way, the Indian way, the Swedish way. What says that this is the best for Mozambique? And who says that these people communicate with each other? One is doing a project on how to empower women, one on how to improve the health care, one on planning the roads and one on how the electricity grid should be extended. These things need coordination and that people communicate. We suspect they don't and we don't blame them. It can't be easy. And the Mozambican government stands in the middle as some kind of organiser. We asked a Mozambican man if he thought all this "interference" was good or bad, but he believed in the Mozambican government. He said that they make all the decisions and the foreign aid and NGO:s basically follows these directions. But I still think it must be so hard.
The biggest problem in his opinion was the fact that the country is so large that the decisions and improvements never reaches ever so far from Maputo. Most things happen here, and stay here. The couple we rent the room from came back today after three weeks in the very north of Mozambique and they said they had spent approximately half of their time on the road in small minibuses crammed with more people than would have been comfortable for a 30 minutes drive. For 8-10 hours at a time! It is easy to understand that remote areas are left to survive on their own.
With these more serious thoughts and reflections said I will now write you a second post on all the happy vacation stuff we have done! Once again, as Kajsa said: It is hard to know what counts as what. Work or leisure? It all is a big happy blurr.
We have discussed the fact that so many people are involved in the development of Mozambique. Walking in the southern parts of Maputo you come across UN building after UN building followed by embassies and other association head quarters. I wonder how that affects the everyday work here. I mean, there are people from Norway, Sweden, Italy, Germany, China, India, South Africa, all wanting to help and give advice and donate money and explain their way of doing things. And with every single country, there is a tradition of how to do things; the German way, the Indian way, the Swedish way. What says that this is the best for Mozambique? And who says that these people communicate with each other? One is doing a project on how to empower women, one on how to improve the health care, one on planning the roads and one on how the electricity grid should be extended. These things need coordination and that people communicate. We suspect they don't and we don't blame them. It can't be easy. And the Mozambican government stands in the middle as some kind of organiser. We asked a Mozambican man if he thought all this "interference" was good or bad, but he believed in the Mozambican government. He said that they make all the decisions and the foreign aid and NGO:s basically follows these directions. But I still think it must be so hard.
The biggest problem in his opinion was the fact that the country is so large that the decisions and improvements never reaches ever so far from Maputo. Most things happen here, and stay here. The couple we rent the room from came back today after three weeks in the very north of Mozambique and they said they had spent approximately half of their time on the road in small minibuses crammed with more people than would have been comfortable for a 30 minutes drive. For 8-10 hours at a time! It is easy to understand that remote areas are left to survive on their own.
With these more serious thoughts and reflections said I will now write you a second post on all the happy vacation stuff we have done! Once again, as Kajsa said: It is hard to know what counts as what. Work or leisure? It all is a big happy blurr.
Sunday, 1 April 2012
How to celebrate your birthday in Mozambique: Part I
This time was a bit different because we still had to do some work during the day. Fine by me, really, I am not the one who thinks that birthdays are that special.Still, it is always fun to have done something extra.
The best thing was that I discovered that some of my friends, with help from Kajsa, had planned to give me some extra adventures while I am here in Mozambique as a present. And as you are not here to experience my present with me I see it as my duty to tell you all about it!
The morning started with Kajsa making some kind of treasure hunt with me. The brightest thoughts are not that easy to find when you've just woken up, but I did my very best to figure out where I would be hiding if I was a breakfast making-note and where to look for something creative in a futuristic way to find the next clue.
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| Looking for the final note |
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| As happy as ever to find out what my friends have planned for me |
I had no idea what Kajsa had been up to. She has been planning while I've been sleeping during the night and been in contact with our supervisor to ask him about things to do, erasing text messages after she sent them to him. I had no clue, I didn't even start suspecting something when her phone tried to deceive her when I was writing a message last week and it suggested Sara sover (Sara is sleeping) as the next word for me.
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| breakfast |
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| fruit salad |
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| Maputo at the horizon |
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| We found a beautiful brick wall on the way back |
We also celebrated a little bit yesterday. The plan had been to have a big party with everyone in the house because Lea is leaving today, but since it was raining so much we had to cancel it. Apparently nothing happens when it rains here. Everyone just sits inside waiting for it to stop. If that was the case in Sweden not much would happen... Anyways, instead of the grande fête we made some cake and had some people coming over.
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| a Mozambican girl and the Norwegian girl |
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| Lea |
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| On the balcony |
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| There was another birthday party going on at the cultural club next to our house |
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| roof inspection |
So my friends, this is how you can spend your birthday in Maputo.
Today we were supposed to go to Inhaca, an island two hours by boat from here, but after waiting for half an hour or so for the weather report this morning at the pier we heard that today's boat was cancelled. So we go tomorrow instead.
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