Jared's Mozambique Adventure

2008-12-13T15:07:00.002-06:00

Hello is anyone still out there? I have not made a single post in all of 2008 but I just wanted to see if anyone still follows this blog. I have now discovered this Facebook thing and was rather convinced that it was the better of the two channels of online communication. but now i am not sure if i should return to the blog in 2009. anyway i'll try to figure it out...otherwise, if anyone is still out there and wanting to chat it would be good to hear from you.

Have a Merry twelve days of Christmas,

Jared

2007-05-29T15:30:00.001-05:00

100 posts along the road

When I started this blog back in the summer of 2005 it was intended to put a spotlight on my experiences in Mozambique and allow me to describe how this new land and new work environment were impacting me…both for the better and the worse!! Now that my time in Mozambique is over, and I find myself back in Canada working at the MEDA head office in Waterloo, I feel as if I am going through a bit of an identity crisis, both in terms of the direction my life is taking as well as how I want to use this online journal. I have enjoyed keeping this blog as it has provided me with an avenue for which I could describe my life in Mozambique for my friends and family scattered amongst the globe.

I admit that I have often been lazy in updating this blog, especially since my return to Canada three months ago. Perhaps I feel that my “less than exotic” life in Kitchner-Waterloo does not provide me with enough interesting material to keep an online journal that people would be inclined to read. Or maybe I feel that it is time that this blog naturally evolve into something else, some other forum for me to post my thoughts and interact with the global village in which we find ourselves. This has yet to be determined as my emotional and inspirational levels are in need of major stimulation these days.

I miss my life and our work in Mozambique. I have been in Canada for three months now but I still don’t feel fully “at home” here. It’s as if my spirit is still hovering somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, yearning for distant lands, while my body tries to carve out a new existence here in Canada. I find that my heart aches to be back in the field working directly with people as opposed to sitting behind my desk pounding away at a keyboard in an industrial office park. I have some exciting projects awaiting me on the horizon over the coming months but they seem so distant and my motivation is lacking in the meantime.

This will be my 103^rd blog posting. When I returned to Canada to begin my work at the MEDA office, I drove my car from my parents house in Winnipeg east down the Trans-Canada Highway to Waterloo. This journey took me over the Great Lakes and through the towns of Kenora, Thunder Bay, Wawa, Sault Ste. Marie and Parry Sound. The scenery is breathtaking, especially during the winter months. Over Lake Superior I couldn’t help but notice the number of wooden posts that stood out on the highway side. They seemed to be about a hundred in number and I thought that those posts were like the ones on my Mozambican blog, each representing a significant experience that brought this Canadian boy from his childhood home in Manitoba to his present home in Southern Ontario. These posts each mark a path, both through the rocks and trees of the Canadian Shield as well as through the streets and shorelines of Mozambique.

So it is at this 103^rd post that I feel “Jared’s Mozambican Adventure” will come to an appropriate end. The events from this past year and a half have had a tremendous effect on me and the memories will last with me forever. I will continue to explore the re-manifestation of my writing and will certainly keep you posted regarding these new directions.

Wishing you all peace, joy and compassion!!

Jared

2007-04-08T22:09:00.000-05:00

Searching for Easter Eggs

I had a girl ask me this week why eggs are so important to Christians at Easter time. For as long as I can remember, colourful chocolate candied eggs have always been an integral part of my Easter Sunday. I would search like crazy over every nook and cranny of my house until I found each and every one of these sweat treasures that this supposed bunny had placed the night before.

I don’t know why the whole chocolate Easter candy has become so popular but I do know that that eggs have been a central component of the Easter these for centuries. There is an old Palestinian story of Mary and Martha, two of Jesus’ closest followers, where Martha is running down the road shouting for joy after she had heard that the tomb was empty and that Jesus had risen from the dead. In her excitement, she comes across her sister Mary returning to the house carrying a bowl of eggs on her head. Martha tries frantically to explain the miracle to her sister but Mary is stubborn and refuses to believe that such a thing could be possible. She declares, “if what you say is true then may all the eggs on my head change into all of the colours of the earth.” Sure enough, when she takes the basket down from her head she is amazed at the rainbow of colour that is before her.

Eggs have of course been a key part of pagan rituals around the spring equinox long before Christianity became a dominant religious force in the West. Representing fertility and re-birth, the end of death and the beginning of life, eggs easily became important spiritual symbols explaining the significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The light could not be held back by the darkness, bringing life and new hope to all corners of the earth. The spiritual journey of Christianity involves searching for this light, allowing oneself to go both through the pain of the crucifixion and the joy of the resurrection. This is just like searching for Easter eggs in a way as we find the gifts of love, peace and wisdom that are “hidden” among us all the time.

I was raised within the Mennonite Christian tradition but have long found myself drawn by more personal forms of spirituality and theological pluralism. I strongly identify with the message of the Easter Story, not only because of the significance of the Passion Week but with the simple and enduring message of redemption and new life. This is the good news that I believe that we Christians share with many of the other lovers of light and followers of the higher power throughout the world. The world needs to hear this message and it is up to us believers to make it heard.

Spirituality is a journey and there are many eggs to be found along the way. May you enjoy many blessings in your search, share with others the things you have found and eagerly seek for all that is still to come.

Halleluiah – One Love – Raise your soul

Jared

2007-03-20T10:58:00.000-05:00

Final Weekends: Part III

After attending countless other going away party’s for friends that moved in and out of my life during the past year and half, it was finally time for me to celebrate my departure from Mozambique with one final Friday night blowout. My roommate Brenden and I cleared away a massive dance floor in our apartment and got a hold of an incredible stereo system, preparing for a long night of booty shaking like only Mozambicans know best. It was a massive turnout, with a good mix of my ex-pat and African friends showing up to wish me off while sharing one last Laurentina or Tipo Tinto. Unfortunately, news of a good party spread quickly and we soon found ourselves having to “forcibly escort” a few rowdy and intoxicated gate crashers out the door.

Despite a few bad apples in the bunch, I had a great time and got to see practically everyone in the city that meant the most to me. After we had danced ourselves out, drummed our last beat, sang our final song and drank every last drop in the house, I finally showed the last guest to the door as the morning sun was creeping up on the horizon. It was a great way for me to bring to a close the incredible social scene I was able to find here in Maputo.

I was quite tired as you can imagine on Saturday and ended up spending a quite night in with Nathalie drinking tea and watching the Last King of Scotland (Great movie by the way…Forest Whittaker performance is HUGE, quite literally!! Definitely deserved the Oscar). We then got up early on Sunday morning and joined my old roommate Cathy Rothrock for the worship service at the church of our former housekeeper Rebecca. Cathy’s sister and brother in law were in visiting from Edmonton and they all wanted to see what a Shangana church service was all about. Basically it is three solid hours in a sweaty reed hut, singing, praying and shouting for Jesus. The rest of the congregation was overjoyed that such a large contingent of “mulungos” had joined them in their part of town and they took great delight in showing off their church’s talents and helping us to follow along with the words in the shangana hymn book.

After the service, and after we had shaken about a thousand and one pairs of hands, we went back to Rebecca’s house for lunch. This was the first time that I had ever been inside Rebecca’s house and she took great pride in showing me all of her things, especially their large backyard with mango, lemon and cashew trees. Unfortunately, Rebecca’s husband Pedro was not able to join us because he was out working on a fishing boat with some friends. Pedro had received some excellent news previously in the week as he graduated from his driving school, opening up a whole new door of work opportunities for him. The family was incredibly thankful and we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in each other’s company under the shade of the mango tree.

We then returned back to Maputo in time to play ultimate, a game that had recently become a Sunday late afternoon tradition for our group of friends. For those of you who don’t know what ultimate is check out this link here. It’s an amazing game and hands down the best co-ed sport around in my opinion. For most of my time here in Mozambique I bemoaned the fact that nobody in town played ultimate until I finally took matters into my own hands and started the first ultimate league in Maputo. Initially we had a pretty luke warm reception but once February rolled along we started to get a fairly regular turnout. What was also encouraging is that towards the end we started getting more Mozambican guys and girls showing up to try out this strange new sport.

Full of new found enthusiasm, we ultimate fans in Maputo began dreaming about putting together a Mozambican Ultimate National Team and taking on teams from Swaziland and South Africa. Who knows, maybe one day we will see a Mozambican entry to the world championships…or a campaign along the likes of “Ultimate contra HIV/SIDA.” The skies the limit in my view, and, while I hated to leave just as the momentum was building, I believe we’ve got some good folks that can continue the ultimate tradition.

2007-03-05T23:30:00.000-06:00

Final Weekends: Part 2

One of the highlights of the road trip I took through the United States back in 2004 was spending time around the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Hiking down the escarpment, and spending some time in quiet meditation within the panoramic surroundings, brought me close to nature in a way that I had never quite experienced before. When I consider the vast period of history that has unfolded while this river has consistently flowed, diligently carving it’s path through the bedrock, it puts my own place in history and my time on this planet into serious perspective. For me, canyons, aside from the breathtaking vistas that they offer, provide a powerful testament to the perseverance and enduring spirit of nature.

When I arrived in Mozambique and realized that the world’s third largest canyon was on the Blyde River in the Kleine Drankensburg mountain range, only a half days drive from Maputo in the northeastern part of South Africa, I was determined to make a visit. However, my travel plans were often postponed for the sake of countless beach excursions in Mozambique (which I certainly do not regret!!). As the months passed by, with my departure date approaching quicker, the Blyde River Canyon continued to call out to me from the National Geographic map of Southern Africa hanging prominently on my wall. With one final weekend available for travel, and facing one more obligatory border run for my tourist visa, I finally put my plan into action.

Nathalie and I rented a car in Maputo and packed it up with all our camping gear and set off early on the Saturday morning, reaching the quant little town of Graskop at about 3 in the afternoon. This was after we had to endure the massive weekend line up at the South African-Mozambican border. I don’t know why some young Mozambican hasn’t caught on to the idea of selling cold drinks to the thirsty souls in line like they do throughout the rest of the country…they would make an absolute killing I am sure!! Anyway, the town of Graskop is this old South African pioneer town whose charm has long been exploited by the pricey tourist industry. Nathalie and I, however, were able to find a nice campsite overlooking the Graskop gorge and thoroughly enjoy the numerous waterfalls in the area without being inundated with a constant stream of other tourists.

As the afternoon shadows began to stretch out longer, Nathalie and I picked up some classic “sundowner” supplies and headed out to the edge of the escarpment locally known as God’s Window. The view over the “lowveld” was spectacular as you could see all the way across Kruger Park and into the Gaza province of Mozambique!! We also found our own trail through the rainforests at the top of the mountain and arrived at our own secluded clearing where we could enjoy the panoramic view and watch the different thunder storms roll over the hills. Despite the numerous threats from these dark menacing clouds, Nathalie and I remained completely dry.

The following morning we awoke early and set off for the Bourke’s Luck Potholes, which are situated at the opening of the canyon. These are fascinating rock formations that have formed over thousands of years from water swirling at the base of a series of waterfalls. Despite our preference for the unmarked trails, we signed up to take the Belvedere Trail down to the base of the canyon. It was a strenuous six hour hike and I quickly discovered that my physical condition paled in comparison to my fleet footed companion!! Nevertheless, we were both mesmerized by the scenery and overwhelmed by the sensation of standing within such a deep canyon. We were also able to treat ourselves to a refreshing dip in the cool waters of the Blyde River, allowing the strong current to carry us along the rocks and trees. We finished the day off with sundowners once again overlooking one of the most spectacular vistas I have ever experienced in my entire life. The Three Rondavels point gives you almost a 360 degree view of the canyon, allowing one’s senses to be flooded by the colours, the sounds and the spirit of God’s Country. It is at these moments where we can feel so incredibly humbled while at the same time feeling so immaculately exalted.

2007-03-01T21:10:00.000-06:00

Final Weekends: Part 1

Staring down the barrel at a looming departure date obviously makes one want to spend their final weekends productively. Before I left Mozambique, there were definitely some places I wanted to visit in the area and travel time I wanted to spend with close friends. For over a year I had been trying to visit the island of Inhaca, which is about 50 Km away from Maputo, only to have every plan fall apart due to terrible weather. This time, however, I was determined to get over to this tantalizing island that beckons Maputoites on a clear sunny day to see whether the rumours I had heard about its idyllic beaches and splendid corals were indeed true.

I set off with Nathalie and our French Canadian friends Ian and Marie-Claude (aka, the Quebecois “happy couple”) on a private boat “Maritimos” which took us to the island in just over one hour. This is much better than the six hour trip on the local ferry but of course you pay about four times as much!! The other nice thing about taking a private boat is that we were able to stop over at the Portuguese Island, a tiny little spot just off the coast from Inhaca. Here we were able to relax for a couple of hours, take a bath in the ocean and marvel at all the colourful star fish that dotted the shoreline. I was in such a relaxed state at one point that I fell asleep on the beach (sans sunscreen!!) and woke up almost an hour later with a crazy sun burn. Stupid boy!!

We then got back on our boat and set off for the main island of Inhaca. The island is a funny one really because the main boat dock and the huge expensive Pestana Resort are located along an absolutely unappealing stretch of beach overrun with muddy sludge and seaweed. Certainly not a spot worthy of a postcard photo. The exorbitant prices for food and drinks quickly scared us away from that location so we ended up buying some supplies from the local market and hiring a local boat to take us to the Biological Research Station toward the southern tip of the Island. This is a place that is run entirely by Mozambicans through the University of Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, offering nice affordable places to stay, opportunities to explore and study the Islands protected environment and a well stocked museum showcasing the Island’s marine life.

There were only two other students at the research center so we were essentially left alone to enjoy its isolated tranquility. We all had a serious appetite for some fresh fish and cold cervejas but there were no local fishermen to be found. We took a tip from one of the employees at the center and went hiking through the bush in search of the nearest village where we could find a fish market and an open baraka. After only getting lost a couple of times, and having to flag down some ladies returning from their farms to ask for directions, we arrived at the village and sat down with the baraka owners for some well needed cold drinks. In a strange connection to Canada, the rock stars Nickelback and Bryan Adams were written in large letters along the baraka walls!!

We then stopped off at the local fish seller to pick up some barracuda and lulas (squid) before returning back to the research center for a final swim and the perfect sundowners on the beach. Because we were on the west side of the island looking out over the Maputo Bay, it was my first and only time in Mozambique seeing the sun set over the ocean. That night we thoroughly enjoyed our seafood BBQ (except we SEVERELY overcooked the lulas!!) while each nursing our collective sunburns. The next day we took the long walk back along the beach to the boat dock, stopping off at the various coral reefs at low tide. I was amazed at the variety of corals and tropical fish we were able to see simply be snorkeling off the coast. We were also amazed at the number of women seated along the shore who were cracking open the sea urchins that they had caught in order to make a stew out of the gooey insides…a picture that I imagine has not changed in hundreds of years. Getting back in our boat, we said goodbye to Inhaca and welcomed back our Maputo home as its impressive skyline grew larger on the horizon.

2007-02-15T08:49:00.000-06:00

The Yellow Bus Was Calling Us

This week I am in the midst of planning what will be my despedida, or going away party for the non-portuguese speakers, tomorrow night. It is a strange experience for me, preparing to leave this city that has become so familiar over the past year and a half. However, in the preparation for Friday’s party, it occurred to me that I had inexcusably neglected to post up pictures about the infamous “Yellow Bus” incident that happened last December just before I went home to Canada for Christmas.

The event was originally meant to be the combined despedida for my good friends Dan, Geoff, Sofia, Tina and myself, back when I had thought that I would be leaving Mozambique by the end of December. We wanted to go out with a bang and so we decided to rent the Yellow MCEL Double Decker Party Bus and packed it with our closest friends for a joy ride around Maputo. We loaded up with booze, heavy stereo equipment, tacky hawaian shirts and tons of good spirit to ensure that the bus would bounce along for the duration of the afternoon.

Starting off at the Parque de Continuadores, we set off for a high profile cruise along Julius Neyere, the 24^th of July, the Baixa, the Marginal all the way to Costa do Sol and finally ending up somewhere between Mao Tse Tung and a random German guy’s party. Maputo is well known for its wide boulevards with beautiful purple and red jacaranda and flamboyant trees. However, only when dancing around like fools on the top of a bus did we discover how dangerous these trees really were, as a few of the revelers came away from the bus tour with tree branch sized welts on their heads. Despite the risk of injury, we all had a riot playing street limbo while singing along to Mozambican popstars.

A huge crowd of Expats riding around on the top of a double decker party bus amongst Saturday afternoon traffic in Maputo certainly seemed to be a brazen display of affluent hedonism. This was particularly evident when the bus stopped at the beach at Costa do Sol and we were instantaneously surrounded by a huge crowd of gawking Mozambicans. We bought more drinks, we bought more trinkets, we took more pictures then we all got back on our bus and continued on down the road. Someone even put on Bob Dylan’s “Mozambique,” and as we bumbled our way through the catchy riffs and sunny lyrics we could not have thought of a more appropriate song for the moment.

As for my friends that have left us here in Maputo for other foreign lands, each one of you are missed in your own special way. Our paths have crossed and who knows when they will cross again. Seperado mas juntos, e verdade?

2007-02-06T09:55:00.000-06:00

From Maputo to Waterloo

Perhaps a few of you may have already heard the news through the world wide grape vine, but I thought I would nonetheless share with you this latest development in my life. I have accepted a job with MEDA, the organization I currently work for here in Mozambique, at their head offices in Waterloo, Canada. My new position will be as Microfinance Coordinator and I will be working alongside other MEDA employees on overseeing the many international long term microfinance projects that MEDA currently has throughout the developing world. I will also be kept quite busy writing new project proposals and investigating new programming opportunities for MEDA in microfinance as well as in the important cross cutting areas of HIV/AIDS and Youth services.

I am quite excited about this new opportunity and honoured that MEDA has selected me for this position. This will allow me to become involved more in MEDA’s “big picture” development strategy, continuing to provide me with the chance to work in an environment where I am able to combine my academic interests with my spiritual convictions. I am also excited about some of the travel and research opportunities that I will have through this new position as I am anxious to explore new destinations and areas of work. I also am looking forward to working directly with some of the exceptional MEDA “veterans” that I have had the chance to meet and share stories with while here in the field in Mozambique.

Of course, transitional stages do not come with out their fair share of mixed emotions. This opportunity came up very quickly for me and I will be leaving Mozambique, my home for the better part of the past year and a half, in just over two weeks time. I love the community here in Maputo and the life that I have made here in Africa and I know that it will be difficult to adjust back to the surroundings and the pace of life in Canada. There are also many things that I would to do before I go but will likely have to wait until the next time I am in this part of the world.

So for those of you good folks in Winnipeg, I should be home from March 1^st to the 4^th preparing my things then driving my car out to my new home in Waterloo. It would be great to see as many of you as possible so let’s keep in touch!!

2007-01-30T10:01:00.000-06:00

Go See Blood Diamond

I like it when block buster films have the guts to deal with controversial issues and expose underhanded industries. I like it even better when a film such as this is set in Africa, a continent that so rarely makes it onto international news headlines. I encourage all of you to go and see this film, not only because it will cause you to think twice about the morality of the international diamond industry, but also because it will expose you to the tragedy that has often surrounded the extraction and control of Africa’s precious natural resources. It will also demonstrate the utter helplessness that affects the millions of men, women and children that live in failed, war-torn African states, in this case Sierra Leone.

I am also particularly interested in this film because it was shot primarily here in Mozambique. All of the urban and beach scenes were filmed in Maputo’s historic downtown and along the Marginal de Costa da Sol. During the months of April and May, this city was buzzing with camera crews, wannabe extras and star-struck film nuts drunk on the opportunity to steal a glimpse of Leonardo DiCaprio. I had many friends stand in line for hours in an effort to be an extra in the beach bar scene but alas I could not identify any of them when I watched the actual film. I was able to recognize all of the scenes that were shot down town, especially the elegant train station, Xipapanene market and the make shift buildings that they constructed specifically to blow up during the action sequences. One night, as my friends and I were emerging from a downtown pub, we stumbled upon a film set, complete with burnt out vehicles and 30 odd “corpses” strewn across the ground that had been prepared for a shoot the following morning. Definitely an added sense of eeriness to the already sketchy surroundings of the Maputo Baixa at night!!

This film joins the ranks of the other strong African films such as Hotel Rwanda, Tsotsi and The Last King of Scotland that brutally depict many of the horrors that have defined post-colonial Africa. Besides being shot in Maputo, the film had another strong link to Mozambique in that the violence of the Sierra Leonean rebel armies, and the subsequent conscription and brainwashing of child soldiers, was similar to the tactics used by RENAMO during Mozambique’s awful 15 year civil war. These child soldiers, separated from their families, as well as any decent sense of morality, would carry out senseless atrocities on innocent peasant villages, compounding the suffering of the rural population. Now Mozambique is being held up as an example of how to successfully rehabilitate and reintegrate these child soldiers back into their communities and their families using traditional healing and spiritual atonement practices. Now that peace has been declared in both Liberia and Sierra Leone, let us pray that the countless thousands that have been brainwashed by war can regain their sense of self and their place in society. There is still such a long way to go.

The film of course also touches on the issue of the “white man’s” role in African conflicts. Much of Africa’s violent post-colonial history can find its roots in the political and economic interests of external state or corporate actors. Mozambique was one of many African states used as a battleground for the ideological confrontation of the Cold War while Sierra Leone was one of many African states ripped apart by rivaling factions competing for the exclusive control of lucrative resource deposits. But how much can the white man be blamed for the disasters that have befallen the African continent over the past 50 years? This question is touched upon by Solomon Vandy’s character in the film when he ponders how so much violence has been allowed to occur between black communities in African countries. How much have external forces exacerbated the ethnic cleavages in Africa, encouraging carnal violence and full scale civil war? The film does a commendable job depicting the many faces of the white man in Africa: as colonizer, mercenary, homemaker, relief worker, journalist, criminal, idealist and boss.

I also felt the three lead actors were fantastic in this film, with DiCaprio and Hounsou giving particularly strong performances deserving of their Oscar nominations. Many people cringed at Leo’s attempt at a Rhodesian accent but I thought it was bang on that seemed to become more natural as the film progressed. Blood Diamond certainly is not a light hearted night out at the cinema but it is certainly a profound and thought provoking film about one of the darkest corners of the dark continent and a global industry that quite literally has blood on its hands. If any of you have seen the film and would like to share your thoughts please feel free to do so.

2007-01-27T11:10:00.000-06:00

I'm Skypein

Hey everyone, I had my first ever Skype conversation the other day and now I am hooked. What a fantastic way to communicate!! No more annoying two second delays or expensive long distance charges. Now I am normally a litte behind these new technological breakthroughs so for many of you I am sure Skypeing is old news. However, for those of you, who like me seem stuck in the 90s when it comes to technology, I highly recommend downloading this program. Then of course you can give me a buzz over here in Mozambique...for free!! My Skype name is "jpenner19". Hope to talk to ya soon!!

Cheers,

Jp

2007-01-17T07:55:00.000-06:00

Boas Entradas por Todos!!

Well 2007 is here everybody and, since we are already a full two weeks into January, I thought it was about time I put up the first blog posting of the new year. I trust everyone enjoyed themselves this holiday season, whether you were at home surrounded by familiar faces or in a distant land with new companions. Despite all the hype that goes along with New Years celebrations, I do genuinely like to ring in the New Year with a group of friends, do the countdown, pop the bubbly, have that awkward (or awesome!!) first kiss and then stumble through the singing of Auld Lang Syne (of which nobody actually knows any of the lyrics!!).

Last year I spent my New Years relaxing on the sunny beaches of Mozambique and sleeping in a farmer’s field. This year I was home in Canada, shoveling myself out of the 30 centimeters of snow that fell on our city on the night of the 30^th. It took my father and I almost four hours to clear off our patios, walkways and backlane and to dig my car out of the front street. Whereas 30 cms of snow would bring most cities to their knees, Winnipegers simply grit their teeth, lace up their winter boots and head out into the elements with a shovel in their hands.

2006 was a good year for many of my friends and family, with people starting new jobs, finding new relationships, moving into new houses and tackling new adventures. One of the things I like most about coming home to visit is seeing all the great changes that are happening to my city and the people there that I love. Of course it is also reassuring to know that certain things stay the same, like reminiscing at a local pub over a few Mooseheads, turkey dinners with the family and singing songs out of the Mennonite Hymnal at church.

Looking back at my time spent at home, I think I was able to visit with nearly all of the people that I needed to see. I got to have dinner and speak “portanhol” with my dear friend Rebecca, who is still living down in Colombia and has recently taken a job as a Policy Analyst for Latin America with MCC. She is a woman of immense passion and endless potential who continues to inspire me whenever we see each other, even if that is only once in a blue moon!! I also got to take in a concert of my friend’s band “Andrew Neville and the Poor Choices”, a rowdy country rock group with a certain affinity for Jim Beam, truckin songs and train wrecks. 2006 saw them survive their first Western Canadian tour and learn more about high impact lifestyle of rock stars living the dream. Keep given ‘er boys, I’m looking forward to the new album coming out soon!!

Of course, returning home also brought a few surprises for me. The first of which came as I was out for lunch with my former girlfriend Kristjanna, whom I dated just before I left for Mozambique at the end of 2005, and was introduced to the shiny engagement ring on her finger. Now of course I am happy for her as she is in a wonderful physical and spiritual space but I could not help but feel a few mixed emotions about this woman who was such an important part of my recent past. However, as life goes on I guess we cannot dwell on what “could have been” but rather remain thankful for the people that we are blessed to have spent important seasons of our lives with.

The other big surprise came from my cousin Crystal who announced her pregnancy at our Christmas family gathering. Given our family’s propensity for joking around, this announcement caught us completely off guard as our initial reactions ranged from “Ha ha yeah right!!” to “You bloody well better not be!!” Once we realized by the tears welling up in my cousin’s eyes that she was indeed serious, we all erupted in hugs and congratulations. This will be the first child of the “next generation” for our family so obviously it is a pretty big deal.

And the best Christmas gift I received this year was hands down the ski trip that my parents and I took out to Banff in the Canadian Rockies. We were blessed with fantastic ski conditions as the slopes at Sunshine received 20 centimeters of snow over the two days prior to our arrival. It had been nearly 7 years since my dad and I were on skis but we had an absolute riot exploring all the different runs, chasing ski bunnies and pretending like we were professionals. The first day we were there we were fortunate enough to have a brilliantly clear day in which we could see for miles and miles over the snow covered mountains. Since she never did like strapping on skis, my mother elected to spend her holiday between the Spa in the Banff Springs Hotel and the countless shops that line the streets of the quaint little town.

So after spending nearly three weeks in my cold homeland, I was ready to get on the plane and begin the long journey back to Mozambique and begin the new year there. I believe that 2007 will be a fantastic year full of new challenges and new directions. I had a friend dub 2005 the year of “hope and miracles” and 2006 the year of “new discoveries.” Therefore, I am declaring 2007 the year of “courageous action”, both at work and in my personal life. I hope all of you can feel emboldened this year to achieve your goals and follow the path you feel called to pursue.

Blessings and Peace in 2007

2006-12-25T15:47:00.000-06:00

Christmas in Canada

Being home for Christmas this year was one of the greatest gifts I could have received. I love my new home in Mozambique but my true home is here in Winnipeg, especially during the holiday season. As I was preparing to leave Maputo for my 30 hour journey home, I became intoxicated on the anticipation of seeing a White Christmas once again, something I had missed dearly the previous year. As exotic as it sounds, cold drinks on a sunny beach will never top hot chocolate and a roaring fire at Christmas time. I am so incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity to come home and spend this cherished time with friends and family amidst the serene beauty of a prairie Canadian winter.

As I write this entry, it is “only” -10 degrees Celsius outside. I say only because it could easily drop down to -25 degrees any moment. Winnipeg has the distinction of being one of the coldest cities in the world so a temperature reprieve is a welcome blessing. Actually I find -10 to be ideal winter conditions, perfect for ice hockey, skiing and long walks in the park among the glowing Christmas lights and sparking fields of snow. This is such an unbelievable contrast to Africa and I am looking forward to sharing these images with my Mozambican friends who have never come close to seeing a White Christmas.

Of course the other significant cultural contrast I have encountered this holiday season is the mass consumerism here in the North America. I had a hard time driving past the long rows of box commercial chains with the lines of cars stretching out of the parking lots, shoppers frantically scrambling to buy that final gift on their Christmas lists. I did not even go near the malls this year, I figured that this “reverse” culture shock would be just a little too much to handle. I read an article the other day about how Canadians spend an average of $825 each year on Christmas gifts. That is A LOT of money that we spend simply on stuff, much of which we will not even use after a few years time!!

At the risk of sounding cliché, I cannot help but be challenged amidst all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season by John Lennon’s “So this is Christmas and what have you done.” As a wayfaring Christian, this song always brings the true meaning of Christmas close to my heart: How have we offered love, peace, hope and joy with a world so often devoid of such simple and precious gifts? There is comfort and inspiration in the Christmas message for a world suffering from warfare, hunger and death. There is new life that comes from the Light that shines above, just as it was in Bethlehem 2000 years ago so may it be today in Winnipeg, Iraq, Mozambique and to the ends of the earth.

My prayer for everyone is that we can experience this Light in a new way this holiday season, allowing us to invigorate our souls and illuminate all those we encounter on the walk of life. I’ll leave ya with the lyrics to one of my favourite Christmas tunes, the aptly titled “Christmas Song” by Dave Matthews. Many blessings to you all and have a wonderful Christmas and a very festive holiday season!!

She was his girl, he was her boyfriend
Soon to be his wife, make him her husband
A surprise on the way, any day, any day
One healthy little giggling, dribbling baby boy
The Wise Men came, three made their way
To shower him with love
While he lay in the hay
Shower him with love, love, love
Love, love was all around

Not very much of his childhood was known
Kept his mother Mary worried
Always out on his own
He met another Mary who for a reasonable fee
Less than reputable was known to be
His heart was full of love, love, love
Love, love was all around

When Jesus Christ was nailed to the his tree
Said "Oh, Daddy-o, I can see how it all soon will be.
I came to shed a little light on this darkening scene.
Instead I fear I’ve spilled the blood of our children all around."
The blood of our children all around
The blood of our children’s all around

So I’m told, so the story goes
The people he knew were
Less than golden-hearted
Gamblers and robbers
Drinkers and jokers
All soul searchers
Like you and me
Like you and me

Rumors insisted he soon would be
For his deviations taken into custody
By the authorities, less informed than he.
Drinkers and jokers, all soul searchers
Searching for love, love, love
Love, love was all around

Preparations were made
For his celebration day
He said, "Eat this bread, think of it as me.
Drink this wine and dream it will be
The blood of our children all around,
The blood of our children’s all around

Father up above,
Why in all this anger do you fill me up with love, love, love?
Father up above,
Why in all this hatred do you fill me up with love?
Fill me love, love, yeah
Love, love, and the blood of our children all around

2006-12-05T09:27:00.000-06:00

Zavala Nights

Stepping out of North America and setting foot in an African city certainly has presented me with a very different living environment. But Maputo, despite its Third World hardships and charms, is still very much a “Western” looking city, complete with a wide selection of luxuries and comforts to satisfy any First World desire. Now I am certainly no stranger to Maputo’s finest restaurants, bars, convenience stores and cultural centers but it really is something else to leave the comforts of Maputo behind and step into the “Real Mozambique” ( I am trying to set a record for most “” uses in one blog entry!!). Here is where one really encounters the differences between North American and African culture.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting some fine Mozambican folks I had met through a French friend of mine named Nathalie. They live in the town of Zavala in the southern most part of Inhambane province in central Mozambique. I had just been to Bazaruto with my parents a few weeks previous and clearly saw why Inhambane has become a premier stop on the Southern African tourist circuit. Nothing but idyllic beaches, premier fishing and scuba diving environments, along with some of the friendliest communities of souls in all of the country. When Vasco de Gama became the first European to encounter this untouched treasure trove he named the place “Terra de Boas Gentes” or Land of the Good People. Little has changed in Inhambane over the last 500 years to warrant any other name.

One of the things I respect most about Nathalie (and one of the reasons I find myself spending a lot of time with her recently) is her desire to integrate deeper into Mozambican culture, despite being confined to an 8 to 5 office job like myself here in Maputo. When she invited me to visit her friends Amos and Bob (not a very Mozambican name I thought!) who work with a school of traditional music in Zavala, I obviously jumped at the opportunity. Hoping on a north bound bus one Saturday morning of a long weekend, we braved the hot sweaty 8 hours to spend an unforgettable weekend with some truly good people.

We were first greeted warmly by a welcoming committee of Bob, his wife (the two pictured above), sisters, brothers and cousins who proudly took us out the best restaurant/nightclub in town for a hearty meal of Fried Chicken, salad and chips. We then proceeded to dance up a storm as the locals began to pour steadily into the club, filling up the already crowded dance floor. Mozambicans, whether they are from a big city or a small town, can never seem to find their way to the disco until well after 11 pm, creating some serious “dance till the sun comes up” opportunities. Bob and Amos, and the whole family for that matter were in fine form and we had a riot dancing the night away to Mozambican, Brazilian and South African pop tunes.

The next morning we work up with the natural rhythm of an African homestead, roosters calling, kids running to fetch water and the women stoking the day’s first charcoal fires. Bob’s sister graciously offered Nathalie and I her hut to sleep in during our stay and we thoroughly enjoyed its rugged charm, complete with electricity even!! Relaxing with a cup of tea in the morning, and a bowl of fresh fish soup, amidst the waving palm leaves and melodic voices emerging from the neighbouring churches, I sat and allowed my senses to gather in the gentle beauty of Africa.

Bob was eager for us to get moving however as he had a big day planned for us. We were first going for a tour of the town of Zavala and then off to meet his father in Quissico where we would drive the hour and half into the bush to see the music school. Zavala overlooks a spectacular stretch of coastline but the beaches and lagoons are very difficult to access from both the main highway and town. My friends could not believe it when I returned to Maputo and told them that I had traveled to Inhambane and did NOT visit a beach. This trip, however, was more about music that it was about getting a suntan.

We met up with Bob’s father and were introduced to more and more of Bob’s brothers and cousins. Turns out Bob comes from a very large family as his father has five wives and nearly 40 children!! Quite the African man indeed, with each wife receiving her own separate homestead in the area. We all piled in the back of a rickety, rusted out pick up truck for the journey into the bush. The truck only broke down twice along the narrow road but our expert comrades were able to shuffle under the body of the vehicle and promptly fix the problem.

We arrived at the school and were once again greeted by a tremendous welcoming committee of nearly every man, woman and child in the surrounding areas. News spread quickly that there were visitors coming and the whole village assembled to watch a show put on by the young musicians and dancers of the school. I was absolutely amazed at how well practiced and professional the groups were. They clearly showed their experience which has seen them play concerts all over southern Mozambique. For an African child, who has grown up only knowing his immediate surroundings, taking a trip to the capital city can be the honour of a lifetime!!

The music played at the school is mainly Timbila music, which is basically a large xylophone made out of wood and hollowed out masala shells. When you have 6 or 7 timbilas playing frantically, alongside some raucous percussion rhythms, the scene can be quite intense. Zavala after all is the Timbila capital of Mozambique and each year hosts the National Timbila Festival where up to fifty Timbilas will be playing at once. Nathalie and I were both given the chance to perform our pathetic Timbila skills, much to the delight of the village children and elders. We spent a fantastic afternoon listening to and playing music while passing around homemade beer. We even got a chance to visit the workshop where the children of the school make the traditional instruments to sell in the market. One particular boy, the one in the middle facing the camera in the picture above, has been named a legitimate Timbila prodigy, who at the age of ten has already considered the best player in the region.

That night we enjoyed a tasty meal of vegetable stew and chicken foot soup at Bob’s house and (surprise, surprise) back to the disco for another night of cervejas and booty shaking with the locals. The next morning we visited more of Bob’s family as well as friends that work in various businesses in town. Jumping on a Maputo bound bus at just before noon, Nathalie and I did nothing but relax and reminisce about our wonderful weekend amidst such genuine Mozambican culture and hospitality.

2006-11-24T07:43:00.000-06:00

Shattered

Yesterday afternoon I received some news that has devastated our community of friends here in Maputo. One of our close friends was the victim of a terrible crime in her house and the shockwaves of this incident will likely affect all of us for a long time to come. All of the horror stories of violence in this city seemed like distant urban legends until they finally reached someone close to me and I was smacked with this terrible reality. Are the feelings of security we possess entirely over inflated? Can one really prepare themselves enough for such a surprise and vicious attack? How does one overcome such tragedy and continue to approach life in Mozambique with a positive spirit?

On Wednesday morning, our friend was preparing to leave her house for work when she received a knock on her door. It was a man dressed in an electrician’s uniform apparently on a routine mission to read the electrical meter. She let him in and immediately he grabbed her and held a gun to her head. For the next two hours he proceeded to tie her up, rape her and steal most of her valuable possessions. After he was finished, he called one of her coworkers to brag about the incident and report that she was still left tied up in the apartment.

Receiving news of this nature leaves one entirely speechless. How can you begin to wrap your mind around a crime as heinous as this or begin to understand the soul of a man who could carry out such evil deeds? In addition to recovering mentally and spiritually, our friend has spent most of the past two days with doctors and police, dealing with the legal and medical repercussions of the attack. She has already begun medical and psychological treatment but this will undoubtedly be a long and painful process.

No one can truly predict how they would react in a similar situation, just as one cannot foresee how they would react to receiving news of this kind about a close friend. We all want to help but it is difficult to find the right words to console, empathize and encourage. She is returning home on Saturday and, despite the trauma of the past 48 hours, insisted on having a party to see all of her friends before she left. She said, more than anything, she needed to be surrounded by some serious positive energy.

So last night we all gathered at one of our favourite local pubs to share some drinks, some cheerful stories and some long embraces. It was something all of us needed really, the chance to get together as a community, vent our frustrations and remind ourselves that the sun will still rise tomorrow morning. It was very important for our friend to demonstrate to everyone that she has not changed, she is not still tied up in the bedroom and that she is ready to continue on with her life. I think the most remarkable thing about my friend has been her ability to stay positive in the aftermath of the incident. She was convinced she was going to die Wednesday morning and instead she feels that she has received a new gift of life. Such an inspiring testament to a beautiful, enduring soul.

Sara,

May you rise above this calamity with grace and determination

Your spirit will shine much brighter than this present darkness

Truly it shall no longer hold its strength over you

And you will walk proudly once again along the path of light and love

That will surely sustain you for all of your days.

Many blessings to you until our paths meet again.

Peace and Love

Jared

2006-11-21T08:32:00.000-06:00

Closing Time!

Despite all the challenges that we faced in putting on the Learning Event Workshop, the two day event really was a rousing success. A solid 8 out of 10 from the facilitator team. We had great contributions from all participants, provocative presentations from the guest speakers and a jovial atmosphere which allowed people to interact freely while exchanging ideas and business cards (which is the whole purpose of these events after all right?). On the second day of the workshop, we invited a wider community of donors, microfinance practitioners, UN representatives and government officials to participate in event. We were interested in having their inputs into our work as well as showcasing the results of our project.

In addition to the work of our four Mozambican partners, we had guest speakers come from MFIs in Zimbabwe, Swaziland and South Africa to share the experiences of their institutions in designing HIV/AIDS strategies. We also set aside time for the participants to break into smaller groups and discuss the main challenges facing the microfinance industry as well as how the Mozambican industry as a whole can move forward from here on the issue of HIV/AIDS. MMF is closing at the end of this month and the various stakeholders here in Mozambique realize that they will have to work together to sustain the momentum generated through this project.

We followed up the final session of the workshop with a much anticipated and well deserved celebratory dinner at the Costa do Sol restaurant, a hands down favourite for MMF-MEDA functions here in Maputo. The night seemed to run on an endless supply of seafood, red wine and laughter as we all joyfully celebrated the end of our year long project. After dinner, some of the wonderful ladies from USAID and ECIAfrica wanted to see some of Maputo’s nightlife so, full of new found confidence, we all headed down to Rua Bagamoyo (Maputo’s historical “street of sin,” aptly named for various reasons) to dance the night away at Zona Quente (Eng: Hot Zone).

A wonderful closing to a great year with a fantastic work team. Thanks a million for everything you guys! Here are some pics from the two days.

Un Abraço

Cremildo getting into his element

Hello down there!! Is this thing on?!?!

CIDA Representative, Heather Cameron, giving the keynote address

The nitty gritty of group work

Joyful souls at the end of night

2006-11-20T08:40:00.000-06:00

Trials and Tribulations Continue

The rant that I posted up on the blog last week really only tells a part of the story leading up to our Final Learning Event here in Maputo. Now that the dust has settled from a very hectic week, I can begin to digest and recall the events that culminated with our successful two-day workshop. Since this was going to be the final event of our HIV/AIDS and Microfinance project, as well as the final public event for MMF, we wanted to bolster our recognition by holding the event at the prestigious Hotel Avenida.

Our team of consultants and facilitators from Joburg, Waterloo and Washington D.C. began to file into Maputo on the Sunday evening and we had reserved the full day on Monday for reviewing the workshop agenda, coordinating last minute details and finalizing our presentations for Tuesday and Wednesday. Of course, procrastination caught up with us (especially me!!) resulting in late night scrambling to put all the final pieces into place. No matter how many times I promise to myself to be better prepared in advance for these types of things I always seem to flying by the seat of my pants at the last minute, resulting in high blood pressure and more than a few colourful phrases muttered repeatedly alongside frantic actions. Honestly, when will I learn?!?!

The first day was designed as a round table discussion with our consultant team and representatives from our four MFI partners. This gave us an opportunity to see each MFI present on their institution’s experiences throughout this project as well opening the floor to questions and comments from all participants regarding the successes, failures and, most importantly, the lessons learned from the various activities conducted over the past nine months. One of the greatest challenges in facilitating this project has been overcoming the language barrier between Mozambican practitioners that speak only Portuguese and foreign consultants that speak only English. Translators have thus become essential partners in this project and for the final event we elected to invest in a simultaneous translation system. Although coming with a hefty price tag, it allowed everyone around the table to communicate effectively and fluently about the issues at hand.

All except one however. After my presentation on our End of Project Survey I was grilled with a question from one of the consultants about what I thought were the three most important things a microfinance institution needed to have in place before they could successfully implement an HIV/AIDS strategy. I began my response in Portuguese but quickly began to stumble over my words and decided to switch to English. This proved no less helpful as I suddenly drew a complete blank, unable to string together a single coherent sentence. With my face turning a deeper shade of red, and the heat building under my collar, I frantically tried to reach into the furthest corners of my brain but could not produce anything other then sputtering, directionless phrases. Finally, my colleague Pauline Achola jumped in to save me from my pathetic display. Everyone had a nice hardy laugh at my struggle during the coffee break but I was thoroughly embarrassed. For a guy that has always prided himself on having good public speaking skills, this sudden brain freeze came as a real shock to me.

This embarrassing event was only the beginning of my VERY long evening. After our final planning session for the next days events I received notice that the hotel in which all of our out of town guests were staying had messed up our reservation, leaving us one room short. They had also neglected to pick up one of our guest speakers flying in from Zimbabwe. After some tense negotiations we were able to get all of the participants safely into their rooms that night with smiles still on their faces (barely).

Then came the task of preparing all of the final versions of the handouts for the following day. We began this job only at 8 PM since our speakers were still working on their final versions of their presentations up to 7:30 that night!! Pauline Achola graciously volunteered to help my with the photocopying and we worked out a pretty efficient assembly line system…that is until the photocopier at MMF broke down at about 10:15 with still half the job incomplete. After we had finished nearly pulling all of our hair out we convinced the front office staff at Pauline’s hotel to allow us to use their photocopier to complete the job. As we ran off the final documents, and finished the final bites of our cold take away pizza, the clock on the wall read 12:30 AM. Pauline told me that we had set a new MEDA record for late night conference preparation…yikes!!

I was utterly exhausted as I made my way back to my apartment that night. I am now living with my Irish friend Brendan in an amazing 11^th floor flat on 24 de Julho. While the view is certainly breathtaking from that height, I found out that evening why living in an old highrise apartment in Maputo is not always what it is cracked up to be. Somewhere between the 7^th and the 8^th floors the electricity in the elevator went out and I was left stuck in the complete darkness. Panic began to set in as my initial button pushing and calling for help yielded no results. Finally one of the guards answered my calls and tried to restart the lift. After this proved futile, he told me he was going to “find a serviceman” but since it was already nearing 1:30 AM I was doubtful and began to prepare myself mentally for a night’s sleep in a stuck elevator. Another 30 minutes passed until I heard a series of banging and clanging above and below me until finally I was pulled up to the 8^th floor where the “serviceman” proceeded to pry at the door until I was set free. In total, I was stuck in the lift for 50 minutes, although at the end of my long day this seemed like an eternity!!

I really wish this was the end of the story but unfortunately there is more. As I finally arrived at my flat I found out that Brenden had accidentally locked me out and that no amount of yelling and banging at the door was going to wake him up to let me in. Like an angry zombie I plodded back down the 11 flights of stairs and took refuge at my nearest friend’s house, wanting nothing more than to turn off the lights on this wretched day. The three hours of sleep was hardly sufficient for the following day but with all of my bad luck having been spent the night before I had a quiet confidence that day two would run smoothly. I will put up more pictures and stories from day two tomorrow.

2006-11-13T09:16:00.000-06:00

Leaving Joburg Behind

I am sweaty, tired, frustrated and impatient as I write this blog. We are stuck on a bus by the side of the road, 45 minutes from the Mozambique-South African border and it is cooking hot outside. Africa hot. The kind of hot that makes a difficult situation, like our current predicament, the latest in our series of challenges today, seem even less tolerable. The kind of heat where you can actually see the patience draining out of people like the thick drops of perspiration that have gathered on their foreheads and are now running profusely down their arms and legs.

Our driver returns to the cab after a lengthy call on his cell phone. He is muttering and shaking his head. This cannot be good. Babies are crying, people are cursing and spirits are sinking. We cannot fix the bus on our own and we have no idea when a mechanic will arrive. We could be in for the long haul.

This is the second bus that has broken down on us today. The first was back at the Park Station in Johannesburg (aka Joburg or “Jozzie” to South Africans) where we blew out our clutch just two minutes after getting on the road. We waited over two hours for a new bus to arrive amidst the exhaust bellowing vehicles and dodgy characters that frequent the crowded terminal. A particularly sketchy looking character approached my colleague Cremildo and I with a clever story about how he needed just 20 Rand so he could visit his mother who is dying of HIV/AIDS. We brushed him off successfully but a few minutes later Cremildo looked down and noticed that his computer bag had been swiped. We had become the latest in a long list of crime victims in downtown Joburg.

Now I am going to just come out and say this straight: I hated Joburg. I thought it was a terrible city. I am sure that if I lived here for an extended period of time and was introduced to some more cultural circles I would find this city’s bright side but I saw very little in my five days there to make me want to go back. Years of apartheid have created a city with a horribly rotten core, rampant urban sprawl, shocking class disparity and a society irrevocably dependant on automobility as its only means of transport. Some people claim that Joburg is in the same class as other “First World” cities but I certainly do not see many redeeming qualities that would put the city alongside the New Yorks, Parises, Tokyos or Rios of the world.

However, as Alan Paton once said, in Southern Africa all roads inevitably lead to Joburg. No matter what your business is, you will eventually find yourself in this city one way or another. Cremildo and I came to meet with our consulting partners in ECIAfrica in order to put the finishing touches on our HIV/AIDS and Microfinance Learning Workshop being held in Maputo the following week. They invited us to Joburg to meet their staff, see their offices and work on our presentations and workshop activities. It was a productive week for sure and we all appreciated the opportunity to work together as a physical team rather than relying on communication via email and poor quality conference calls.

The one non-work related activity that I was really looking forward to in Joburg was visiting the Apartheid Museum. Since Robben Island was one of my clear highlights in Cape Town, and given the fact that PW Botha, SA’s last pro-apartheid PM, died the day that we arrived in the city, I figured that a trip to this museum should be an essential part of my Joburg experience. Unfortunately, I discovered that getting from point A to point B in this city is extremely difficult if you do not have a car. There are busses but certainly none that any white person, or any black person with a car for that matter, would ever dream of using. There are taxis but they are ridiculously expensive and extremely difficult to contact. A round trip across town to the Museum was going to set me back 400 Rand and the journey would take almost two and a half hours. I elected instead to flip through a biography of Nelson Mandela over a coffee at a posh bookstore rather than make the trek across town.

This trip came at about the same time that I realized that Cremildo and I had already spent nearly our entire travel budget allocated for this project. As a result, I came up with a plan for us to make the trip on the most frugal budget as possible: we would take the bus instead of fly and we would stay with one of the consultants in her garden house instead of a hotel. It seemed like the logical decision at the time but now that we are down one lap top computer and on our second break down of the day we both wished we had made alternative plans (Although Dominique your hospitality was incredible…Thank you again so much!!).

As I finish this post we are moving once again through the lush valleys of sugar cane and bananas on the way to the Mozambican border. The mechanic finally arrived and in less than two minutes fixed the problem to the resounding cheers of the passengers on board. As the sun is setting on this long travel day, it is casting the most beautiful golden light across the countryside, helping me to forget about the frustrations of the moment and once again remind myself of the bigger picture. It is when I do this that my problems and complaints seem so shockingly insignificant and I can once again focus on a positive frame of mind.

2006-10-25T10:15:00.000-05:00

Parents in Paradise

After having their only son living on the other side of the world for the past year, my mother and father finally made it over to Mozambique to visit and see the country that I have described so glowingly in emails, blogs and long distance phone calls. This was my mother’s first experience in Africa and, despite her persistent fears about security, food poisoning and encounters with dangerous animals, she has successfully navigated her way through her African adventure in full stride.

After spending a week with some friends in Kenya, they arrived in Maputo and immediately were initiated into the Mozambican experience by having a drink in the local baraca and a seafood meal by the sea. We followed this up the next day by sampling some Mozambican food, complete with matapa, Zambezian chicken and goat curry and then a visit to Africa Bar, one of the hottest music clubs in town despite the cheesy name. They thoroughly enjoyed the ambiance, my father being particularly impressed with the boisterous band and the countless attractive Mozabicanas buzzing around the place. My friends thought it was strange that my parents would be game for such an intense night out on the town but it is something that I have come to expect, and love, about my mom and dad during our 26 years together.

We then took off to the idyllic Bazaruto Archipelago, a series of four tropical islands off the coast of Inhanbane province in the central region of the country. I have dreamed of visiting these islands the whole time I have been here and my anticipation was well justified as we caught our first glimpses of the pure white sand and turquoise water from the window of our plane. We stayed in a quant little town of Vilankulos in a thatched A-Frame hut just a stones throw from the ocean. We had originally wanted to stay at one of the resorts on the islands themselves but it is impossible to find accommodation for less than $300 US per person, per night!!! Paradise doesn’t come cheap I can tell you that.

We elected instead to use our holiday money to explore the islands by boat from the mainland. We took a snorkeling trip to Bazaruto Island and spent the day climbing the giant sand dunes, swimming in the secluded bay and snorkeling at the two-mile reef. The visibility underwater was stunning and we were able to see so many different types of fish and corals of all colours and sizes. I thought I had covered myself well with sunscreen but discovered that night that I had neglected a long streak along the front of my chest, leaving me with a rather ridiculous looking burn the next morning.

The next day we rented our own boat and took off to Santa Carolina Island, or more appropriately named “Paradise Island” by the Portuguese tourists back in the 50s and 60s. It certainly lived up to the hype as we spent the morning exploring coral reefs and deserted beaches before climbing back into our boat to make it to the Benguerra Island Resort in time for lunch. We spent the rest of the day visiting some of the local communities on the island and relaxing in the late afternoon shade.

The next day we were scheduled to leave but our flight was cancelled so we were forced to stay another day in our beautiful surroundings. Initially I was upset, as I knew that I had a mountain of emails to deal with at the office and colleagues expecting my return but a cold beer overlooking the ocean soon washed all of those concerns. When would I get a chance to be stranded with my parents in a tropical paradise again? We celebrated our blessings that night with another bottle of wine and a wonderful seafood platter.

The following weekend we packed up the car and took the Penner circus on the road to Kruger Park. My parents were shocked at the differences one sees when crossing the border from Mozambique to South Africa. Desolate hills and simple reed huts quickly turn into stately homes and lush irrigated commercial farmlands. We rented a car from Maputo and cruised around the park looking for the Big Five (ah safari in a Civic, gotta love Kruger!!). While we saw tons of elephants, Rhinos and Buffalo, we were unable to find the lions on this trip. However, we easily made up for this by seeing THREE leopard!! The third of which was perched in a tree, munching away on an impala. I couldn’t get a great picture but it was still something amazing to see!!

To put it simply, the time with my parents here in Mozambique was fantastic. We shared many great meals, laughs and adventures and were able to once again get into our family rhythm without any effort. I have always felt blessed to have such supportive and kind-hearted parents who take such a genuine interest in my work and in my friends. These past weeks only served to confirm this deeply rooted belief. Now they are off to Cape Town to finish the final leg of their African Tour. Have a great time you two and don’t forget to climb Table Mountain and get lost in a vineyard!!

2006-10-03T09:25:00.000-05:00

Roll up for the mystery tour!!

Well it has been almost a whole month since my last post and I have run out of all worthwhile excuses for not writing. I guess I am just too preoccupied with the day-to-day events of my 8 to 5 job here in Maputo that I no longer see my existence here as a Mozambican “adventure.” Ha ha, apathy and procrastination really can be terrible viruses. Things here still continue to amaze me, even though my one year anniversary in this beautiful country has long since passed me by. Much has happened in this past month and I would like to first tell you all a little bit about my final work trip that Cremildo and I took in the middle of September.

We took off for a bit of a Magical Mystery Tour of Mozambique that saw us visit three provinces in a week and a half. If there is one thing that I can seriously count myself blessed for it has been my ability to see many different regions of this country through our HIV/AIDS and microfinance project. As any development worker will agree, working in the field provides a degree of satisfaction that you just cannot find while pounding away at a keyboard under the fluorescent lights of an office room. Encountering the personalities of those on the ground puts development into a realistic perspective and recharges ones heart and soul for working in this field.

We began our journey in Nampula where we were joined by Dominique Brouwers, our consulting partner from ECIAfrica in Johannesburg. We spent two solid days with our partners CMN and Ophavela, discussing our research reports and policy recommendations. While Ophavela continues to amaze me with their strategic planning and operational capabilities, CMN continues to present out team with headaches. Their organization continues to drag their feet with a couple of key activities, despite our continual support and pressure applied on them from Maputo. With this organization, we have definitely encountered that fine line in development between technical assistance and “carrying” a partner towards a final goal.

After our time in Nampula, Cremildo and I went to Beira in the Sofala province to continue our second phase of our HIV/AIDS impact assessment with our partner BOM. Here we encountered a whole new challenge: a severe lack of communication between the BOM branches in the field and the head office in Maputo. We found out that the branches were quite behind schedule in HIV/AIDS trainings and therefore only a fraction of the clients were eligible for our survey. This obviously made it very difficult for us to obtain our required research sample but with the help of some hard-working, and very patient, enumerators we were able to complete a sufficient number of surveys.

Returning to Beira, I was reminded of the decrepit state of this once bustling port city. To understand the contemporary state of Beira, one must understand the regional dynamics of this massive and culturally diverse country. The central region of the country has for years been at odds with the highly developed and politically influential south. Maputo has for years been the main commercial and political hub of the country and the regional isolation felt by many Mozambicans in the center has been able to be manipulated by RENAMO to challenge the FRELIMO old guard in the south. Unfortunately, since Beira is the political heartland of RENAMO, the city receives very little support from the governing party in Maputo. The years of civil war also had a disasterous effect on the city and it has never fully recovered from its rapid deterioration.

One of the best examples of Beira’s crumbling state of affairs is the Grande Hotel. This used to be Beira’s leading 5 star hotel before independence, hosting the likes of celebrities, politicians and wealthy Portuguese elite. However, as the country slipped further and further towards revolution the owners promptly packed their bags and left behind their magnificent establishment. Now, 30 years later, the Grande Hotel is home to over 2000 squaters with 3-4 families sharing a room, goats and chickens roaming the hallways, laundry strung throughout the dinning room and central stair case and the distinct aroma of charcoal fires, rotting garbage and urine. When I was last in Beira I had the chance to go inside the building with a local Mozambican friend of mine (it would be a death wish for a white guy to go in alone!!). Walking around the living ruins of a five star hotel is truly a bizarre experience.

After we said goodbye to Beira, we made our way to Chimoio in the province of Manica to continue with the HIV/AIDS impact survey with BOM. Chimoio is the opposite of Beira, clean, calm, relaxed, beautiful. We spent three productive days collecting our samples with the help of too young enumerators and meeting with potential partners for our microfinance and HIV/AIDS affected youth project. We here at MEDA are excited about the potential of this project and doing more hands on work in the field. I’ll keep you posted on the progress of this proposal.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a picture of some kids playing around in the late afternoon in Chimoio. I really like this picture for some reason. For me it represents the joy, beauty and innocence of youth. In Mozambique, these kids are called the Janela de Esperança (window of hope) because there generation holds the best chance for the country to rebuild after the ravages of HIV/AIDS. Protecting these youth from infection, and equipping them with practical skills and higher education, will be a central challenge to the future growth of Mozambique.

2006-09-08T03:04:00.000-05:00

Adeus Lizbeth

A minha colega, esta a sair
E eu vou ter muitas saudades para voce
E por que?
Porque nós não nos conhecemos
Assim como nós devemos ter
Eu aprendi amar-te quando não havia muito tempo
E aprecie suas ofertas somente quando ja foi.

Falamos uma lingua,
Mais que Portanhol ;)
E um lingua das nossas almas
Unido pela harmonia de nossa canção ao Senhor

Nós trabalhamos para servir-lhe,
Nós amamos para elogiá-lhe
E nós procuramos encontrá-lhe.

Pode você ir completamente do espírito,
Dirigido por suas palavra e ação
E protegido por sua mão

Sempre estamos juntos
Na mente, no corpo e na alma

Sua colega e amigo,

Jared

This past Wednesday we had an emotional despidida (going away party) for one of our senior staff members Lizbeth Martell. Liz was the longest standing employee here at MMF and was an important pillar of this organization. Her insight, her smile and her wealth of experience in microfinance and development will be surely missed. Liz has decided to return to home country of Hondorus to begin a new chapter in her life. We all hope that peace and happiness with follow her during this long journey and new career direction.

In honour of Lizbeth, we went to one of her favourite restaurants in town, the classic Costa do Sol. This is a place that has been owned by the same Greek family for nearly 80 years, never ceasing operations during the civil war and continues to serve the undisputed “best LM prawns in Mozambique.” While this final statement can certainly be up for debate, there is absolutely no arguing with the high quality of the seafood at this timeless Maputo icon. We enjoyed a spectacular feast and the shared stories, laughter and vinho verde late into the night.

The staff had a chance to each say a few tributary words and present Liz with some gifts of appreciation for her time here in Mozambique. I was particularly impressed with Cremildo’s simple yet touching gift to Liz, an old 5000 meticais note bearing the image of the Samora Machel, Mozambique’s revolutionary hero and first president of the independent state. This small rare note, representing the spirit of the small yet significant contributions of microfinance clients in this country, will follow Liz around the world and into this next chapter of her life.

It was truly a special night that none of us staff here at MMF will soon forget.

2006-09-05T07:49:00.000-05:00

50 000 Virgins Dancing in the Sun

That title is sure to attract some attention. It certainly is a sight that you don’t see everyday. The event is the annual Reed Dance in Swaziland and we all jumped at the opportunity to see such a glorious display of Swazi culture. The history of this event dates back hundreds of years and is rich with ceremonial traditions that pay respect to the Swazi Royal Family and the endurance of the Swazi people. I will likely never see a cultural event of this nature and magnitude ever again.

The Reed Dance brings together Swazi girls from every part of the country to the Ezulwini Valley (The valley of the heavens) for a week long ceremony of singing, dancing and feasting. The girls can be anywhere from 5 to 20 years old and will present the Queen Mother with freshly cut reeds from the surrounding areas to rethatch her house after the winter months. Traditionally, the girls that participated had to be virgins as the ceremony was to honour their commitment to abstinence until marriage. Now the only requirement is that the girls cannot be married or have any children.

The girls wear brightly coloured traditional outfits and anklets that shake to the rhythm of their dance steps. They are also nearly all topless, displaying nearly every shape and size of breasts imaginable. This year the number of participants was estimated to be just over 50 000, creating a breathtaking spectacle of colour and song. What impressed me was that, despite the copious amounts of young flesh in front of our eyes, the event was very asexual. The girls are very comfortable with their bodies and their bare breasts seemed to be a natural part of their costumes. Still, despite the genuine beauty of the event, I definitely encountered a fine line between photography and perversion that inevitably comes when one is surrounded by so many half naked teenage girls.

What was so interesting to me was the contrast between the rich and poor participants. Some girls, obviously from wealthier families in the urban centers, had beautifully elaborate costumes, jewelry and meticulously prepared makeup and hairstyles while many of the poorer girls from the rural areas arrived in just simple capalanas (the ubiquitous African wrap dress). The Reed Dance also attracts a large number of Swazi guys dressed up in traditional warrior regalia. Periodically, these guys would run out, perform a dance and bow at the feet of one of their favourite girls. I was also impressed with how Swazi princesses would dance right alongside the rest of the colourfully adorned participants. Members of the Royal Family could be identified from the rest of the girls from the red feathers in their hair and their entourage of female security guards.

The popular rumour regarding the Reed Dance is that it is an event where the king gets to choose his next wife from the horde of maidens dancing in front of him. While the king certainly has picked a wife at the Reed Dance in years past, this is not the explicit purpose of the festival. Still controversy surrounds the event that seemingly promotes polygamy and sexual liberty in a country that is suffering from a horrible 42% HIV/AIDS prevalence rate. It will be interesting to see how long the country will continue such a traditional event against mounting criticism from within Swaziland as well as international observers. It is heartbreaking to look at this mass of girls and consider that over one third of them will have their lives cut short by HIV/AIDS, many of them already born with the disease.

Swaziland is such an incredibly traditional society and the Swazi people are immensely proud of their cultural heritage. They are one of only a handful of true nation-states in the entire world and vigorously defend their traditional way of life. The fact that each year more and more girls turn up to the Reed Dance illustrates that interest in such cultural celebrations is increasing rather than waning. Aside from the sunglasses and cellphones used by some of the girls, the nature and appearance of the event has not changed in over 200 years. We were all so grateful that we got a chance to be a part of this remarkable event but to answer the obvious question: no, none of us returned to Maputo with a Swazi princess on our arm.

2006-09-01T05:59:00.000-05:00

The Joy of Visitors

Last week I had the pleasure of having my good friend Reynold come and visit me here in Maputo along with his girlfriend Anne. This was exciting because they were the first friends from home to come and be a part of my life here in Mozambique. Visitors are always such a blessing and we had such a good time getting caught up on the past year of our lives, exploring new frontiers and reminiscing about the “good ol days.” It was also a real pleasure to finally meet Anne as she far exceeded all of the glowing reports that had made it over to me here from Winnipeg. Anne is currently working as a hospital chaplain and has a refreshing outlook on the Mennonite faith and contemporary spirituality. Her and Reyn really seem to complement each other, which is essential in any good relationship. You certainly get my two thumbs up Anne, welcome to the family!! (ha ha)

Like most tourists that come to Mozambique, my friends had a definite hunger for some fresh seafood and lounging by the beach. I was able to satisfy their appetite with some grilled prawns and fried lulas (calamari in Portuguese). Always the adventurous types, I think Anne and Reyn must have walked every street in Maputo twice during their excursions around the city, marveling over the fresh coconuts, massive pineapples and peri-peri cashews.

On the first weekend they were here we set off for Chidengale Beach, a seaside paradise that I had been told of 400 km north of Maputo. We set off on the Saturday morning on cramped local bus, enduring the four hour journey to the sleepy beach community. We had every intention of camping on the beach to save some money and enjoy the outdoors to the fullest. I even borrowed a tent from my friend John so we would not all have to cram like sardines into my two person tent.

The bus was so full however that we could not all sit together and we had to pile all of our luggage into a giant pile by the main entrance. When we arrived at our stop at Chidengele I had to get out of the driver’s door as it was impossible to leave by the regular entrance. I had to walk around the bus to pick up John’s tent from the chaotic pile in the middle but before I was able to retrieve the tent the bus abruptly pulled away leaving me cursing and running frantically down the highway waving my arms in pursuit. My efforts were all in vain. The tent was gone.

The only thing that could have raised my spirits at that point was the beautiful 5 km walk through the wilderness on route to the beach. We passed old run down colonial buildings, reed huts and a massive fresh water lake where the naked locals were bathing and washing their clothes in the hot sun. The beach was spectacular as well and we spent the rest of our daylight hours chucking the Frisbee around and body surfing the massive waves. At night we were treated to a magnificent display of stars, contrasted against the rhythmic calling of the surf. This was the Mozambique that Reyn and Anne came searching for and they certainly found it that weekend.

We parted company the next day, myself returning to Maputo while my friends continuing north to the beaches in Inhambane. They returned the next weekend, bronzed by the sun and full of stories from their week at Tofo and Barra. We decided to check out Swaziland for a couple of days and took off once again on public transit for Mbanane. When ever one travels by chappa (bus/van) in Africa, they have to leave all notions of personal space behind and take along an extra dose of patience. Of course a long wait at the border is always easier when you can have a cold beer to pass the time. Here’s a shot of Anne and I enjoying some of the finer points of border stopping.

We packed our time in Swaziland with great meals, visits to “cuddle puddles,” exploring cultural villages, climbing around waterfalls and late night poker tournaments with our friends at the hostel. We learned a bit about the history of Executioner’s Rock, the highest point in the Swazi Royal Valley where criminals were ordered to jump off if they were found guilty of witchcraft or murder. The mountain commands a dramatic presence, especially in the late afternoon sun.

I had such a great time with Reyn and Anne during those two weeks and I wish them all the best back in Winnipeg this fall. Their visit made me even more excited for the visits in October from my parents and from my friend Doug Rhoads, whom I have not seen since we lived together in the West Bank seven years ago. Anyone else interested in coming to Mozambique? My place is always open to those that make it here!!

2006-08-25T07:27:00.000-05:00

Dia de Hommems

I think of all the days of the week here in Mozambique Friday is my favourite. The beginning of the weekend, the reception of pay cheques, the close of the work week and an early finishing hour all contribute to give a Friday a joyous feeling on the streets of Maputo. The tradition of some of the MMF staff here is to go to the popular Museu Baracas for some good home cooked Mozambican lunch and a cold beer or two. These baracas are an ideal meeting spot for the men of Maputo to share stories, crack jokes, wax philosophically and relax after a long work week.

It is no wonder that Fridays in Mozambique are also referred to as “Men’s day,” a day for men to feel like kings and enjoy the camaraderie of their closest friends, colleagues and associates. This seems to suit the women of Maputo just fine as they also get a chance on Fridays to get together with their girlfriends in one of the numerous “salaos” (beauty saloons) throughout the city. For every baraca selling beer to the men of Maputo, there is a salao catering to the beautification of this city’s women.

My colleague Narcisso also emphatically refers to Friday as “Sex-ta Feira!!” a cleaver take on the Portuguese work for Friday seixa-feira (pron. saysh-ta fah-rah). Mozambican guys are no doubt extra “charged up” on this day and become slightly more emboldened in their relations with the ladies. In a country where the fight against HIV/AIDS relies so critically on the promotion of safe sex, discussions regarding the Mozambican sexual culture inevitably become rather controversial. This same controversy was displayed at the recent International HIV/AIDS Conference held in Toronto. The issues at hand are the common perceptions, and misperceptions, about African sexuality, and, in particular, the sexual nature of African men.

HIV/AIDS strategies in Africa have long followed the popular “ABC” creed (1^st Abstain, 2^nd Be Faithful, 3^rd Wear a Condom). Now there is a huge debate opening up between organizations and donors that openly advocate the use and distribution of condoms and those that push abstinence and monogamy messages while denouncing the usefulness and morality of condoms and other safer sex practices. The fight against HIV/AIDS in Mozambique, and in many parts of Africa, is burdened by this debate and the foreign interests that are involved in the advocacy of each position.

My opinion is that HIV/AIDS strategies must recognize the importance of promoting safe sex among youth and young adults. Certainly faithfulness and waiting till one is ready to engage in sexual relations are important values and principles to promote, but certainly not at the expense of providing support for access to safer sex knowledge and materials. Africans are very sexual people but all of us in this world are sexual beings with sexual appetites. Recognizing the realities of sex, defending sexual rights of both men and women and safeguarding against harmful sexual practices are integral in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Mozambique and throughout the world.

Anyway, these are just some thoughts of mine on Firday afternoon, but I should go as I’m already late for the Baraca!!

2006-08-18T06:08:00.000-05:00

The Taking of Xefina Island

A few kilometers off the coast from Maputo lies the tantalizing and enigmatic island of Xefina (sha fee nah). For months my friends and I have been starring across the Maputo Bay wondering how we could explore this island and working up the confidence and energy to make the journey. Last week we finally transformed our dream into a reality. We organized a group of 20 strong adventurers, comprised of Brits, Irish, French, Brazilians, Argentines and a lone Canadian, and set off for a weekend excursion to “colonize” the largely uninhabited island.

Our mode of transport would be a small fishing boat that we hired from some local fishermen who would take us across the bay and guide us throughout the island. The plan was simple enough. We were to arrive at Costa Do Sol at 12:00 on Saturday and the boat would make two trips across the bay with all of our gear and crew. When we were all assembled at the beach that afternoon the sea was at its complete low tide, requiring us to walk about two kilometers out into the ocean on the exposed sand bars in order to meet up with the boat.

The first group was taken across without incident while the second group, which included myself and the majority of the tents, food, booze and instruments, waited patiently on the other side. Suddenly, as if someone flicked on a light switch, the wind became quite violent, stirring up the sea with great force and bringing in the tide at a rapid pace. We were forced to flee back to the shore in order to stay dry. We waited and waited for the boat that never returned, frantically trying to work out a plan B for getting across to our friends stranded on the other side without tents or food.

Finally, one of the fishermen came running down the road telling us that we had to walk 5 km up to another point along the shore where it would be easier to navigate the boat through the intense wind. The sand from the beach continued to pummel us like Bedouins in the Sahara as we reached our departure spot and assessed our situation. We had a rickety little fishing boat to take us, along with our piles of supplies, across an increasingly violent and menacing sea. The situation looked perilous and spirits were beginning to sink faster than the Titanic (not a very encouraging image).

Throwing caution into the wind, we climbed aboard the vessel and within no time got completely drenched from the pounding waves. We each took turns bailing out the boat and sharing the one rain jacket that brought momentary warmth. Freezing cold and examining our waterlogged supplies, we had nothing to do but repeatedly sing uplifting songs to the likes of “here we come Xefina!!” spurred on by our energetic captain. We arrived at the island’s main fishing village, home to Xefina’s 50-60 permanent residents, and were greeted by the strange and almost ghost like locals. Our arrival must have been a huge surprise to them as VERY few white folks make it across to the island.

The environment of Xefina can be described as a combination of the eerie and bizarre. Walking across the island we came across the ruins of the old Portuguese jail that was used up to 1975 to incarcerate political prisoners or any Mozambican deemed to be a threat to the colonial state. In this respect, Xefina can be seen as the Mozambican Robben Island. Many of the prisoners that were sent to this island were never heard from again, feeding the rumours of the terrible dungeons and torture chambers that lay beneath the complex. In addition to serving as a penal island, Xefina also was home to leper colony during the colonial period, further contributing to the overwhelming feeling of “restless souls” roaming the island.

When we arrived at the opposite side of the island we were once again confronted by the gale force winds and the realization that we could not find our campsite. Shivering madly in our wet clothes, and without cell phone reception, low spirits began to slowly turn into panic and fear. One of our guides and I went out on a reconnaissance mission, tearing through the thorny bush and eventually, to our extreme relief, hearing the calls of the search party from the first group. After a joyous reunion with our other friends, we trekked on to our campsite where the promise of fire, food and alcohol quickly revived our ailing spirits.

Our campsite soon came to life with the preparation of our BBQ feast, the sharing of wine and other “island concoctions,” the singing of campfire choruses and the camaraderie that was fashioned out of the trials of the day’s journey. After midnight we all went for a moonlight stroll along the beach to explore the ruins of the enormous batteries built by the Portuguese to defend Maputo Bay during the first and second world wars. These massive cannons and lookout towers are now completely in ruins and are crumbling into the sea. Walking amongst these ruined monuments of war, under the clear light of a full moon, was one of the most surreal experiences of my life.

We awoke the next day to an island paradise, an entirely different world to the one that we arrived at only the night before. The beaches were pristine, the water cool and soothing and we had a spectacular view of Maputo City. After a lazy breakfast on the beach, we set off once again to explore the batteries and take pictures of this most bizarre spectacle. We felt as if we were walking around in a Salvador Dali painting. We also came across a munitions building that still housed over 200 rusted bombs once intended for the massive cannons. Walking around that place gave us all a seriously creepy feeling.

Later that afternoon we met up with our fishermen guides and we all piled into the one boat for our return to Maputo. This time the sea was like a sheet of glass, a night and day contrast from our previous trip over to the island. Arriving exhausted but altogether grateful for the experience, we agreed that “colonizing” Xefina had certainly been more difficult and demanding then we had anticipated. The island however, definitely left its mark on all of us. Undoubtedly, one of the most incredible yet strange experiences of my time thus far here in Mozambique

2006-08-17T09:52:00.000-05:00

Looking Forward

Part of the reason for my recent tardiness in blogging is that we have been having some pretty important visitors here at MMF over the past few weeks and this has kept Cremildo and I pretty busy. I know that this is a lame excuse but I will stand behind it for the time being. We started off by having Pauline Achola visit us all the way from MEDA in Waterloo. Among her many job titles, Pauline assumes the role of HIV/AIDS promoter and program coordinator for MEDA, making her my direct supervisor at the MEDA head office. Pauline was here for a week to check up on the progress of our HIV/AIDS program, meet with a few of our partner institutions and consultants and discuss MEDA’s future involvement in Mozambique with microfinance and HIV/AIDS.

Our week together was filled with many meetings, consultations and brainstorming sessions as we ironed out some of the challenges that we had encountered up to the mid-way point of our project. Always a hard worker with a passionate vision for development, Pauline brought a refreshing presence to the MMF office. We even got a chance to take Pauline out to Bela Vista so she could visit with Male Yeru, one of our most interesting and progressive partners in our project.

While we reached the conclusion that our HIV/AIDS program is running smoothly, the real issue at hand for her visit was to try and come up with a concept paper for MEDA’s next microfinance intervention in Mozambique. Unfortunately, due to a number of circumstances, MMF will be forced to shut down its operations in Mozambique at the end of November this year. That means that myself, along with the rest of the MMF staff here in Maputo, will all be out of work come Dec. 1^st. MEDA would like to continue to work in microfinance in this country and part of our job description now will be to come up with the right programming concept, as well as the right financial and implementing partners, to transform this dream into reality.

The concept that we are working on would target Mozambican youth aged 16-22, particularly those who are living with HIV/AIDS or who have been orphaned by parents with HIV/AIDS. There are a great number of these youth throughout the country and we would like to work with them to develop those with the right skills into strong entrepreneurs and responsible microfinance clients. Therefore, the concept would have three components:

Providing the targeted youth with appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention and care services through established NGOs and youth associations in Mozambique
Providing the youth with business and life skills training though local vocational schools and apprenticeship programs.
Providing a loan guarantee fund that could be channeled through local microfinance institutions to help young entrepreneurs develop their businesses.

Of course this concept is still very much in its development phase as we still have to fill in many of the gaps and establish many of the required partnerships. However, we had a very encouraging meeting last week with the Executive Secretary of CNCS, the Mozambican government department in charge of HIV/AIDS programming, and they seem to be very interested in our ideas. If we can get CNCS on board as a financial partner that would be HUGE. We have our fingers crossed permanently as we continue to work on the finer details of this project proposal.

Last week we also had Caroline Hussein from MEDA visit Mozambique to put on a training workshop for MMF partners on youth microfinance. This was particularly interesting for Cremildo and I as we are putting together the above mentioned project proposal and wanted to learn more about this exciting new programming area for MEDA. The workshop was well attended and the participants eagerly dove into the material and shared experiences from their institutions. Cremildo even did a fantastic job of facilitating some of the workshop sessions. My multi-talented colleague never ceases to amaze me!! I'll leave you with some pictures from the training.

Caroline Hussein getting the discussion started

Boaz Ackimu, a MEDA technical advisor from Tanzania, working up the participants and driving home a point

Cremildo getting in the groove of presenting

The obligatory group shot

2006-08-15T09:58:00.000-05:00

Heart of Darkness and Light

The other night I sat down with some friends and watched the classic Vietnam War flick Apocalypse Now. The last time that I had watched this movie I was just a 16 year old lad intrigued by the promise that the film would expand my mind and take me to the furthest depths of human nature. While I was certainly impressed by the film back then, the subject matter, for the most part, went completely over my head. A little bit too much reality for a teenage boy to handle.

This time around I felt a bit more prepared for the journey up the river. Perhaps my experiences over the past 10 years have exposed me to some of the darkness of the human existence that the movie so vividly portrays trough its characters and setting. The senseless carnage of war, the shameless exploitation of both soldiers and innocents and the degeneration of civilized ideals in the face of terror are all displayed in the recent conflicts and genocides in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa.

Many images from the film have been permanently burned into my mind: The US soldiers surfing against the backdrop of a Vietnamese village obliterated by fire bombs and napalm; The slaughter of the entire crew of a fishing boat by the overzealous platoon in their search for “Charlie” or the insane Kurtz coolly dropping the severed head of the last “sane and moral” soldier at the feet of the imprisoned Martin Sheen. The movie, besides being a cinematic masterpiece, forces us to examine our own human potential for evil and immorality and the horror that we each have the capacity to manifest here on earth.

The main theme for Apocalypse Now was of course taken from Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad’s account of the social and psychological nightmare of the colonial experience in the Belgium Congo at the beginning of the 20^th century. After many years of civil unrest, tyrannical governments and large sections of uncharted, lawless territory, the Congo still represents all of the horrors that the world generally associates with the “Dark Continent” of Africa. For some fascinating insight into the Congo’s colonial and contemporary history, check out either King Leopold’s Ghost or the fictional, yet poignant, Poisonwood Bible. Both highly recommended reads.

Now the Congo has been thrown into the international spotlight not for its civil or economic strife but rather for its promise of hope. The country recently held its first democratic elections in 40 years, signaling a possible new direction for the war-torn nation and the dawning of a new era of peace in the heart of Africa. While many figures in the international community are certainly watching the results and the aftermath of the elections quite closely, my good friend Joel Marion is also on the ground in Kinshasa observing the whole process. Joel got the amazing opportunity to work as an election monitor and is still in the country plying his skills in conflict resolution. If you want some first hand insight into the situation over there right now you should definitely check out this link to his blog.

Looking at the turbulent history of the Congo, and the massive reconciliation effort still ahead for those working to cultivate peace and democracy in that country, I am continually impressed at the democratic record of Mozambique. In the early 1990s, after 17 years of civil war, Mozambique was, for all intents and purposes, the poorest country in the world. A complete political and economic basketcase. However, once the ceasefire was signed in 1992 between FRELIMO and RENAMO, and the UN peace keeping mission was deployed, the entire conflict stopped immediately. This is quite unlike many of the countless failed UN interventions into civil conflicts in Africa. Since 1992, FRELIMO and RENAMO have engaged in open and constructive political dialogue as the two leading parties in the country.

Despite its violent history, Mozambique can now legitimately be considered a prime example of a post-conflict democracy in the developing world. The hope now is that other conflict ridden countries in Africa, such as the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda or Sierra Leone, can also achieve this goal of peace and political legitimacy. May those who are working to achieve these goals be blessed with strength, wisdom and perseverance. Through the hands of many will the darkness be transformed into light.

2006-07-29T08:41:00.000-05:00

Lebanon

How little do I know of your shores
this fair country
this fair city
lost in a cloud of smoke and flame

How many more bombs will fall in this land?
How many more mountains will crumble into the sea?
How many more prices will be paid for destructive means?
How many more souls will be lost in these hours?

How far away are my hands
from your sand and your rubble?
How far are my eyes
from your sorrow and your shame?
How far is my mind
from a pride this is so bold and unnerving?
How far is my blood
from that which runs in both your veins
and in your streets?

Very far indeed
Very far indeed

My hands only hold these questions
rhetorical questions
sung and danced and cried
repeatedly
through the generations of the ages

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem
Beirut
Haifa
and to all those that love them
may they truly receive
the light of this world.

Jp

2006-07-28T07:05:00.000-05:00

Rockin with a Message

This past Monday my colleague Narcisso and I got the opportunity to visit Male Yeru (pron. Maalee Yayroo), one of our closest partners here with MMF-MEDA, in the Southern Mozambican town of Bela Vista. The town was hosting a huge celebration in honour of the provincial district of Matatuine, appropriately named “Dia de Matatuine.” The celebrations were actually a three day affair, culminating with the huge party on Monday. Nearly every man, woman and child in the entire district made it out to Bela Vista for the festivities and we were certainly glad we made the hour and a half trip from Maputo.

The reason that we were invited specifically was because Male Yeru was organizing a huge presentation on their HIV/AIDS and Microfinance project and they wanted to give MMF-MEDA full credit for assisting them in this initiative. They were instrumental in organizing the large stage and sound system from which they told stories of their clients, allowed local HIV/AIDS activists to preach their fiery messages of prevention (check out the old lady above!!) and provided a back drop for local drama groups to perform their comical yet poignant skits about sexual responsibility and caring for people living with HIV/AIDS in the community. I was quite impressed with the positive response from the crowd and the amount of respect and praise showered upon Male Yeru by the people of Matatuine. This clearly is an organization that personifies the optimism and integrity of a community committed to social development and a better future for generations to come.

The climax of the afternoon was the boisterous and energetic rock concert featuring the music of the JZ Band from Maputo led by the flamboyant stylings and slick vocals of lead singer Jeremias Nguena. Jeremias is hugely popular here in Mozambique and the people of Matatuine were ecstatic that he came to play a concert in their remote Bela Vista. The show was extremely tight and featured some amazing choreography from the male dancers and back up singers, all dressed in funky army fatigues. I couldn’t help but snap numerous photos of the band before their manager approached me and yelled at me for taking unauthorized pictures. Despite me pleas of blissful ignorance at the time, I was forced to delete the majority of the pictures from my camera. I actually got the chance to sit down for a meal with the band afterwards and we ended up having a good laugh about the whole situation.

The afternoon was wonderful, meeting tons of locals, talking about our project with Male Yeru and soaking in the atmosphere of an African small town festival. It was an absolutely perfect way for Male Yeru to showcase their work with HIV/AIDS and I was honoured to be invited to share in the experience. I loved how the event got the whole community singing and dancing, once again from the fresh faced children barely able to walk to the shriveled, toothless old ladies in their colourful capulanas. As one Male Yeru client told me, such celebrating is essential in Mozambican culture as it reminds us to “stay happy and keep our souls alive.” Amen to that my friend!!

2006-07-26T01:27:00.000-05:00

Birthday Boys

This past Saturday, I had the extreme pleasure of ushering in my 26^th year on this great green earth with a good mix of my friends here in Maputo. What was originally intended to be a low-key gathering of souls quickly turned into rockin good time with my tiny apartment nearly bursting at the seams to accommodate those that came to raise a glass with me on my birthday. Since it was also my Dutch friend Stephen’s birthday we decided to hold a joint party to enhance the merriment. Here’s a picture of the birthday boys before we became too weathered by the evening.

Looking around at the people at my party, I couldn’t help but be thankful for all the good people that I have been blessed to be surrounded with here in Mozambique. I also could not help but feel a touch a regret that my good Canadian friends from Maputo (Pete, Caitlin, Wes, Cathy, Courtney and Guillom) could not be with me for the celebrations. Each have moved on from this charismatic city but I certainly felt their spirits with me that night in the laughter and the revelry that filled my flat and spilled out into the Mozambican night. But this is the reality of making friends with other ex-pats in a city like Maputo, it is a constant process of hello and goodbye, forcing us to cherish each and every moment with each other before it is time for one of us to move on down the road.

My British friend John and I were also extremely excited to lead a big jam at my birthday party but the poor guy nearly cut off his hand last week when he was slicing some frozen beef burgers and is confined to a sling for the next three weeks. Despite the extreme pain, and the fact that he nearly lost two fingers, he is already counting down the days until he is given a green light to play guitar again. We both want to continue to experiment with the folk-rock afrobeats that we have been jamming out to with our African friends at various get togethers. Despite the absence of John’s mind blowing guitar solos, we managed to create some amazing music that night thanks to the scores of talented drummers that were leading the jam. What is it about African drumming that brings even the stiffest of people to their feet in rhythmic response? Perhaps that is what “spirited energy” is all about (ha ha!!)

I guess I could expound on how another year under my belt makes me feel older and wiser than before. I guess I could go on about how I feel the years slipping by me as I move into my late 20s (gasp!!). To be honest though, I love being 26. I love living in Mozambique and I love where I am in my life right now. No complaints, no regrets, no fear. 26…I’m ready for ya baby!!

2006-07-20T10:48:00.000-05:00

Home for a Rest

Well I’ve returned back to Maputo after an amazing two weeks back in Canada. It was quite a whirlwind visit as I tried to pack in as many activities and visits with friends and family as possible. 10 months was the longest that I had ever been away from home and I was eagerly looking forward to the chance to soak in some Canadiana once again. July really is the best time to visit Winnipeg as the weather is optimal and the people are all out in full force trying to take advantage of the prairie summer glory.

In between family BBQs (those two wild ladies on my arm are my mother and my aunt), golf trips (shot an 85 at Niakwa, the best round of my life, and beat my dad for the first time…by 15 strokes!!!) and countless drinks on Corydon Ave. (the best place to take in Winnipeg’s patio culture), I was able to make it out to the scenic Bird’s Hill Provincial Park for the 31^st Annual Winnipeg Folk Fest. Now of course I did everything I could to time my visit home so that it coincided with the Festival, a Winnipeg institution that my friends and I have been going to since we were 16 years old. In fact, my parents used to come to this festival together back before they were married making us one of the numerous Manitoban families whose generations have been united by this fantastic event.

This year my parents once again came out for the Saturday and Sunday concerts, complete with their rainbow coloured chairs that my mother picked up to add a splash of pizzazz to their festival experience. I was also overjoyed to have my good friends Peter and Caitlin, the Canadians I met in Maputo who are now working back at home, join me at the festival on Saturday. Since I had raved so much about the event to them in Mozambique they figured that they had to come out and see it for themselves. It was an amazing reunion with these wonderful friends of mine and I hope the festival got into their veins enough to come back for years to come.

One of the things that I like the most about the festival is the incredible musicians that you discover. Folk Fest doesn’t bring in many big name acts but the performers are unbelievably talented and I am always surprised by the richness and the diversity of the music. Musical highlights for me this year were: Crooked Still, Steve Earle, Bedouin Soundclash, Ruthie Foster and the Refugee Allstars of Sierra Leone (check these guys out...unbeleivable story!!). Of course the other highlight for me is the Folk Fest Campground which becomes this bohemian community of over 5000 people living together in blissful harmony for four days. The times that I have spent in this campground, and the music and friendships that have carried me through many Folk Fests, have provided me with some of my greatest Manitoba summer memories.

One of the questions that I was repeatedly asked when I was back home was whether I felt any reverse culture shock, coming back to Canada after almost a year in Africa. I think the things that hit me the most were once again being in such large crowds of white people, being surrounded by green trees and green grass lawns and of course the huge box stores that define our rampant North American consumer culture. Those were the biggest “shocks” I found.

Other than that I was shocked to discover that Manitoba had changed its provincial motto from “Friendly Manitoba” to “Manitoba: Spirited Energy.” This has been quite a controversial change, not least because of the confusion around what “spirited energy” actually entails but also due to the fact that our provincial government paid an American advertising firm upwards of 4 Million dollars to come up with our new provincial identity. I like the acknowledgement of the spiritual dimension to my home province but I don’t like how we had to contract ourselves out to the Americans to come up with our new motto. I am curious to hear what you all think about “Spirited Energy,” do you like it/think it’s lame, I’d love to get some of your thoughts.

Well I guess that is all I have to say about my trip back home. A huge thank you to everyone that I was able to spend time with…our time together, even the briefest of encounters, meant so very much to me. You are all such wonderfully good people and I love you all deeply. Sending you all good vibes from Mozambique!!

Ate logo,

2006-06-27T11:01:00.000-05:00

Go Black Stars!!!!

As I am sitting down to write this email, Ghana and Brazil are about to take to the field for their 2nd Round Match at the World Cup. The reason I am so excited about this game is that Ghanan “Black Stars” are the only African country to qualify for the second round at this year’s tournament and are the overwhelming sentimental favourite for myself many of my friends here in Mozambique. Over the past two weeks I am allowed myself to be carried away with this football mad country. When Cremildo and I were up in Quelimane and Nampula, we closely followed the results and regularly congregated at the local watering holes to take in the action. Many of the store owners in town would leave televisions on in the display window and in some cases there would be up to a hundred people all crowded around to try and get a view of their favourite players.

Football simply unites Africa, providing these countries with an opportunity to show the world that there is more to the “dark continent” then just starvation, disease and war. Football seems to encapsulate the living soul and the eternal optimism of a people focused on a brighter future. Look at how Angola was able to reach the world’s highest tournament only three years after emerging from 22 years of brutal civil conflict where the country was nearly ravaged for all its worth. Or look at how the Ivory Coast was able to broker a ceasefire in their civil hostilities as their country qualified for the championships. Or Ghana, a team nearly everyone picked to finish last in their pool, proudly displaying that they can compete quite effectively on the world stage, even disposing of the USA and the Czech Republic along the way!!

The Great Pele was convinced that an African team would win the world cup by the start of the 21st century…so here’s to Ghana in their bid to carry out that bold prediction and satisfy the hopes and dreams of an entire continent. It’s not just pride on the line here but a heavy dose of respect and defeating the mighty Brazilians, although a tremendous feat indeed, would provide a monumental boost to not only this West African country but the continent as a whole.

As for me, I am pounding away at my computer back here in Maputo after a fantastic week and a half in the field. There is much to do in the next few days as I anxiously look towards my two week holiday back home in Canada. If any one would like anything special from Mozambique, I guess now would be the time to ask for it!!

2006-06-13T11:04:00.000-05:00

World Cups and Working in the Field

The world’s greatest sporting tournament is already well under way and I have been swept into the football madness that is consuming the city of Maputo. Now I am not a very committed or motivated soccer fan but I absolutely go crazy for the World Cup. To me it is the epitome of sports as politics and I cannot help but become infatuated by the socio-political subplots and the exceptional displays of skill on the field. Now if only international disputes could be solved in accordance with the beautiful game…then we would really be on to something!!

As a Canadian, our sporting passion is generally fueled by hockey, not soccer, and most Canadians have long given up on our nation’s chance of qualifying for soccer’s greatest tournament. As a result, most Canadians tend to throw their support behind their family’s country of origin. I’ve always said that if Canadian were to ever qualify again for the World Cup (we did once in 1986, failed to score a goal and promptly lost all three opening round matches) most Canadians would still cheer for either Germany, Italy, Portugal, England, Brazil over our boys playing under the Maple Leaf.

When it comes to my allegiances in International Soccer I tend to throw my support behind England, although their pitiful display against Paraguay on Saturday left me to believe that the English fans will have to wait another four years before they will come close to being crowed world champions. I also have the tendency to always root for the underdog in sports and at the World Cup that has generally caused me to cheer for the African representatives. I was particularly interested in the Angola-Portugal game in which the Angolan side tried tenaciously to defeat their former colonial rulers but could not overcome an early 1-0 deficit and lost by a single goal.

The Brazilian community here in Maputo has had a considerable impact on the local population as most Mozambicans are quite emphatic supporters of Brazil…as well as any African nation going up against a European powerhouse. It looks to be a fascinating tournament and it will be interesting to see who will pull off the shocking upsets, the memorable moments and eventually end up as World Champions.

My posting will likely continue to be sporadic in the coming weeks as my colleague Cremildo and I are once again heading up into Northern Mozambique to work in the field. We will be working with three different partners during that time and it promises to be a very eventful two weeks. We will be completing the first phase of our impact study on HIV/AIDS training for Banco Oportunidade in the Zambezie Province then heading back to the city of Nampula to work with Caixa das Mulheres (CMN) and Ophavela.

When we began this project we underestimated the difficulties that we would have in encouraging progress with our northern partners that are separated from us by almost 3000 km. CMN especially needs a lot of onsite assistance and this visit will hopefully inspire them to work harder on their partnership building and implementation of their HIV/AIDS workplan. I am also extremely excited to work once again with Ophavela in the field as we will have the opportunity to train their staff in conducting focus group discussions with their members. We will then travel into the rural districts to discuss with the members about potential changes in their group policies to better accommodate members that are either infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. This is the type of grassroots microfinance that is really inspiring to me and it continues to impress me with the benefits it brings to the members.

So I guess I’m signing off for the next little while as the internet connection tends to be spotty at best when we travel up north. Enjoy the World Cup everyone and I will be back towards the end of the month.

Cheers,

2006-06-06T10:04:00.000-05:00

Homeward Bound

Hey everyone, this is just a notice, mostly to all the good folk in Winnipeg, that I will be coming home to visit in less than a month!! I will be arriving in Winnipeg on July 4th and leaving on the 15th and I will be trying to make the most out of those 11 days. I am very excited to see all of you, resume old conversations, sing old songs, laugh at old jokes and eat my mother's fantastic home cooking!! Of course I will be heading to the Winnipeg Folk Festival from the 6th to the 9th to soak in the splendor of Manitoba's beautiful people and the positive sounds of the exceptional musicians from around the globe.

I hope I get a chance to see all of you when I am home, even if it for a brief encounter. You all mean so very much to me and I've carried you all with me during my time here in Mozambique. We will be having a bit of a party at my parents place the night I return so please come on by to share a drink and a story. If you don't know how to get there, just talk to someone who does.

Peace and love to you all and I'll see you on the 4th!!

Jp

2006-06-04T06:22:00.000-05:00

Measuring Impact

Aside from climbing mountains and getting malaria, our week up in Manica and Sofala provinces saw us begin the first major activity of our HIV/AIDS pilot project with our four participating Mozambican microfinance operators. This week we were working with Banco Oportunidade to carry out an impact study on the HIV/AIDS training that they were offering their clients and staff. The purpose of this study is to determine the level of HIV/AIDS knowledge among the subjects both before and after the training sessions that are being carried out until the end of July. In addition to measuring the level of knowledge, we were also interested in determining whether the training sessions would have any impact on the social and sexual behaviour of the clients and staff.

Cremildo and I designed the survey quantitative survey instrument which was a big change for us as up to this point we had been doing primary qualitative research, asking mostly personal opinion questions of the staff and clients that we encountered. We also wisely chose to hire two local enumerators who worked for the National Institute of Statistics to help us with the interviews. This was great because, as I had already experienced in Nampula and Gaza province, some of the clients only spoke a limited Portuguese and thus had the option to converse in the local language.

We spent three days in Manica province interviewing staff at the main branch in Chimoio as well as making excursions out to the surrounding towns along the Beira corridor such as Gondola, Inchope and Nhamatanda. Some of the interview questions covered basic knowledge issues such as:

Can you name three methods by which HIV/AIDS can be transmitted?
Can you describe some of the visible symptoms of HIV/AIDS infection?
Do you know where one can go to receive a voluntary HIV/AIDS test?
Once a person becomes infected with HIV/AIDS, what actions can they take to maintain a good standard of health?

Even with the years of HIV/AIDS prevention work that has been done in this region it was quite interesting to see the difficulty some of the clients had with answering of these basic questions whose answers we don’t even think twice about in the West.

We also ventured into the awkward territory of asking some pretty direct questions related to sexual behaviour and to my surprise we did not have a single respondent refuse to answer questions such as:

· Do you use condoms during sexual intercourse (always, most of the time, sometimes, never).

· How many sexual partners do you currently have?

· Have you ever been for a voluntary HIV/AIDS test?

We felt that these questions were essential to measuring any positive impact of the training sessions. However, changing behaviour is unfortunately much easier said than done, as countless frustrated HIV/AIDS activists can attest to in this part of the world. It is simply shocking to me how in the face of such a ghastly pandemic sweeping across their country, many African men can still live lives of infidelity, reject the use of condoms and refrain from getting the all important test to determine their status. Still knowledge is the greatest tool in the fight against ignorance and the tide seems to be turning in the right direction. The next generation of Mozambicans are depending on this all important realization.

2006-05-31T09:35:00.000-05:00

Beautiful Beginnings and Unfortunate Ends

Well the week and a half spent up in Central Mozambique was definitely a challenging and eventful experience for me. I’ve decided to begin by telling you about Chimoio, the city where I began and ended my journey. Chimoio is the provincial capital of Manica and is a pleasant little country town settled against the backdrop of the Chimanimani and Penha Longa Mountains. These scenic mountains provide a natural boundary between Mozambique and neighbouring Zimbabwe. The tree lined streets and public parks were kept surprisingly clean and there was a distinct tranquility in the air that reminded me of a small town in the Canadian Prairies.

My colleague Cremildo and I arrived early on Sunday morning and I was able to spend the day with my old friend Rachel from Maputo. Rachel is a British girl working for Voluntary Services Overseas and has been stationed in Chimoio since December. Despite The serenity of her surroundings, work has been difficult for Rachel as she has effectively been put in charge of an entire youth community development project, focusing especially on HIV/AIDS activism among teenagers in surrounding area. Visits from friends are a much welcome break from her rewarding but immensely stress filled posting.

Rachel and I decided that the best way to raise our spirits on a Sunday afternoon was to climb the Cabeça de Velha (old man’s face) a “mountain” on the outskirts of town. The spot is actually considered sacred to many of the local Shona people as many pilgrims can be found atop the old man’s nose reading passages or deep in meditation. Cremildo had a rather important economics exam the following weekend but I was able to pry his nose out of the books for a few hours to make the trip (Even though I caught him pouring over a few pages at the top!!). We spent a nice time at the top enjoying the views, watching the birds and soaking in the late afternoon sun as it painted the countryside and the rock with rich golden colours. We each walked away from the mountain rejuvenated a ready for the week ahead

I was able to explore more of this beautiful countryside on my return to Chimoio the following weekend. I met up with some Zimbabweans who worked on a horse farm about 40 Km from the Moz-Zim border. We ended up going on a four hour ride around their farm on the Sunday afternoon, passing rivers, lakes and many local villagers. It had been about four years since I had ridden a horse and I had to work to keep up with my two Zim friends. Needless to say, my ass and legs were bloody sore afterwards but it was well worth it. Experiencing rural Africa on horseback is truly something special.

Unfortunately, after my memorable ride, the nausea that had plagued me the previous evening in Beira and the throughout the three hour ride to that mourning to Chimoio returned with a vengeance. What had began on Saturday as just a painful stomach ache, had now escalated to a rising fever, throbbing head ache, lack of appetite and pains in my lower back. In this part of the world that can only mean one thing: Malaria. That’s right, I had come down with that “other” wretched African disease that still to this day kills more people in Mozambique each year than HIV/AIDS.

I was taken to a Zimbabwean party that night and the whole room seemed to take turns talking to me about malaria and what I should do to beat the damn thing out of my system before it takes too much of a hold on my liver, brain, heart and kidneys. Since all of them had had malaria numerous times throughout their lives, they advised me to begin treatment immediately that night before going to the doctor in the morning. I ended up taking Artesunate, which is a Chinese herbal remedy that is quite popular for its immediate results and few negative side effects.

The following morning’s trip to the doctor’s office confirmed what had already been obvious the night before. However, the strain of malaria that I had was light and I had gone on the treatment quite early so I have recovered quite well. Still, I was bummed that I had to spend my two days vacation cooped up in my hostel watching DVDs instead of trekking through the mountains. You really don’t want to mess around with malaria though and I actually ended up thoroughly appreciating my two days of relaxation, despite feeling stiff like an old man and running to the loo on a regular basis. Ah malaria, I guess it is just part of the grand ol African experience!!

2006-05-20T10:05:00.000-05:00

On the Road Again

Well I think I’m finally ready to leave for my trip next week. My colleague Cremildo and I are heading up to the Central Mozambican provinces of Sofala and Manica to work with the branches of our partner Banco Oportunidade. We will have a VERY busy week. We are assisting BO conduct an impact assessment of the HIV/AIDS trainings that they have been offering their clients and staff. We will also be we carrying out our regular interviews and focus group discussions with the staff members and community bank clients about the challenges of HIV/AIDS and microfinance. Needless to see we will have to maximize every minute of the day during our week in the field.

Working in the field is of course the most rewarding and inspiring part of my job and I cherish every moment of being able to connect the academic with the practical aspects of my job. This trip up to Sofala and Manica has been an interest of mine since I arrived in Mozambique because this region has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the country at 25-28%. There are a number of factors that has caused this rapid escalation of HIV infection but one of the most notable is that the two provinces lie along the “Beira Corridor,” the main lifeline between Zimbabwe and the coastal city of Beira, Mozambique’s largest and busiest port. The highly transient population along this route gives rise to rampant sexual promiscuity and prostitution, providing a festering ground for HIV/AIDS. With the disease having such a high impact on this region and its people, it will be very interesting to see how one of our most impressive partners is confronting this challenge through innovation microfinance strategies.

I’m also looking forward to taking some vacation time after this week and I will be spending a few days in Manica hiking around the Chimanimani mountains along the border with Zimbabwe. Of course I will have the camera and my notebook with me so I will definitely post some pictures and stories of the next week and a half’s events when I get a chance.

Cheers everyone!!

2006-05-17T12:42:00.000-05:00

Single White Male in Maputo

Living in a foreign country undoubtedly hurls you into a different cultural realm where you often have to set aside all of your preconceived notions of conventional practice and jump head first into new experiences and understandings. One of the many cultural differences that I have had to get used to here in Mozambique has definitely been the different culture of dating in this country. Living in Africa has really introduced to me for the first time the complicated dynamics of inter-racial dating. Now let me make myself perfectly clear, inter-racial dating, in and of itself, is not a problem. Where the problem tends to lie, however, is in the dynamic between “rich white man” and “poor African woman.”

Personally, my experience with dating Mozambican women has been more problematic than rewarding. This is not to say that such relationships cannot work. I only have to look at my friend Brenden and his lovely girlfriend Fiona or my boss Pierre and his amazing wife Astheline to see that people of different cultures can indeed make some harmonious music when joined together. The problem in Mozambique is that there is an overwhelming “Sugar Daddy” phenomenon between white men and black women and it is this phenomenon that is incredibly difficult to escape when a young Canadian boy wants to meet some local Mozambican ladies.

Mozambique certainly has no shortage of attractive women but unfortunately the intelligent and independent ones are overshadowed by the legions of girls seeking nothing more than the perfect Sugar Daddy. I would call these girls little more than pseudo-prostitutes and there are a plethora of them on the streets, the clubs, the restaurants and the cafes of Maputo. These girls don’t actually “charge” you anything to “be” with them but if you want to have them by your side you had better be prepared to foot the bill for everything she may desire.

I was quickly introduced to this reality back before Christmas when I was began dating a Mozambican named Joyce. She was quite attractive, funny and I enjoyed the idea of having a local girl to help me practice my Portuguese (everybody keeps telling me that this is the best way to learn another language after all!!). We had met innocently enough but it became quite clear very quickly that Joyce wanted to move right on in with this Canadian boy as soon as possible. She was 24 but had no real education and wasn’t doing anything other than going to driving school. Being with a women with no ambitions in life other than being a girlfriend, and who constantly asked for money for everything from drinks and clothes to taxi fares and cell phone credits, quickly lost its appeal. One night we were supposed to go to a big night club in Maputo with a bunch of friends but plans changed and we went to a house party instead. When Joyce found out that we were indeed not going clubbing she threw a huge tantrum, proclaiming that she was “wasting her time” with me. Needless to say, the Jared and Joyce relationship ended the following day.

There are so many Mozambican girls like Joyce in Maputo that they actually have counseling services for girls that get “dumped” by their Sugar Daddies. However, this service is not to help these girls turn away from such a lifestyle but rather to get them back on their feet in order to find a better catch. There is even a ranking system for Sugar Daddies with Canadian and Scandinavian men topping the list. This is apparently because the girls know that such men are rarely abusive and will provide for them financially for an indefinite amount of time in the event of an unwanted pregnancy. I hear that the bottom ranks on the list are occupied by Portuguese, South Africans and Mozambican men. I can hear the conversations now, “Hey did you hear that Violeta finally scored a Swede? Yes but poor Telma, still stuck with that Boer!”

The whole phenomenon gets worse when you see the disgusting age difference in some of the Sugar Daddy couples. It is next to impossible to go out on the town in Maputo and not see numerous old ex-pat men, many with wedding rings still on their fingers or conveniently left behind at home, pouring drinks down the throats of teenage Mozambican girls with their breasts pushed up so far they are nearly touching their chins. The worst case I ever saw was a sixty something Afrikaner lying on the beach with a sixteen year old girl sprawled out on his lap drinking lemonade and playing games on her cell phone. She seemed to be in an entirely different world as he continued to run his crusty old hands over her stomach and her back.

Other attempts of mine to get to know what I had originally thought were nice, intelligent, independent Mozambican ladies have also produced disappointing results. I really have no desire to play the role of the Sugar Daddy and am finding it difficult to get around this issue given the local expectations of what relationships with the White Man should entail. And although I have not closed the door entirely with Mozambicanas, relationships with female ex-pats have proven to be no less complicated here in Maputo. Our lives are too transient at this point I guess to make anything meaningful last…but I suppose I’m opening up a whole other issue here and this post is already way too long. In any event, the dating scene here in Maputo has certainly been full of many inspiring, confusing and eye-opening twists and turns that have certainly added some flavour to my life in Mozambique.

2006-05-11T06:28:00.000-05:00

A Festa de Liberdade

Since it is the capital city of the country, Maputo houses embassies from countries all over the world. Avenida Kenneth Kuanda is sometimes referred to as “Embassy Row” as there are over 40 different government houses from India and Brazil all the way to Angola and Tanzania. Of course the largest, most ostentatious and most heavy fortified of all the embassies is that of the United States of America. I guess in this post-9/11 you never know where al-Queida could strike next. Still Maputo doesn’t seem like a hotbed of Islamic terrorism, but of course the Americans just can’t take any chances when it comes to national security.

However, rigorously defending US interests abroad requires highly trained personnel on the ground. This is where our friends Toby and Scott come in. These boys are official US Marines stationed here in Maputo to defend the US Embassy against any and all security threats. Despite being well oiled machines ready for combat, Toby and Scott have each been embraced by our circle of friends for their strong desire to see and experience the world outside of their US worldview and their Marine compound. They are both strongly attracted to the freedoms that we possess in terms of thought, lifestyle and career choice. They have each noticed the extreme irony of how they are employed by the US government to defend “freedom” despite having such little freedom themselves. Our desire to help Toby and Scott expand their worldview, and question many of the messages handed down to them by their authorities, gave birth to the Festa de Liberdade, or Freedom Party.

We put on the grand affair at Scandinavia House, home to Tina the Dane and Ana the Swede, two floors down from me at the infamous 134 Rua Marconi. Mondi provided a massive sound system which got the people out of their seats and dancing all night. My friend Mundo, the guy with the massive smile on the left, brought along some of his drumming buddies and we had an amazing drum jam, interspersed with some of the Songs of Freedom, allowing everybody to sing along with the spirited choruses. The spirit of the evening carried the Festa on until 5 AM and really only ended after our guests had consumed every remaining ounce of food and beverage in the house.

While we may not have succeeded in “elevating” Scott’s mind that night, we were successful in helping to free his spirit as he danced energetically to the rhythms of the drums as well as the movements of our Portuguese friend Luisa. He has not stopped talking about how awesome the night was for him. A wonderful night on all accounts and a joy to share it with all of our “freedom loving” friends here in Mozambique.

A Rainbow of Beautiful Ladies

2006-05-03T06:48:00.000-05:00

We Jammin’

One of the greatest things about living in a different country is meeting new and exciting friends. I have had the opportunity to meet many of the ex-pat community here in Maputo and have appreciated the connections I have made with many young people from Europe, Asia and the Americas. Despite my weak Portuguese I have still been able to make some nice Mozambican friends as well who have shown me much about the rich culture of this land. However, my greatest African friend that I have made here so far is a Zimbabwean named Mondli, or “my window” as he is called by his friends. Mondli is an artist from Harare who has lived in Maputo for the last three years making a living by selling his paintings on the street. It is not an easy life but Mondli is able to provide enough for his wife and child and lives in a descent house in one of the “nicer” ghettos on the outskirts of Maputo. Mondli and I have formed a strong friendship based on our mutual love of God, Africa and the Songs of Freedom.

This past Monday was very special as it was Mondli’s 30^th Birthday Party. He wanted to celebrate the event in style and invited all of his Zimbabwean and Mozambican friends out to usher him into his next decade in life. He also invited all of us brancos to come down and party with him “in the ghetto.” Every time I visit Mondli at his home I come away blessed. The change of environment and the time spent with this happy African family fills me with a simple happiness and a fresh outlook on life. I was eagerly looking forward to this time to break the bread, share the wine and dance the night away with his family and friends.

A big convoy of us from the city met up with Mondli and his gang on Monday afternoon at the Maputo Fish Market and proceeded to navigate our vehicles through the extremely narrow streets of his neighbourhood to where the booming music indicated that the party was already well underway. Mondli’s wife Maria and her friends had prepared a huge feast of traditional Zimbabwean and Mozambican food and Mondli’s friends prepared some speeches to toast their friend on his special day. Above is Mondli (in that sharp checkered blazer!!) and his wife after we had finished singing Happy Birthday to him in four differant languages!! We all felt quite honoured to be a part of the festivities and many of the locals were overjoyed to be partying with us strange newcomers.

White people in this part of Maputo are an extreme rarity. Mondli’s son Emanuel, who is almost two years, had never seen a white person in the house before my first visit. He still stares at me with his huge curious eyes whenever I am around. My good friend Tina also had a pleasent surprise as this adorable little girl gave her a big hug as soon as we walked in the door and rarely left her side for the duration of the evening

One of the greatest events of the evening was the jam that we had in the back yard. Many of Mondli’s friends are strong Rastafarians, or at least are huge fans of reggae music. Mondli ordered me to learn as much Bob Marley as possible for the party and we poured through my entire repertoire before launching into some sweet improvised African jams. What I love most about African music is its simplicity, both in lyrics and in sound. Simple messages straight from the heart and straight to the point, played over the same three chords, makes for very emotionally stirring music. And I love how everybody here dances freely, from the four year old child to the 80 year old grandmother. This is the Spirit moving in our midst and it is this Spirit that continues to fascinate me and make me fall further in love with this land and its people. That you my friend for a beautiful evening and the beginning of something truly remarkable!

"Won't you help to sing
these songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have
is redemption songs."

Jah Live

Jp

2006-04-28T07:44:00.000-05:00

Never, and Never Again.

One of the highlights of my Cape Town trip was definitely Robben Island. Ever since I was in my early teens, and beginning to have my political consciousness awakened by the events going on in the world, I have been interested in the symbol of Robben Island and how it represents one of the worst forms of systematic racism in human history. South Africa’s Apartheid State required the authorities to be able to arrest any and all political dissidents and make them disappear from the rest of society. For nearly 30 years, the greatest leaders of the African National Congress, and other political activists that fought against the massive injustices of Apartheid, were cut off from their beloved land and housed in the harsh conditions of Robben Island’s maximum security prison. The cell you see below was the home of Nelson Mandela for nearly twenty years as he lived out his sentence and dreamed of a South Africa free from racial discrimination.

The tour of the island was very powerful, beginning with the 20 minute boat ride over to the island. Robben Island has served as a place of banishment for the British and the Dutch for hundreds of years. It used to be a home for insubordinates of the colonial government and the local African leaders who refused to give in to the demands of the European authorities. During the 1800s it was used as a leper colony by an Irish mission and during WWII it housed artillery and the batteries for the Allied forces in South Africa. The maximum security prison was only built in 1960 under the order of the National party and the first political prisoners began arriving to the island in 1961-1962. As I sat in my comfortable chair on the boat ride over I could not help but think about all the others that have crossed Table Bay in much more deplorable conditions, destined for existence of shame and exile. I got a similar feeling when I toured Alcatraz in San Francisco. Walking in the steps of prisoners, as a tourist with a camera in my hand, can be quite a surreal experience.

The tour of the island revealed a whole “community” that had been built up around the jail. We were shown the countless sports fields built by the black prisoners for the exclusive use of the white guards. We were also shown the limestone quarry that the prisoners worked in five days a week using only pick axes and buckets. They would spend one week moving the rocks into a giant pile then spend the next week moving that pile to another location in the quarry…continuing this monotonous process for months on end. The hole that you see above is particularly interesting because it was one of the only places of privacy afforded to the prisoners. Here was where they could go to the bathroom and eat their meager lunches, although the location served a more important purpose in allowing the prisoners the opportunity to share ideas and discuss political events. Many of the former prisoners call this hole the “University of Robben Island” as it provided the opportunity for younger prisoners to be educated by the senior leaders of the anti-apartheid movement. The conversations held within that hole had an indelible impact on the forces that helped to bring down the apartheid state in 1994.

What was also incredibly fascinating about Robben Island is that all tours of the prison are conducted by former inmates. I was expecting someone as old and grey as Mandela himself but was pleasantly surprised to have Samuel, a guide in his late 30s who had spend five years at Robben Island from 1986-1991. Samuel was an absolute wealth of information, providing us with a no-holds barred, honest account of life in the jail. Despite being incarcerated for much of the prime of his life, Samuel did not display any anger or resentment towards his former guards or rest of South Africans. Samuel strongly believes in moving forward with a progressive vision of a new South Africa, one in which people of all races and creeds and claim equal ownership and live together harmoniously. This progressive spirit is evident in many of the Robben Island staff, where former prisoners and guards live side by side to preserve the island as a symbol of both South Africa’s dark history and bright future. It was truly an inspirational experience to be a part of Robben Island and see the power of the human spirit triumph over the forces of evil.

"Never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land shall ever experience oppression of one by another"

- Nelson R Mandela 1994

2006-04-27T04:13:00.001-05:00

Cape of Hope and Storms

Well after spending just five days in Cape Town I can now understand what all of the hype is all about. It is an absolutely beautiful city with pretty much everything you can possibly want literally right there at your doorstep. Cape Town is sort of the cultural magnet of Southern Africa, attracting artists, musicians and students of all walks of life into its arms. The creative energy and the cultural mix of the city puts Cape Town in a league of its own. Beauty, art, history and jazz are all blended in with the contemporary political and social dynamics of post-Apartheid South Africa. Here is where Europe meets the "Dark Continent" and where the First World crashes headfirst into the Third.

I had been looking forward to two days of touring the Cape Region but the weather was absolutely terrible for the weekend and did not really clear up until the day Cremildo and I got on a plane back to Maputo. Table Mountain, Cape Town’s famous landmark and destination for traveling pilgrims like myself, was completely blanketed by think rain clouds making any attempt at an ascent next to impossible. As a result, I had to concentrate on the intriguing side of Cape Town to be found indoors. I went out to Robben Island, the South African Museum, The Cape Town gallery (which had a fascinating display on Picasso and Africa…highly recommended!!), the Aquarium and the colourful Bo-Kaap neighbourhood. I also had a fantastic time taking in the Long Street night life, hopping in and out of pubs, clubs and cafes with seasoned travelers until the sun began to peek over the horizon. Favourite spots included: Jo’burg, Marvels, Cool Runnings, Mama Africa, Mr. Pickwick’s and the Long Street Café. Ja, such good times!

Then Sunday and Monday we had our conference amidst the luxurious confines of the Hotel Commodore and the BMW conference center. The event was extremely well organized and brought together leading microfinance consultants, practitioners and partners from all over the continent to talk about strategies for mitigating the impacts of HIV/AIDS. Glancing over the participant list, I could see that there were 30 different African countries represented at the conference, each bringing their own experience and cultural insights to the table. Cremildo and I felt quite honoured to be a part of the event and we met many fascinating people. Our presentation went very well and we were even able to give Paulo Cuvilla from Male Yeru a chance to highlight the work of his institution. If the purpose of these events is to gain knowledge and build networks between people then I can say that we were quite successful. The learning tools we acquired this past weekend will help us tremendously over the coming months.

Thank you Africap for putting on such a quality event and thank you Cape Town for giving me a taste of Africa’s Mother City. I will carry a piece of you with me until we meet again.

2006-04-21T02:47:00.000-05:00

Today I have the wonderful opportunity to go to Cape Town for the weekend. I will be spending two days as a tourist and then my colleague Cremildo and I will be attending a one day “super conference” on economic mitigation strategies for HIV/AIDS. This conference is being put on by Africap, a huge economic consulting firm out of Dakar, Senegal and will involve people working in the area of microfinance and HIV/AIDS from all over the continent. I will be presenting on our HIV/AIDS project here in Mozambique, specifically on the importance of forming partnerships for MFIs in the implementation of HIV/AIDS mitigation strategies. Then we will be participating in a Round Table discussion, fielding questions from the other participants. It is a tremendous opportunity for learning and exposure for both Cremildo and I, as well as MMF-MEDA and our work here in Mozambique!!

I am also very excited about being able to tour around Cape Town for a couple of days. I have wanted to visit this part of South Africa since I was about 13 years old and so I’m really looking forward to it. I am planning on climbing Table Mountain, visiting Robben Island, drinking my share of Cape wines and soaking in the multicultural flavour that is Africa’s Mother City. I only have two days and I plan on making the most of my time there!! I promise many pictures and stories when I return.

Blessings and peace to you all!!

2006-04-17T10:19:00.000-05:00

Easter Monday


When I survey the wondrous cross

on which the Prince of Glory died;

my richest gain I count but loss,

and pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

that were an offering far too small;

love so amazing, so divine,

demands my soul, my life, my all.

               - Isaac Watts 1707

Feliz Pascua!! Happy Easter!! This was how people in Maputo shared their Easter greetings with each other this past weekend. For a country where religion was quite suppressed during the socialist regime, I was surprised at how big of a deal Easter seemed to be here in Mozambique. The Christian community seemed to come out in full force and made a louder noise than at Christmas time. Our office took the afternoon off on Good Friday so people could attend church or just share the holy “spirits” in the baraca. I was able to join with some other Christian friends here in Maputo for a time to reflect on the sacrifice and significance of the Passion Week.

Then on Easter Sunday I woke up super early to join my empregadda Rebecca and the rest of her family at their church in Hulene, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Maputo. The service was entirely in Shangana, the local Mozambican language, but I was still able to enjoy immensely the three hours of singing, dancing and genuine worship despite not understanding a single word of what was being said. The pastor even called me up to the front to say some words and presented me with a Portuguese bible. White guys with beards and long hair are a pretty uncommon sight in Maputo and are almost unheard of in these all-black communities. As a result, a lot of Mozambicans think I look like Jesus so you can imagine how popular I was on Easter Sunday!!

After the marathon service I was invited back to the home of Rebecca’s sister Gloria for Easter Lunch. The afternoon was spent eating, sharing stories and, of course, more singing and dancing. I also got to play with all of the beautiful children in the neighbourhood who came out in earnest to see who this stranger was in their midst. By the end of the day my soul was cleansed and I was on the most incredible spiritual high.

Lord help me find the meaning of your resurrection,
May I rise above the forces that work to hold me down
Speaking love and showing light
May I join in the chorus of the living,
The work of the righteous,
And the world wide dance of those who believe
In the power of your Name

This is my prayer for the countless souls
Who live and breathe
For the Resurrected Africa
One that rises like the sun over the shadows
of death and disease and war

Alleluia, the freedom is here!

2006-04-12T07:09:00.000-05:00

Portuguese Frustrations

Seven months here in this country and my Portuguese is still pretty terrible. I’m embarrassed when I struggle to string a few sentences together and then stand blank faced as the person I am speaking to rattles off a torrent of Portuguese responses and I’m left desperately trying to catch enough words so I can follow along at a minimal level. Of course, some days are better than others, and I really should give myself some credit as I’ve made some great strides in the last couple of months. But over all, my Portuguese skills remain pathetic.

Many people, even university linguists, bounce around the theory that Anglophones have a particularly difficult time learning other languages. Something to do with never growing up being forced to speak a second or third…or seventh language. I guess you could call this the curse of having the lingua franca being your native tongue. I can see some truth to this. Growing up in Western Canada, I NEVER had any pressure on me to speak another language, outside of trying to get a passing grade in our French classes. But then again, I seemed to be more preoccupied with playing cards with my friends then learning how to conjugate verbs in le passé simple.

Living abroad just opens you up to the necessity of language skills. I am genuinely impressed at many of my friends here that can confidently speak 3-5 European languages..or my African friends that can speak two or three on top of the tribal languages they grew up with as kids. Language is such a fascinating cultural phenomenon and I envy people that can fluently move from one language to the next while hiding their obvious foreign accent.

But when it comes to my pathetic Portuguese, I really can’t blame geography or my unilingual upbringing…it’s purely a matter of laziness. I do most of my work here in English, writing reports, researching information online, attending meetings, despite living in a Portuguese speaking country I can do most of this in my native language. I’ve become dependant on a translator for presentations and interviews and am rarely forced into a working situation where I can only speak Portuguese. But on the street, or in a meeting with only Portuguese speakers, my weakness is clearly exposed. I’m not saying that after seven months I should be fluent, but I certainly should be further along.

A big part of my problem is that I still haven’t got a firm grasp on basic pronunciations in Portuguese. They have a lot of sounds that my tongue just can’t seem to get around all the time. It can be embarrassing but it had led to some pretty funny situations as well. For example, one time I was riding a chapa to work and approaching my stop. In Portuguese, you say “paragem” when you want to get off a bus but I said “parabens” which means congratulations!! I got a pretty confused look from the door man.

Another time I wanted to know the time so in portuguese you say “ Que horas sao?” except I pronounced it “coracao” which means “heart.” I later found out that this is a secret code for homosexual men in Mozambique to determine if the one that they are interested in is indeed on the same side of the fence. Another time I asked for the price of carrots and ended up asking for the price of a woman. That got some good laughs from the ladies in the market. Another verb I also mix up is sentir (to feel) and sentar (to sit down). You can imagine the look I got from one of our colleagues when I asked her, instead of whether they would like to have a seat, if they would like to feel themselves. Good times being the stupid bumbling foreigner!!

Despite all these mix ups and frustrations, speaking Portuguese can be a lot of fun, especially now that I can see myself improving more rapidly. I still have a long way to go but at least I can hold my own now in a basic conversation. I also have a nice Mozambican guy for a Portuguese tutor, who has been teaching language classes for 30 years. He likes to do “practical Portuguese” lessons which normally means hanging out in the baracas drinking beers and speaking with the locals without using any English.

So there is my language rant. Anyone else got any thoughts on the matter or any funny language mess ups they would like to share? I’d love to hear that I’m not the only one that embarrasses himself on a regular basis!!

2006-04-04T02:48:00.000-05:00

Let’s get this show on the road!

I think that it is high time that I gave an update on my work progress here in Mozambique. Now that I have signed this new contract with MEDA I have assumed the ambiguous title of HIV/AIDS Program Coordinator for the Mozambique Microfinance Facility. One of my main responsibilities now will be in directing from our end MMF’s HIV/AIDS project we have recently begun in collaboration with Development Alternatives International (DAI) and Economic Consultants International Africa (ECIAfrica) in Joberg. The development world is really just one big alphabet soup of various acronyms!!

This project that we have just begun in March involves the selection of four Mozambican Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) to receive more direct technical assistance from our team of consultants as well as some funding to be used towards the implementation of action plans for HIV/AIDS. We are happy with our four participating MFIs as they represent a good mix of different lending methodologies and geographical regions in Mozambique. The first is Male Yeru, an MFI that has about 1200 clients in Southern Maputo province specializing in microenterprise development loans for individual clients. Male Yeru is a close partner of MMF and we are tremendously happy to see them willingly take an initiative on HIV/AIDS.

The second is Banco Oportunidade, one of the biggest MFIs in the country serving urban clients in Maputo, Beira, Chimoio and Quelimane. They offer individual loans as well as group lending (3-7 members) and village banking (10-30 members) to their clients in some of the most heavily infected HIV/AIDS regions in the country. We are extremely impressed with their commitment and progress so far on HIV/AIDS as they have already begun to offer training sessions for their staff in order to have them better equipped to answer questions and confront the challenges of dealing with clients living with the disease.

The final two participating MFIs are the two from Nampula province that Cremildo and I worked with back in the beginning of February. Caixa das Muheres de Nampula (CMN) is an association of some 2000 women that focuses on issues of economic and social development while teaching these ladies how to properly utilize small enterprise loans. Since HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects women more than men here in Mozambique, as is the case in most other countries in Southern Africa, we are excited to work through this challenge with through a specifically female perspective. Finally, Ophavela is a microfinance operator that overseas the rotating savings and credit associations in the rural districts of Nampula province. They have a very interesting lending methodology and are eager to begin addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS in these rural areas where very few NGOs dare to venture.

We held our first learning workshop for the project last week in Maputo, inviting each of the MFIs to an intimate gathering where we could review our project objectives and begin to plan our courses of action for the next seven months. We also provided a brief overview of the HIV/AIDS and Microfinance workshop we held back in September to refresh the participants on the main focus areas associated with building a strategic response to the impacts of HIV/AIDS on the clients, staff and overall operations of MFIs. The participants were able to share some laughs as well as their experiences and insights into how their institution has dealt with this challenging issue. After a full morning of presentations, the participants were able to break into one-on-one groups to discuss their proposed strategies with our “tag team” of consultants, Dominique Brouwers from South Africa and Henriqueta Hunguana from Mozambique. We are especially excited to have Henriqueta as a part of the team as she is easily the most experienced and well respected microfinance consultant Mozambique has to offer!!

After the two day workshop, the whole project team went out to the Costa do Sol restaurant for a big wrap up party. For the past seven months I had been told about this legendary restaurant, rumoured to serve up the best prawns in all of Mozambique, but I had never been inside its doors. The meal was absolutely incredible and we all sincerely appreciated the opportunity to discuss non-work related topics over wine and sumptuous seafood. Back in July, while I was at my internship orientation at the MEDA offices in Waterloo, I had made a pact with Ruth Dueck-Mbeba that we would sit down and share a plate of prawns and a bottle of vinho verde when she came to visit here in Maputo. Well seven months later we finally fulfilled our promise. This picture above of Ruth, MEDA’s longest serving consultant, holding our precious bottle of Casal Garcia is truly priceless.

Then of course we have the lovely ladies, Frances Bundred my co-facilitator with ECIAfrica, Henriqueta Hunguana and Pauline Achola, HIV/AIDS project manager for MEDA. Without the input of these fantastic women this project would never have got off the ground. Everyone involved in this event put in a tremendous effort and we have much to look forward to during these coming months as we continue to work with our participating MFIs on pro-active solutions to HIV/AIDS.

2006-04-03T08:26:00.000-05:00

Saudades

One of the greatest things about learning a new language is discovering interesting new words that just don’t really translate well into one’s native tongue. In Portuguese there is a wonderful example of this in the word “saudades.” It more or less means to feel strong nostalgia for a person or a place…something like what we would call homesickness in English but more specifically related to one’s emotional attachment to certain relationships. As a sentimental fool myself, I particularly enjoy this word and the meaning that it has in my life right now.

This past week I have had to say good bye to my best friends here in Maputo as well as my beautiful apartment that has been my first home here in Mozambique. I became incredibly close to Peter, Caitlin and Wes during these past seven months and will look back fondly at the countless memories we’ve shared together in this wonderful country. They have been a constant source of joy and support for me here and a healthy reminder of my homeland that at times seems so very far away.

Together we have explored Mozambique’s pristine coastline and unique cultural mix, grooved to Afro-jazz at either Gil Vicente or Café Camissa, brought down the house at Clube Naval, laughed at each others frequent Portuguese mistakes, shared meals with friends from around the world, tried to solve the world’s problems during our numerous balcony sessions, exchanged multiple stories of happiness and sorrow from life in Maputo and discovered what it means to be white development workers on a black man’s continent. Oh and we also found time to start a band together called Samora Machel and the Revolutionaries. Our first album should be out by the end of the year with a world tour to follow in 2007. We’ll keep you posted.

Of course, nobody can leave quietly from this country so last week we threw Peter, Caitlin and Wes a massive Desperdida, which is basically a big going away party in Portuguese. The night was full of music, drinking, dancing and good times for all, a perfect way to send off my Canadian Comrades. Their house was packed with more Mozambicans then I have ever seen in one apartment and naturally things got a little steamy…a real festa Africano!! This picture above is my favourite picture I have of the "Three Stooges" putting back the pineapple surprise that someone had concocted.

The night also signified the handing over of their apartment to me as I moved into the place this past Saturday. I loved my old apartment but our lease came to an end of the month and we were no longer interested in staying associated with our old land lady. IN my whole time in Mozambique so far nobody has given us nearly as much grief as this lady has in the past couple of months. We have fought tooth and nail over ridiculous things and embarrassingly it has degenerated into a situation where nearly every conversation we have together is confrontational. Cathy and I have felt cheated at every opportunity by this women and have wisely chosen to part ways, both of us learning valuable lessons about renting apartments in developing countries. Our moving day experience was one of my worst days here in Mozambique and I really don’t think that I should dwell on all of the details. Let’s just say that it was an unfortunate ending to an enjoyable stay in a classy apartment.

But as much as it is hard to say goodbye to the old apartment I look forward to keeping the good times rolling in the new apartment, a place that is already full of so many good memories and positive energy from my experience here in Mozambique. And like all friends that come in and out of our lives, I know that Peter, Wes and Caitlin have each left a part of themselves with me to remind me of the many things we’ve shared together

A meus amigos:

Podem suas almas estar livre dançar, seus coraçãos esteja livre amar e suas mãos estejam livres trabalhar em o que lhe significa a maioria. Podemos nós nunca esquecer-se que em Mozambique, em Canadá, e em cada canto do mundo...a luta continua!! Eu vou ter os muitos saudades para voces e eu espero por nossa reunião seguinte em Africa ou o Winnipeg Folk Festival!!

Paz e Amor

2006-03-26T09:09:00.000-06:00

Free at Last.

I rejoice today, along with friends, family members and admirers, for the safe release of Jim Loney, Harmeet Sooden and Norman Kember, the Canadian and British members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams that were kidnapped almost three months ago in Iraq. We can only imagine what sorts of things these men experiences during their captivity, and the stories will definitely be coming forth in the following weeks as the men begin to feel confident and prepared enough to take on the media. CPT has done, and is continuing to do, amazing, front line work in the devastated city of Baghdad, exposing the injustices of the American led occupation and standing alongside the Iraqi civilians as their country degenerates into a chaotic civil war.

It is a bittersweet happiness we feel, however, as Tom Fox, the only American CPT hostage, was killed a few weeks back, his body dumped in a Baghdad garbage bin. A man of strong faith, social justice and political conviction, had his life tragically struck down simply because of the nationality he carried. His work, and the ongoing message of CPT…that Christians should be prepared to give their full effort, even their lives , for peace and justice to be manifested on this earth. Their voices, and the voices of the countless others involved in the denouncing of the cruel, illegal and destructive occupation of Iraq, will not be easily extinguished.

I was especially touched by the words of CPT members as they attempted to put this experience in a comparative context to the lives of countless Iraqis that are suffering immense hardships in their homeland. They comment that as difficult as this ordeal has been they have experienced only a small taste of what Iraqis have heaped upon them on a daily basis with the car bombs, road side explosions, ambushes on innocent civilians and the constant kidnapping of those desperately trying to work to improve the situation in the country. In a statement the group said "During these past months, we have tasted of the pain that has been the daily bread of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis... We renew our commitment to work for an end to the war and the occupation of Iraq." Reports are now showing that up to 30 Iraqis are kidnapped each day on the streets of Baghdad.

I hope that the story of CPT can show the world, and especially our brothers and sisters in the Middle East, that there are many people who are motivated by the teachings of Jesus to continue the struggle for peace and justice from their own back yards to the farthest corners of the earth. The words of Jim Loney make a joyful sound,

“With God’s abiding kindness, we will love even our enemies.
With the love of Christ, we will resist all evil.
With God’s unending faithfulness, we will work to build the beloved community."

2006-03-23T01:01:00.000-06:00

You say Ponto and I say Ponta!!

This past weekend I set off with some friends for a camping trip to Ponta D’Ouro, a beautiful stretch of pristine coastline at the Southernmost tip of Mozambique. There were many squabbles among the group as to the proper spelling and pronunciation of our destination and we never really reached a consensus, especially given the fact that we encountered about ten different versions of the name within the town itself. However, there was a unanimous consensus amongst the group that Ponto was indeed a spectacular ocean paradise. Warm turquoise water, huge crashing waves and soft white sand was exactly what we were craving after being cooped up in the city for the past month.

The only downside to Ponto is that it is completely overrun by South African tourists. I had not seen so much white meat sizzling in the sun during my entire time so far in Mozambique. The Boers come in with their huge boats, 4 X 4s, quad bikes, jet skies and completely drown out any tranquility the beach may have otherwise possessed. And the campsite is literally one huge braai (BBQ) with Boerwurst, steaks and beers served up from 7AM until well past sundown. Without any hesitation, we elected to camp at a backpackers lodge further up the shore where we could relax amongst the reed huts and the gentle breeze coming in from the ocean.

One of the reasons why Ponto is such a haven for Boers is that it is extremely difficult to get to from Maputo. The roads from South Africa are freshly paved while the road from Maputo is a 200km stretch of soft sand that is just waiting to swallow up any unqualified vehicle that dares to make the journey. This highway is easily the worst road I have seen in Mozambique. I had been out to Ponto once before, back in December with my boss Pierre and his family and we got stuck for over an hour despite having a Kia Sportage 4 X4!! This time, however, we elected to all jam into a Ponto bound public chapa that could easily traverse over the challenging terrain. The chapa driver, Julio, was actually a client of Male Yeru, one of the MFIs that we work with and I was present on the day that he received a microloan to purchase the chapa and begin his business of transporting locals and tourists from Catembe to Ponto. Julio does very good business and certainly doesn’t mind doing overnights at Ponto with his kids that come along for the non-stop bumpy ride.

On the ride back we ended up having a very energetic conversation with some locals about soccer, South Africans and global poverty. They got quite a kick out of learning that our friend Gustav was Mozambican, despite the fact that he is a white guy from Sweden. Gus was born in Maputo and spent the first fifteen years of his life living in Mozambique and Swaziland. They called him “O Chefe de Missao” (the head missionary). We then all stopped at this road side vender when a lone woman with her two children sat selling bananas, a string of dried fish and some umkombotsi, which is local homemade corn beer. Looking around I could not see any other sign of life for miles and I wondered how a woman like this could possibly make a living selling these products in the middle of nowhere. She must walk a great distance just to get to the road where she probably waits all day for just a few customers. What other options does she have I guess? The men in the chapa loaded up on bananas and beer and we were quickly on our way, leaving the woman to return to the shade of a nearby tree and wait for the next vehicle that could be hours away.

While we were hoping for some gender balance on the trip, it ended up turning into mostly a guys weekend. Here’s a shot I got of the boys when we were on the ferry boat back to Maputo. Left to right you have Peter and Wes, my trusty Canadian comrades, Dan the Brit and Gus the Swedish Mozambican. Dan has an interesting philosophy towards language. He has lived in Maputo for as long as I have, teaching English, and simply could not be bothered to learn Portuguese. He believes that any Mozambican that wants a good paying job in the country will need to learn English so by speaking with the locals in any other language is only hindering their long term development potential. He is a very funny yet crazy character and on Sunday evening I think he was still hung over from the St. Paddy’s day party we went to on Friday night.

The lone female in the group was my friend Maria, who bravely put up with the barrage of testosterone throughout the trip. Maria is a documentary film maker from Colombia who is here in Mozambique to gather material for her next project on the history of African slavery and the contrast between traditional and contemporary African societies. She has found work here producing short films for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. She has an incredible eye for capturing images and I have immensely enjoyed assisting her in filming the nature and the people around Maputo. She has taught me much about opening my eyes to the beauty that exists around me every single day. Mas buena preciosa!

2006-03-17T04:22:00.002-06:00

Shamrocks and Shenanigans

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!! I'm hope all of you are wearing green and feeling a little more Irish today. Last year I was part of the Bastard Sons of the Golden Boy St. Paddy's Day reunion concert in Winnipeg and we had a riot singing our favourite Irish diddies and good ol folk tunes from the East Coast of Canada. The night of course was full of whiskey and pints and I remember falling off the stage as we were well into our third set. Truly a night for the record books! This year I dought I will find any Guiness, Leprechans or "Kiss me I'm Irish shirts" in Mozambique but you never know...four leaf clovers can pop up in the most unexpected places!! I hope every one has a merry ol time tonight from the first pint to the parting glass...

Of all the money e'er I had,
I spent it in good company.
And all the harm I've ever done,
Alas! it was to none but me.
And all I've done for want of wit
To mem'ry now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

Oh, all the comrades e'er I had,
They're sorry for my going away,
And all the sweethearts e'er I had,
They'd wish me one more day to stay,
But since it falls unto my lot,
That I should rise and you should not,
I gently rise and softly call,
Good night and joy be with you all.

2006-03-14T07:25:00.000-06:00

Stepping Back in Time

Ah I am getting very lazy in my posting. It is now a month after my fantastic trip to Ilha de Mozambique and I am only now sitting down to write about it on the blog. Ilha has definitely been one of the hi-lights of my time so far in Mozambique. It was amazing to kick back for a few days and explore this country as a tourist, after living in the big city for the past six months (where does the time fly away to, really?) After bidding farewell to Cremildo in Nampula, I hopped aboard a chapa bound for Ilha and spent the next three hours sandwiched between a 350 pound Mozambican Muslim named Amir, who had an opinion on absolutely everything, and an 80 year old Makua woman who kept feeding me these exotic little fruits that I had never seen before and laughing each time I popped a different one into my mouth. The old lady was actually the last one to get onto the chapa and since it was already full to the teeth with people, goats and bags of charcoal the driver simply picked her up and stuffed her through the open window into the seat next to me. A scene you just don’t get back home in Canada.

When we finally got to Ilha I was surprised to see that the Island was actually connected to the mainland by a 3 km bridge built by the Portuguese back in the 1960s. As we crossed the bridge and came closer to the Island I began to feel more and more of the weight of history that hung in the air throughout the place. Ilha de Mozambique has been a meeting place of world cultures for centuries and its diverse inhabitants have constantly been struggling to co-exist on this 3.5 km x 1 km piece of land. Africans, Arabs, Chinese, Indians and Europeans have each left their fingerprints and their seeds on this tiny Island. Long before the Portuguese found their way around O Cabo de Boa Esperança, the Island provided the Islamic Empire with its southern most trading post center along the East African coast.

However, the Portuguese had their sights firmly set on this strategic island and fought the Arab inhabitants, eventually establishing the Fort of St Sebastian. It was this impressive Fort that would protect the Portuguese as they built their colonial headquarters and their dominance over the region of what is presently known as the country of Mozambique. Actually the origins of the name “Mozambique” came from this initial contact between the Arabs and the Portuguese as the Portuguese explorers encountered stiff resistance from the islands inhabitants lead by the Arab sultan Mossa al-Bique. Ilha served as the colonial capital of Mozambique until 1898 when the Portuguese moved it south to the port city of Lourenço Marques (now Maputo). Many Portuguese remained on the island but as the FRELIMO Guerillas increased their offensive in the northern parts of the country during the 1960s, the government decided to remove all administrative resources from Ilha and concentrate them in the much more accessible city of Nampula. No longer serving any administrative or commercial purpose, the Portuguese abandoned Ilha entirely by 1970, leaving the remaining inhabitants in a perpetual time warp on the future world heritage site.

As I stepped out of the chapa and walked around the narrow streets of “stone town” I encountered a remarkable sight that was half ghost town and half vibrant community. Children raced through tiny alley ways while their mothers called at them from the windows of 400 year old buildings. Here was a historic European city that was essentially “taken over” by the dark faced inhabitants that had watched the sun rise on Ilha’s eastern horizon for many years before the arrival of the White Man. I was immediately surrounded by local boys who wanted to sell me everything from beads to sea shells to guided tours of the island. I first needed accommodation and while I had brought along my tent for some beach camping I thought that the experience of sleeping in a nearly 500 year old colonial home would be something to check out.

One of the boys stood out from the rest and introduced himself as “Harry Potter.” He convinced me that I should come and see the house that his brother took care off on the Eastern side of the Island. When we got there I was simply amazed at the place. It was fully renovated and full of antique colonial furniture with huge gothic style windows opening up to the sweet sounding waves and the cool caressing breeze of the Indian Ocean. I immediately jumped when I heard that the place only cost $10/night to stay.

I then finished my day by exploring the 500 year old Fort with a local tour guide named Anibal. We walked all over the fort, past the 300 cannons still pointing menacingly out at would be attackers and the impressive water cistern that sustained the Portugeuse inhabitants under countless military sieges. The cistern still served as one of the Island’s main sources of drinking water until only a few decades ago. Finally, that gleaming white building above is the chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, the oldest European building in the Southern Hemisphere. Simply amazing!!

2006-03-09T08:15:00.001-06:00

Here's a happy family shot! Last night we had a big Canadian send off for our friends Cortney and Guillon, who head back to Canada on Friday. Cortney is the one in black and Guillon is the one wearing the Canadiens jersey. They had been up in a small town in northern Mozambique called Mocimboa da Praia for the past three months and it was great to see them back in Maputo for this past week and get caught up on all of their stories from the field. Life certainly was a lot more difficult for them up there than for us in cushy Maputo as they suffered robberies, work delays, visa problems and incessant marraige proposals from an assortment of locals.

The other folks in the picture are Wes, Cathy and Caitlin...Peter got stuck taking the shot!! The potluck was a riot and the food was fantastic. Cathy and I always talk about how we never use our dinning room set nearly enough so it was great to see it loaded up with friends. We ate and drank our fill while reminicing about all the good times we've had here in Mozambique. It is coming to a point where a lot of the close friends I've made here will be moving on, leaving me to make new connections and friendships in this wonderful city. Still it sucks having to say goodbye, especially to such genuinely good people like Cortney and Guillon

Eu tenho amei cada minuto de nosso amizade. Nós somos seperatos mas juntos. Ficam bem e sempre vao com Deus

Jp

2006-03-03T03:23:00.000-06:00

Seasons of Blessings

Life truly is a strange and magnificent ride. And I have felt myself pushed and pulled through every twist and turn of this ride during these past six months. I have learned much, seen much, been pushed off the ledge, been drawn in closer and finally learned the true meaning of carpe diem. Living and working in Maputo, Mozambique has been an experience that has, without question, impacted and guided me in ways that I could never have imagined. I have come a long way in these past six months in seeing more of the type of work I want to do in my life and I have made connections that will continue to influence my life in positive ways for many years to come.

The reason why I’m feeling such a strong seize the day mentality is that this past week Maputo was hit by its strongest earthquake in over 100 years. We were all awoken in the middle of the night to the shaking and rattling of everything in the room. A very strange experience for a boy that has never felt the earth move under his feet before. My first instinct was that is was my neighbours getting rather frisky with some late night activities but soon became aware of the geological force that was sweeping across the city. The earthquake measured 7.5 at the epicenter up in central Mozambique and 4.6 here in Maputo. If the epicenter was close to Maputo I cannot even imagine what sort of damage and loss of life it would have caused. Office and apartment buildings would have fallen like dominoes, transforming the city into an instant ground zero. Perhaps I’m being a little melodramatic but such an experience can bring you closer to the realization that the gift of life can be taken from us at any moment and that we should live each day on this beautiful earth to the fullest. So many times in our lives, in our careers, in our faith and in our relationships we are focused intently on the great mystery that is the future, neglecting the clear and present reality of today. As Dave Matthews sings, “the future is no place to place your better days.”

Another reason why I am feeling so alive these days is that I have been granted a contract extension by MEDA to continue my work in HIV/AIDS and microfinance here in Mozambique. In fact, I am now MEDA’s HIV/AIDS program coordinator here in Mozambique and I have been given the responsibility of facilitating an HIV/AIDS technical assistance project we have begun in collaboration with another NGO based in Johannesburg. This has been quite an honour for me and a real affirmation from MEDA for the work that I have done here so far. This new contract will keep me here in Maputo until the end of November and I am excited for the new opportunities that will come my way and the new challenges that I will undoubtedly face in this new position.

So this brings me to my final point, or more of a proclamation really. I am issuing a challenge to all of my friends, family members and associates scattered anywhere around the world…seeings how I will be here in Mozambique for the better part of 2006, I would really love it if some of you, any of you, would come and visit this beautiful country with me. The first person to make it to Maputo will get an all expenses paid weekend trip to one of Southern Mozambique’s spectacular beaches…complete with all the laurentina or amarula you can drink. Come on…that has to be some good incentive!!

Peace and Love to you all

2006-03-01T01:30:00.000-06:00

The Final Day

The final day of our work with Ophevela saw us go further “into the bush” then I had ever been before with one of our MFI partners. Cremildo and I were joined by two credit officers from the small town of Monapo and proceeded to drive 150 km right into the middle of nowhere to meet loan groups that existed in the rough but beautiful countryside of northern Nampula province. Basically the whole of Northern Mozambique, from Nampula all the way up to Pemba in Cabo Delgado, has inselbergs scattered about in the most picuturesque manner that locals have dwelled among for centuries upon centuries. While the scenery is indeed beautiful, there are not a lot of jobs to be found in these remote areas and the living can be harsh and deprived. Here is the "road" that we took to go and visit the villages.

The first loan group we visited that morning was the poorest out of all of the groups we had visited so far. The group of 30 members had accumulated less than $50 in savings over the past three months. One of the elderly female members was allowed into the group despite the fact that she could really only afford to save 1000 MZM per week, the equivalent of a nickel back home in Canada. Despite the lack of business in these rural areas, the members were deeply thankful that Ophavela existed so they could invest in whatever meager income generating activities that were possible. And there was also a deep rooted sense of pride in the village, evident in the fact that the group had pooled their savings together and collectively purchased matching fabric to make “special outfits” for the group meetings. Here the women are in their capilanas (skirts, the essential female African outfit) and the men in their snazzy shirts, ready to get down to business.

In total we visited five village loan groups that day and at each location we were treated to singing, dancing and an eagerness on the part of the members to discuss their challenges, future plans and thoughts on HIV/AIDS. This group of women featured below even wrote their own song of praise for savings and loans that they enthusiastically presented to us. It is encouraging to see many of the members use the loan money for productive things such as new farm land, bicycles or sewing machines. I was also amazed at the strength and determination of the women members that we interviewed who often were the sole breadwinners in the family. Many of these women would speak passionately about their work and families while non-chalantely popping out their breasts to feed their hungry babies. This has been a common occurrence no matter where I have conducted client interviews in Mozambique and while at first this made me embarrassed I quickly realized that it was a natural action and that I was the only one in the group that feeling uncomfortable. My experience talking to rural Mozambicans, as a result, will be forever linked with the smell of sweat and breast milk.

Another thing I discovered about Northern Mozambicans, particularly the Makue people that we worked with around Nampula, is that they believe much more strongly in traditional medicine and “magic” then the Shangana people around Maputo. Some of the clients told me that they would at times use money from the group to pay for traditional healing ceremonies and visits to witch doctors. Even my colleague Cremildo admitted that his Makue friends in Maputo believed “too much in the magic.” This was compounded by the fact that on Thursday night Cremildo’s cellphone mysteriously began to flash on and off and lock the keys whenever he tried to call somebody. Cremildo was convinced that some Makue had put magic on his cellphone as a visit to the Mcel store the next day failed to fix the problem.

As we finished up our final group interview on Friday afternoon Cremildo and I were exhausted and our brains were fried. We savoured every mouthful of our greasy egg sandwiches and warm bottles of coke and bid farewell to our hosts. One of the older female members, a real matriarch in the community, spoke up and said that she didn’t want us to be like all the other visitors from Maputo (read: wealthy Mozambicans) and abroad (read: whites) that would visit them in their villages and then never come back (read: forget about them). We both assured her that this was not our intention and that we are hoping to work with Ophavela more in the future on rural microfinance and HIV/AIDS. After what we saw over those three days completely convinced me that they would be an important partner for MMF in our HIV/AIDS initiative.

Cremildo and I then spent our final night together in Nampula catching the final game of the Africa Cup of Nations with the host nation Egypt taking the crown in a shoot out victory over Senegal. We then checked out a Brazilian Carnival party hosted at the main community center in Nampula. Mozambique is often considered the “Brazil of Africa” as the music, costumes and dance are a unique blend of African and Latin American culture. Needless to say, the whole town was out at the event and Cremildo and I both had sore necks from having our heads turned repeatedly by the countless number of gorgeous women in attendance. A good night of partying was what we needed to wrap up a fantastic week of work in Nampula and to prepare myself for my next three days on the Island of Mozambique.

2006-02-23T06:23:00.000-06:00

Viva os Pescadores!!

The second day with Ophavela was spent in the coastal city of Angoche about 250 km away from Nampula. One assumes that under normal road conditions such a trip should take just over two hours, but here in Northern Mozambique one has to hope for the best and expect the worst when it comes to rural highways. The trip ended up being a four hour roller coaster ride with our Land Cruiser often going no more than 5-10 kmh. When we finally got to Angoche I discovered that the old colonial port city had, like so many other Portuguese towns in Mozambique, been reduced to a dusty ghost town by years of civil war, capital flight and neglect. Here is a shot of the main street of Angoche at 2:00 in the afternoon. Kind of makes you want to lie under the shade and go to sleep, which is a popular way locals spend the afternoon.

We were able to meet with the Ophavela staff working in Angoche and visit some of local credit associations. Many of the clients working in Angoche are fishermen that desperately try to make a living for themselves and provide for their families by what is yielded to them by the sea. Unfortunately, many of the fishermen are too poor to afford nice boats and fishing equipments, making it very difficult to get to the deeper waters where the really big monsters live. As a result many skim the shallower waters for small fish and crabs or paddle out to sea on tiny dug out canoes. The ones that can afford larger boats are still hampered by government regulations against using certain sizes of nets or fishing in certain areas. The problem is that the waters close to shore have been extremely over fished, forcing the government to take immediate action in order to replenish the vital fish stacks. The local fisherman, however, have difficulty seeing the long term benefits of this strategy. Their families are hungry now and they only see the policy as increasing their suffering.

We met with some local fisherman (pescadores) under the shade of Angoche’s only beachfront restaurant (which by the looks of things had not seen visitors in many a moon.) There names were Moisa Muhammed and Osaf Saliman (There is a much greater Muslim population in Nampula than back in Maputo province so we were confronted not only by a different social culture but also by a completely different set of names). They were very grateful for Ophavela and the credit association but they continuously stressed how difficult it was for them to make a living as fisherman in Angoche. They were ashamed to admit that they often had to use loan money from the group to buy fish to feed their families or to sell in the market. They admitted that a big problem for the fisherman here is that they have no means of preserving their fish so their products often spoil before they are able to be sold in the market. Since many of the members are constantly living hand to mouth they do not have many long term business development plans aside from collectively purchasing a car for the group to transport their products to the markets in Nampula. A lofty dream indeed but encouraging to see them thinking collectively.

After our interview, we said goodbye to the fisherman and they returned home to their families with the days catch: five small fish no more than three inches in length and two crabs. They just shrugged their shoulders and admitted that the sea did not give them much today and that hopefully tomorrow would be better. We then returned to town to meet with some of the woman’s associations. Many of these women had husbands who also were fisherman but were engaged in some small businesses as a means to complement the family income. Some of their activities included the production and sale of traditional beer, cakes, charcoal and coconuts. The members saw the credit association not as a means to develop their business but as a safety net for them to get through the “days of hunger.” Many of the members were extremely thankful for the opportunity to use the loan money to purchase furniture and fridges for the house, organize traditional ceremonies for weddings and funerals and pay for their children’s school fees. In communities as destitute as this I’ve discovered that development is a luxury while survival is a reality.

After our long day of trekking around the streets and the beaches of Angoche, we piled back into our Land Cruiser for the long journey back to Nampula. We did one more sweep past the sleepy streets, observing the large port and three massive factories that now lay abandoned and in ruins. Looking over my notes and pictures from the day I could not help but marvel at the people that still managed to make some sort of a living for themselves in a town that history had all but forgotten.

2006-02-22T05:10:00.000-06:00

Trabalhamos Juntos (We work together)

Sorry for the delay in the posting over the past few days. We’ve had a ton of visitors come through the office lately and it has caused me to neglect my blog. On Monday we had our big Project Steering Committee meeting where we had to present the work of MMF in front of the representatives from CIDA as well as the Bank of Mozambique and ministries of finance and rural planning and development. MMF will come to a close here by the end of November unless CIDA and the Mozambican government decided to renew the partnership commitment between them and MEDA. We put forth a good presentation I thought but now we have to play that proverbial waiting game as the bureaucratic wheels continue to turn and decide on our future here in Mozambique.

But for the time being I will write another report on the trip up north. After our two days with Caixa das Mulheres de Nampula, Cremildo and I met up with a microfinance institution by the name of Ophavela. Now Ophavela has a unique lending methodology that I had yet to see during my time in Mozambique. They facilitate what is know as rural savings and loan programs for poor, subsistence communities throughout the rural districts in Nampula. Unlike most other MFIs who receive funding for client loans from international donors and development organizations, Ophavela sets up self-sustaining associations of 15-30 members whose loan capital comes from the pool of savings that they are able to accumulate as a group. This methodology works extremely well in these rural areas where the communities are extremely poor and depend on each other as a means to survival.

So Ophavela will go out into these rural districts (where not many NGOs dare travel!!) and train local communities on how to run these credit associations. The members receive basic training in money management, record keeping and, recently, some basic information on HIV/AIDS. After a two month intensive training period the groups are reviewed by Ophavela officers and approved for the next “maturation phase.” This involves less monitoring by the Ophavela officers and community activists and more sovereignty transferred to the association members. The groups each have some flexibility in designing the conditions of the savings and loans as well as the terms of membership in the association. They will meet once a week to collect the savings contributions, provide credit to willing members, collect loan payments and discuss any emergencies or general issues of the day, all in addition to some good hearted singing, laughing and socializing with their friends from the community. Each member knows that their contribution is important to the overall wealth of the group, working together to foster greater prosperity for the community.

We spent the first half of the day with Ophavela interviewing their staff at their head office in Nampula. The staff were incredibly friendly and eager to talk about their operations as well as their HIV/AIDS program that was currently being developed. They have done a lot of work already and clearly highlighted areas where they would need further technical assistance. After the meetings in the morning we headed out to see some of the associations that operated just outside of Nampula. Being the visitors from the “big city,” Cremildo and I received a royal welcome from the association members complete with singing, dancing and refreshments (coke and egg sandwiches!!). For communities whose members often survive on less than a dollar a day, such an outpouring of hospitality was very touching.

After we conducted our group interviews, the members would proudly present “the box” containing their savings and social security contributions. Each member would then present their weekly savings, often no more than 10,000 MZM (50 cents). While these savings seem quite insignificant by our western standards, they are a considerable sacrifice for families with little to no income. And members know that if they continue to make these savings they can apply for a small loan (no more than three times their accumulated savings) or receive the group payout that happens every eight months. This payout comes from the accumulated interest on loans (10% per month) as well as any financial penalties assessed for late payments and is distributed accordingly amongst the joyous members. The happiness that the members share for being a part of the association is remarkable as it provides them with the added financial security to get through what they call the “hunger times.” The spirit that they show, despite the hardships the surround them everyday, is truly an inspiration.

2006-02-16T07:46:00.000-06:00

Girl Power!

Well the time out in the field was certainly an incredible experience for Cremildo and I. We were able to pack a lot of work into our five days in Nampula before we parted ways and I took off for some holiday time on the coast. I’ve decided that the best way to share with you all what we saw and did would be for me to split up the trip into three sections: our time in Nampula with Caixa das Mulheres, our time “in the bush” with Ophavela and finally my awesome three days on the Ilha de Mozambique.

We began our adventure at the Maputo International Airport where Cremildo bravely boarded a plane for the first time in his life and we both stared out the window like little kids as the beaches and palm trees shrank beneath our eyes. Landing in Nampula, we were greeted at the airport by a five woman welcoming committee, dressed in their flamboyant finest and whisked off in the back of a pick up truck to our hotel. These women were from Caixa das Mulheres de Nampula (CMN), an association that offers savings and small enterprise loans exclusively to female members. These women are given the opportunity to gather in small groups to learn about healthy lifestyles, money management and basic business development skills. The central objective of CMN is woman's empowerment through microfinance, allowing these women to take greater control over their economic lives.

While their hearts are in the right place, and their staff and clients are both optimistic and energetic, the institution suffers from a lack of direction and low operational capacity. Both Cremildo and I were disappointed to discover that no progress had been made on their HIV/AIDS action plan since the workshop we held last September. The few pamphlets that were strewn about the front office were the meager leftovers from what the participants took back from Maputo. They had not made any effort to make their own contacts with HIV/AIDS service providers or further design any policy or product refinements. There is clearly a lot of work that still needs to be done.

That being said, Caixa das Mulheres did have some very interesting clients that we were able to meet over the two days with them. One success story I should share is of Malika Sawcha, a real Mozambican entrepreneur. She is a woman that has been with CMN since 1998 and is currently on her eighth loan cycle worth 25 Million MZM ($1100 CDN). Malika started from scratch back in 1998 and is now running a sewing business with six machines and a small auto parts store, employing altogether five people in the operation. She is planning on using her next loan to open up a baraca next to here shop to serve lunch and cold drinks to all of her customers in the neighbourhood. Despite her success, Malika has not been spared by the impacts of HIV/AIDS. She has already lost one employee to the disease and has taken in her sick cousin whose husband died of AIDS last year.

I’ll leave you with a picture of the stunning Catholic Cathedral in downtown Nampula, the site of Pope John Paul’s visit in 1988 (or Papa Joao Paulo as they say here). I’ll write more about the trip and post more pictures in the next couple of days. Tchau!

2006-02-04T02:26:00.000-06:00

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I'm very excited because tomorrow I am embarking on my greatest work related trip during my time in Mozambique so far. Myself and my new co-worker, Cremildo Carlos, are heading up to Nampula Province in Northern Mozambique to spend a week working with two microfinance operators in the region. We're going to be visiting many of the rural projects as well which should prove to be fascinating. I enjoy my job here in Maputo but I cherish every moment I get to work out in the field and I beleive that this one should be very rewarding.

I'm also excited to begin this first field assignment with Cremildo. MMF just hired him this month to work as the HIV/AIDS technical advisor and already I am regretting not having him here since the begining of my internship. He brings a lot of experience and insight to the team and possesses an uncany ability to always say the right things and get the right things done. He's my age and already we've developed a pretty good working vibe. I'm also excited because Cremildo has never flown in a plane before and I can't wait to see his reaction to seeing Mozambique through the eyes of a bird. He's eagerly looking forward to the trip but I can also tell that he is a little nervous to go up into the sky for the first time!!

Then after this week I'm going to spend a few extra days up in Nampula checking out the sights in that part of the country. I'm definitely going to check out Ilha de Mozambique, a 500 year old Portuguese colonial settlement that is a UNESCO world heritage site. I'm a pretty big history buff and I've wanted to see this colonial relic ever since I began researching the country of Mozambiue. I don't imagine I'll have much internet access up there but I'll definitely take as many pictures as I can and tell you about the whole experience.

Blessings to you all,

Jp

2006-02-01T08:41:00.000-06:00

Festival Esperança

Try to imagine for a second an entire stadium full of people, all shouting loudly and dancing to the lively beats of energetic musicians late into the evening. Many of us have probably been to a concert like this and many of us have probably been to so many we’ve lost count. But now try to imagine being in this same crowd amidst a sea of people who have never witnessed anything close to this kind of spectacle. This is Mozambique and this was the Festival Esperança (the festival of hope).

As I mentioned once before, large scale concerts in Mozambique are about as common as a gay pride parade in Alberta. African musicians rarely have the resources to stage such events and locals rarely have enough finances to afford the high ticket prices. As a result, when a big concert does happen it is BIG news, especially if the headliner is a major international superstar. The last time the international music industry descended upon Mozambique was back in 1995 when Eric Clapton thrilled a capacity crowd of 60,000 at the Stadium de Machava (Mozambique’s national sporting complex). This past Saturday, I joined at least 65,000 others at the same venue to be a part of what was being billed as the “concert of the decade.” Headlined by UB40, the concert also included the fabulous and timeless Oliver Mtukudzi from Zimbabwe and the classic reggae hero from South Africa Lucky Dube.

The concert was organized in support of people living with HIV/AIDS and the ubiquitous red ribbons were to be found all around the stadium. In between musical acts, Mozambican celebrities and government officials made emotional pledges to the crowd to be strong in the fight against HIV/AIDS, their pleas often generating the same level of applause from the crowd as the musicians. The number of sponsors for the event was staggering, including everything from government departments to multinational corporations to major international NGOs. Everything from flyers to pamphlets to free condoms were distributed throughout the crowd or dropped from airplanes above. Seeing the hundreds of inflated condoms being batted around by the boisterous crowd just added to the surreal picture of the event, although much to the chagrin of the HIV/AIDS activists on stage.

We headed down to the concert in a group of 14, holding close to the belief that there is always safety in numbers. Such precautions were justified as the whole event was absolutely chaotic. The line up getting into the stadium alone was about a kilometer and a half long with nearly every street vendor within a 50 kilometer radius of Maputo franticly running up and down the line trying desperately to sell the impatient crowd anything from cold beer to cashew nuts to mysterious “street meat.” We almost spent as much time outside the stadium as we did inside but all realized that this was simply a golden opportunity for people watching. I was all prepared to bring my camera and guard it with my life at the concert but decided against it at the last minute. It was probably a wise decision as some friends of ours were pick pocketed and had their purses slashed. Still, the pictures I could have had would have been priceless.

By the time we finally got into the stadium and meandered our way up close to the stage, the strength of the crowd was really starting to build. The group Kapa Dech was on stage, an all percussion group from Mozambique that quickly worked the whole crowd into a frenzy. This group was quickly followed by the hugely popular Lucky Dube whose singing, dancing and preaching too everyone to a higher place. Looking around me, I had never in my life seen so much energy and “positive vibrations” pulsating through a crowd of people. Simply spectacular. Oliver Mtukudzi then came out and beautifully continued the musical celebration. I think My Zimbabwean friend Mondli can best describe Oliver’s music, “Ah he is great. He makes the young ones jump. He makes the old ones jump and he even makes the white ones jump!!” In all honesty, UB40’s set was rather anti-climatic following the amazing performances by the African musicians, although they did bring down the house when they pulled out “Red Red Wine.” Who doesn’t love that song?

Altogether it was an amazing concert and an unforgettable experience, made all the more special by the fact that such events only occur once every ten years in this country.

2006-02-01T03:08:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! Some of the comments I got on the blog last week were great, especially after the election. I have to say though, for some real insightful (and often hilarious) commentary on the state of Canadian politics, sports and entertainment in the world, I would suggest you check out my good friend Jarret Boon's blog here. Jarret was one of my classmates at Carleton and is perhaps single handedly responsible for me not drowning in the Rideau Canal back in the summer of '04. Our "baseball" pilgrimage to Boston that year was a dream I'll never forget. Keep fighting the good fight out there in Ottawa brother!

2006-01-31T08:57:00.000-06:00

Hamas and the Holy Land

Many people have been asking me recently about my opinions on the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections. Although it has been almost seven years since I lived in the Holy Land, I still feel a strong connection to the land and its people. I don't think there is another place in the world where politics and religion are so intimately and passionately intertwined. If you've ever been there, you know that there is an evergy in the region that grips your heart and awakens your consciousness. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one that will never go away as the voices of moderation continue to be drowned out by the extreme saber rattling factions on either side of the fence. Leonard Cohen once had this to say, "I've seen the nations rise and fall, I've heard your stories heard them all, but love is the only machine of survival." When looking at the current state of Israel and Palestine, I could not agree more.

One Love Brother

Sometimes I want nothing more
Than to know how I can love you
We are brothers standing here
On either side of this wall
That has existed
In one form or another
For the past 3000 years
When will we finally see
That it is one Father we serve
One Mother that gave us birth
One Blood that unites us
and one Love that will save us

How did this victory happen?
Through the spiral of violence
That has been tolerated
Throughout the Generations
And now is roaring loudly
And gnashing its teeth
At the branches of olives

To cross this sea
That divides us from heaven on earth
We must balance on this boat
Each digging the oar in deep
And each trimming the sail
Why must we rock this vessel
And incite the storms of destruction
That are gathering as we posture
And sharpen our swords

2006-01-30T05:11:00.000-06:00

Blessathure

Hey this notice is for all you peggers out there. When was the last time you had the chance to partake in a spectacular display of Icelandic culture? My guess is that it has proabably been a while. Well now you have the chance to see some incredible Icelandic dancing, music and artwork while supporting some beautiful local Icelanders in the process. I'll let the words of Kristjanna Oleson explain the rest:

Hey everyone,

Well, a new exciting project is about to be launched. Come out and join! It's cheap cheap cheap... and the beginning of an epic project in the works. I can't tell you how excited we are and how much of a dream come true this is for me and my partner in crime, dancer/painter extraordinaire Freya Olafson. The Oleson and Olafson duo will be performing this wonderful multi-media piece

"The New Icelander: The Search for Sessilia"
at the Contemporary Dancer's studio, 211 Bannatyne
Thursday February 9th and Saturday February 11th,
both shows start at 8 pm.
The piece will run aproximately 40 minutes
$5.00 at the door

-in association with Plug-in Art Gallery and The Icelandic Consolate

reception to follow both nights in MCMA (right beside Contemporary Dancers) with wine and beer for all. For drinks we ask for a small donation...

Other musicians include Rob (DJ from Absent Sound)
David Schneider - (recorded)
Mathew Kroeker - (dij-recorded)
Constantine Caravassillis (composer - piece for CD and amplified viola)
And Kristjanna Oleson (composer/violin/viola/mountain dulcimer/guitar/sample sounds-recorded and manipulated)

This is the beginning of something big....
Come out and celebrate the beginning of the Search....

see you there!
much love
Kristjanna Oleson

-here's to all of our dreams -

2006-01-25T08:11:00.000-06:00

Walking in the Sand

This past weekend presented yet another opportunity to escape from the hustle and bustle of Maputo and head out with some friends for a camping trip. This time the destination was Bilene Beach, about two hours north of Maputo. The crew all headed up after work on Friday but I stuck around for a birthday party, of which at one point we had 10 different nationalities represented at the dinner table!! In a classic picture of ex-pat life in Africa, each one of us was somehow working in development for a different NGO. It certainly exposes you to how other cultures approach the issue of development and their role as foreigners here in Africa. There certainly was no shortage of interesting people around the table that’s for sure.

The next morning I got up bright and early and hopped on a northbound chapa, determined to get to the beach before noon. My journey was stalled at the dusty town of Macia where I had to catch a second chapa to take me the remaining 35 km to Bilene. Unfortunately, not a lot of tourists were lining up for rides and the chapa drivers wanted to wait until they had a full load. It was looking like I was going to wait at least three hours. One of the motoristas, who thought I was South African, offered to personally drive me the 35 km for a cool 130 Rand ($22 Cdn). I told him he was crazy and tried my luck at thumbing my way to Bilene. Sure enough, within two minutes I was picked up by a wealthy Portuguese landowner in a huge air conditioned ¾ ton truck. He loved the fact that I was Canadian and rambled on about all of the friends he had in my country. Despite informing my driver that my Portuguese was still in its infancy, he went on at a frantic pace about the glory years of Mozambique (pre-1975 of course) and the triumphs of the Portuguese Empire.

The town of Bilene is situated beside a large salt water lagoon that pours into the Indian Ocean about 5km away. The lagoon is very shallow and you can almost walk halfway across (very strange). To get to the ocean you have to take one of the small ferries run by the locals, who notoriously gauge unsuspecting tourists. I figured that I was in for a real hit to the wallet when I spotted a tiny ferry being boarded by a middle aged Mozambican couple. I quickly hopped on board and was taken across the lagoon by a team of brothers who were no more than 15 and 9 respectively. The 15 year old, Amilcar, was in charge of the money, petrol and recruiting customers while his younger brother, Pedro, drove the boat. I was pretty impressed by these boys and the lucrative transport business they were running. Here is little Pedro at the helm of the boat.

When I got to the other side I sent a text message to my friends but then quickly, and without my knowledge, lost network connection. I was so enthralled by my surroundings that I decided to explore the huge sand dunes, drift wood deposits, crashing waves and fascinating water birds before trying to locate my group. I walked off in the direction where I “thought” they would be based on our earlier conversation. Little did I know that I was walking in the direct opposite direction from where they were located. Here is a picture that I took of the massive sand bar where they were camped just minutes before I headed the other way. I walked for about an hour while the sun got hotter and I got more fatigued and confused over the fact that I still had not found any sign of human life on this spectacularly deserted piece of coast line.

By the time that I had finally got a hold of my crew, and realized how much of a predicament I was in, I decided to just continue hiking through the dunes and eventually find my way back to Bilene on my own. The dunes were fantastic and provided me with some much appreciated time in solitude. I got stuck a few times along the way, and took some extended breaks in the rejuvenating patches of shade, but finally I found a foot path that led me to a tall dune over looking the lagoon and a small traditional fishing village. I must have been quite a sight for the locals who certainly don’t see many brancos walking through their village, especially with full camping gear in tow. I had many young children stare at me with some of the widest eyes I have ever seen and call out “malungu malungu.” I did have two local boys energetically approach me and offer, in remarkably proficient English, to escort me to their brother’s ferry boat which would take me across to the “tourist area.” I followed them past straw huts, chicken coops and laughing families to the shores of the lagoon where I got on a boat with about 20 other shangan women. They were also fascinated by my presence and we laughed all the way across despite the fact that I could not understand a single word that they were saying. African women produce the most amazing laughter I have ever heard.

As much as I enjoyed wandering around the wilderness that afternoon I was extremely happy to see my friends on the other side and get settled into camping mode. After a wonderful meal we all relaxed by the lagoon, sipping wine and swapping stories. The next morning was pretty much more of the same as we hung out on the beach and explored more of the surrounding area. An abandoned beach resort caught my attention as it had clearly been reduced to ruins after independence. I thought he run down villas, engulfed in years of neglect, made for an intriguing picture. I was also able to use the lazy afternoon to finish my latest book, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I loved this book so much that it made it onto my favourite books list before I had even completed it. A fascinating read that I would highly recommend to anyone.

2006-01-24T08:01:00.001-06:00

The Morning After

So this morning I woke up to the news that I had already been anticipating for weeks: That Stephen Harper was the new Prime Minister of Canada and the Conservatives were back in power for the first time in 13 years. Now I know that many out there are shuddering at the thought of the Harper Conservatives calling the shots in Canada but I think we can all admit that it was high time the scandal plagued Liberals were finally put out of their misery. It really was pathetic to see Martin and rest of his Liberal co-horts over the past few months, who had become WAY to comfortable in their governing seats in the House of Commons, desperately cling to power in survival mode while dodging one more scandalous accusation after another. It would have been great to see Paul Martin on the other side of the floor as the Leader of the Opposition but of course the guy couldn't stomach that humiliation and quickly stepped down as Liberal leader minutes after his concession speach.

Even though the conservatives did not come close to garnering my support this election, I wish Harper all the best as he assumes the leadership role of a country is a political mess right now. As Canadians I honestly don't believe that the man is going to sell us to the United States of George Bush, I don't beleive that he's going to revoke a woman's right to choose, I don't beleive that Adam and Steve need to worry that they will no longer be able to get married this year, I don't beleive that he'll put weapons in space and I don't beleive that he'll ship Canadian boys and girls off to Iraq with guns in their hands and freedom in their pockets. I can confidently say this because the conservatives will only form a minority government, openning up opportunties for the NDP to hold the balance of power and bring more socially, economically and environmentally progressive ideas to the table. If it had been a Conservative majority then I would have woke up with a headache ten times worse than the one I had on Jan. 1st this past year.

Now despite the fact that I believe our country is spared from this frightening prospect of an "ultra right-wing hidden agenda," I think the other parties will have to keep a firm check on the Harper Conservatives and this is where things could become fractious and turbulent. I think Harper will have to do some pretty skillful political diplomacy if he is expecting to hold together a coalition government in the significantly divided polity that is the Canadian political scene right now. I wish you luck PM Harper, but for some reason I see your political dream crashing down sooner than later and us Canadians reluctantly going back to the polls in less than two years. These minority governments in our country, while exciting, certainly don't have a very long shelf life.

I would love to know what you other Canadians though about the election. Where do you think ol PM Harper will lead our country? Should we be panicking this morning after? How long can this conservative minority government last? Any other thoughts?

2006-01-20T04:52:00.000-06:00

No Direction Home

I received a wonderful gift from my parents for Christmas this year. Actually, the package they sent, back in the middle fo November, never actually got here until two weeks after Christmas. Such timeframes you come to accept when waiting for things in this country. Now you may already know the intensity of a mother's love for her only son but my mother takes this a step further. She loves to send me packages while I'm abroad containing various, and sometimes embarrassing, objects to remind me of home. This year she sent Christmas chocolates, a goofy looking Santa hat, a jar of Planter's nuts, a stick of Gillette deoderant and two pairs of colourful and ridiculous boxer shorts. Just imagine the customs guard's face when I had to open up my package in front of him and try and explain the contents.

One of the gifts that they managed to get to me prior to Christmas, through special delivery from Pierre while he was in Canada for a MEDA conference, was the Martin Scorsese documentary No Direction Home. This is a four hour biography of the definitive years in the musical career of Bob Dylan. Now as many of you may know, I have been a tremendous fan of Dylan's music since I was 14 or 15 years old. I can distinctly remember being turned on to Dylan at amateur high school coffee houses, late night sessions with the oldies radio station and sitting on the steps of my former elementary school singing "Like a Rolling Stone" at the top of my lungs with my friend Andrew.

What captivated me about Dylan, even at that young age, was his ability to deliver a message through music that was poignant and challenging, ringing out like a fire bell on a silent street. Songs that always grabbed me were early Dylan folk tunes such as Blowin in the Wind, The Times they are a Changin, Hard Rain a Gonna Fall, Only a Pawn in their Game and With God on our Side. You can find the lyrics to these songs and nearly every other Dylan song ever recorded at slopbucket.com, an extremely useful Dylan fan site. His politically driven, socially motivated and hard hitting folk music was the stuff that really spoke to my soul. I thought that the movie did an excellant job of portraying Dylan's transformation from this stage in his career to his electric, more experimental phase.

Now don't get me wrong, I certainly appreciate this side of Dylan as well (and I LOVE The Band). However, I do prefer the one man on stage, axe strung on his shoulder, tell the world the way it really is side of Dylan. It's just an honest preference. The man had such a big part of the western world watching his every move, waiting for his next song, and hanging on every word that came from his mouth on the stage. But the man that literally had the attention of the world stepped away from the microphone, backed away from the spotlight and cast off the media given title of the "voice of a generation." I know that he had his reasons, as we all have our reasons I suppose. Still I cannot help but feel a touch of disappointment for a man whose music could have made a greater difference in the world. There is a wonderful exchange in the movie between Dylan and Joan Baez, two folk powerhouses in the early 1960s that took very differant paths. The latter belting out protest songs and attending countless sit-ins, rallies and demonstrations even to this day while the former content to live and walk away from the crowds all in the name of creative freedom.

Bob, I admire you as a musician and as a poet but I do believe that you neglected a powerful role that had been granted to you. I think Baez raised an interesting question in the movie: what would have happened if her and Dylan had continued as an international political folk super couple? How would the last 40 years have been different in politics and music? I found it interesting that she, full of nostalgia and persistent idealism, still held a desire for that historical scenerio.

I guess I question Dylan's motives slightly when I look at the drastic change in his art through the mid 60s and after. I would not have joined the crowds that booed Dylan off the stage when he walked out with an electric guitar in his hands but I do believe that his music lost an edge, and that distinctive poignancy, during this period. I can sort of explain what I mean by looking at Dylan's relationship with my present country of residence. In 1974-75 Dylan visited sunny Mozambique and wrote the following song for his Desire album,

I like to spend some time in Mozambique
The sunny sky is aqua blue
And all the couples dancing cheek to cheek
It's very nice to stay a week or two

There's lots of pretty girls in Mozambique
And plenty time for good romance
And everybody likes to stop and speak
To give the special one you seek a chance
Or maybe say hello with just a glance

Lying next to her by the ocean
Reaching out and touching her hand
Whispering your secret emotion
Magic in a magical land

And when it's time for leaving Mozambique
To say goodbye to sand and sea
Your turn around to take a final peak
And you see why it's so unique
To be among people living freely
Upon the beach of sunny Mozambique

Now this is a nice and happy song and I can tell you that parts of Mozambique really look and feel like this picture that Dylan paints. But come on Bob, while you were writting this song the country that surrounded you was in the peak of its war of independence. You could have wrote a song that would have told the world about the struggles of FRELIMO and inspired the hungry and the destitute in Mozambique. Instead you came for a vacation, wrote a quick song, and left. It's not my place to judge but I guess I expected a bit more. Just some thoughts. Anyone agree or disagree?

2006-01-19T00:50:00.000-06:00

Northern Ontario

I heard the news today
moved me on down the line
It helped me miss familiar skies
and the feel of your back
in the night
I listen for your sound
and I hear nothing
only the call of this chain
around my neck
and the heavy stone that is attached

I hear he's from Nothern Ontario
You always said
you had a heart for those boys
I hope he treats you better than I
I know he certainly deserves the chance
Still I kind of feel uneasy
with the thought of him with you
His hand on your skin
and his part in your story
feeling the warmth of your laughter
and drinking with you
the wine of compassion

Two paths stretching onward
far beyond all sight and sound
full of twists and turns
and mountains and valleys
moving us forward
to where we need to be
Still I cannot help but smile
for the time our paths ran parallel
and sigh with nostalgia
for your song and your touch

Paz e amor

Jp

2006-01-18T02:04:00.000-06:00

Vamos a la Praia!!

Another weekend, another beach excursion. This time I set off with some Canadian friends (Pete, Wes and Caitlin) from Maputo to Macaneta beach again about a half hour north of the city. It’s pretty much the closest beach paradise to Maputo where you can swim in the water without fear of industrial pollutants. We set off bright and early on public transit with all of our camping gear in tow, attracting a combination of stares and snickers from the locals on board. Once we got to the town of Maracuene we had to take a ferry across the river and then hitch a ride the rest of the way to the beach. Local entrepreneurs with rusted out trucks spend the whole day going back and forth from Maracuene to the town of Macaneta carrying Mozambicans and the odd crew of mulungos. We piled into the back of this one guys pick up and along with no less than 20 other locals, making for an extremely tight and chaotic ride. The recent downpours had made the road nearly impassible in some sections and severely tested the resolve of our beat up little half ton. We got stuck on numerous occasions prompting all of the passengers to disembark, stand in the mud and lend their hand in pushing the vehicle out of the sticky situation. It took us over an hour to get through a five kilometer stretch of road under the oppressive mid day sun. Certainly an experience one can only find here in Africa.

When we finally got to Macaneta Beach we were astonished to discover it almost entirely deserted. The hordes of tourists that had crowded the beach on my last visit had all returned to Maputo or South Africa and we practically had the place to ourselves. We asked the manager how much he would charge us to camp and he quoted us a ridiculously inflated number of 70 Rands ($15). Being the cheap Canadian interns that we are, we decided to head up the beach and search out a place to pitch the tents away from the watchful eye of the manager. We spent the whole day exploring the beach, attacking the waves, playing frisbee and trying to catch some of the slower varieties among the hordes of craps that were scattered along the shore. We kept our fluids and our spirits high with Caitlin’s special ice cold sangria and electric lemonaid. Good good times!!

That evening we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the clear sky and a brilliant full moon that illuminated the long stretches of beach and danced upon the rolling tide of the Indian Ocean. We were convinced that we had lost ourselves in paradise until our revelry was cut short by the image of two dark figures approaching our camp. They told us that we were camped illegally and that we would have to speak to the manager immediately. We were initially scared that we would be handed big fines or ordered to leave the park that night but Wes and I summoned up the courage to embark on a sort of diplomatic journey to the manager’s office.

When we got there we were completely surprised to see the manager in a jovial mood, drinking beer and watching music videos. He explained that this was private property and we could not camp without permission. He said if money was a problem we should of just told him and he would have let us stay for free. He saw that we had eaten dinner at the restaurant and he considered that be a sufficient “payment”. He even started asking us about our work and wanted to know if he could apply for a microfinance loan to build a bakery on his property. He wished us a good night and told us to come again. As Wes and I were walking back to our site we figured that the only way in which the situation could have been better would have been if the guy had bought us a beer while he spoke with us. The rest of the evening was full of songs, games and late night dips in the ocean. Truly an unforgettable experience.

The next morning we were all awake by 7:00 AM as the heat from the sun was already unforgiving, making our tents feel like tiny convection ovens. I wish you all could see the tent I bought out here. It’s a cheap little Chinese tent that I picked up for $40. It has a single wire frame that folds into a circle about two and a half feet across. All you do is take it out of the bag, shake it around a bit and “pop” your tent is completely set up. It’s gimmicky, and it keeps the bugs off, but I would be in some trouble I think if it had to stand up to a rain storm. By noon, after another five hours in the sun, we were completely cooked and decided to head back to Maputo. We avoided the shenanigans along the main road and took a boat back to Maraquene, passing lazy little fishing communities and dilapadated colonial villas along the banks of the river. We had an amazing time and we look forward to more chances to explore the natural wonders of this beautiful country. Here are a few more pictures.

Sunset over the Lagoon

Two dogs that followed us around all night and quickly became our companions. We named them Che Guevera (the one on the left) and Samora Machal (the one on the right).

Crabs on the Beach

2006-01-13T05:36:00.000-06:00

Running back to Swaziland

I just got back yesterday from three days in Swaziland with my boss Pierre Martin. Our excursion involved a nice combination of work and pleasure, despite the fact that it was rainy and dreary the whole time we were in the country. The purpose of our trip was to establish a greater relationship between MMF and the Swaziland Microfinance Enterprise (SMFE). We wanted to investigate what actions SMFE were currently taking towards HIV/AIDS and how the institution was integrated into the HIV/AIDS programming of World Vision Swaziland (WVS). We also wanted to investigate the potential for providing future technical assistance to SMFE, particularly in the area of HIV/AIDS, as well as funding partnerships between MEDA and World Vision for future work in Swaziland.

We spent our three days interviewing staff members from SMFE as well as WVS. There was a general consensus among the staff that SMFE could be doing more when it came to HIV/AIDS programming for their clients. Of course, with any type of development project, funding is always the big question but there seems to be enthusiasm on both the part of MEDA and World Vision for further investment in this area. Hopefully we can see some more dollars being sent this way to help these plans take off. One of the good connections I made while on the trip was with SMFE’s operations manager George, an extremely talented guy with a strong passion for development and HIV/AIDS relief. He also seems to fancy himself as the “Jimi Hendrix of Swaziland.”

One of things that impressed me the most about SMFE was their transitional loan communities that they have established for clients either infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. These special community banks, of anywhere from 8-20 clients, operate in the same manner as regular community banks except that interest rates are 20% and the required savings component is only 10% of the requested loan amount. This is an intriguing lending strategy and one that is not currently being pursued by any Mozambican MFIs. SMFE believes that the transitional loan communities will provide social support and financial relief to clients that are struggling under the impacts of HIV/AIDS in their households.

I should share a story about one of the clients in this community named Msesi Sibeko. She struggles to support her family through her dress making shop that she shares with two other women. Her husband passed away a few years ago, likely due to HIV/AIDS, leaving her to raise her two children as well as three orphaned children from her cousin, who also succumbed to the disease. The child on the left is named Nhiakanipho, which in English means “braveness.” She is thankful for SMFE for providing her with a loan of 500 Elangeni ($100 USD) to help pay for materials and rental fees. With future loans from SMFE she would like to purchase an embroidery machine so she could make fancier outfits and school uniforms. In addition to credit and savings through SMFE, Msesi has also received training in simple accounting, business management and HIV/AIDS treatment from WVS. However, supplying enough nutritional food for her children is still difficult and Msesi would like to see SMFE establish an emergency loan fund for households affected by HIV/AIDS to continue to provide their families with healthy food options during slow business periods.

After three days of Swazi hospitality we returned to the familiar stomping grounds of Maputo city. As my internship is coming to a close I’m beginning to find myself inevitably looking at what lies ahead beyond the end of February, not only for myself but also for the MMF project here in Mozambique. MMF is itself in a bit of a transitional period right now as its five year funding term with CIDA comes to an end towards the end of 2006. As a result, there is a lot of discussion going on right now about what the next phase of the project may look like. MMF and MEDA are in a good position to be a regional center for technical assistance in HIV/AIDS and microfinance in this part of Africa and it is exciting to be a part of this visionary process for “Phase Two” of MMF. The success of this Swaziland trip has convinced me that there is potential for partnerships for MEDA in other countries such as South Africa and Zimbabwe. Time will manifest something here sooner then later I believe and it is a good feeling for me to have some sense of ownership in what is happening here.

2006-01-03T08:11:00.000-06:00

Happy 2006 Everyone!!

I hope you all were able to usher in the New Year with excitement and joy. It’s January 3^rd so many of you should have by now shaken off your hangovers or already given up on that bold New Year’s resolution you announced on December 31^st. As is often the case with me, I create these elaborate lists of resolutions that I vow to keep in order to improve my life in the New Year. However, backing up my talk with some serious results…well that’s another matter entirely. Usually by mid February I’ve forsaken my buoyant commitments or thrown them into the great heap of “things I’ll get around to later.” This year was no different, as I compiled another long “to do” list for 2006.

Coming out of the gate strong, I started off with the classic: getting more exercise. Yesterday morning I woke up early for a jog along the Ocean side marginal. The morning sky was clear, the streets were quiet, the Indian Ocean was like a crystal sheet stretching out to the horizon and the weather was a ridiculous 32 degrees…at 7:45 AM!! By the time I got to the bottom of the Marginal I was utterly exhausted and my shirt was completely drenched with sweat. On numerous occasions, I seriously considered jumping into the Maputo Bay but the thought of garbage and industrial waste for breakfast allowed me to maintain my senses. I arrived back at my apartment an hour and a half later, cursing the African sun and my pathetic physical conditioning. I have a ways to go before I will be running in any African marathons I’ll tell you that!!

In between Christmas and New Years, I got the chance to visit some family friends in Pretoria. Going to South Africa is such an escape from Mozambique I can’t even begin to describe it. For four days I received the royal treatment and I almost forgot I was in Africa. I drove along pothole-less asphalted streets, I ate at gourmet restaurants, I drank expensive wines, I went golfing at a pristine country club and I wondered the shops at the largest mall on the continent. This is South Africa though, a country with first world luxuries in the midst of third world suffering. The political and social dynamics of the country are fascinating with the Afrikaner, British and numerous African cultures all culminating into one political society. I’ve always been intrigued by South African politics and I enjoyed the chance to witness the country firsthand, albeit from a heavily Afrikaner perspective. Perhaps I’ll write more on that at a later time. The family I stayed with undeniably showed me some true Afrikaner hospitality, introducing me to the finer points of biltong, brais and beer for breakfast. Buy a donkey you guys!!

I spent New Years here in Maputo at a party on a mashamba (farm) just outside the city. It was a great time but a full day of “merry making” left me rather tired by the wee hours of the morning and I ended up wondering off into the field for a little nap. Twice, actually. Many of you out there will know my history of taking such walks when I am in such a state of mind (although I don’t think anything will ever top my 23^rd birthday party!!) I then spent my final day of holidays up at Macaneta Beach about 45 minutes north of Maputo. Huge crashing waves, long stretches of deserted coastline and a chilled out beach bum community made for quite an enjoyable day!!

I would love to hear about all of your New Years escapades so if any of you have a good story to share please post it up. Also, if any of you would like to share new year’s resolution, which are not nearly as cliché as mine, please feel free to do so as well. I’ll leave you with some random pictures from the past week. Peace and love everyone!! Here’s hoping all your wildest dreams come true in 2006!!

Danicing it up on Christmas Day

Some Cute Kids

Christmas Dinner at our Apartment (left to right: Alex our security guard, Paulo Cathy's "namorado," Cathy the wonder cook and our friend Josie)

Mike Weir and Retief Goosen at the 7th hole of the Pretoria Open

A cute girl on Macaneca Beach

2005-12-25T01:28:00.000-06:00

Feliz Natal e Boas Festes

Rudulph the Red Trucked Elephant?!?!

Ahhh Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere. Actually, today the weather is cool and threatening rain, a welcoming change from the stifling heat of this past week. The radical difference in the Christmas environment from Maputo, Mozambique and Winnipeg, Manitoba has made it difficult for me to get into the Christmas Spirit this year. As much as I love experiencing the Christmas traditions of a different culture in a different land, I can’t help but get a little homesick for the familiarities of Christmas in Canada. At 25 years old, this is not only my first Christmas away from my family but also my first one without snow!! A part of me really misses looking out my window and seeing a Bing Crosby White Christmas. I also miss all the great Christmas parties with friends and family and belting out carols at the top of my lungs.

But the thing that is great about traditions is their enduring quality. I know that I will be around for more Christmases in Winnipeg but, at the present time, I find myself now in beautiful Mozambique for this holiday season. I spent a wonderful Christmas Eve afternoon yesterday walking around Maputo, soaking in the atmosphere, taking pictures and talking to the people on the street. Many people had a joyous spirit yesterday and I was blessed with many uplifting conversations with street venders and passer bys. There were many venders, dressed in Santa hats, desperately trying to sell last minute plastic trees and singing Christmas lights. The homeless, the sick, the blind and the lame were also out in overwhelming numbers yesterday. I had John Lennon’s “So this is Christmas” ringing in my ears and bringing the message close to my heart. There are just so many.

Then last night Cathy and I checked out the huge Catholic church downtown for Christmas Eve mass. It was a real fusion of Catholic and local African traditions so we sang everything from Ave Maria to Silent Night to Shangana spiritual songs. Today I’m checking out the International Church’s Christmas morning service then heading off to a Mozambican Christmas party (which might get a little wild!). Cathy and I are still putting on a little dinner tonight for other familyless folks here in Maputo so that should be a good time.

So I’m wishing everyone out there a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic 2006. I hope everyone is able to find something special for themselves at this time of year and cherish the blessings that surround us each and every day. The gift of the Christ child brings to all of us is peace, love, hope and joy…the greatest gifts of all, yesterday, today and forever.

Blessings to you all, wherever you may be!

Pai Natal says, "Have you been a good boy or girl this year?"

2005-12-24T09:08:00.000-06:00

Rejoice

So yesterday I got my computer back after its lengthy stay in the emergency room. After extensive surgery on my hard drive I was able to recover pretty much all of my important files, which prompted me to let out a massive sigh of relief. It really is amazing, in this day and age, how dependant we are on computers. It took this recent scare to make me fully realize this very point. I also found it ironic that, as an HIV/AIDS Research Associate, I was almost brought down by a deadly computer virus. From now on, I think I’m going to wrap my computer in a giant condom

I’m also very excited about a proposal that I am working on for a potential partnership between MMF and some MFIs in Swaziland. I will be traveling to Swaziland in early January to observe some of their work on HIV/AIDS and determine what areas MMF could provide technical assistance. The future prospects look promising and it is exciting to be a part of a visionary process for HIV/AIDS and microfinance in this part of the world. Swaziland also holds a special place in my heart. When I visited the Swazi homesteads last month and heard the emotional songs of HIV/AIDS from the children I was overcome with grief for the dire situation facing these communities suffering under the incredible burden of this terrible disease. It prompted me to write the following,

“How can one not be moved to a point of tears by this continent?

It’s darkness
And it’s unforgettable light

It’s sorrow
And it’s admirable strength

It’s pain
And it’s encapsulating joy

She has drawn us from all over the world
And we’ve all left her behind

Her rhythm beats in our hearts
And her suffering brings us to shame”