Thanksgiving 2011

A diversion from our overview of Mozambique to report on our recent Thanksgiving trip and celebration !

The Trip…. Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, began and continued gloomy, with a light rain. Prospects did not look good for “bolea”-ing (hitchhiking) with 3 other volunteers north 150 miles to meet our fellow volunteers for a three day Thanksgiving Weekend. Nonetheless, despite the weather, the 5 hour journey was pleasant enough. We managed to negotiate the journey in only 3 truck rides on the lovely, palm-fringed EN1 (National Highway 1), with occasional glimpses of the Indian Ocean. Without event,  we took our final leg – a pretty shabby ferry boat across the bay from the highway to Inhambane city to meet up with our colleagues.

Inhambane…And so, to our final destination. A small, pleasant colonial city reminiscent of Mexico or central America. And, a fair quota of well-fed, well-housed South African tourists and NGO-employed ex-pats…a bit different from my home city of Xai Xai, for sure. Inhambane is also the gateway to a few (reportedly) beautiful beach towns, Bara and Tofu. Hope to make it to them some time and answer the age-old question: is t he Tofu hard, soft or spicy?

 The Food… We prepared a large Thanksgiving dinner for our 15 attendees. We were able to make a mostly traditional menu, thanks to the local market (Chinese, large) and a well-stocked supermarket, The Bull. Included many traditional dishes to make it feel like home: cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, apple pie and chicken (tastes like turkey).

Plenty to go around – the only thing missing was football !.

Our journey home was managed under blue skies, in the back of a couple flat bed trucks, shared with bags of charcoal, and one very quiet goat owned by one very drunk passenger.

Until next time…”Ate Ja” (See you soon!)

Food, Glorious Food !

In this episode, we touch on the Climate and Food options of my new home town, Xai Xai.

Climate….

Like just about all of Mozambique, Xai Xai has a tropical climate year round. Temps in winter hover around the 70’s while summer can push the thermometer over 100 F, nao problema. Temperatures are well-moderated, though, by the long coast line with the Indian Ocean. Rain is plentiful, but the “rainy season” is a bit different. In many other tropical climes (Central America, Southeast Asia) the rainy season begets a day with monsoon-like downpours, followed by intense sun and heat all in the same day. Hereabouts, we seem to get a stretch of 4 or 5 hot, rainless days, followed by 3 or 4 overcast and wet ones. kind of a good mixture, I think, though the rain can be quite intense and accompanied by high winds. Floods are not uncommon and my home neighborhood is on higher ground, to where many Xai-Xaiáns moved after an especially bad storm a few years back. Report that, Willard Scott!

Agriculture…

At heart Mozambique is predominately a rural, agricultural economy and my home town and province are no exception. Xai Xai has access to a huge variety of plants, vegetables and fruits. Unfortunately, the soil is very sandy and takes a lot of work for local gardens (“machambas”) to produce crops, many of which are of low quality. Better crops can be imported at higher cost from other provinces, or, most frequently, from South Africa (e.g., apples, and strawberries and pears, oh my).

For one of my Peace Corps projects I visited the local branch of the federal Department of Agriculture. With the help of Sra. Francisca Joaquicene, the Department’s agronomist (with a specialty in Cashews!) we prepared a graph of all the growing seasons for the major crops in the area. Among the notable crops hereabouts, harvest seasons are:

All year: Rice, sweet potatoes, banana, papaya

November: Mango

December: Coconuts.

January thru March: Oranges

August: Garlic, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, carrots, onions, and peppers.

P.S. I forgot to ask her about her specialty cashews, but I think we’re pretty much talkin’ May and June is cashew season. (About the same time as pineapples…delicious, but rather scarce round here.)

Availability…There is a terrific mercado grande here in town. It has just about everything you’d ever (or, never!) need – clothes, electronics and, of course, food. If the big market is too overwhelming there are plenty of street vendors, small shops and a few “supermercados” with a variety of western goods. I use ém all, including a local youth who stops by my house (a little too) regularly to vend his onions and tomatoes…gotta keep the money in the ‘hood and the local youth happy!

We’ll touch more on food and nutrition in a future entry. As we’ll see, the planting, harvesting and consumption of nutritious crops is of critical importance to all Mozambicans, but especially to those with HIV and related disorders.

So, until next time…”Ate Ja” (See you soon!)

My Daily Routine

Before trekking into the labyrinth of the  Mozambican health care system, I’ll post a few

(? Interesting?) unrelated entries on a variety of topics: the environment, food, gender roles, politics, the work place, education, language,and, below, My Daily Routine. If you find this more like homework than an “entertaining and informative”blog – LET ME KNOW!

Daybreak…. Usually, I’m up by 5 a.m., a mere one hour after the sun. We have strange hours here – no daylight savings time! And, the whole country is in the same time zone, for better or worse, lighter or darker. Daybreak is really the best part of the day, before the sun of southern summer has a chance to deplete our energy. My front yard is graced with many trees, and trees mean birds in a wide variety of colors, sizes and voices. (Note to self: find a book on the birds of Moz!) Trees include coconut, orange and cashew. Right now, mangos are entering their season – with two trees on my property, they are a sweet (free) deal.

At home, it’s the usual routine I’d follow anywhere –I’ll spare the details. I do try to grab a few minutes of the BBC radio broadcast, test myself with a few exercises in my Portuguese dictionary and read a few pages of  whatever book I’m wading through at the time.

Then, it’s off to my workplace: a good 20 minute walk, followed by a 15 minute bus ride crammed into a chapa with 15 other commuters…all for the low, low price of only 20 cents.

Mid-Day…The heat has set in by now. Were I Greene, Kipling, Orwell or any other British ex-pat it would be about time for a gin and tonic. However, being the still-rather- industrious American, I usually settle for juice and bread, along with my fellow Mozambicans. With all the stores closed for mid-day break (roughly, Noon til 1:30) there is not much to do except “passear” (walk) through the crowded streets of downtown Xai Xai, observing the street life.

End of Day…Around 3 or 4 p.m. I’ll leave my office and do some shopping, picking up some food for dinner or other necessities… and, then, head home. Occasionally, I’ll meet someone for dinner, but, as the city (“cidade”) is far from my neighborhood (“biarro”) this is usually difficult to arrange logistically.

Boa Noite! I usually take a 4 or 5 mile run before dinner. Though my fitness is nowhere near where it used to be back in the states, I can muster enough energy to make the run a worthwhile effort. Sure attracts attention, though. Mostly unwanted, save for the many children (“criancas”) along the route. Afterwards, it’s time to bathe (“tomar banho”), eat (“jantar”) and retire around 7 or 8 p.m. I try to fit in some reading to close the day, a book or the daily Moz newspaper, Noticias.

Kinda boring, huh? Well, sort of, but it works well for me right now.

So, until next time…”Ate Ja” (See you soon!)

A New Beginning....

Bem Vindo! Welcome! To the much-delayed debut of my blog, Healthy Mozambique.

After 6+ months on the ground in Mozambique, I’d say it’s a bit overdue.

 I hope you will enjoy my reports from the field as much as I will enjoy sending them.

By now, many of you know that I arrived in Mozambique on May 31 to begin my 27 month Peace Corps assignment, as a volunteer working in the health care field.  After 10 weeks of training in the border town of Naamacha, I was placed here in Gaza Province, in the provincial capital of Xai Xai. More on my town, training and  work at a later date.

For now, here are some of the top 10 cultural differences I’ve noticed in my few months here in country. Take them for what they’re worth….I’d say that’s about 5 Metacais (“Mets”), the local currency, which runs about 27 Mets for One U.S. Dollar.

Here goes……

Driving. That would be on the left hand side, please. No speed limits, no stopping for pedestrians…hey, it’s like NASCAR, without rules. In the dark, you’d be wise to  proceed at your own risk, as drinking while driving is a national pastime. Dim those headlights, deflate those tires, crack the windshield  and you’re ready to roll, Mozambican style!

Language. Well, some folks speak English,  but not many. There’s the old colonial language Portuguese - I’m getting the hang of it. Some try harder to master it than others. To wit, the Indian shopkeeper whose store I visited the other day welcomed me with a hearty “Buenos Dias!”…er, uh, wrong part of the Iberian peninsula, Senhor!

The most prevalent lingua is our local language, Changan. Every region of Mo has at least one local language, often two. It’s quite easy to ingratiate yourself with passers-by with only a few simple words of Changan. Which is about all I’m capable of, at present. Lixile: Good Morning!, Canimambo: Thanks! And Ripilile: Good Evening. So much for my Changan.

Lines. Forget ém. Don’t have ‘em. Sharp elbows are required. No gender differences recognized here, it’s every person for him or herself. In particular, children are not given preference. Brian Urlacher, where are you when I need you?

Cha. That’s literally “tea” , served at the ungodly hour of 10 a.m. A bit early for the Brits, but a nice custom, nonetheless. Unfortunately, as served in the office setting, it tends to disrupt what ever work is supposedly being done: “Sorry, that open heart surgery will just have to wait…”. Usually served with bread (“Pao”)..sorta better than what passes for bread in the states, but the French would be appalled.

Change Money. Thank God for ATMs. The alternative? Camping at the bank for half the day waiting for the completion of endless paperwork and red tape. Not for the faint of heart or short of time.There are also change agencies: less waiting, lousy exchange rates and they don’t take bills under $10 or printed before 2007!

Holidays! Plenty of ém. I count 8 since mid-August. And, on these days just about everything shuts down completely, save for a few restaurants. The celebrations themselves are pretty uniform: a trip to the local war memorial for some solemn words, supplemented with lots of guns and roses. Being a young nation (at peace only since 1992), Moz celebrates just about anything that was of some historical significance in the fight for independence. Kinda like if we were still celebrating as national holidays Paul Revere’s Ride, Washington Crossing the Delaware, or the signing of the Constitution…come to think of it, hey, why DON’T we get those days off from school and work?

Lunchtime. See Holidays above. All businesses shut down usually between Noon and 1:30 p.m.. This makes it a bit difficult to pick up that needed roll of toilet paper or bag of rice on the lunch hour. Oh yeah, ditto on Saturday after noon and all day Sunday: shopping verboten.

Chapa. The local bus transport. Indispensable, cheap and dangerous.  Picture enclosed!. Formula: cram 15 passengers into a beat-up Japanese-model mini-van, add chickens and sacks of potatoes, mix and serve. Really, they are the only way to get around Moz and, though not safe, they cost a measly 20 cents per ride. Alternative? REAL buses, donated by the Chinese, guess they have enuf of them. These run infrequently, cost less but stop very few places. And, my favorite, “boleia”-ing, otherwise known as the good old American pastime of hitch-hiking…actually works well in Moz, though I don’t recommend it after dark.

White People. Like me. But, also let’s include Chinese and Indians. We are all “Mlunga” or “whites”. Actually, a pretty offensive term, but you have to role with it. “Who you callin’honky?”is probably a dangerous response, though useful in making me feel better for the moment.

Television. Omnipresent and rather useless for keeping up with what’s going on in the world. (Thank God for BBC radio!) A tip of the hat, though, to several Brazilian soap operas (“telenovelas”) that are great for watching to hear the Portuguese language, at least as spoken in Brazil by bad actors impersonating sexually-precocious teenagers.

Churches. Plenty of ém. Ya got your Catholics, ya got your evangelical Christians. And ya got yer smattering of mosques and Hindu temples. Mozambicans are a pretty religious lot, though, and spend a lot of  Sunday getting ready for church, being in church and convening after church. God is in her heaven and all is right with the world, leastwise this corner of it.

Greetings. They’re long, polite, elaborate and absolutely required.  And, IMHO, a bit pointless, but, hey, that’s just me. We’re talking about 180 degrees from our good ol’American non-greeting..a mumbled g’day, no eye contact, no touching, by all means, keep moving!. Here’s the standard sequence here in Moz, accompanied with a lot of hand shaking that I can’t begin to verbally replicate, you’’ll have to take my word for it.

Good Morning/Afternoon/Night: Bom dia / Boa Tarde / Boa Noite

How Goes it?: Como esta?    

Fine, and you? Tudo bem, e tu?

Fine. Ta Bom.

No matter what, things are always “Ta Bom”. As Oscar Wilde, or someone of his ilk once said, the definition of a boorish person is one who, when you ask him how he is doing, actually tells you. No boors here in Moz!

So, until next time…Ta Bom, y’all !