Blogs from Southern, Mozambique, Africa - page 3

It was an interesting, if not wholly productive, week here in Mozambique. I started the week off thoroughly uselessly with a rainy, kinda gloomy Sunday where I basically just worked in my room and/or putzed about on my computer. Not must to do when the weather is nice – zilch to do when it’s crappy and you can’t plan for anything. Oh well. Monday came and introduced me to the intricacies of grant writing in Mozambique. I joined the group to review comments sent back on their new grant application, but quickly learned that I didn’t want to open that can of worms and ran back to my room to work on materials for my own project. I have to keep telling myself that I only have three months here (less now) and that I am ... read more

First, I’ll give the basic run down of my week and then we’ll talk about some of the more existential stuff, that’s the fun part anyway. My week is pretty structured for not having a formal schedule or anything. Since I can’t sleep with all this friggin sunlight (hey, I’ve almost only ever worked night shifts, even before I was a nurse) I get up between 6 something and 7 something every morning, even without an alarm clock. My bucket bath in the morning is a great eye-opener and by the time I’m done with that I *almost* don’t need coffee… almost… This week was the first actual week of work since Dr. Arlindo (the director of CoH) was back from Maputo (the capital) and the three missionaries were in the office. Actually, I think only ... read more

Dans le bulletin précédent j'ai écrit à quel point on avait profité du calme reposant de Tofo. Bon, la plage et le repos dans le hamac ça me va bien 5 minutes mais pour en profiter au maximum, il faut bien se fatiguer avant ... Et pour ça il y a les plongées ! Même traitement qu'ne Afrique du sud pour le départ dans le zodiac dans les vagues et c'est parti ! La première fois que j'ai entendu parler de Tofo, c'était lorsque je travaillais en Australie, et ça m'avait été présenté comme étant la mecque des raies manta géantes et des requins baleine. 4 ans plus tard, je suis finalement dans cette région du globe pour vérifier ça de mes propres yeux ! Pas de chance, il semblerait que depuis quelques semaines les requins ... read more

Our first anniversary was nearing, and my husband couldn't be more excited to plan a trip to make sure we have a memorable one. However he couldn't keep it a surprise and decided to make a joint decision to zero in on the destination. The options were Botswana (Okavango Delta), Zambia (Victoria Falls) and Mozambique (beach destination). We had already discussed that the place would be unusual where hardly anyone we know would have been. The choice was made soon, Mozambique it was (A Southeast African country). We chose to stay at the Water Chalets in a low profile place called Inhambane in Southern Mozambique. We had a choice of staying at one of the islands within Mozambique however the idea of staying in a water chalet attracted us more and hence we chose the latter. ... read more

Geo: -25.9664, 32.5713Our ship had sailed up the East coast of Africa and had finally left South Africa and came to dock at Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. We had attended a lecture on Maputo by the destination consultant who had gone on about the poverty we would see and how possibly dangerous it might be! His talk actually put a lot of people off from going on- shore. We were going to walk around ourselves but I must admit after hearing this talk we opted for the tour around by bus. We were a small group in a minibus with very vague air conditioning. However the temperature was hovering between 35 and 40 degrees so difficult to chill. First stop was the railway station which everyone thought had been designed by Gustaf Eiffel of the ... read more