Holidays in the Tropics

Well as with most families, the holiday season for the Kirkbrides in Mozambique have been particularly eventful. Everything has almost become a blur since our hosting of 12 adults and 7 kids for a Thanksgiving feast which showcased our two imported turkeys from Brazil?? Since it is not a holiday for us out here, I only took that afternoon off but with the help of our nanny and cleaner we were able to slip into our tryptophan coma with a clean house and just enough energy left to head into work the next day.

That next weekend we FINALLY got away to Nelspruit, South Africa as a family without any hassle at the border for the first time since we moved to Mozambique (over a year/half ago). Amazing to think that in that long time Pranvera had to wait for her first Moz residence card, then become a US citizen, get an American passport then re-apply for another Moz residence card with the new passport and THEN, we were able to travel. Of course the weekend was timed perfectly to stock up on all the necessary birthday and Christmas presents needed for the holiday’s since there is very little quality items or selection that can be purchased (reasonably) in Maputo. Of course we stocked up on food items as well as if we were preparing for a natural disaster. BUT the main reason for our trip was for us to visit our new doctor who will be delivering our BABY GIRL in April. Not only did he confer the sex for us but we had a chance to get to know him and go over all the details of the baby. We are  very happy on all fronts.

Rather than staying in the town we got a great B&B in the hills north of the city where we relaxed and traveled the countryside to see waterfalls, drive through thousands of hectares of forest plantations, hike to several waterfalls and enjoy wonderful cooking. Our fist time out in nature in as long as we can remember. One of the things we most most about living in Maputo. Now that South Africa is not longer off limits and when Pranvera finally delivers #2, we hope to do much more of this again.

 

So with almost not enough time to even unpack from the trip, my sister Stacey arrived to stay with us for over 3 weeks. And during that time we celebrated Adi’s 4^th bday (early) that weekend to include all his school friends and parents still in town. He loves his new trampoline and a bunch of drawing, playing and building toys and games he received from friends and family. And of course the traditional master piece cake from Pranvera. The fire truck was a hit for Adi and all the other kids.

And that following weekend before we left town for our holiday getaway, we celebrated a Christmas afternoon early to exchange gifts and go out for a family meal. Adi received his first real bike, a tool bench builders set, Legos and other small gifts to enjoy. He was of course in excellent spirits and so excited Santa found him all the way out here even if there was no snow for him to land and it was before the real official Christmas day.

On the 21^st (Adi’s real Bday) we piled our gear into truck to head upcountry on a two day drive with the destination about 800km north of Maputo on the coast to a town called Vilankulos where we took a 4 seater Cesna for 15 minutes to land on an exclusive 2 resort Archipelago island called Bazaruto. Fortunately my organization has an office/apartment about  6 hours into the drive so we split it up over two days and were beachfront on the island by 11am on the second day. The flight was exciting for us all but the resort was all inclusive and over the top. From the perfect double room huts to the never ending buffet spread to the open bar to the game room (beat Pranvera in a couple matches of ping pong).  The service was wonderful and the other guests and kids were fun to interact with. We did a sunset kayak trip to the local fishing village, I did a fantastic coral reef scuba dive and we spend several days at neighboring beach with perfect ice blue water and nice waves Adi tried to ‘surf’ on. Of course it felt a little different than a traditional Xmas morning but we adapted. The resort had live music and wonderful candlelight Christmas eve meal as well as a poolside Christmas day feast. The pool was two tiered with a Jacuzzi, bridge, waterfall and shallow area where Adi finally shed his floaties !!  The weather was hot but always with a nice breeze and evenings cooled off with endless stars and absolute silence for us all to appreciate. Of course the 2 day return trip seemed to drag on but now that we find ourselves back in a cooled off/rainy Maputo with fully stocked fridge and our own beds we will ready for a low key New Years celebration and a sad goodbye to Stacey whose presence has been such a treat. 
 

 

 

Summer Begins in Mozambique

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4 months on since our last report and almost too much time passed to even recall all the events that have transpired. So I’ll give it a shot to start in the future and work our way back. As we just secured a local source to import Turkeys, cranberry and pumpkin pie we’ll be hosting a collection of mostly non-American friends in a couple weeks for Thanksgiving. As most our friends and family begin to dawn the sweaters and jackets we are just now beginning to enter our summer with days getting close to 100 and weekend times finding us poolside or beachfront. We are excited to welcome my sister in couple weeks for most of December to celebrate Adi’s 4^th birthday and a Christmas holiday on one of Mozambique’s most beautiful islands and marine reserves, Bazaruto. 

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For the time being life in the present is quite perfect. Our big news is that we are finally expecting #2 in April of next year! We had just about given up hope when our luck turned for the best (right along with Pranvera’s US citizenship and us all receiving residency in Mozambique so we can finally travel to South Africa as a family). Adi has already been practicing being a big brother by singing, hugging and kissing the belly as well as paying special attention to a couple of our close friends new babies. The little one should arrive in April and we expect to deliver and stay in northern South Africa for two weeks to process a passport and be able to bring the infant back into Mozambique.

 

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We also have moved into a new, lovely home more centrally located with a much bigger yard and better layout for all the rooms (including nursery/office). But beyond all the new conveniences and charm of the house the highlight is the fact that our neighbors are our landlord and have been fantastic fixing any problems almost that same day. For those of you who have been along for our entire Mozambique experience, you’ll recall how horrible our other landlords were and we are elated to be rid of them and ironically saving over $1000 rent/month for a much worse and smaller place.  

 

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Work has been going well but has had me traveling on the road for more than any of would like. I spent several weeks in the far north seeing the real Mozambique which is strikingly beautiful but desperately poor and undeveloped. I spent much of the time inside cashew processing facilities seeing how my NGO might develop assistance programs with the management to provide more social benefit and return to the employees and communities they source from. Another work trip had me in Zambia for the week leading facilitation sessions for the launch of a new partnership facility. As much work as there is that needs to be done here my organization just closed out our largest funded program which caused us to lay off over half the staff. That said we are going to be rebuilding quickly and already have several potential projects in the pipeline and our hope that we will win the new (to be released) USAID flagship agriculture program which would give us billability securing for the next 5 years if we choose. In the meantime I will be spending my time across a number of new and innovative projects in the coming year. 

 

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Pranvera finds herself still working as a consultant with DFID but only part-term as the growing baby is taking all her energy these days. Her work on an anti-corruption case has been both interesting and challenging. Adi continues to enjoy daycare with friends who have (by default) become our friends. Weekends and afternoons full of play dates and visits to playgrounds and others houses. With the arrival of summer he’ll start taking swimming classes again (loves the water) and afternoon activity play learning karate, ball play, cooking or gymnastics.  We are very blessed with his strong health, great personality, insatiable curiosity and humorous comments to often leave us astounded and rolling.

We haven’t done any adventure weekends in so long due to the fact I have been traveling so much already during the week for work and we actually were not around for the later part of the US summer. Adi and Pranvera spent almost 2 months back at her home in Kosovo. Adi just loved reacquainting with family and especially took to Bruno, their new German Shepard dog. He was able to understand Albanian again by the end of the trip and spent several weeks in school with local and international kids. Unfortunately the European winter started to arrive early so many days of cold rain were spent inside rather than out in the fresh air of the parks or cafes. Pranvera also had a tough spell of morning sickness and other harsh related pregnancy effects leaving her to rest or retreat inside the house for more of the holiday than she would have liked.

Yes, that was particularly hard for me to be away from them for that period but ended up doing one business trip then, moved our entire house without them (but help of maid and moving company) and took my annual leave of absence to return to the States for the Friends and Family Tour. Started off with a nice long weekend with the Kaisers out at the Shore house in Chesapeake Bay taking in nature, tennis, boating and great conversations that long-time friendships provide. Was able to do a quick visit with other close friends and spend a wonderful night with my Cousin Rand in from Uganda and his two daughters Kate and Sophia (full grown girls already). Then I was off to a half week in St Louis where I was born to see both my parents and close friends. Was nice to absorb the Midwestern hospitality again before popping off for an extended weekend visit in Chicago for my 20^th year college reunion. My closest gang of 10 all returned mostly with family to do our own separate reunion after 5 years. A ton of late night drinking and laughing, daytime adventures on campus and the Homecoming football game (despite terrible rains). I was also able to add on wonderful quality visits with high school buddies Mike Jenny and Adam Keyser and their families. College roommate Evan Magas also made special arrangements to join me for a meal before I disappeared into the vacuum of reliving life 20 years ago. My final week spent back in St Louis allowed me more quality family time and visits with childhood best friend Mark Sneider, Alex Clark and family as well as Sydney and Sheila and their great kids. It was certainly nice to return to such a familiar place and see so many quality people. But at the same time I was ready to return to my own family and the newness and excitement of life in Africa.

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