A Day Gone Fishing

14 hours motoring around, 10 guys, 2 catches, 3/4 day seasick and $175. I think I'll buy fish from the market next time;-)

And one for the Road, Literally

As I noted in our blog from earlier today, Africa can very easily bring us Westerners to our knees. It is how you deal with it that lets you keep on going. You either cry…or laugh…or write about it which lets you do a bit of both.

So with my family safely tucked into their beds sleeping away, I add one last entry to the Challenges list which is really only a fraction of what we have been through over the past year. We just spent the last 6 hours in the car on a very botched attempt to cross the border into Swaziland where we had planned to spend a nice 3 day holiday weekend at a bed and breakfast nestled in the hills of central Swazi with some great meals, hikes and rendezvous with friends nearby. So having packed up the truck with all the gear (those with kids know this is no small task) and having driven several hours to the border, we were pleasantly stopped by the customs authority who said that I could not leave the country on the new work visa I had just paid $250 to get 2 days before. Apparently this type of visa is only a single entry arrangement unlike the tourist visa which we have had the last which forces us to leave the country every 30 days to ‘renew’ it. Which was actually the reason behind the trip in the first place since Pranvera and Adi both needed to do their exit and re-entry. As we pressed the matter (in Portuguese) we found that they were willing to let me leave thus cancelling my work visa and then return on my tourist visa. Which then would have required another trip to South Africa (1 day) and $250. Which was not an option. Now this could be chalked up as an honest mistake and one that we have known better but my office colleague mentioned this potential situation to me at work which I brought up directly to our Administrative Director. Who assured me under no uncertain terms that this would not be a problem…

So I sat on the border as my wife and son walked past the armed soldiers into Swaziland to enter their border house receiving her entry stamp there on one side, exiting, walking around to the other side to emerge with her exit stamp to come back into Mozambique with her re-entry. This is such a common practice with countless number of ‘repeat tourists’ that luckily as of yet it is ironically an accepted practice.

So we all climbed back in the car kissing our hotel deposits goodbye and drove all the way back to Maputo in Friday rush hour traffic. Which of course hit grid-lock and some-kind of mining truckers protest where they used their huge trucks to whittle 10 lanes of traffic only down to 1 to enter into the city after passing through a toll stations whose increased rates we think they were protesting. The only saving grace to this unnecessary adventure was that we made it back in time to catch our happy hour Caiparinha’s with close friends at the Shack. Before returning home exhausted to unpack, unwind and drift off to sleep.

TIA…

A Year in Reflection                      

 We celebrated our one year arrival to Mozambique last night with a perfectly prepared eggplant lasagna by Pranvera and our nanny, a glass of freshly carbonated water from the SodaStream machine I purchased earlier that day on my (12 hour day) trip to Nelspruit South Africa to finally pick-up my work visa, and then an evening of celebration playing with all the new toys daddy brought back for Adi including an electric race car track and a collection of new books, bell for his balance bike which he pushes seamlessly around the neighborhood and chalk to color on the blank white walls surrounding our back yard ‘compound’.  So I guess even this statement highlights some of the vast changes we have undergone this past year of living in Maputo, Mozambique. We all agree that it has overall been the right thing to do and a wonderful life experience for us all. But in no way does this mean that it has been easy. It has certainly gotten easier as we have ‘settled in’ but the logistics and process to start a new life have been at times overwhelming. Fortunately through assistance from my office, friends, time, patience and luck we have weathered all of these and can all say we a quite happy with the life we now have and plan to continue to build here in southern Africa.

Work continues to be interesting and challenging for me.I am building public private partnerships between my organization mostly working in agriculture and businesses and government donors who are also trying to help improve livelihoods for the 86% rural poor population here. Many challenges to overcome with poor infrastructure, local capacity, limited capital and poor yields. I have a talented staff and meet a ton of interesting people wanting to make a difference. Pranvera continues here part-time work with the World Bank on a global survey and report she is producing with OPIC on anti-corruption . She has just received another contract offer with the Bank for a desk study on 'at risk' groups in Kosovo and is in the final round for a position with the British Aid Agency in Maputo for a 6-12 consulting position to develop an anti-corruption program for the international donors group working with the local government. So great thinks happening for her pulling back into the professional world and happily away from being a housewife;-)

Our Blessings   

I think safe to say overall our health still remains strong and we have not had any of the major illnesses you hear about so much from those living in Africa. Yes we have our bugs, mosquitoes, animals but we have learned how to guard against many and effectively kill those that penetrate our defenses (Pranvera’s favorite sport was using our Chinese electric tennis racket to zap any flying objects in our house or mosquito net ‘the castle’ before bed). We have all had colds and fevers and stomach issues at some time or another but we consider ourselves lucky. Of course the biggest difference with Adi is if he starts to show certain symptoms, we need to take him in for a malaria test. More about a piece of mind for us than the chance he has it but when we travel over the weekend to different villages and beaches and safaris, it is very possible that something might have happened there instead of in Maputo.

We have also settled into a nice routine in Maputo. A pretty city but not much to do or see, once you have been here. So a lot depends on the friends you meet and the activities you organize. Take our Friday afternoon standing happy hour sitting outside on the India Ocean next to the ‘Shack’ which serves the best, cheapest and strongest Caiparinha’s in the city. We know the staff all too well, see many of the same patrons also enjoying the early cut-out time from work (1pm Friday’s) and are accompanied usually by friends and their kids who we have also gotten hooked on this wonderful way to kick-off a week. Unfortunately the more social evenings have lead to at least 2 drinks which then means that everyone in the Kirkbride household is asleep no later than 9.

Or take the local water park. A huge western styled amusement area right outside the city, 10 minutes drive from our house.  About $10/person (steep for local prices) but well worth an entire day of playing in different water pools (some with big whale and frog slides). Other with the lazy river family floats or the tower slides that Adi runs for as soon as they open (advantage of Africa is lack of enforcement of height or age rules). So he sits in my lap and we zoom down the 3 story curlie cue ride or the super fast bumpie slide. As we are usually joined by multiple families the kids get kid time, the adults’ social time and all of us sun and fun.

We have found a great overpriced sushi place at the 5 star Polano Hotel with unparalleled views of the ocean high from atop the Maputo city ridge. We have enjoyed a descent Yoga class every Wed night. Both have memberships to the gym next to our house at the hotel we lived at. I play tennis every Friday at 2pm before the happy hour drinks start. Adi really likes his daycare and now that he is kind of potty trained he can stay till 3 3-days a week for Judo, Arts & Crafts and Music which keeps him out of the house longer so Pranvera can work on her consulting assignments from home. I now ride Adi to daycare on my bike and then have a 10 minute ride on the Indian Ocean to get to my office on the newest street in the city (just paved almost the entire way last week). A cleaning lady and nanny assist us with keeping this old house clean and helping with Adi when he is tearing around the house. We recognize how blessed we are with these ‘norms’ out here which make life exponentially easier not to mention really helping out support a number of families whose only livelihood are from what  they make working with us. Now that most of the water issues (flooding from the water tank on the roof upon our arrival) and other repairs needed to our house have been settled, we really like it and with our shipment finally having arrived a couple months ago, it feels like home in every sense. I have even bought a grill in South Africa so we are having guests over on the weekend to enjoy an outside BBQ and kids playing around in the small (but well groomed) yard we have. Finally, as of last week Pranvera will finally be able to shuttle around the city with our new old car. Ironic that to come out here we sold our new Honda CRV only to end up purchasing the same exact color and car, just 14 years older.  But once again we have our ‘Greenie’. Another story is to note that I got into a fender bender driving it around the city on the first day :-p

Since we have to do a visa stamp run every 30 days to stay in Moz. on the tourist visa, we have been forced to explore some beautiful areas in Swaziland and South Africa, both within 90 minutes of Maputo. We tend to make a weekend of it instead of stepping out and stepping back in. We only secured a visa for Pranvera for 3 months to SA due to her Kosovo passport which mostly involved shopping trips and a family Safari in Kruger over Thanksgiving with both my sister and cousin. So the majority of our time has been to Swazi to appreciate their great tribal culture, wonderful food, higher end lodging and great customer service.

So in between all this we have still found time to do local weekends away beachside. Which there are plenty of! Just requiring a minimum of 2 hours drive all the way up to 7 for the better and cleaner sands and water. Most of these adventures have already been catalogued on the blog but the highlight has to have been my work conference where I brought Adi and Pranvera to Inhambane where we had an extra weekend plus my 3 days on the best, biggest and emptied beach we have seen. Wonderful water and fresh seafood. The lodging was a very basic local designed hut with bare accommodations but a great pool to balance out the ocean time. And my work colleague even organized a snorkel trip for all of us during a lunch break from our meetings. And came across a school of dolphins to boot!

Our Challenges

Or also know as TIA (This is Africa) This list is almost too long to record but actually combines a bit of comedy with pain and subtle insights into living in Africa. The random stream of conscious sheds some light on the day in the life (on top of actually having a job):

• Bought the car but have not been able to secure the title since the registrar is claiming the original import signature doesn’t match the seller. And it actually doesn’t have to according to law but we have had to hire a fixer to go in and actually get the title back to the car so we can own what we bought.
•  A plumber has to come back to fix a leaking toilet. The exact same leak has been ‘fixed’ 6 times since we moved in.
• We have waited almost 1 year to get my work permit approved by the Minister of Education who needed me to submit my original college and grad school diploma. With this approval I now needed a work visa which was arranged for yesterday. But Monday morning I was told by my office I needed a Criminal Record report which takes 6 weeks to process by mail with local law offices. So with advice from an America business here I was able to get this done by an online website, had it officially translated and certified and then notarized by appointment only at the American Embassy. Somehow pulled this all off and are submitting the work visa now for the final approval of a residence permit. With this I can apply for Pranvera and Adi and THEN, she can get a visa to enter South Africa again.
•  Every time we purchase any products in Swazi or SA to bring back to Maputo (still can’t get many products here) we need to rip every label off and dispose of every box and then make them all look used or old so the customs officials on the Moz side don’t insist on paying a bribe in order to let us cross.
• Our cable provider switches it’s full programming so all the stations change channels and then you lose some. So you have to inventory this each time and call them to return and try to fix what wasn’t broken.
• We went 4 months (nice) without any TV set in our house since we were not going to pay 3 times market price to purchase in Maputo. So finally getting into South Africa for one of our shopping trips we were able to go to store to buy. But there you must have a SA TV license first. And the government offices to sell this are closed weekends. So finally needed to find a sales clerk willing to sell on ‘his license’. Then we had to wait another week for our diplomat friends to visit same city and pick up our TV set from friends to bring across the border without being charged 37% duty fee.
• Our security alarm was accidently triggered by our maid and sounded for a half hour while we were out of town till it reset. No assistance ever arrived. Found out then that it had not been connected to the company that we were paying the service for. It now has…
• Our shipment arrived in the port before my residence permit has been obtained and the transporter insisted (incorrectly) we must have this to get items thru customs which could have taken 3-4 more months. So after many calls and arguments and securing another company to process they agreed and finally delivered the container to our house.

Here’s looking at another year of adventures, trials, tribulations that will hopefully bring more smiles than tears. We miss you all dearly and extend an open invitation to anyone wanting to explore Mozambique.