A Year in Reflection
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.
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