More African Adventures & Transition

With our Mozambique countdown now on, we have already activated our ‘bucket list.’ A bit sad to realize most of our experiences now will be for the last time. But some of these we will never mind not repeating again, such as our 3^rd house move this past week in under 2 years. For the second time our rental contract was broken by the landlord forcing us to move without compensation. No real rule of law or way to protect ourselves and since this final relocation is so close to us leaving Maputo for good, we actually had 2 moves in one. The big one included 110 boxes packed into a container truck to make its slow way to our new home in Pristina Kosovo. The second involved 4 back and forth shuttles to our small furnished apartment a couple blocks away with just clothes, food and of course the obligatory toys and baby gear. The only advantage as this huge inconvenience is our affects will now be waiting for us in Kosovo when we finally arrive and it has allowed us to purge our things and get used to much smaller quarters reflective of the small condo we will occupy once we return ‘home’. No need to go into the detail of our present landlord physically carry his stuff out of the apartment and leaving it a dirty mess while we were moving in and leaving us with many repairs to be done still. Such is Africa.

Still keeping it local, we adventured across the Maputo bay by local ferry to walk the beach and lunch on the Katembe side of the city. We had done this before and again it feels like leaving the bustle of the city behind when in fact it is just across a 5 minute waterway. The kids loved crab chasing and the nice imported beers, sunny weather and tapas lunch ticked our senses. Of course our trip back was much more eventful with the high tide limiting the beach walk to a very narrow, trash filled strip crowded with holiday and political rally goers enjoying the end of a 3 day weekend. The ferry was packed beyond belief with drunk youth and signified another a ‘never again’ for us.   

On the previous week we hosted Gabby, a long-time grad school friend of Pranvera. Of course the kids took to him right away and we shared with him some of the sites and highlights of Maputo before carting him to the Kingdom of Swaziland for a different Africa flavor. Luckily the border and drive was uneventful and despite the cold rainy weather we had some great meals at our favorite restaurants, stopped by a number of the arts and crafts studios, introduced Adi to a new place center for a couple hours, swam in the heated pool and walked the grounds of the Royal Swazi Spa where we stayed. Must say the highlight was Pranvera and my 2 hour spa experience with the kids in the capable hands of uncle Gabby.

 

But only last weekend did we take a full day pause from our pack-out and join 30 other internationals on a day cruise to the local uninhabited island on a huge pirate ship (dhow). It was with some close friends and tons of kids all running around. Adults enjoyed our beverages and both a prego (Portuguese meat) sandwiches and fresh piaya lunch. It is always interesting to see Maputo from the water where everything becomes serene and pleasant. Aside from the fact that when we were to shuttle to the island, high winds and wakes forced half of us to remain on the boat and forego as much time on the beach. But frankly it is still a bit chilly and the water was not much for swimming (except for all the jellyfish washed up on the shore). The highlight of course was the boat anyway especially for Adi so we can check this box.

 

Adi has been handling the adjustments like a champ. He even pointed to the lighted outline of a ship sailing out to sea from our restaurant the night of our move saying ‘There is the ship taking my Sponge Bob Square Pants Legos to grandma’s house’. However he has been coming back into our much smaller bed in the middle of the night all the time now as he adjusts to the new feel of the apartment. Rea rocks our world and has been trying every ounce of patience with Pranvera. We have a sleepless baby with no more than 3, ten minute naps a day and constant wake-ups through the night. Now that we just started her on some solid food we hope this will all change. But she is all smiles and sounds and loves being the center of attention. She sits in the middle of the baby play group rocking back and forth chirping ‘GAAAA’ to the other kids.

Pranvera is doing some consulting again on another corruption and transparency project. She loves re-engaging professionally and can’t wait to find work once we return home. Her huge World Bank project/report was finally published crediting her as one of the main lead authors.  Meanwhile she is full-time in getting all the logistics and preparations underway to have our place ready for our arrival.

My work is slowly drawing down. The reason for our departure is an empty pipeline for new projects. The long-anticipated USAID mega ag project is over a year/half late so even if TechnoServe wins it (with a strong PPP component) it would leave me still with a 6 month gap to fill. As I am a strategic advisory I may yet find my self returning her to assist them in the future but nothing for the short term. I am making a final push to ensure the operational structure and sustainability of a PPP and Inclusive Business facility I designed and launched with both Dutch and UK support. It has been challenging and rewording so I will hopefully able to work on this from Kosovo as well. SO, one can see I plan to re-open my consulting practice with both global and local projects. Luckily Kosovo is the regional hub for USAID activities with several large projects on the ground I will connect with in good time.

But most importantly we will spend a month in the states for Xmas and reconnection before arriving in the middle of winter in the Balkans. Aside from needing to purchase winter wear from the kids and bundle up with more than flip flops, we look forward to getting to the mountains, snow shoeing, skiing, European road trips but most of all, family (very) close by.

But not before a long vacation to Cape Town and a couple more beach week-ends away and a Kruger safari to boot. All for now from the Kirkbrides.

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The End of a Winter Summer

Since our seasons are reversed out here technically we coming to the end of a nice and typically mild tropical winter whereas most of you are now preparing for the big BBQ weekend and kids (finally) returning to school next week. Unlike most of our international colleagues who seem to take a month of home leave we staying domestic and had to remain creative to entertain Adi during his 2 month ‘summer break’. As you saw from our last post one great week was spent doing nothing on the beach up north which was wonderful. And now that we know we are leaving in December many of these adventures are last time experiences for us (sadly).

We have made several trips to our ‘escape’ city of Nelspruit South Africa but we wish we could say they were for tourist purposes. Although a nice break from Maputo they are all centered around medical visits and shopping for the family. We have developed a nice routine of both a place to stay, places to eat and ironically people from Maputo to see. Aside from minor adjustments here and there, we are all healthy and Rea continues to grow right on schedule. A nice chubby baby girl with an adoring big brother. The simple drive of 3.5 hours now takes around 5 with road construction and a stress boarder crossing on both sides. Coming back ur car looks like we stocking up for a natural disaster. The food prices and selection have gotten notably worse since our arrival so we save substantially by planning ahead for each month’s eating.  But we did take Adi to see Taming Your Dragon II and since he has only seen 3 films before this is a special treat.

We did have a couple wonderful visits with old friends who were in town for business. Jimmy who I met and traveled with in Vietnam in 1998 and Holly who has become a business mentor and a PPP specialist and professor n the same field as I.  We will welcome Gabrielle mid Sept who went to grad school with Pranvera.  Always a nice excuse to show them highlights of the city and enjoy a nice meal out.

Rea is fantastic. Is at the stage of putting her feet in her mouth, cooing non-stop, waking up all the time (she really is a non-sleeper) and keeping her wide eyes open to absorb everything she can. Adi is unfortunately at the same school since he misses the cutoff to join all his friends as they have moved on to kindergarten. So he and Evi are the heads of the school which is fun but it seems like the academic challenges are a bit limiting.

So our plans continue as indicated and we move out of our house end of Sept. We have been blessed with such a wonderful home for a year but the landlords want to take it back forcing us to rent another furnished small apartment for 2.5 months before we physically leave. As much as an inconvenience as this will be, all our personal affects will head back to Kosovo with enough time to actually get there before we do. This is will be an unusual benefit since we have had to get used to making due in any new location with around 3 months of minimal furniture and personal items till ours arrive. This will also adjust us to downsizing since our place in Pristina is a small 2 bedroom apartment that we will stay in at least for the winter till we can add another level ontop or find a house outside the city to rent. Either way it will be cozy but it is ours and won’t have to worry about anyone kicking us out.

Pranvera has planned a magnificent final international vacation for us before we leave the region. Come mid October, which is the ideal season, we will hit Cape Town and surrounding wine area for the first time with the family. We of course plan to do a couple local beach weekends away with friends to soak in the final blue waters, white sand and total isolation from other people. Then in mid Dec we will say goodbye to our dear Maputo after almost 3 years and head stateside for a much needed American Christmas where I grew up in St Louis Missouri. We’ll have over 3 weeks with the grandparents and aunt and the chance to show off Rea to many old and dear friends. Pranvera and I are planning to then take our first solo trip in too long to Chicago for a couple nights over New Years to (re) appreciate one of the greatest cities in its festive season. And before heading to our new home we will visit DC for 4 days in mid January to see other friends and pick-up some of our winter gear in storage before experiencing our first real winter in 3 years.

Pranvera is ready to return to work and very much looking forward to the support of being back home.  We have never actually lived in the same city with family so this will be a wonderful experience for us all but especially the kids. We have a great school for Adi and more baby sitters than we’ll know what to do with for Rea. I still have some old friends left in Pristina to reconnect with and look forward to getting to know the families of all of Pranvera’s close friends that we have never really interacted with much since we were not with kids before. Of course the ‘city life’ and weather will be a hard adjustment for us all but none the less am looking forward to teaching Adi to ski, going on snowshoe walks with the family and making snow angles in our free time.

We are sorry we won’t be in Africa for anytime in 2015 to host some of you we were hoping to see. But this way at least Europe is right next door so London is on the top of our long holiday weekend trips with we hope many more to follow. We hope the Fall welcomes you all with wonderful energy and excitement for change as it certainly will for us.

Until next time.

The Kirkbrides

Local Beach Vacation & Transition Beyond Mozambique

Unlike most of the European or Diplomatic community out here, we don’t get the month long home leave so we decided to keep our summer holiday (actually winter season) local and instead head up the coast 8 hours to the laid back, hippie surfer/scuba community of Tofu.  A perfect reef protected beach cove with whales breaching out in the main channel provides an ideal place for kids to play in a moderate surf and clean white sand beaches for parents to read a book or tend to a 4 month old. The ‘tree-house’ we rented was just up the hill from the beach with perfect views of the surf and distant palm covered landscape.  The thatched roof, wood sided stilted home would have been perfect had it not been for the hot water heater leaking into Adi’s bedroom two nights in a row and us losing water, electricity and pressure alternating for the rest of our holiday.

Except for a couple overcast days and one rain shower, we have perfect warm days and slightly cool nights. The single sand street offers a couple low key beach restaurants we dined at for fresh seafood but otherwise cooked and BBQ’d at home each evening. It was very much a do NOTHING family beach vacation. We got Adi a surfing lesson which lasted about 15 minutes and when I saw him actually catch one wave seeing how fast he shot ahead of me I realized I should probably get his swimming skills improved a bit more before he tumbles head-first in a wave.

Long beach walks and good body surfing were about the extent of our exercise despite the countless scuba boats carting South African tourists out to sea. We had both been diving in this area last year and we’re too impressed with the reefs or the rough surf the Zodiac’s have to launch over in order to get to the dive sites.

I promised my family I would not check one work email so I feel like I really disconnected from the world over the past week. Which was a good thing for all of us to just focus on building big sand castles, pushing ‘dumpie’ back and forth and playing beach tennis.  It was a bit sad for us to realize that we most likely will not be visiting this place ever again as we are now on a subtle countdown till our departure from Mozambique.

It is official that we will be departing Maputo by mid-December for a month home leave for Xmas back in St Louis with my family and then on to our new home back in Kosovo. We got kicked out of our present home Sept 30 (second lease contract violated by the landlords) so our stuff will be shipped to Pristina on that date leaving us 2.5 months to hopefully return to the temporary housing that we started out in 2.5 years ago. But unless we can get them down drastically from their 10K/month rate we’ll have to find a furnished apartment. Regardless we will be sad to downsize radically from our lovely house with a yard and a bike-ride from my office. Unfortunately, my billable work with TechnoServe ends this year and since we don’t anticipate any new awards coming in before then, I will be re-entering my consulting practice provided public private partnership brokering and training to companies, donors and NGO’s. Luckily I have some continued consulting work on a project back in Maputo and potentially continued work with TechnoServe as a consultant.

We are excited and nervous about this transition but since we will be returning to Pranvera’s home we have a huge family network to help with the kids, a school already selected for Adi and our condo in the city to move into. Will be a shock returning to Europe in the winter but am looking forward to seeing and playing in snow again. Just have to purchase winter wear for our kids since we have been fortunate enough to not worn any in quite a long time.

Pranvera's Mother Joined Us in Africa

 We have been blessed to have Pranvera's mother join us for the past 6 weeks to help us with Rea. It is her first time to Africa so everything was a very eye opening experience. And unfortunately it began before she even arrived when for 4 hours she was detained in the JoBurg airport for not having the proper transit visa and they were insisting to send her back to Kosovo even though she had all the proper visas for Mozambique. But with enormous luck we got her through but having to spend the night in the hotel airport. Aside from countless days and nights with her grand daughter we had numerous adventures including a nice weekend in Swaziland, hikes in the countryside, Horse back-riding, mini-safari, and a day at the beach. She will be greatly missed and we look forward seeing her and the rest of family in Kosovo soon.