"Mulongo & Mulandi"

Hi Guys!! Tudo bem?

So far, so maningue nice up here…;) Or should I say down here?
Anyway, time has been flying! I’ve been in Mozambique for almost 6 weeks now! Still two more months of research to go!

So here goes a little (or maybe big, can’t predict it yet) update on my past few days in Chibuto. I also just came back from a safari trip to Swaziland!!

So, on Wednesday the 18th, I was off to Chibuto again for a third visit! I got up very early in the morning to be at the chapa “terminal” at 06:00 a.m. After finally having found the right chapa going to Chibuto, I waited….and waited….and waited…for the bloody vehicle to depart!! Let’s say that I have waited for more than 3 hours before we left Maputo! I could have been in Chibuto by that time! The thing is, the chapas do not leave until they are filled up with people. And since it had been raining that night…I guess people were a bit hesitant to be travelling. My patience is really being tested out here heheh.

Anyway, the rain also interrupted some of my activities in Chibuto, because on Wednesday afternoon I had agreed to “be introduced” to Bairro 3 da cidade, by the local leaders…but because of the rain, only a few people showed up. Well, I did get my message across (i.e. the objective of my research and how I was going to organize it) and I even made an appointment with the “secretário do bairro”, Mr. Mawai, to organize a focus group discussion with some women of the bairro. He would arrange the women…it was no problem! If only I would buy him a bottle of “Amarula”…hmmmm! By the way, don’t ask me about the representativeness of the women’s group or about any possible biased outcomes….practice proves it difficult to organize things entirely by yourself so any help is very welcome! :D

The next couple of days I mostly did some in depth interviews in Bairro 3, to get a bit of a feeling of what is going on in the lives of the locals….are they actively participating in the local neighborhood reunions? How do they evaluate local service provision? How did they acquire their lands and are they registered? Etc. I also managed to interview some municipal staff again and some people from NGOs/local institutions, but my visit to Chibuto coincided with a visit of the Governor of Gaza Province…so everybody was quite busy with that!

At some point, I suddenly bumped into another “white”girl….yeah, a real other white girl in Chibuto! It was not a misleading albino African (of which I have been seeing quite a lot!), but an American girl, Gracey, working for the Peace Corps! That was quite a shocking surprise! We exchanged numbers and met up later that day, when I also met her housemate, Abbey, also a Peace Corps volunteer! They have been in Chibuto since December and are staying for a total period of 2 years!!! Respect! Anyway, they live in a really cute house near the secondary school and they’ve put quite a lot of effort into making it a nice, cozy and homely place. They even have a cool cat, called Chispa! One of the most “laid back” cats I have ever seen…must be Mozambican style! So it was really nice meeting them…AND….they even offered me to stay with them at their place! And that’s exactly what I’m going to do, because I wasn’t really liking the place where I had moved to…Fatima’s place. She seemed nice at first, but I have the impression that she was kind of exploiting me (asking for more and more money every time)! And I couldn’t really get used to her and her daughter’s life style…it was even irritating at times. I didn’t really mind living with a lack of water, taking showers with buckets and the few power cuts now and then…but they have an “empregada” that was like eating and sleeping on the ground…a bit slave like to me! I thought that period was over? Anyway, sooo, next week I’ll move in with the American girls and Chispa! It’s gonna be fun!

Hmmm, what else is there to tell? So I had my very first focus group discussion with about 10 women! I didn’t think I could pull it off…but I just gave it a shot. Salmina and I had brought drinks and a home-made cake with us…and chatted for about two hours with the women, sitting on some capulanas on the central square. Unfortunately the group dynamic was not fantastic…one woman mostly initiated the talking and the rest seemed to agree. Next to that, there was quite a lot of background noise, i.e. babies, children, music, some irritating construction works, etc. I have some pictures of the whole thing, see facebook! I still have to transcribe most of the focus group discussion though…and since it’s in Changane (and with the background noise), it’s going to be a real long and painfully process, I guess, to transcribe. Luckily Salmina already translated some parts during the conversation! I’m planning on doing 3 more focus groups…so a total of 2 groups in each neighborhood: both a women and a men group!

Another nice research related activity is that I could assist this year’s first Municipal Assembly meeting, where the new Government’s 5 year plan was going to be presented and approved (or not). The Assembly is supposed to represent the interests of the local population, so I was really curious what that would all be about. The president of the Municipal Council practically read the whole document out loud and it seems quite ambitious to me! Some objectives do need some clarification though; I wonder how they are going to tackle some of the issues! It was also good to “observe” that about 40% of the members were women. Too bad some only speak Changane…so I couldn’t understand what one lady was saying and Salmina was not with me!

Then, on one of the last days of my stay in Chibuto, I was finally introduced to the bairro “25 de Junho”. This “official” introduction was postponed because of the Governor’s visit. I was actually expecting to be welcomed by 15 people or so (the most important local leaders), but when I arrived there…more and more people seemed to be coming. And especially women!!! At one point I roughly counted 100 people, all gathered under the big, central, shady tree. The women even started to sing and dance for me! I felt very welcome! Then, I said what I had to say, and of course Salmina translated for me. They were very happy with my arrival and even sang a song about that, I believe…and here and there the women shouted “Partido FRELIMO…aiii aiiiii!!!!!” and then “OMM….aiiii aiiiii!!!” (FRELIMO, the Liberation Front of Mozambique, being the leading political party of Mozambique and OMM being the Mozambican Organization for Women, set up by FRELIMO).

On Friday the 27th I took an early chapa back to Maputo. It was again not my lucky chapa day, because the chapa I had arranged to go with, was being blocked by some driver’s association people. Since this chapa had “fixed” clients and didn’t operate according to the principle of waiting in line at the market to fill up the chapa with people, these “blockers” argued that my chapa was stealing clients. So in the end I managed to sneak my way into another chapa, that nicely cruised over the EN1 to Maputo.

I must say that my research is slowly progressing, which feels good! But on the other hand, I sometimes have no clue if I’m really doing the right thing…asking the right questions, etc. I feel like I need a bit more focus in the next couple of weeks. And I have to figure out how the hell I am going to get my sample from the two neighborhoods, since a decent, detailed map of the neighborhoods does not seem to exist. Hopefully UN-HABITAT can help me out on that one! And I might need to find myself more assistants!

Also nice to know, is that my Changane vocabulary is slowly expanding. For example, “mulongo” means white and “mulandi” means black, hehehehe. How basic and cliché! Apparently lots of people have been calling me mulongo, without me noticing it! Or they say: “Look! A mulungo and a mulandi!”, when Salmina and I are walking by! Hehe I’m gonna pay more attention next time! ;)

OK, I’ll try to keep my Swazi adventure short! Yesterday morning I departed with Anna to Hlane Royal National Park. The trip to Swaziland was quite quick…some 3.5 hours, crossing the border at Namaacha (Mozambique)/Lomahasha (Swaziland). The area around the boarder is really pretty and mountainous. In fact, Namaacha is a region where some of Mozambique’s mineral water comes from. Upon arrival, we had some coffee, settled into our cottage, had lunch and then went on a mountain biking tour around the bush….in the boiling sun! Our guide on the tour was called “Africa”…isn’t that the best name for a safari tour guide?!? Heheh I love it! But the bike trip was more exhausting than we had thought! And don’t laugh at the pics…I look ridiculous with that helmet on! Heheh We mostly saw some impalas and a couple of nyalas while biking. The scenery was pretty amazing though! Lots of trees are dead, because the elephants eat the trunk…which causes the tree to die! Then later on, at 04.00 p.m., we did a sunset safari tour….really exciting!! My first safari ever! And we saw quite some animals: white rhinos, a lion, some elephants, giraffes, impalas, wildhogs, etc. And the sunset was amazing. I really enjoyed the whole experience. Later on we had dinner at the park and at 08.00 p.m. we assisted a traditional Swazi dance show! Then we took our bottle of South African wine back to our cottage, to finish it under the amazing sky full of stars…we seriously sat there for about 1.5 hours…hypnotized by the beautiful and almost surreal milky way. We also saw quite a few shooting stars! The next morning we got up early to go on the 06.00 a.m. safari walking tour! Africa told us about all the important rules and guidelines…in case of danger etc. It was, again, pretty exciting. At first, we mostly walked on the paths, but at some point we also went straight into the bush. We learned about the trees, birds, animal trails, animal dung (hehe), etc. We saw again some white rhinos, giraffes, hippos, impalas, wildhogs, and some birds and insects and even a turtle! At one point, while observing the turtle, we heard some sudden movements in the bushes and Africa had this shocked expression on his face, wanting to run for his life. It could very well have been an elephant about to attack us…..but no, luckily only some wildhogs were passing by. During the walking tour we also heard the lions growling. I don’t mind that we didn’t see them this time ;).
After the tour we had breakfast, checked out and embarked upon our trip back to Maputo.

So now you are updated again on how I have spent my past two weeks. I hope you’ve had the patience to read the story...and otherwise, tough luck ;) I can’t put it in any other way than my way…which is the loooong way ;)

Oh and thanx for the messages you guys have been sending me! Really nice!
Next time: more news on my research progress in Chibuto. I’m planning on leaving again next Wednesday.

Beijinhos!

PICTURES ON FACEBOOK:

Chibuto: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=109370&id=566821030&l=1883da3be3

Swaziland: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=109383&id=566821030&l=b14f3d78bd

AND: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=109418&id=566821030&l=637576e882