Here's the first entry to our blog. We hope that you will enjoy reading it. Until I learn to shrink photos or until we go somewhere with a more powerful computer than Maya's, then you'll have to imagine what this place looks like.
First, a little bit about us personally. Jose-Luis and I arrived inMaputo Africa since 1996 and my mouth fell open straightaway at the contrast between the HIGH life and poverty. We stayed in a part of Maputo Maputo is the village of Catembe Africa .
We spent time with my old friends from Ribaue; Fatima, Olga, Sergio and Frieda. The life we lived in the 70s working at a FRELIMO school has very little to do with 2009..... I've just finished reading Joseph Hanlon and Teresa Smart's Ha mais bicicletas, mas ha mais desenvolvimento? (soon to be published in English as There are more bicycles but is there more development?) This book shows how the effect of the so called civil war in Mozambique in the 80s together with imposition of structural adjustment on the country's economy has meant the growth of an often very corrupt middle class and the increasing relative poverty of the great majority of the people most of whom eke out a living as subsistence farmers. One hopeful sign is the possibility of cheaper loans through a development bank and the growth of microcredit systems.
After 10 days of big city life, where we walked the crumbling pavements endlessly and failed to cram ourselves into the 'chapas' (public transport minibuses) we arrived in April 4 at our new home, Nkholongue. The journey involved 3 short hops by plane, 2 hours across the Niassa highlands and an hour to drive along a deeply rutted road (will be better in the dry season which we're now entering)18 km down to Lake Niassa. We're working as volunteers with a privately owned eco-tourism business. The purpose of Mbuna Bay Retreat is to provide employment for local people and to support economic and health development in the village. The Lodge and the village are both right by the lake side. It's hard not to think of it as the sea because it's the 9th largest lake in the world, 600 km . long, up to 80 km wide and up to 700 m deep with, sometimes, metre high waves. We're right at the end of the rainy season so the lake is high and rough. When it's calmer you swim off sandy beaches in crystal clear water with bright fish between your toes. The birds here are magnificent, all the colours of the rainbow, some cormorant like with a metallic blue sheen on their weeks. Our house is 15 mins walk or 5 mins biking at the other end of the village from the Lodge. We walk and bike backwards and forwards several times a day always with numerous stops to greet village people who usually ask us if we 'woke up well'. About half the people here speak some Portuguese, a few, who have family in nearby (across the lake) Malawi
At the moment Jose-Luis is helping solve problems with the 2 solar energy systems and training the staff who work at the Lodge. I'm working with an older women's group in the village who are good potters. We're designing mobiles and childrens' puzzles which we hope to sell in a shop in Lichinga the provincial capital. Today we had an order for 6 egg cups. Through an interpreter I explained in Portuguese that we would buy 6. When I visited the group later on there was a production line of egg cups as far as the eye could see. The women bake small things in a fire on the ground so that they emerge with interesting burn and smoke markings. I need Josie and Marilyn! I want to try sieving the clay to get some of the sand and grit out of it – so will look out for some torn mosquito netting. I've also taken over the pharmacy from Maya, the owner of the Lodge and talk with people about their aches and pains with a copy of Where there is no doctor in one hand and home made packets of rehydration mixture in the other. The only thing I'm qualified to prescribe is water but we have many serious problems and the nearest hospital is 4 hours walk away so, with great trepidation, I'm learning to use some antibiotics, malaria treatments and analgesics. One of our tasks is to work with the village to build a health post and choose someone to be trained as a health assistant. This will be a challenge because I have little idea of decision making processes in the village.
The day after our arrival, the traditional chief (92 years old) and the FRELIMO secretary called the village together to introduce us. There were speeches, songs, complaints, praise and in general we felt very welcome. Maya, who has been here 2 years, was eloquently told off by a woman from the next village along the lake because the development which comes from employing over 20 people full time at the minimum wage doesn't reach her village.
The nearest town is Metangula, underneath a wooded mountain and stretching along a peninsula into the lake. It has a small hospital where we took a 16 year old with malaria today, a market selling masses of second hand clothes ( these donations from Europe are a mixed blessing because they often take away work from local tailors and small clothing factories) and very limited food – locally grown rice, maize meal, sweet potato leaves, a few dried beans and not much more beyond lake fish. There's an air strip, a few bars, and district and admin offices.
Our house is built of village made bricks and a thatched roof. We woke up yesterday to find 3 swift like birds enjoying the house having entered through holes in the thatch. We have a real bath made of flat river stones and a bit of precious cement. I and Mathias, our temporary employee, have built a seed bed with a straw roof over it to give the little plants a chance against the midday sun. Tomorrow we'll sow veg and flowers. I've discovered the one person, Joana, in the village who is cultivating peanuts and she will take me to her mashamba (garden) tomorrow to begin to teach me. The villagers' diet is almost devoid of vitamins and protein (except for an occasional lake fish) so I'll discuss with Joana how we can encourage more peanut growing. The soil here is fine – it's just that the people do not traditionally eat peanuts.
The kids are on holiday from school at the moment so we haven't yet met the 2 teachers. We've talked with one NGO who may support the establishment of a pre-school which will be a great thing as 6 year olds arrive in Form 1 without any Portuguese. And even at the end of 6 years of primary school can often barely read and write. A pre-school would provide employment, a grounding in Portuguese through games and songs and allow us to organise better nutrition for the little ones for at least one meal a day.
First, a little bit about us personally. Jose-Luis and I arrived in
We spent time with my old friends from Ribaue; Fatima, Olga, Sergio and Frieda. The life we lived in the 70s working at a FRELIMO school has very little to do with 2009..... I've just finished reading Joseph Hanlon and Teresa Smart's Ha mais bicicletas, mas ha mais desenvolvimento? (soon to be published in English as There are more bicycles but is there more development?) This book shows how the effect of the so called civil war in Mozambique in the 80s together with imposition of structural adjustment on the country's economy has meant the growth of an often very corrupt middle class and the increasing relative poverty of the great majority of the people most of whom eke out a living as subsistence farmers. One hopeful sign is the possibility of cheaper loans through a development bank and the growth of microcredit systems.
After 10 days of big city life, where we walked the crumbling pavements endlessly and failed to cram ourselves into the 'chapas' (public transport minibuses) we arrived in April 4 at our new home, Nkholongue. The journey involved 3 short hops by plane, 2 hours across the Niassa highlands and an hour to drive along a deeply rutted road (will be better in the dry season which we're now entering)
At the moment Jose-Luis is helping solve problems with the 2 solar energy systems and training the staff who work at the Lodge. I'm working with an older women's group in the village who are good potters. We're designing mobiles and childrens' puzzles which we hope to sell in a shop in Lichinga the provincial capital. Today we had an order for 6 egg cups. Through an interpreter I explained in Portuguese that we would buy 6. When I visited the group later on there was a production line of egg cups as far as the eye could see. The women bake small things in a fire on the ground so that they emerge with interesting burn and smoke markings. I need Josie and Marilyn! I want to try sieving the clay to get some of the sand and grit out of it – so will look out for some torn mosquito netting. I've also taken over the pharmacy from Maya, the owner of the Lodge and talk with people about their aches and pains with a copy of Where there is no doctor in one hand and home made packets of rehydration mixture in the other. The only thing I'm qualified to prescribe is water but we have many serious problems and the nearest hospital is 4 hours walk away so, with great trepidation, I'm learning to use some antibiotics, malaria treatments and analgesics. One of our tasks is to work with the village to build a health post and choose someone to be trained as a health assistant. This will be a challenge because I have little idea of decision making processes in the village.
The day after our arrival, the traditional chief (92 years old) and the FRELIMO secretary called the village together to introduce us. There were speeches, songs, complaints, praise and in general we felt very welcome. Maya, who has been here 2 years, was eloquently told off by a woman from the next village along the lake because the development which comes from employing over 20 people full time at the minimum wage doesn't reach her village.The nearest town is Metangula, underneath a wooded mountain and stretching along a peninsula into the lake. It has a small hospital where we took a 16 year old with malaria today, a market selling masses of second hand clothes ( these donations from Europe are a mixed blessing because they often take away work from local tailors and small clothing factories) and very limited food – locally grown rice, maize meal, sweet potato leaves, a few dried beans and not much more beyond lake fish. There's an air strip, a few bars, and district and admin offices.
Our house is built of village made bricks and a thatched roof. We woke up yesterday to find 3 swift like birds enjoying the house having entered through holes in the thatch. We have a real bath made of flat river stones and a bit of precious cement. I and Mathias, our temporary employee, have built a seed bed with a straw roof over it to give the little plants a chance against the midday sun. Tomorrow we'll sow veg and flowers. I've discovered the one person, Joana, in the village who is cultivating peanuts and she will take me to her mashamba (garden) tomorrow to begin to teach me. The villagers' diet is almost devoid of vitamins and protein (except for an occasional lake fish) so I'll discuss with Joana how we can encourage more peanut growing. The soil here is fine – it's just that the people do not traditionally eat peanuts.
The kids are on holiday from school at the moment so we haven't yet met the 2 teachers. We've talked with one NGO who may support the establishment of a pre-school which will be a great thing as 6 year olds arrive in Form 1 without any Portuguese. And even at the end of 6 years of primary school can often barely read and write. A pre-school would provide employment, a grounding in Portuguese through games and songs and allow us to organise better nutrition for the little ones for at least one meal a day.
Clare
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