Busy Sabados, Lazy Domingos

What a weekend! Yesterday was a bit of a whirlwind. Parfait and his lovely wife Esperanze invited me over for a lovely relaxing lunch with beef kebabs, salad and rice with wine of course! We visited with their Cameroonian friend Paul who works at UNICEF who also joined us for lunch. We talked about Obama and development and how small a world it is! Then I was off to tour the "real" Maputo with Jetha (pronounced Jetta). Jetha is one of our drivers at the office and he wanted to be sure that I didn't leave Maputo without seeing the "real" Maputo! We tackled a lot of sites in four hours- the fish market, Costa del Sol, the Natural History Museum, the metal house, the Cathedral, the Train Station, City Hall, the Art Market, the fort, and he even drove me by Maputo Shopping Center (a mall) and Game (kind of like Target) to show me that there were good things in Maputo- that you didn't need to go to South Africa. I thought the things OTHER than Game and the mall were reasons to stay in Maputo- not bulging western-style shopping centers. Then we drove out to the suburbs where a lot of people live in conditions too familiar to many developing countries. Small shacks, cramped conditions, communal water spigots, trash just dumped in the middle of the road in piles. Jetha took me to a house that he has built out there (kind of like his "country" house). A lot of people buy land and take years to build up these cinderblock houses. Jetha's youngest brother Dino also lives out there and is an artist. I was able to take a home a piece of Dino's art- a wood-carving of sorts- that displays a scene- it's 3D and colorful and was a nice thought. The scene portrays Rosita- a baby who was born in a tree while her mother was escaping the ravaging floods in Mozambique in 2000. A US Marine helicopter eventually rescued them- and since Rosita has been a type of Mozambican hero- surviving all odds as she entered the world. Now I have a little piece of Mozambican history!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/729518.stm


Today was the perfect Sunday! Ali, Marilyn, Ayan and I went to breakfast at Cafe Sol- a small endeavor by the three husbands of three US women who are working in aid/development in Maputo. Serving the best (and perhaps only) bagels in town, organic local coffee, and all kinds of other goodies. It's a great place to relax and run into friends. We stayed there for a few hours, went back to the Alwahti/Noguera house for an hour or so, and then made our way to Zambis for what I believe to be the most perfect way to enjoy a Sunday. We had a leisurely 3 hour lunch with a bottle of wine. Laughed, shared stories, colored with Ayan, and enjoyed the sea breeze and the shade of the palm trees. Such a stark contrast from the scenes I saw the evening before in Matola. In poor countries the divide between those who have even some and those who havae little is immense. I am grateful for all that I have and can enjoy without worry or fear. I am richly blessed with love of friends and resources a plenty.

I came back to the hotel to rest and read and soak up all the lazy Sunday goodness before my last week in Mozambique. The last week to finish up my work (and the $2 million training budget) and spend time with all of the friendly faces who have made my time here so special. Muito obrigada!

(check out the other photos at www.picasaweb.google.com/ehasselberg1/maputo2009)