maputo nightlife

last night lene (norwegian lost baggage buddy) and i went out to costa do sol (a popular seaside seafood place) for dinner and out to listen to some live music and dancing at a place called the africa bar. the food was great, and the music and dancing even better! although, the caipirinhas at costa do sol are a bit too strong...i had a hard time getting up early this morning to meet with professor v. and finish up our remaining chokwe data issues.

lene is a great going-out partner, so in hindsight, i'm glad our luggage was lost and we had a chance to bond. the funny thing is that she works on health sector projects for NORAD, so we're professional colleagues here too. we chatted a lot about the work i'm doing here and we shared some information that we each found useful (she coming from the top-down, me working from the bottom-up so we could cross-reference our facts).

i fly to beira tomorrow morning and then head by ground transport to cantandica on sunday. apparently cantandica is in the mountains so i'm hoping for some really pretty views. it's also very close to the border with zimbabwe. i'll see if i can post anything from there, though i doubt i'll have access (i've been pleasantly surprised about my access before though!). i'll be back at the hotel in maputo next wednesday, so i'll definitely update by then.

time to pack!

photo albums

i hope you can all view my facebook photos page, because i put up some photo albums of my favorite snaps so far.

chokwe

that's one more hospital done, and one left to do! we managed to gather most/all of what we needed to in a day and a half. it was so fast! the hospital itself was fantastically organized and really on top of everything. all the people i worked with there were also extremely professional and super helpful. by far my best experience here.

i didn't manage to take many pictures while i was there, but here is one of the limpopo valley that we had to drive through to get to the hospitals we visited. it's really pretty in the area; flat vast prairie lands dedicated mostly to sugar cane and cereal production (rice is mainly what i saw) as well as cattle ranching. during the wet season the whole valley floods, but it looked pretty parched now during the drier times. i really wanted to get a picture of the huge anthills i saw on the sides of the road. most of them were taller than me. but, we were in a hurry and speedy ant hill pictures don't look too good.

the hotel i had to stay in when we were in chokwe qualifies me as a bona fide "roughing it" girl. i've earned my stripes. if the management there actually maintained the rooms, it might have been decent, but they clearly have let the place go. i guess i can't complain for $16 a night, but the hospital workers were all horrified by my mosquito welts the following day. i must have had to assure everyone at least 50 times that yes, i did remember to take my anti-malarial drugs, and no thank you, benadryl makes me want to take a long nap.

off to dinner!

food, glorious food!

maputo has wonderful seafood dishes. here is a photo of my dinner tonight right before i annihilated every scrap (i was hungry!). as you can see, the photo of my chocolate mousse dessert is not intact....i just couldn't wait. dinner was delicous!

bags in tow

i got my luggage this morning! and the best part is that everything was there (despite worries that my packing of electronics cables in the checked baggage was a big fat no-no). next time i'll think twice about what i can't live without for one night.

i have work to catch up on, but so far maputo is beautiful! i'm very close to the bay and the houses here are old (colonial) style and gorgeous. more later....

i ran the jo'burg airport marathon

of course this had to happen to me. i get to johannesburg airport, thinking that one hour is penty of time for a plane change. apparently it's quite tight. i was calmly strolling through the passport check only to have the border agent tell me (incorrectly) that i had to quickly collect my luggage (that was supposed to be checked through), re-check it, run upstairs to get a new boarding pass, and quickly head to my next gate. hmmmmm. i waited for my luggage to come, but it never did. so i asked at the luggage claim and was told that my bad had been checked through and to HIGH TAIL it to the gate. i thought that was weird since i still had 45 mintues or so until my flight was supposed to leave, but i picked up the pace.

here's what everyone was warning me about: the jo'burg airport, though thoroughly beautiful, and a shopper's paradise, is insanely peppered with checkpoints, stops, immigration posts and other heinous hindrances to getting to your destination in a timely manner. i was literally running through the airport, clutching my carry-on bag and pushing all sorts of people out of the way. i must have looked like a madwoman. after reaching my wit's end at the 2nd or 3rd passport check (i lose track) and feeling sick at the sight of a line wrapped around 3 of those barricade mazes, i quickly did this "do -you -mind- if- i- skip- ahead-my-flight- leaves- in- 20- minutes" kind of slurred push inquiry, not bothering to notice whether or not the person understood or even registered what i was saying. after that, more running. i got to my gate all out of breath and sweaty (and they had given my seat away), but i got on the flight!

...too bad my luggage did not! poor professor v. was waiting for me with a sign and was all crestfallen when i told him i had to go through the process of filing a claim for my bag and putting myself on a call list for when the sucker does roll into maputo. sad (and scary?) part is that some 10 other passengers didn't get their bags either, including a really nice norwegian girl who works for NORAD (norwegian USAID). we pal'ed up immediately and it turns out we're staying in the same hotel! we've pledged to go nighclubbing in our grubby flight clothes tomorrow night if our suitcases don't come. hooray for improvising!

bye bye to my sad swahili

so, i tried my hardest to speak as much swahili as i could muster (and lonely planet phrasebook could provide) but it was, on the whole, very inadequate. there's something very frustrating about managing sad little pitiful "sorrys" and "pleases" and "thank you very muches" for two weeks straight. when i return to tanzania (i've already decided i have to) i have resolved to do the following:

1. speak in complete sentences (even if those sentences could have been constructed by a 3 year-old).

2. visit zanzibar, kilimanjaro in the *daylight* and any one of the big game parks. it's kind of unforgivable that i didn't manage even one of these...

3. stay in one place for more than 3 days!

i have to say that my last few days in tanzania were the definite highlights. hanging out with anna and molly was fantastic, mostly because anna, with her savvy swahili, gave me a great whirlwind tour of kigoma city's markets (you thought your local flea market was crazy) and helped me slog through they muddy streets after we finished up data collection at the hospital (thanks anna, i could not have done it without you!). lake tangayika is GORGEOUS. more beautiful than i ever imagined. and, given that the day was exceptionally clear, we could see the mountaintops of the congo across the water. dreamy. yes, i definitely need to go back with more time on the agenda.