Videos!

Okay....so I got a friend to take some photos and video at my Mozambican dance class. The sound on the video isn't that great, but hopefully you can get the idea of what it is like.

A photo. Note all of the guys on the stage - those are our musicians who play for us every class.



A video of a dance called Niketche...


A video of a dance called Mutxungoyo. This isn't one that we've all learned, so watch the three people in the front. The two guys are our teachers and the girl in the middle is part of the national dance troupe (she comes to our class to help teach).

O Mercado de Peixe

As promised, here are some photos from my excursion to the fish market last weekend. How it works is that you but fresh seafood from the ladies in the market and then take it to the surrounding restaurants and have them cook it up for you.

Here's a sample of the kinds of things you can buy...








Things you can also do at the fish market...

Get your nails painted (always by a man).


Buy stuff! There are always guys selling art, crafts, and burned CDs. My roommate Rhett made a choice selection....

The Craft Market

Every Saturday morning in Maputo there is a huge craft market. Local artists (and art importers) come to sell their arts and crafts - primarily to tourists. I love going to the art market just to look around and haggle with the guys. I went last weekend, and decided to take some pictures while I was there. Place your orders now!!!





This guy noticed I was taking pictures and asked me to take his. He took a moment to thoughtfully select the carving he wanted to pose with...and voila.


I liked this carving...it's of a health post. And if you look closely you can see that the patients' IVs go straight into the middle of their chests!

Street Roda

So last weekend, as I was out walking around with some friends, I stumbled onto a street roda. It was being put on by a regional group that trains downtown, and while I wasn't exactly dressed for the occasion (jeans can be somewhat limiting), I decided to kick off my flip-flops and jump in for a few games. I may or may not have almost been put on my ass by their instructor....but regardless, it was pretty fun. Here are a few pics that my friend Greg took...

The musicians...


The roda begins...




I don't think these require explanation (there are only so many blonde capoeiristas in Maputo)...

The Central Market

Here are some photos of Maputo's Mercado Central....

Greg outside the Mercado Central


Look at all of the yummy stuff!!!


One of the vendors....


Seafood anyone?


Piri-piri...

Meals in Moz

I probably should have waited until I collected more food pictures.....but oh well.

So in our apartment we have a housekeeper who cleans and does laundry. But I recently decided that I would ask her to cook for us once a week (after talking to fellow colleagues about what their housekeepers do for them I discovered this was not an unusual request....plus, I miss mozambican food!). And as it turns out, she loves to cook. In fact, she cooked twice last week. First she made a big pot of feijoada (beans), as we had agreed. But then the other day I came home for lunch to find this cooked vegetable salad type thing waiting on our coffee table.....I just loved the presentation so much that I had to take a picture.


Breakfast out the other morning....I opted for something you can get in any good mozambican restaurant....a tosta (i.e. grilled cheese sandwich), and a latte (it was the glass that inspired the picture taking).


Recently I went with my friend Greg (and others) to the fish market - which will receive its own post soon enough. But in going with the "meal" theme of this post, here was part of our meal at the fish market...


Greg and I....happily full of crab, calamari, clams, and Fanta.

Drinking and Driving with Gil and Friends

Just to warn you, this is kind of a long story.....but I think it gives a perfect example of how my life operates here....

My roommates’ jazz bar was having what was supposed to be a really awesome afro-jazz band play on Thursday night, so I made plans to go with my roommate, my friend Gil (the same Gil that I went to the beach with), and whoever he might happen to bring along (again, when I make plans with people that I don’t know very well, I never know what to expect). As it turned out, my roommate decided to meet up with some other friends before heading to the bar, so I was left at the mercy of Gil and company for the night...

Gil and his friend Sousa came to pick me up in the same white car they had picked me up in for our trip to the beach, with music still blaring. They got to my place early – which in and of itself should have tipped me off that something was not quite right with the universe – so we went out and about in the city to pass the time before heading to the jazz bar.

Our first stop was just outside of the city at a little outdoor bar by the side of the road where we went to pick up Gil’s uncle (who I will refer to as “Tio”), who was there drinking with some friends. We also took advantage of the opportunity to stock up on beers, which we proceeded to drink in the car throughout the rest of our night together (as far as I know drinking in the car is not illegal).

Note: When we stopped at said bar to pick up Tio, I got to experience first-hand Sousa’s amazingly resourceful driving (he actually works as a driver for Doctors Without Borders). The bar was along a really big road (highway-ish), and we accidentally passed it up on our way there. I quickly assessed the situation and did not see any easy way of getting back to the bar...it didn’t seem like the type of road you could do a u-turn on, nor did there seem to be any logical off-ramp, on-ramp system....but I should have known that Sousa had it covered. He simply pulled over, drove up onto the wide dirt sidewalk, put the car in reverse, and skillfully maneuvered his way back to the bar – avoiding people, light-posts, trees and other random objects along the way. The oncoming traffic zipping by just a few feet away didn’t seem to bother him at all. He parked right next to the bar, and we went inside to get Tio and beers. And this continued to be a theme throughout the night...everywhere we went we simply (or sometimes not so simply) parked on the sidewalk...even if there was space to park along the street!

Back to the story. Once we had Tio and a rather large quantity of beers in the car, we headed back towards the city. I was assuming we’d head for the jazz bar, where it was about time for the music to get started, but I should have known better! Next stop turned out to be Gil’s apartment. Correction, the street outside of Gil’s apartment building. We pulled over, Tio got out of the car, and we just hung out there, drinking our beers, while he chatted with someone by the side of the road. This was the first in a serious of stops that made absolutely no sense to me.

Next stop, Mozambique’s version of a fast food restaurant....a place where you could order things like chicken and chips, and buy beer and sodas. Now, when we first pulled up (onto the sidewalk) I thought Gil said something to me about eating chicken....but when Sousa and Tio came out of the restaurant they had only a box full of beers with them. Apparently it was time to replenish the stock.

Then we all get back in the car, and I hear Tio saying something about pizza. Now, Tio talks really fast, doesn’t enunciate, and he was in the front seat facing away from me so I was having a hard time actually hearing what he was saying. But he definitely said something about having pizza for dinner. I had already eaten, but let’s be honest....3 or 4 beers later that veggie stir-fry just wasn’t quite cutting it. Was I okay with making another quick stop? Sure!

New York Pizza. There is actually a restaurant in Maputo called New York Pizza. And, horrible person that I am, I have never been there. Luckily, this turned out to be our next stop. Again, Sousa and Tio disappeared inside (presumably ordering pizza), while Gil and I hung out by the car (parked on the sidewalk in front of NY Pizza, doors ajar, music blaring). A few minutes later, Sousa and Tio emerged from NY Pizza empty handed and we all got back in the car and started driving away. Without pizza. I’ll admit, I cried a little bit on the inside.

Next stop...Museu. A big chapa stop up the street from where I live, that also boasts several street-side bars and “bottle shops” (little stands by the side of the road from which people sell every form of alcohol that exists in Mozambique). When we pulled over we were immediately surrounded by people trying to sell us booze. We pulled over, parked the car (this might have been the only time we actually parked on the street as opposed to the sidewalk....not because the sidewalk here isn’t wide, but because it’s taken up by the “bottle shops”), and there goes Tio. I can see he’s negotiating with bottle store owners...and several minutes later he passes a plastic bag full of beers into the car. Then a 5-liter box of wine appears. And then a bottle of Johnnie Walker. I must have looked surprised by the quantity of alcohol being purchased, because Sousa quickly assured me that we weren’t going to drink all of that....the wine and Walker were for Tio to take home.

We hung out for a while...the hood of the car turned into a table while we provided music for everyone drinking on the street....until eventually someone announced that the pizzas must be ready by now. Ah.....so that’s what we had been doing...passing the time until the pizzas were ready. Mmmmm....pizza.

Back to NY pizza we go. Tio goes in, and emerges with two large and one miniature pizza box in hand (if we’d been in the states I might have guessed that the miniature box held breadsticks....but I had no idea what to expect!). And I am happy. He puts them in the car, and off we go.

We are now driving in the direction of the jazz bar....so I assume we are taking our pizzas there to eat. What I didn’t know is that we were also driving in the direction of Tio’s house. Once again, we randomly pull over, drive up onto the sidewalk, and there goes Tio. He gets out of the car and proceeds to hand some guy on the street the two large pizza boxes, 5 liters of wine and bottle of Walker. Apparently he had arranged to meet this guy outside his building, who was now delivering dinner to his family upstairs. Needless to say, I was severely disappointed to see those pizza boxes being handed over to some random man on the street.

With dinner now delivered, Tio got back into the car, and off we went. Back to Gil’s apartment. Or rather, back to the street outside Gil’s apartment. This time it actually made a tiny bit of sense because we stopped to get gas from the station on the corner. To my utter delight, the little box turned out to contain pizza after all (a miniature one) and we each got to have a slice. We hung out for a while, again parked on the sidewalk with music blaring and doors ajar, drinking our beers....until someone determined it was time to go.

Next stop....back to the fast food restaurant. Apparently I had heard Gil correctly when he said we were going to eat chicken – they had just been placing the order. Now we were going back to eat....an entire chicken, plus french fries (moz style....extra soggy and extra oily) on the sidewalk next to the car, doors ajar and music blaring. And somehow during the course of our meal it was decided that we should stop by Africa Bar on the way to the jazz bar....just for a few minutes. And before we went, we had to replenish our stock of beers (Tio pointed out that there were only three beers remaining, and even though we had all just agreed that our next stop was a bar, it was decided that we still needed more). Now clearly, Africa Bar is not the jazz bar....but I had heard a lot about it, I had never been, and they are supposed to have good live music on Thursdays (plus why interrupt my go-with-the-flow approach to the evening)....so I agreed that we should definitely stop by.

With the beer stock replenished and the chicken gone, we headed to Africa Bar. We went in, ordered some drinks from the bar, and just hung out while waiting for the band to start. The band was awesome – they were from the Congo, and had come complete with their own dancer. She was wearing a mesh (and therefore see through) halter style bikini top, black vinyl skirt and black boots. And although at first I found it a little difficult to concentrate on her dancing....she was actually an amazing dancer. Plus, the band seemed to have four singers, two of which only sang back up here and there, who all danced (alongside their leading lady) the entire time. It was fantastic.

Needless to say we never made it to the jazz bar. We finally got out of Africa Bar around one in the morning....and the boys got me home safe and sound.

For all you language buffs....

Okay, so for everyone who is interested in languages, I thought this might be interesting. These are the lyrics to one of the songs we learned in my Mozambican dance class - all of the dances involve singing, and in most cases the dance is the result of a conversation between the singers and the musicians. The musicians take their cues from the singers (who also happen to be the dancers) and the song - in terms of when to change the beat/rhythm, and then the dance follows the changes in the music. As far as I can tell most of the dances have a set pattern - there's a kind of base movement, with a sequence of other movements that you progress through (always returning to the base movement in between). But there is no set number of times you do the base movement before going back to the sequence...you have to listen for the call of the drummer. And all of the movements match the rhythm of the drumming - which is handy because if you forget where you are in the sequence all you have to do is listen to the music and it tells you.

Anyways, the dance is called Xindimba, and here are the lyrics. Another interesting side note, this dance comes from the north of the country, so it's in a language that none of the dancers speak or understand....so unfortunately I have no translation because in the end we are all singing a totally foreign language!!

Culima niculipundicha
culipundicha napomo
wanano waca cungana
tutenda ngando cualala

(chorus)
tulima ninongo wa mbone
untucucadja to madengo
tutenda ngando maunampamo
tutende mocambique hambi

cunga cunengue manhanga
cunga cunengue manhanga
ncutunengue manhaga
ninongo wa mbone

(chorus)
moda xindimba

tuque tu cassome
tumalile ungamanha

(chorus)
tuque tu cassome
tu cassome
tuque tu cassome
tu cassome
tuque tu cassome
tumalile ungamanha

tuque tucalime
tucalime
tuque tucalime
tucalime
tuque tucalime
tumalile ndala la

tuque tucabiane
tu cabiane
tuque tu cabiane
tu cabiane
tuque tu cabiane
tumalile cusendana

ae e e
vanemba va mocambique

(chorus)
tuque tuque tucaline tuque
vanemba tuque

Chillin at the beach....Mozambican style

Saying that the weather has been sporadic would be a dramatic understatement....Mother Nature cannot seem to make the transition once and for all from winter to summer. And although I am not complaining about having cool weather, it makes me a little crazy when cold days alternate with blazing heat. Sunday was one of these blazing hot days. So what did I do? I went to the beach :)

One of my mozambican friends called me up on Sunday and asked me if I wanted to head to the beach. I happily accepted his offer, threw on my one and only sundress (I think I had worn jeans and a long sleeved shirt the day before), and waited for him to come pick me up.

Now, I have to admit that when mozambicans invite me to do something with them (especially if it’s the first time we have hung out), I still never really know what to expect (other than that they will, of course, be late). For instance, when my friend Gil said he would come pick me up, I assumed he would somehow make his way to my apartment and then we’d hop on a chapa to our destination. Not so much. When I went downstairs to meet him, he was standing outside a fairly nice car, with its door ajar, music blaring, and random friend driving. And we weren’t actually going straight to the beach. First we were stopping by the barraca (a little outdoor bar on the street) around the corner to have a drink and pick up random friend’s brother.

From there we actually did head to the beach, with the music still blaring and now all three of the guys in the car singing along (thankfully they have good taste....they were playing some group from Gabon that was awesome). Once we got down to the beach area we drove along what must have been 3 or 4 miles of beautiful beach. I imagine the Portuguese were probably responsible for the beach-side road and wide sidewalk/boardwalk that ran alongside it....yet somehow I don’t think it’s being used quite as they intended.

After cruising the strip, we finally picked a place to stop and settle. We parked the car on the sidewalk/boardwalk (which in the states would have been occupied by people walking their dogs or running), opened the doors, opened the trunk, turned up the stereo, and were immediately bombarded by several women who wanted to sell us beer. Because not only is this 3 or 4 mile stretch of boardwalk turned into a parking lot during the summer, it is also turned into an outdoor bar.....with a woman selling beer out of a cooler (sidenote: if there is a word for “cooler” in Portuguese I have never heard it....here everyone refers to them as a “Coleman”) conveniently located next to the road (we actually had to wait for a woman to move her ‘coleman’ out of the way so we could pull into our ‘parking space’) every ten or fifteen feet. It was kind of like tailgating....only you don’t have to bring your own food and drinks (there are also guys walking up and down the boardwalk/parking lot selling chips, peanuts, and hard boiled eggs).

So that was my Sunday afternoon. Me, Gil, random friend, random friend’s brother, the car stereo, and a steady flow of beers :) It was pretty great.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures that day, but here are some photos of another stretch of beach that's similar. Note the boxes along the street with beers sitting on them and the car on the sidewalk.

A jazz bar in Maputo

So, it turns out that my roommate is helping a group of Mozambican friends open a new bar in Maputo. A jazz and art bar....live jazz, art exhibitions, cocktails, tango performances.....the whole lot. And this past weekend was the grand opening :) I spent three nights in a row at the jazz bar, taking in some really good live jazz (they had a different group playing each night) and enjoying the fantastic space that this bar occupies. It actually opened in the same space where one of my favorite bars (from peace corps days) used to be. It’s a small place, but it is located in a little alleyway that is closed to traffic at night...which means that the bar spills out into the street. The bands play outside, where there is seating and a second bar serving cocktails. And with summer rapidly approaching, having an outdoor bar to hang out at is going to be really nice!

Here's a photo of one of the band's performing....

The Pharmacy

On Tuesday morning I spent a couple of hours in the military hospital’s pharmacy, watching the pharmacists dispense patient’s ARVs. Now, I realize that this does not sound like an interesting way to spend one’s morning....but it actually was. Being behind the scenes in what is essentially a paper-based hospital (there are two computers with data entry people, but pretty much everything is still done on paper) is fascinating. This is how the system worked for patients who were coming to pick up their medication.....

When patients arrive at the Day Hospital the first stop is the receptionist’s desk, where they get their ARV tracking sheet, called a FRIDA, from the receptionist (who gets it out of their “processo” – a big white envelope that has their name written on it in marker and contains all of their medical paperwork. They go to the pharmacy window and hand the pharmacist their FRIDA, which shows the names of the medications they are taking, the dates of all of their medication pick-ups, how many pills were dispensed each time, and what day they were supposed to return for their next batch. This essentially serves as a way to track patient’s adherence – because the pharmacists give patients exactly one month’s worth of pills at a time, they know that if a patient does not come for their refill after a month’s time, they have missed doses somewhere along the way.

So the pharmacist gives the patient their medication, often in a small ziploc bag with the name of the medicine written on the front, and schedules their next pick-up, marking it on the patient’s health card (which they keep with them). The FRIDA stays with the pharmacist, who registers the visit in the daily log book. Then the pharmacist records the name of the patient in a big agenda on the date of their next pick-up (so that if they don’t show up on that date they know they missed their appointment). Then the FRIDA gets handed off to the data people, who input any important data into the computer, and then return it to the receptionists who put it back in the patient’s file.

Now that I’m typing this out, it doesn’t actually seem like that much work...but the Day Hospital has approximately 100 patients turn up every day to collect medication. And when you think about the fact that every patient’s name and ID number have to be written in both the daily log book and the agenda.....that’s a lot of writing. I sat in the pharmacy for about 3 hours and one of the two pharmacists spent every minute of those three hours recording the stack of FRIDAs from the day before. Imagine....a whole morning of work devoted to writing people’s names down.

Chá Positivo

One of the first things that I did when I arrived in Maputo was to sit in on a peer educator training. Well, one of the other great things about being able to go to the military hospital is that some of the peer educators that were being trained during that week work there....and I get to hang out with them. This week I experienced my first “Positive Tea” – an event that takes place once a month in the hospital waiting area. The peer educators are all present to answer patients’ questions and put on little sketches, and they are usually joined by a doctor or two to provide reinforcement. Patients are invited to come with their families or friends to talk, ask questions, get support from other HIV+ patients, and have a little snack :)

On this particular day there were only about 15 people present for the chá positivo. The peer educators patiently answered everyone’s questions, and then put on a short “teatro” in the middle of the waiting area (which took some unsuspecting patients who just happened to walk through that area, by surprise). The little sketch held everyone’s attention, got lots of laughs, and - from what I gathered (much of it was in dialect) – was educational. The highlight? One of the male peer educators was sporting a black t-shirt that said “Single and Fabulous” on the front in sparkly silver writing, and “Sex and the City” on the back.

A week at the hospital

So in terms of work....this has been a pretty exciting week for me. Unfortunately, it was preceded by some rather frustrating news that will have a pretty significant impact on my time here.....but hey, I’m trying to make lemonade. The unfortunate piece goes something like this....ICAP supports hospitals and clinics all over the country – nearly all of which part of the national health system (i.e. public not private facilities). Apparently the Ministry of Health has refused to authorize me to visit any of these public facilities. Which pretty much restricts me to the office, working on data collection instruments and interventions for clinics that I have never stepped foot in. Right.

But as luck would have it, ICAP also works with two hospitals in Maputo that are not part of the public health system. Instead, these are facilities that belong to the Department of Defense – the military hospital and the police hospital (important note – as far as I can tell military personnel are in fact treated at the military hospital but you do not have to be military to be a patient there, and many of the patients we deal with are not military). And these facilities are much more open to the idea of a public health student from Columbia coming to their facilities to observe how things work.

So what’s all the excitement?? I’ve spent every morning this week at the Military hospital checking things out....which a) gets me out of the office for half the day and b) allows me to see how the whole system functions on the ground. A bit of context....the military hospital has an entire area that is dedicated to HIV/AIDS called the Day Hospital (it’s kind of like it’s own little clinic within the hospital). The day hospital is responsible for the care and treatment of all HIV+ patients, and consists of two small buildings. One houses the reception, the pharmacy, six rooms for medical consultations and counseling, and a hallway that houses the day hospital’s two computers and two data entry people. The other building I haven’t actually been in, but I understand that’s where the nurses are. There is an outdoor corridor/veranda type thing that connects the two buildings, and this serves as the waiting room.

Not surprisingly, a lot of very interesting stories are coming out of my week at the military hospital. For starters, I seem to have made quite the impression on the director of the hospital. I have no idea how – my colleague Ana simply introduced me to him and we chatted for a couple of minutes, nothing special. But when we got back to the office the first question out of one of my other colleague’s mouth was, “So, was Dr. Rammadan nice to you?”. And only after Ana and I said that yes, he had been really nice, did my colleagues tell me that he isn’t usually that nice of a guy and that he must have really liked me. The blonde factor strikes again?

Other stories to follow...