Back in Maputo - chat with Jaime

The cool season is upon us--have been enjoying the mild weather back here in Maputo for the past week and a half. This morning, one of my last in the city, I was going to capture some video of the tree-lined streets and the nice sea views we get on the way to the office, but ended up spending most of the time chatting up Jaime, one of the TechnoServe drivers. A good thing, though, because Jaime's had a really fascinating life in Mozambique. This clip definitely doesn't do justice, but still I think some interesting bits to check out:



As you hopefully could make out, Jaime has seen a lot of change in his country. Originally from Xai Xai, in the Gaza province just north of Maputo...Jaime was a young man during colonial times, he fought in the Revolution, he lived through the years of civil war, and since he's found work in South Africa--and thankfully for TechnoServe--in Maputo as well where he's been now for 8 years. When I asked him if it's relatively stable in the country nowadays...you could tell he was thinking "well, yeah maybe to outsiders...but on the other hand there's still some tension under the surface and you never know when things could break down"...which I guess can appreciate better now having lived here a couple months. Still, it's fair to say Mozambique has made a lot of progress on political stability, especially when you compare to some of its neighbors like Zimbabwe where things are really pretty troubling right now.

Last day on Quirimba

And so my second and last visit to Quirimba--at least for this project--had to end, but I did get a chance to head back to the beach on the southeast end of the island. This is where I first ran into the two little kids who followed me around several weeks ago. Turns out their names are Manuele and Noventa and their father is a guard for my client's coconut plantation. Sure enough they were hanging around their straw ("macuti" in Moz) home cooking breakfast and playing on the beach when I showed up. They quickly ran over and I gave them a copy of those couple of pictures I had taken last time, which they got a real kick out of. It was fun--they certainly seemed happy, laughing and smiling at the time, but it does make it easy to forget the reality for families like this one in this island community and the neighboring ones where illiteracy is 83%, unemployment is 18% and the poverty index is 68% (compared to single digits or teens for most of the first world). Still, although I believe in Technoserve's private sector/business enterprise approach...it's good to once in a while get away from the Excel spreadsheets and business plans and remind yourself where you're hoping to eventually achieve impact with it all...

Finally, a few last images from Quirimba. Below-left the spot where I first met Manuele and Noventa, now at low tide covered with an almost luminescent green seaweed that we're actually hoping to be able to use as coconut tree fertilizer. Below-right the view out from my client's family house, and at the bottom a photo of me with the Gessners themselves.

Ibo II

...Ibo is also known for its arts and crafts. Below-left, an old man in the shadows sewing capulanas--Mozambican version of a sarong. Right, a silversmith selling jewelry made from old, melted down colonial silver coins:

Below, some photos of the Ibo Island Lodge, also a Technoserve client. They did a nice job retaining the feel of the island, while living up to the high standards of a 4/5 star type place:

And finally a Pimm's on the roof of the lodge with my client, Rainer, and his sister Carola while watching the sunset, and before realizing we had to set sail again to make it back to Quirimba before dark:

Ibo

I finally got to visit Ibo island--my first trip to Quirimba, the steering cable on the boat broke so we had to abandon ship. This time around we left at high tide so that we could take the boat route through a mangrove forest (below-left). The trees grow essentially half in/half out of the sea and at low tide, you can actually walk on foot to Ibo through the forest. Once we arrived, we were greeted by a rather impressive facade (below-right) of one of the many historic buildings that Ibo is known for:

We disembarked at my client's friend's place where he is building a really tastefully put together guesthouse (below-left). He's one of the ones who has payed ~$50-100K to the government for the right to take over a ruin (similar to the building below-right) and renovate it for tourism or other locally benefical purposes. Technoserve is attempting to encourage investors to do the same thing but on a larger scale on another island down south, Ilha de Mocambique...

Below some more old, Portuguese colonial buildings erected when Ibo was once a bustling capital city of the Cabo Delgado province. Left, the building that is the home of the incumbent FRELIMO political party on Ibo, and right the main church in the town center:

Back to Quirimba Island

My second and last visit for this project was a good one. Weather was a bit cooler than last time. I got to catch up with my client on all the research, analysis and recommendations we have for him so far, and the development opportunities for the island still look really promising. Plus, I got to see some of the neighboring islands and towns on the mainland that I hadn't before.

This time around, we took the mostly-land route from Pemba to get there. Four hour drive on a bumpy, mostly dirt and sometimes flooded road to Quissanga, at which point we met up with my client's boat to take us the rest of the 45 minutes to Quirimba. Quissanga was a really nice little seaside hamlet type place. Hopefully that road gets better in time because the town could be a good stopping off point for tourists heading to the islands, and I'm sure could benefit economically..









We docked at the north end of Quirimba Island where one of the old Catholic church ruins is located (below-left). Later on, I made my way over to the other church ruin on the island to poke around there as well (below-right). Unfortunately, right now we don't know a ton about their history, but there has been some talk of getting an archeologist who's on Ibo Island right now to have a look and try to surface some more info. One thing that was kind of interesting was the tree trunk protruding from the direct center of the main room, right where you'd expect an altar to be. Maybe it was actually planted there, or maybe just a coincidence.









Next post, some pics from my Ibo visit...

Ponta d'Ouro

Back to back road trips. Weekend after Inhambane, went down to the very southeastern tip of Mozambique to a place called Ponta d'Ouro. Five of us volunteer consultants from the Maputo Technoserve office plus one from the Joburg office rented a couple cars and did the 3.5 - 4.5 hour drive last Friday to meet four additional people coming from the Swaziland office. We had hoped to get real 4x4s because the road to Ponta gets really sandy closer to the town, but all they had were these Mitsubishi Pajero Juniors. Emphasis on Juniors. They did technically have 4 wheel drive, but their engines and clearance were closer to that of a golf cart than an F-150 I think it's fair to say. Not surprisingly we got stuck in the sand a number of times, having to get passersby to help push and one time to tow us out. Soon we realized the key to driving in sand is to just keep moving or else your tires sink in. This pretty much worked, but basically meant we had to drive at high speed often over 2 feet high bumps and swells in the road. Have to say, though, once I got used to it, it was pretty fun. I felt like a rally car driver. My passengers probably had a slightly less fun experience.

Once we got there, I think we all felt the beach and surroundings of Ponta lived up to the billing. Great beaches, good diving and dolphins about in the water, beautiful roadside scenery coming into and leaving town. It's typically a popular holiday destination for South Africans because it's so near the border, but when we were there it was thankfully not too overrun. We also rented a 10-person house for our group, definitely the way to do it.

Alright...last post for a while. Headed back up to Pemba and the Quirimbas to see my client again and to start getting a little more concrete on the development plan for his concession. This time around, I'm hoping to visit the historic Ibo Island, which is next door to Quirimba. Full report in a week or so...

Inhambane

Took a road trip a couple provinces to the north of Maputo to Inhambane. Partly on work--I checked out a couple lodges there, and my co-workers toured some coconut factories--but a good part of the time was spent in a really nice beach town called Tofo. Maybe the biggest backpacker destination in Mozambique.

Below-left the southern end of of Tofo's pristine beach. It was off this beach that I went on a little marine safari and got to swim over whale sharks, which are normally rare but were fairly plentiful in these waters. Seeing one is a major box to tick off for serious divers. Below-right, my co-workers and I with two of the managers at our hotel. The one in the middle, Helio, is also a somewhat well known music artist in Mozambique specializing in African/hip-hop fusioney kind of stuff, with a lot of looped vocal percussion. His website: http://crazyafrican.com/.

On the way home from Inhambane, we stopped in another coastal town called Xai Xai where we stumbled upon some festivities celebrating Mozambique's Dia de Trabalhadores (Labor Day). To the left some of the dancers, to the right, me not blending in with the crowd:

Below also a rough clip of one of the dance routines. If you watch closely, the smallest kid who is initially to the left in the blue shorts and white headband was a riot. Biggest crowd pleaser by far:

Maputo - around town

It's taken me a month to make a substantial post about Maputo, the capital of the country and where I'm more or less based in between my travels up north...but better late than never. As I mentioned early on, this city has both the tropi-colonial charm thing going as well as the delapidation and poverty you'd expect to see in a third world city. That said, my experiences so far here have been really positive. Relative to the rest of the country, Maputo could pass for a southeast African version of New York or San Francisco. Quite a bit of activity here be it commerce or culture. Some photos from the last full weekend I spent in the city below...

To the left, inside the old fortaleza--a shadow of a statue of some important Portuguese general I'm assuming. To the right, the entrance to the botanical park conspicously guarded by a statue of Samora Machel, the first president of independent Mozambique, and an adopter of Marxist policies. They were evidently pretty intent on drilling those ideals home, as some of the most prominent roads in Maputo are Avenidas Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenine and Mao Tse Tung:













Next up the mercado de peixe. A typical Sunday afternoon thing to do. First pick your catch and negotiate with the fishmongers as my co-worker Fabio is doing (left), and then head to one of the outdoor restaurants next door to have them cook it all up for you so you can eat it along with some cold cervejas (right). We went with fresh caught shrimp and lobster that day:













Finally, the beach along Maputo Bay. Left, some guys doing capoeira, which I hadn't realize had made it's way over here from Brazil. Right, more locals hanging out on the beach with the city skyline in the background:

Quirimba - chat with Decima

Last Quirimba post for a while. This one a clip of me asking a few questions in my broken Portuguese to a local islander who was looking after the old lodge I was staying in.



Good to hear he's pro-tourism, since one of my main objectives is to put together the business plan to reopen a bigger and better eco-lodge.