Last Moz post - Pemba/Quirimba montage

I finally got around to throwing together some of the clips I took as I was leaving Pemba and arriving in and touring around the coconunt plantation, village and beaches of Quirimba Island for the first time. You'll have to excuse the sometimes rough, shaky video in there, often because of the bumpy roads and/or my incompetence...and unfortunately due to some software bug that I can't figure out the first minute and a half is only sound, so you can either skip ahead or sit back and listen to one of the most famous songs to come out of Mozambique. In English it's called "Nightbird" and is by an artist called Wazimbo. The first time my TechnoServe friend Tricia played it for me, it really did give me the chills, and that haunting melody stayed in my head for days after. I guess I'm not the only one who liked it--the song was also featured in a movie directed by Sean Penn, The Pledge, and even in a Microsoft commercial. Anyway, this is clearly no Sean Penn movie or Microsoft commercial, but here you go:

Pemba II

I'm back in Maputo, and back to a relatively not-horrible internet connection. My first trip to Pemba and Quirimba Island was a good one--a beautiful part of the country that I got to see, but also was able to make a lot of progress on my project. Over the next week I'll post some of the photos and videos I took while there, starting with these looking out from my back porch onto Wimbi Beach in Pemba:

Pemba -- last post for a while

Arrived today into Pemba, a beach town and capital of Mozambique's northernmost province, Cabo Delgado. Haven't had much chance to explore, but luckily the house I'm staying in is right on Wimbi Beach, so I do get some great views of the sea, sand and locals walking about from the back porch. Unfortunately the connection sucks so I can't upload any pictures. If I could they'd look something like this.

Tomorrow I'll head to Quirimba Island on a 5-hour boat ride with the local land owner to begin the real on-the-ground work of figuring out what the best opportunities are to develop the local economy. Tourism and coconut oil/biofuel will likely be at the top of the list.

No internet on the island, so next update probably not for another week - 10 days...