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:

Meu Despedida do Maputo

...meaning 'my Maputo farewell.' Some pics of me enjoying my last days in Mozambique with some friends.

Here the crew I played soccer with on Sundays at Costa do Sol, the main beach in Maputo:

Below-left the TechnoServe Moz coconut team proudly displaying a tree seedling they had just brought back from the field. To the right Tricia (head of coconut team) joking with Sinezia our office receptionist and assistant.

And finally a few photos from my last night out. Appropriately enough we ate dinner at a middle eastern place and then headed to a Maputo mainstay, Africa Bar, which is exactly what I did on my first night out in Moz. From left to right...row 1: Tricia (Louisianian, full-time TechnoServe coconut/biofuels program director), Abe (our Somalian friend starting a business in Moz), Sam (South African TechnoServe volunteer consultant working on coconuts, Me, Anna (German TNS volcon also working on coconuts) ; row 2: Sam again, Fabio (Brazilian TNS volcon working on poultry), Magaya (local Maputo friend, who introduced me to the soccer gang and also works for his father's poultry business), Magaya again, and Arsenio (local Maputo friend currently studying at university):

As you can see, a pretty impressive mix of backgrounds--made for lots of good conversation and debate, often fueled by many Mozambican cervejas. Hope to be back in Moz soon to see some of these folks again and pick up where we left off...

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.

Quirimba Island - coconut plantation

Over half the island is coconut plantation. Most of it is currently going towards the production of copra, which is used to produce industrial coconut oils, which in turn are used in cooking oils, soaps, and other products. In this clip, Hans, who runs the day to day operation of the plantation, explains how they harvest, process and distribute their product:



A few pics below. The tree on the left has just one of the peculiar growth patterns, along with corkscrew shapes, that coconut palms are prone to exhibit. On the right a large African fish eagle taking flight from a palm on the side of the island containing the younger, more productive trees.

Finally, Hans and his staff manager, Massenga, here at the 'port' on the island, talking about the shipment of copra that they're loading onto the dhow (sailboat) behind them. It took this dhow and two others 21 days to sail from Zanzibar down to Quirimba because of the winds/currents, no stopping in between!! Should be less than half that going back, but even then I can't imagine having to deal with the waves, sun and cramped quarters for that long...