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MaputoBound
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Name: Nancy
Country: Mozambique
Interests: Discovering the beauty of the people and continent of Africa each day. . . join me on the journey
Message: message me
Member Since:
5/21/2005
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| Chicken Pox
Vicente, the youngest of Vella's boys, has had chicken pox this week after a number of other kids in the center have also had it. You can imagine what a nightmare controlling the spread is at a children's center where all the same kids go to school together, eat together, play together, and sleep in rooms of sometimes 10+ together! Whereas most kids in the west would be delighted to have a week off school, Vicente has been quite upset about the whole thing as going to school, playing on the playground with other kids, going to church, and day trips out of the center are highlights of his life that he is missing at the moment. He had quite a sob over missing church! Our main concern is that our HIV+ positive boy in the house has had it already. Something as simple and routine as chicken pox for a healthy child can be quite serious for an immuno-comprised child. Now we'll see if any of the others get it. You should hear them try to say "chicken pox" in English and see Vicente's cute little black body covered in camomile lotion! Seeing his little body covered in spots is not so cute, however.
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| THIS IS AFRICA
Even filling up with gas can be an adventure in Mozambique! We have long known to be watchful when filling vehicles because the attendants have a "habit" of not zeroing the pump, meaning that you don't get what you pay for (there is no such thing as "self serve" in this country- there would be too many driveways!). Tonight while waiting to fill the truck with gas, we watched as the attendants starting shaking vehicles to get as much gas in as possible! Some of the trucks and "taxis" or chapas (mini vans crammed with 20-25 people) were really rolling!
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| Treasures
Some sights I will never forget, and this week a number of moments have been imprinted on my memory and spirit:
- Antonino using the plastic coil used to open a juice container as a ring
- Another one of our kids using an empty 2L plastic container as a soccer ball
- Kids on the street joyously playing with a plastic bag blowing in the breeze as if it was a balloon
- A woman scooping dirty rain water from a street puddle into a container to take home- I can only pray that she won't use this as drinking water
Plastic coils, empty containers, plastic bags, and dirty water in a street puddle: garbage to most, but treasures of the poor.
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| White Ticket Success
Little white tickets in hand, we finally made the Catembe ferry, one week after our first attempt! The fun began before we even left the center gates, however, as the boys each "drove" to the city, using their frisbees as steering wheels! The drive was complete with plenty of sound effects (loud turns, horns beeping, quick stops, fast speeds, etc!) As we neared the mall where we rode the escalators last week, we heard non-stop "is this where we ate the ice-cream up high?"
After trying 2 different ticket "booths," we finally ended up buying our tickets from a very unofficial man sitting outside the little "hut." Official looking or not, our tickets were white and that's all that mattered to us! Agostino and I started down the dock in front, but were quickly informed by Tia Judite that we had to run as the boat was about to leave (one of the first times I've ever been told to hurry up and run by a Mozambican!) Oh, to see the boys' eyes as we sat down in the boat among men, women, eggs, fruits, tin siding, 20+kg sacks of rice, etc. Their eyes did the speaking as they sat in an awed silence! The Catembe dock was lined with dozens of small roughly-made wooden boats that you can't imagine could ever sail, along with a couple huge, abandoned boats from long ago. In the midst of age-old ruin, however, men were working to repair the docks. Though the boys were interested in all the shapes and sizes of fish being sold, the work-men were apparently interested in how "beautiful" Vella and I looked in our capalanas, and what we were doing at Catembe!
After a quick "potty-break" for the boys on the side of the dirt road, we soon made it to the beach where the boys quickly found the water! They were soon running in and out just in time (or not) to miss the little waves lapping the shore. Though the beach is littered with garbage (that the boys wanted to pick up and toss into the water), the beauty is in the view of Maputo from across the bay- a view that Judite and the boys, though they have grown up in the city, had never before seen. From a distance, the tropical sky-line looks like many others from tourist destinations around the world. Invisible behind the palm trees and bill-board lined buildings are wheel-chair bound beggars, street boys scrounging over-flowing dumpsters for food and "treasures," mothers prostituting themselves to feed their families, and the hundreds of starving men and women hawking their wares on the sides of garbage-lined streets. This is part of Maputo: the city we love and call home. (photos from flickr and a previous trip)
         
The ferry, Catembe dock, fish "market," boats in harbour (one abandoned), Maputo Skyline, and Catembe beach
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| THIS IS AFRICA
The "Pink Ticket Day"
Vella, the boys, Tia Judite and I headed out on Friday for a new adventure: taking the ferry to the "island" of Catembe to explore and play on the beach for the afternoon. Tia Judite was incredibly excited as she had never been there before.
The adventure for the boys began just walking down the "pier," to where the boats were docked. The 4 boys were holding our hands and arms with both hands and proclaiming loudly "we're going to fall!" After waiting on the dock for a few minutes watching a ferry loading cars, we discovered we had to buy our tickets back by the street. Vella and Antonino headed up to buy the tickets while I waited with the rest who kept exclaiming that it was a "very big boat!" After a long wait, while entertained by a large rat scavenging for food, Vella returned with tickets (only 20c each for the adults) and we waited for the smaller passenger ferries to dock once the larger car ferry left.
After a brief conversation between other ladies about how we weren't in the line ("lines" are a very fluid concept in Africa), the smaller boats docked and the push began. The gracious lady who thought we weren't in line, then commented that we had pink tickets which were for the car ferry that just left- we needed white tickets. She very assertively declared with all her expertise, and a chorus from other women, that we wouldn't be allowed on the smaller boats. Why did they wait till the "pink ticket" boat left to tell us we had the wrong tickets? Ignoring their protests, knowing the price of the ticket for all the boats was the same, we proceeded ahead in the "line" to try to get on. The moment the "ticket-taking man" caught sight of pink, he hollered that we had the wrong tickets and would have to go get new tickets (we knew the boats would be gone by then). After a few words of our explanation, he quickly started taking people from behind us, ignoring us as if we weren't there. OK- let's try Boat #2: same treatment. By the third boat
we were starting to feel like we had a horrible, contagious illness. On
the first sight of the now infamous "pink ticket," the man threw up his hand to say stop
and refused to even speak to us! Vella asked Judite if she could explain our situation- given wrong tickets, paid same price, 4 little boys, etc. Judite quickly said "Mana Vella, we have the wrong tickets and they won't accept them!" Everyone around us was now telling us that we had pink tickets (really?!) and needed white tickets, to which we finally groaned "WE KNOW" and tromped away.
Plan B so as not to completely disappoint the boys now robbed of a boat ride to an "island:" head to the new mall and take the escalators to the top floor to have ice cream at Mimmos. The looks on the boys' faces and sounds of hysterical laughter as they rode escalators for the first time: priceless!! Who knew riding escalators could be nearly as exciting as riding a boat! TIA!
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