ONE YEAR!!!

As of yesterday, I have been in Mozambique for a year. I am not really quite sure how I feel about that statement because it doesn’t seem real, but it is a fact. I arrived in Mozambique on October 2, 2008 and went from staying in a luxurious $450 USD a night hotel in Johannesburg to flying into the Maputo airport and driving through the slums surrounding it. One really interesting thing that has changed in the past year is my perception of the Maputo Airport. When we first flew in on Oct. 2, I thought “THIS is the LARGEST airport in the WHOLE COUNTRY?!?!?!? It is a total dump.” Then in July, when my family was visiting, we flew to and from the same airport and I found myself really impressed on how nice and comfortable the airport felt.

I can honestly say the past year has not only been a great experience, but it has been really fun and everyday I thank whoever decided that Mozambique would be a good placement for me. At times, living here has been a challenge, but the good moments always outweigh the trying ones and I am really looking forward to my second year.

In a few months, I will be returning to the States and I have already made a list of everything I want to eat (too many restaurants to list), drink (imported and light beers and frozen drinks), and all of the places I want to go (I am pretty sure Pat O´s piano bar is on the top of this list or maybe it is my parents´ house). Thinking about home has really made me appreciate everything I love about the States and everything I love about Mozambique. So here is my list of 4 of the best things about Moz and the U.S.:

What Mozambicans do right:

Enjoy Life
The clock in Mozambique definitely moves slower than it does in the States. After being here a year, I have learned to appreciate (or at least accept) the hours I spend waiting for things that would take less than 5 minutes in the States. I am beginning to understand why things move as slowly as they do. Mozambicans take every possible chance they get to enjoy life and if that means waiting for a store to open/chapa to leave/someone to use an ATM, they take the opportunity to get to know the person waiting with them. One the weekends (or during the week if a person is unemployed) Mozambicans spend hours “passear-ing.” Passear means to go for a walk with no specific destination in mind. They pass through the market and chat with anyone and everyone and then visit their friend’s houses or the local barraca (bar). I found this really great quote in a book I was reading set in Botswana and written by a Zimbabwean.

“and every morning she could sit in front of her house and sniff at the wood-smoke and look forward to spending the day talking with her friends. How sorry she felt for white people, who couldn’t do any of this, and who were always dashing around and worrying themselves over things that were going to happen anyway. What use was it having all that money if you could never sit still or just watch your cattle eat grass?”
pp 162 “The No. 1 Ladies´ Detective Agency” Alexander McCall Smith

Say it like it is.
Some people find this a less than attractive quality, but I really appreciate the acceptance that comes along with it. If you are fat, people call you fat. Here is the best part: to your face. There is no hiding it. It is the honest to God truth. If you are ugly, they will call you “aquela mulungu feia” (that ugly white chick). The only small hint of trying to soften the blow is when they add “inha” to the end (e.g. gordinha – a little fat). Which leads to:

Appreciate what their momma gave them.
Negative body image is something Mozambican women only read about in the South African version of Cosmo. Women here love their bodies. Short. Tall. Fat. Thin. It doesn’t matter. They take what they get and flaunt it.

Ask and you shall receive.
One of my favorite things about Mozambique is that if you ask a person to do something for you, they will. Sometimes this comes for a price (usually somewhere around $0.20 USD), but most of the time, it is done with a big smile and a “até a próxima” (until next time). If you are willing to pay for convenience, then this is the perfect country for you. You can pretty much pay anyone to do anything for you. If I want a set of specially carved coasters (they are beautiful FYI) then I come back the next day and they are ready (for a slightly higher price than we agreed on the day before). If I am looking for this one really special capulana I have had my eye on for months, I can ask anyone in the market and they will help me find a stall that sells it. If I want a coke/cashews/piece of bread/beer/egg sandwich/orange on the chapa, I just ask one of the kids hanging around to go get me one. The downside: transactional sex (exchange of goods and services for sex).

After being away from “America” (which is what everyone here calls the U.S. with a sense of awe and wonder in their voices) for a year, I have really had the chance to think about all of the things I really miss/appreciate about the “land of plenty” (which is what I have started to call it).

What The U.S. does right:

The Service Industry
Free water and refills at restaurants and good quality napkins. Enough said.

Customer Service
It is nice to know there are people out there who actually care (or at least pretend to care/get paid to care) if I am satisfied with what I bought or the manner in which it was given to me. This is not really a problem on an individual level in Moz, but just with the huge monopoly companies that could care less if people are satisfied with their company’s product or service. For example, the telephone service provider I use is so unreliable and ridiculous. I spent 20 minutes on the phone (which is really expensive here) with customer service and traveled 12 hours roundtrip because my text messages were not working. I ended up waiting for two minutes while the clerk at a store that looks just like the one I have in my town, punched a 5 digit code in and magically my texts were working again. Please tell me why the customer service lady could not have told me the exact same thing in under 5 minutes?!?! This leads to:

Complain
Let’s face it. Americans are whiners. This statement may offend you, but I strongly believe it is the reason why the U.S. has such great customer service and a helpful service industry. Complaining gets stuff done. I wish that more people in Moz would complain about anything and everything. If people here complained about the crappy cell phone service instead of just accepting it as a way of life in Africa, maybe things would get better. This is not to say that complaining by itself makes things better. If a person complains, they need to make a commitment to see it through to the end.

Serial Monogamy
One of the factors that place Mozambicans at such a high risk for HIV is the cultural norm of concurrent relationships. A concurrent relationship is one where one or both of the partners are sleeping with one or more people on the side. This allows HIV to spread at a much higher rate than it does in the States because so many more people are involved in the sexual networks. Serial monogamy only puts two people at risk of acquiring HIV (until an infected partner begins a new relationship) unlike concurrency where pretty much anyone who is currently involved in a relationship is at risk.

So that’s all folks! Hope my first year of blog entries weren’t too terribly boring and I hope to see you all again in December! Happy One Year Moz 13!!!!!