Crianças - The Second Lesson

.

We had our 2nd English lesson for the kids of Beluluane. At this Saturday we had a little less time, so we just refreshed the Head-Shoulders-Knees-&-Toes song we learned last week, and in order to learn the directions (left, right, forward, stop) we played a "blindfolded-maze" game:

Blindfolded-Maze Game

We set up obstacles course using benches and chairs in the yard. Blindfolded a kid and had the other kids guide him / her through the maze using direction-words.

The kids love the camera, after the course
they stayed for dancing for me

.

Mozambican Shoe Polishing

.

Did you know that you can polish your shoes by the peel of a banana?

It has lot's of nutrition which helps to keep the leather in a good condition!!!

Polishing by Banana

Cleaning by a napkin

The Shining Shoe

.

The Bet

.

During the Domicilo, we heard the "One Step of a Time" song from one of the houses we passed. Rapson said Rihanna was the singer and I was so sure that she wasn't. And he was so sure about Rihanna, so we had to bet:

- If Rapson wins, I'll have to buy a present for him
- If I win, he will have to invite the nicest girls of Maputo for my B-Day party!

I have never loved Jordin Sparks as much as I did today!!! =)

Rapson, you can start calling the girls! ;)

The Computer of CEB

.

On the very first day the local boss, Cesar made me responsible for the computer of the center. This is a computer only for preparing reports and storing the pictures we take - we don't have internet there. It started with a few error message, so I was asked to get rid of them. Deleting some "half-installed", useless programs helped a lot to get rid of some of the error messages. :)

Cesar told me, that one of the previous DIs was good at making files disappeared and asked me not to do the same. Of course on the following day, by chance, I made a few hundred files hidden (including my boss's personal folder), and the "unhide" button did nothing. I was so happy about it and I couldn't wait to go home and check out the internet for some solutions... Of course I found it and I managed it work on the next day.

On Friday I decided to make this computer a little bit faster, so I switched off a few unnecessary services in the Administrative Tools. Well, it seemed I switched off some necessary ones too, because after restarting, I got nothing but a clean desktop (without icons and without a START menu, without having access to the control panel)... And I was so happy, when I tried to restart with the "last known good configuration" - I got the same blank desktop... It took me around 3 hours to fix this problem I caused for myself...

I've told nothing to my boss about these (yet), but I talked to Rapson. I told him that I fixed some of the small errors on the computer, but I caused more bigger ones here - which took lots of time to correct. And what did he answer to me?

"Don't worry, it's normal here. It's very normal."

So I'm not worried any more... =)

.

Xipamanine Mercado

.

In the afternoon I went to visit the Xipamanine market in Maputo. I was told this is the biggest and cheapest market in Maputo, but I was also warned to leave my valuable things at home to prevent being robbed (so I left my camera at home too, no pictures from the market).

Well, the security wasn't as bad as they tried to scare me. For first sight, it was like the "Jozsefvaros" market in Budapest - not worse and not better. I bought some 2nd hand clothes here and I paid almost nothing: 7 shirts, a very good quality of shorts, and a new flip-flop cost me altogether 440 MT which is around 12 EUR.

I think I'll come back here some other time too! ;)on too!!! ;)

.

Crianças - The First Lesson

.

The Saturday has come and we spent the morning together with the local kids again. Just like in Denmark we can't think about this activity as a work - spending time with the kids is always much more fun then work. ;)

Teaching English

Reka and me decided to start to teach English for these kids. Since non of us has any teaching background, it was a little bit brave decision, but we both like challenges! ;) It seemed the kids enjoyed our first lesson, but we were aware of our mistakes:

- we tried to teach way too much new English words in the first lesson
- we didn't repeat these new words enough times

- we didn't have enough English games. We should teach more playfully, we should try to find more English games.

But all in all, they enjoyed it, and we'll be better next Saturday! ;)

Hospital

.

Today I went with the girls to the local Hospital in Beluluane. Well, maybe it's a little bit exaggeration to call it this place a hospital, it's much more a "First Aid Center". Here are the services you can get here:

- First Aid
- Counseling during pregnancy
- Counseling for new born babies & weight control
- Pharmacy
- Diagnosing & Treating sicknesses & diseases (Malaria, TB, Diarrhea etc)

Laurinda, Cris (a Brazilian DI), and me in the Hospital

MOZAL & PCP

.

There is an industrial park next to us, with lots of companies there. This biggest company is MOZAL - it's the biggest aluminum producing company in Mozambique and the second biggest in Africa. We co-operate with some of the companies in this industrial park and we help the companies to promote the HIV/AIDS prevention by giving speeches in their lunch breaks. This noon Domingos and me went to a company called Raffia Bag to give speech here. In 2 weeks we'll come back here for HIV testing.

Palastra no Raffia Bag

In the afternoon, I went with the girls to the PCP. This is a club for HIV positive people. in Beluluane. These people get together on every wednesday afternoon, to spend some time together. Sometimes they have discussions on health issues (eg. Malaria, TB, HIV / AIDS etc.), but sometimes they just have some fun by dancing / singing:

dancing & singing - PCP

Domicilio

.

Domicilio

In the mornings we go out for 3-4 hours to community of Beluluane. We walk from house to house to promote our center to the local people, to tell them what services we provide there for the community (counseling, testing), and we also offer them a HIV quick test on the spot. This activity is called "Domicilio" in this project.

Tired? :)

Walking in 35-40 C degree from house to house is not the most comfortable part of the day - but Domingos and Rapson make this work fun, we joke around a lot! ;)

Centro Esperanca Beluluane

.Centro Esperanca Beluluane

This week I started my work in Centro Esperanca Beluluane (CEB). Beluluane is a small community about 1 hour away from the capital, Maputo. Here we have a small center dealing with HIV / AIDS issues (testing, raising awareness, counselling, orphan support) with a few counselors and me working here. Let me introduce the stars of CEB:

Cesar

Domingos

Rapson

Albertine

Laurinda

Iseltina

Eliza

So they are my teachers, they have been introducing both the project activities and the secret of the Portuguese Language to me. (in the Portuguese, the Savana DI girls are also a big help ;) ).

Vehicles of Maputo

The variety of the cars and trucks here is huge - but for the first sight it seems that less than half of the vehicles are passenger cars. Most of the vehicles are pickups / 4 wheelers, "chapas", and huge trucks (mainly from the 70s-80s). The very high prevalence of the pickups and 4 wheelers is due to the very bad quality of the roads (India has top quality roads compared to Mozambique).

Trucks of Mozambique

Usually everything is used here until it's completely worn out. The cars, trucks also...

It must have been a long way from Germany

This is how the Coca-Cola truck

could have looked like in the USA in the 70s...


I always expect some Cokes to fall down, but it never happens

Toyota Corolla is one of the most popular car - at least here in Maputo

It seems that more than half of all kind of vehicles are Toyota here...

I didn't expect that first time seeing an S600 in my life

would be in Mozambique

"Chapa"

You can barely see local buses. "Chapa" is used for mass transportation in and around the cities. Chapa is a Toyota Hiace used for carrying passangers. Usually it goes with full capacity (around 25-26 people).

Fighting for the last places

When you are one of the last ones who gets in, than you stay at the door. When I was in this situation, I had to keep the same posture as I kept last week at Snowboarding:
- both of my knees were bended (I couldn't stand up),
- everything was about balancing (since the chapa was not full with Mozambican Top-Models, I didn't want to land in anybody's lap...)

The guy will get in the chapa and
the door will be closed in the next few meters...

They usually travel on truck in the rural areas, not in the city.
And they seem to enjoy it - at least I always hear them singing... :)

End the most popular one is of course the 4 wheeler! All kind!

I also saw a Kawasaki Ninja last night - but I couldn't take a picture of it. But it's very cruel to import / export Kawasaki (or any other speedbikes) to Mozambique; both the climate and the quality of the road are not nice enough to these sensitive creatures...

I see much more new cars than I expected. But I'm sure it's only because I'm in the capital. A few hundred kilometers away from the capital and from the coastline, I'm sure everything is much different...

Crianças

.

This was my very first day in the project, when we did something. We went out to Beluluane with the other DIs in the project (Réka from Hungary & Maria from Chile) to spend the morning with the local orphans. We gave them masks what they could colour as they wanted. They seemed to enjoy the morning very much and I started to like them from the very beginning! :)

Preparing Masks

The main purpose of this morning was to provide food (breakfast and lunch) for these kids - and to spend some time with them, to bring some color to their life by the morning activities. This is a regular program, they come to the HOPE station Beleluane every Saturday morning. Maria is leaving in a 2 weeks, so Reka and me will be in charge to organize some programs for them every Saturday.

Posso Ajudar? :)

Maybe we could do some more for these kids than giving them food once a week.
The question is: What else could I / we do to support them?

The HOPE Project

.

I'm in the HOPE project here in Maputo. It's an AIDS related project, the most common activities are:

- mobilization of the people (for testing themselves),
- free HIV testings
- raising awareness about HIV/AIDS (prevention, positive living, etc)
- orphanage program

This is one of the least structured project here, meaning that DIs in this project got the most freedom to implement their ideas - within the framework of the project. There are two HOPE stations here, one right next to our campus, and the other one is in Beluluane, next to Maputo (circa 1.5-2 hours away from here).

Today I talked to my Project Leader (PL). Well, actually, she is a temporary PL here now. The previous Project Leader left yesterday (just one day after I arrived). She said that tomorrow I'll go to the Beluluane HOPE station with the others, and we will have some programs with the local orphans. Next week I'll also be out in Beluluane every day.

In the afternoon we went out to the community for mobilisation. It means we (the local volunteers and the DIs) went from house to house in the neighborhood to briefly tell the people about the activities and services of our HOPE center, and to offer them a quick HIV test right away. It was a good afternoon - but I also realized that I have to work hard on my Portuguese.


We work 5 and a half day every week (Saturday only a half day), the Sunday is off. During the 6 months we will get 2 weeks investigation week when we can travel in order to get primary info for our research (yes, we're supposed to do a research in our project about a project we choose). We will also get one week vacation - I already have some plans for this one! ;)

My New Home

This small DI campus called Savana is very nice. It's in Machava, in a suburb district of the capital of Mozambique. There are 4 houses, 3 are with bedrooms and shower, while the last has the kitchen and a big common hall & internet router.

Savana

I got a room on my own. Well, this is only half true. All the DIs who are coming to Mozambican projects or going home stop here in Machava for a few days to manage the paperworks for their travellings. In these days they fill up our free places - including my extra bed too. But most of my time I spend it in the common hall, I spend only a few hours sleeping in my room, so I don't really mind it. :) Each house has a bathroom. We have running water, we even have hot water - but I don't know why: the "cold" water is also like 22-24 C degree, so I've never used the hot water so far. We also have a made who does the cleaning in the house and does our laundry twice a week.

The mosquito danger is not as bad here as I expected - or the mosquitos prefer the others to me. :) At least I can't complain. If I live alone in my room, and I pay attention to my door having always closed, I don't even use the mosquito net for the nights.

I was happy to see that the internet is much better than I expected. I only miss the wireless from here, but I'll try to ask for it :) (but as I've learnt, the cheapest one costs double price here than in Europe).

So far I'm very satisfied with my environment here! ;)

So far I'm the only DI guy here, all the other DIs (5-6) are girls (mostly Brazilians, very-very nice ones). I'm very ok with this situation. :) We also have 2 Cameroon guys doing the camp future here, they also spend the nights with us - they're very cool! ;)

For food, I can do my daily shopping on the street - for a good price. I'm getting around USD120-130 pocket money / month from the ADPP which seems to be more than enough to cover my monthly food expenses.

My Talismans

.

Yesterday I left Denmark for Mozambique. My flight was comfortable and smooth. I gave a chance to the South African Airways to sponsor my volunteer work -I took one of their nice blankets from the airplane (it can be useful later on here in the wintertime). ;)


In Johannesburg airport I bought some gemstones to support my work in Mozambique:

- Hematite (it strengthens the organs that cleanse the blood & it helps to sort out the priorities that one chooses to face.)
- Crystal Quartz (it has a strong positive influence on the ability of the body to heal itself & it assists one in increasing the force of thought for sending and receiving energy, information and vibrations.)
- Rose Quartz (it helps to protect the heart and lung & it promotes self-fulfillment and peace, restores balance & clarity to the emotions.)

I also brought 2 gemstones from home with me:

- Amethyst (it helps to treat toothaches, skeletal discomforts, posture and other bone and joint-related sicknesses & it has the ability to transform lower energies into higher and acts as a healer at all levels of mind, body and spirit).
- Malachite (it's excellent for reducing inflammation due to sprains, strains or other injuries, it can help drawing toxins out of the body and can be used for support fasting, detoxification and other cleansing rituals & it can assist those who who have many creative ideas but are unable to organize or act upon them).

With these stones in my pocket,
I'm sure I'll meet all my Mozambican challenges! ;)

Day 4

Ready for Day 4

The last day has come. The 3rd day was glorious sliding down with the kids - I expected the same from the last day. I felt to be ready to show my new skills to Ole and Leivur- on the black piste. So I decided to take this one with them - for the first time:

The Black Piste

Of course I fell down a lots of times on the black one for the first time - what else could you expect? After all I'm not a miracle-guy! :) But at least I tried this one too. ;)

With my Teachers: Ole & Stefan

In the afternoon we left Branäs. Driving home, I recalled my new memories I got here. I had a wonderful time here, daytime snowboarding with the kids, in the evening meeting them in the huts, drinking tea and having chats - and finishing the day with sauna. I can't say how much I enjoyed.

I thought over the advices given in the first day, and yes in the 4th day I understood them. Yes, it was much more fun (and easier) to snowboard when I didn't "want" to control, when I took it easy, when I just let the snowboard slide under me. In the end, I didn't feel that my feet were locked - not at all: I felt that the snowboard under me was part of my body.

And yes, snowboarding is all about balancing. But life is the same, isn't it? When you have the right emotional, physical and work/ family life balance, your life is just sliding smoothly, it's easy, you work with the forces of the Universum and not against them. Isn't it like that?
And when you don't have the balance in your life - well...

I wanted to completely relax mentally during these days, (what I did but) still I realized something about me and about how life works...

And I will miss these kids in Africa, for sure...

Day 3

Finally we met our snowboard teacher in the morning. Well, we have learned many things but it was very good to have a lesson from her (from a beautiful Swedish blonde). It's always good to have a coach, who gives you feedback without being unbiased. She corrected a little bit my techniques, she told me what to practice. But I remembered the most the following advice from her:

- "Focus & look where you want to go, and you will just get there!"

I kept her advice and I went to look for the kids. From now I snowboarded with them. When they went for the red piste, I went with them. When they chose to go back to the blue one to practice, I followed them. I was very happy, I got what I wanted, I learned snowboarding in 2 days as well that I was able to go with the kids from the 3rd day.

Moments of Fulfillment

Sauna-thoughts in the evening:

It was so strange to see this "focusing-thing" working. I have been using this in my life: I make wishes, I focus on them, I expect them to happen and usually my wishes come true - somehow. But with the wishes, it takes time, it takes months or years to get what I want. It was so strange to see in the snowboarding that the same can also happen in a few seconds too, I don't need to wait months, it can immediately get what I focus on (it was like the time lost its meaning). I mean, I just looked where I wanted to go, and my body made the right moves to make the right turns and by-passes - but I'm not able to tell how I moved, what I exactly did with my feet, arms, hands, body etc. I just focused where I wanted to make the turn and my body immediately made it happen...

Focusing...

Day 2

.

I started on the green piste and after the first 2 slides I switched for the blue one. I still couldn't manage it without falling once in the middle, but it was much better, I felt much more confident. I remembered the wise words of my good Italian wrestler master, Massimo: the mind works during the night too, it puts together what we learned the day. And probably he was right, the snowboarding went much better in the morning then the previous night.

The Red Piste

At 2pm I decided to try out the red piste. It was pretty steep, I was braking all the way down. At the half my legs were so tire because of braking - yes it's always hard to work against the mother nature (against gravity). But this braking made me not only tired but very confident. By the time I got down, I really learned to control the snowboard, I could stopped whenever I wanted and I could by-passed anything I wanted. I took the red piste 2 more times and then I went back to to the blue one to practice. Sliding down on the red piste made me confident in stopping and by-passing, so I've become more confident since I didn't have to worry about hitting somebody in front of me. So at this time, I was able to let the snowboard to slide, I went faster and faster. My new goal was for Day to is to slide down without falling and to make once a 360 degree turn during sliding. And I made it this time - just a few minutes before the piste was closed.

Just to make the day more memorable, I slipped with the school bus a little bit into the ditch next to the road, when a truck was coming down on the hill and I tried to pull over. I pulled over too much.

No Comment...

Sauna-thoughts in the evening:

isn't learning control in snowboard similar with the children raising? It takes time & energy to teach, control, "brake" them, but if you do a good job in teaching, if you learn how to control them, you can just "let it slide", you can let them go out, you can give them more freedom without worrying about them. Isn't it like that? Of course the learning period in the snowboard was hard and many times painful - the same with our children: we have lots of difficulties, quarrels and fights by the time they grow up...

When I make a mistake I always try to learn from it - and try to find out what I should have done better. I played the situation again with the school bus - but I couldn't find out what mistake I made, why it happened. Well, I know, I pulled over too much, but when I saw that truck coming down by 60-70 km/h on the snowy road, I felt it was the right decision. I still feel the same, I would pull over again the same way, so probably it's better if I just stop blaming myself.

Day 1

I decided to learn snowboarding. I have never skied or snowboarded before, but it has been on my wish list for a long while.

We had 4 days in Branäs and the plan was to learn snowboarding in first 2 days and snowboarding with the kids on the red piste in the last 2 days.

Goal Settings

One of the snowboard teachers got sick and the other one was fully booked. The earliest appointment we could get for snowboard lessons was the 3rd day morning. So my favorite kids have become my teachers. And they were good ones! ;) But they left for the red pistes after showing us, beginners the basic moves of snowboarding and giving the following advices:

- Take it easy!
- It's all about practicing a good balance!
- Don't want / force to do it! Just let the snowboard slide under you!

I practiced a few hours on the green piste. I almost hated myself in the first 30 minutes for choosing snowboard. I felt like being locked up when my both feet were attached to the snowboard, and when I arrived down it wasn't so comfortable to walk with one foot still attached to the snowboard. But I remembered that "everybody wants to play the game well, but nobody likes to learn the game". Yes, the studying part usually boring, sometimes hard too - I remembered that from my earlier experiences -, so I just started to focus on my reward: "snowboarding with the kids on the red piste from the 3rd day", and kept practicing.

Keep Practicing...

By the afternoon the green piste had become boring for me, so I went to practice on the blue one. Of course I fell over in every 10-15 meters on this piste by the time I got down. But I wanted to keep practicing until the piste was closed (7pm). My goal was for the first day, to get down on the blue piste without falling. I almost managed, but I always fell once in the middle. Around 6:30, I went down and I after yelling for the others at the steepest point of the piste that "Watch out , I'm not so good, I can't stop!" :) , I managed to pass everybody (a mother and her 2 little children), and I fell a big one: I hit my head and hurt my back hard. Then I decided to finish practicing for the first day.

At home, in the sauna I drew my conclusion:

Yes, I set (too) high goal - completing the blue piste without falling on the first day - and didn't reach it, but I was very close to it with only one fall. I also respected my body - and my limits, I knew where to stop (after that falling I was really exhausted, there was no point to continue practicing). However I didn't meet my original goal, I accomplished and learned more this way than I would have accomplished with a lower standard (eg.: completing the blue piste with only 1-2 falls).

And I also remembered myself that my ultimate goal is to enjoy my path toward my goals, so the goals I set for myself, indeed, are becoming only means to me to meet my ultimate goal.

4 Days Snowboarding in Sweden

Before I left Denmark for Mozambique, I had had a chance to go to a SkiTrip with the kids to Sweden. I had a wonderful time there, I haven't had a chance to relax like this for many years.

Branäs, Sweden

I gained so many nice experiences, memories here and I really enjoyed spending my last days with the kids (and with the new DIs) this way.