Tuesday, January 18, 2011

First steps in Mozambique

on the way from Johannesburg to Maputo


My very first glimpse of Mozambique. Here I got my first impression of the muddy streets with its red color..

When I arrived here, we first went to my new family to get to know them. They are so kind! Mama Atalya with her daughter Anna and her baby Maleik and a son called Jorge.


Anne and I spent the weekend in Maputo together with my family, mostly just sitting together with the family, walking a bit around and chilled. On Monday sister Maria Paula picked us up, showed us Massaca, my future workplace. Then we drove further to Impaputo where Anne currently works and then finally to Namaacha. Since that time I'm in Namaacha where i stay with Anne's family. It's hard to describe how my life here in Namaacha looks like, even if I would try to describe it you wouldn't be able to imagine it fully. I couldn't imagine it while I was in Austria.

Obviously, it's rainy season. Here in Namaacha it rains approximately every day once. It's also much colder here than in Maputo. While we slept in Maputo we always used to wake up at 6:00 or 6:30 because we couldn't sleep anymore due to the heat. In TV they warn a lot about Malaria, currently there are many mosquitos in Maputo area.
View from the kitchen



The building over there is called Barraca where people go there and drink and listen to music. Everybody here listens music in a sound level which nobody would believe. At 6:00 AM people already start listening to music.

BEFORE- Walking home from the bar where we used internet, lots of rain!



After... the paths are way too muddy for me to handle.
Here in Namaacha we wash our clothes by hand, the housemaid cooks at a fireplace and only uses the stove for warming-up food or for keeping food warm. We also use it for heating water for taking a bath or having a tea. Taking a bath without having water out of the tab is not really a problem for me. What really disturbs me are the huge cockroaches we have here. As I'm so afraid of them I already killed one.

Barrata

I gotta go now, take care guys & hope I can soon give you another update from my life here in Mozambique!

xoxo Melanie




Thursday, January 6, 2011

The key of change is to let go of fear.

Only some more hours to go until I'm in the plane on the way to Maputo. The plane leaves Munich at 8:50 pm and I'm going to have a lay-over in Johannesburg and will then finally arrive in Maputo at 7:35 am local time. As always my luggage weighs way too much, especially my hand luggage! I'm still hoping that everything will work out perfectly.

Yesterday some friends popped in to say goodbye which I really enjoyed, thanks to y'all once again and all the gorgeous text messages and phone calls I received. I'm still quite confused and I didn't realize yet that I'm leaving in some hours.

As soon as I find an internet connection I'll give my best to write you again!

Fly, like a bird,
across the sky,
wide open wings,
towards the sun.
Here I come,
beautiful Africa.