Mozambique Vacay

Maybe-not-so-brief synopsis of Lesotho 2007 Permaculture crew’s vacation to Mozambique:

July 16: Maseru Bridge Border crossing Detainment! Thank goodness for Ted, Rich and Lereko. Pam is, wait WAS, an illegal foreigner in South Africa. R1500 charge. Rich was TOO NICE and drove us to Bloem. Drove (well i RODE) all the way to Nelspruit, amid all the construction stops on the back way, when Casey freaked out KJ with children of the corn scares every time. OH and by the way, ROCKS are equivalent to orange construction cones in Africa. Just BTW. 2 twin beds in a small room with an open shower + 6'0 girl with 5'1" girl spooning in same bed + hotel man calling at 1am (me being unable to produce a LIE) and saying he'd "carry this burden" = very laughable situation!

July 17: From Nelspruit, we drove to the Mozambique border. On the way, Pam spotted a giraffe, so we got out and took pictures for FREE!!! We met Jose, who helped us across the border, although when he used the word 'baby', we were highly skeptical. We got to Maputo after a few wrong turns, found NO working Standard Banks and then made our way on the long drive to Tofo. Viv (the name of our rental car) found a great parking spot deep in the sand just inside the back entrance at Fatima's Nest (which by the way was the only reservation we actually kept -- well 75% -- the entire trip) in the middle of the camping area. She stayed there for the night. After that, we had dinner and much-needed wine.

July 18: Tofo Beach, swimming in the Indian Ocean, walked into town to check out the food and craft market, Dinner at Fatima's, wine by Fire, no s'mores =( So, what exactly is the difference between "now now", "right now" and "now"?

July 19: Tofo Walked to Tofinho (break point) beach early in morning. Saw weird blue sea creature washed up on shore with transparent wing/fin -- some kind of jellyfish?; Amazed by the blowholes on the reef. Had 5 guard dogs on beach all day long. "Chunky TrampStamp" We saw a Ring of Fire and then Pam, KJ and I tried to push Viv up the main entrance (deep sand) to Turtle Cove along with small children and a woman with baby on back, but no cigar! We had to find the back way. Dinner - the OH SO GOOD King Mackerel! Within 5 minutes, we all started wondering how we could switch backpacker places that VERY NIGHT!! (And of course we could have made that happen because as American we are * EFFICIENT!) These are all the things that wooed us: Party Size Family Room, Mint Chocolate Dessert, Pancakes as dessert, little (maybe deaf) weiner dog and old dog on dog bed, hammocks and chill feel to the place. Later: Missing Tooth Construction Guy who was adamant that "Darby" ? is a U.S. state and his big WhiSTLE WHISTLE drunk old man friend that fell off the bench and then kept calling me Santa Maria. (?) Can't forget the piece of door lock on our little bungalow that ended up causing me and KJ to head butt just once.

July 20: Tofo Relocated to the Family Room in Turtle Cove; Drove to Inhambane town for Chelete (money in Sesotho) there are pin numbers for VISA cards???!!! Real coffee at the Surf Rental place; the four of us plus KJ's surfboard inside Viv (VW CitiGolf) = interesting sight; Chilled on beach; Yellowy toxic-looking foam at high tide, but I wasn't too alarmed because I've been exposed to brown toxicity my whole life on Sagnasty River; yummy pasta dinner with wine; WE NEEDED marshmallows but could find them NOWHERE!!

July 21: Tofo OBRIGADA = female Thank you in Portuguese by the way. Long walk (9 miles?) to a really cheap lighthouse in Barra. Yummy schwarmas for lunch at Dino's. Quick swim/bath(?) at high tide; Bartered for custom-made wooden fish at craft market; Barracuda kabobs + Drostdy-Hof wine == Mmmmmmmmm

July 22: TofoàVilankulo Driving/Riding + potholes galore + 2 flat tires + speeding ticket (flats & ticket happened in same sixty minutes) + man named Usted taking us to town to fix tires (tube and patch) to not get ripped off; Bought Much needed man cans of Beer in Bulk; Dolphin Dhow; Bedbugs?; Euchre; Lecture from Junior to Casey about NO FLUSH T.P.!

July 23: Vilankulo Snorkel trip to Magaruque Island in the Bazaruto Archipelago with three South African men, MeTu and other Mozambiquan. (Bartrem, MeTu is jailbait!) Wonderful lunch of grilled Barracuda, crabs, fresh fruit, salad. Saw a mini octopus(?), eel, pretty angelfish; Started out battling the current, then completely calm on Round #2. One Really low HAHAHA laugh started us all on a laughing spiff, which caused Pam to choke on snorkel and saltwater and just the sight of me smiling in my mask (pushing my cheeks and lips funny) caused Casey to nonstop laugh and almost choke!!! Checked out seine-fishing and put up sail and shut off engine on way home; had braai dinner with RSA men. Malawi snake eyes talk.

July 24: VilankuloàTofo Long, bumpy drive, but Viv handled better (Pam drove). Wheel started to shake A LOT after 90 kmh though. ?? Crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. Took dirt road shortcut. Nick let us Move into three person room at TC for VERY CHEAP RATE. Two lunches = Dino’s + bunny chow + donut + samoas. Manica ManCans and being buttholes playing Euchre. Good reminiscing with Bartrem. HAHA

July 25: Tofo Last day in Tofo. Watched blowholes, surfers, dolphins, KJ fall in hole in reef; Nick apology (ManCans); Last delectable dinner at TurtleCove; dancing at Bamboozi after live Spanish singer music (Turtle Cove took over!); Accidentally encouraged boy to talk to me while making faces at Casey when she was being hit on by ganja/dread man; Pierre doesn’t discriminate, except with women’s smells; Pam forgot to put in gear, so pushing car with other helpers completely unnecessary!; hitching in back of truck because dogs had front seats for ride home – barely avoided tree trunk collisions; Tipo Tinto too much??!!

July 26: TofoàMaputo First thing in morning: Almost ran over Pam’s foot & broke car door off, Casey oblivious to it all!!; my puking on side of road; all four of us peeing on roadside; waiting 2 hours to check in at Maputo backpackers; Ugly Fatima dogs; Floating buttcrack & BobMarley paintings while eating fresh Stonefish dinner!!; Hot Mosa man; Paying 100 Mtc to fake? cop for doing illegal U-turn; showering under strobe lights in flooded WaterCloset; Viv’s endless car alarm sounds.

July 27: MaputoàNelspruitàJoburg Being blocked in front of driveway for one hour, waking everyone up at 6am, hating orange Kia owners, moving under Chach’s bad English/Portuguese macho directions; “We are all strong. We just pick up the car and move it over. Maximum!” Took five minutes to do Entire Border crossing (May have failed to notice the MoAgric sign though); Flat tire #3; Pam & Casey should be employed by Nascar and have overalls and earmuffs they move so fast! Got lost with all the “robot” directions. Blinker stopped bwinking. Rental Car #2 (Sylvester) at airport from really nice agency lady. Made American “efficient” timing while shopping at Nelspruit mall. Took scenic route (near “Vaterfall”) because horrific accident. Got lost outside Joburg looking for Gladiator street near ABSA?? Wonderful dorms, but OH SO COLD compared to Moz!! Casey did amazing driving IN Joburg because of backpacker owner’s amazing highway directions; Smog near Soweto! McDonald’s lunch and breaking car key before returning Sylvester and being undercharged?; One Hitch all the way to Lesotho border – all four of us got picked up within 20 minutes!

I must have gotten half of a dozen concussions throughout the whole trip – I hit my head on things THAT much!! Coming soon: “12 days of Moz” song


……And we’re all still laughing about everything...and like each other!! HA I love Peace Corps!!!

<3>

Hmmm...10 Facts to Ponder...

The World Health Organization recently issued a list of 10 facts about the global health workforce, tocoincide with the First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, held this month, 2-7 March, inKampala, Uganda.

What do you think of these facts? What would you change or add to these facts?

Here are the 10 Facts:

Fact 1 - Health workers work
Health workers are people whose main activities enhance health. They include health care providers and people who manage and support delivery systems. Worldwide, there are 59.8 million health workers. Without them, prevention and treatment of disease and advances in health care would not reach those in need.

Fact 2 - Shortage of health workers
In 2006, WHO stated that a country with less than 2.3 doctors, nurses and midwives per 100 000 people is undergoing a critical health worker shortage. This is the case in 57 countries (36 of which are in sub-Saharan Africa).

Fact 3 - One million health workers missing in Africa
The global health worker shortfall is over 4.2 million, with 1 million health workers needed for Africa alone.

Fact 4 - Sub-Saharan Africa has 25% of the global disease burden
Sub-Saharan Africa faces the greatest challenges. It has 11% of the world's population and carries 25% of the global disease burden. Yet the region has only 3% of the global health workforce and accounts for less than 1% of health expenditures worldwide.

Fact 5 - Americas have 10% of the global disease burden
In comparison, North America and South America, which together have 14% of the world's population but only 10% of the global disease burden, employ 37% of the global health workforce and are responsible for over 50% of the global health expenditure.

Fact 6 - Pandemics
Many factors have led to the health workforce crisis, including growing economic disparities between countries and upsurges in new and old pandemics. Such pandemics pose special challenges to workers; for example, HIV/AIDS is a 'triple threat' to health workers, causing far bigger workloads, psychological stress, and the daily risk of HIV infection.

Fact 7 - Innovative trainings
Training a nurse takes at least three years; training a doctor can take more than six. If action to expand the health workforce is taken now, effects will only begin to be felt years later. Innovative methods (distance learning, task shifting or community health worker programmes) can shorten this delay effect, but there is no "quick fix" to this problem.

Fact 8 - Migration
Health worker migration is increasing due to disparities in working conditions, wages and career opportunities. One in four doctors and one in 20 nurses trained in Africa later migrate to work in more developed countries. In Africa and some Asian countries, a public sector physician's monthly wage can be less than US$ 100; in higher resource countries, monthly salaries can exceed US$ 14 000.

Fact 9 - Funding
WHO estimates that a rapid health workforce scale-up by 2015 would cost US$ 447 million on average per country per year. WHO advocates for 25% of the US$ 12 billion (2004 figure) devoted to international health aid to be spent on the health workforce.

Fact 10 - Global Health Workforce Alliance
The health workforce issue crosses many sectors – no single entity can successfully address it on its own. The Global Health Workforce Alliance has brought together a coalition of health leaders, civil society and workers to explore solutions to this crisis at the first Global Forum on Human Resources for Health in Kampala, Uganda in March 2008.

I made it back!!

So I made it backn to Lesotho alive. Don't ever fly internationally on United if you are over 5'5". Forreal. The seatback of the chair ahead of me was permanently part of both my kneecaps for 8 hours. So after arriving in London and getting to spend an 8 hour layover there, I found a very comfortable looking row of four chairs and slept on and off for a good portion of that time. It was no pillow-top mattress though!

London to Joburg was fantastic on South AFrican Air. No. Really. There is so much more room! [Ryan and Krista: Avoid United. Find SAA.] I think I watched a total of 5 new movies. Weird how I can never sleep on long flights, but on the short 45 minute ones, I fall asleep before we even get to the runway...

I came back to a warm greeting at the office in Maseru. And then got bombarded with questions about looms to sell, meetings to have in my district, HIV questionnaires, training materials...and emails from people who I work with at my center -- WHERE ARE YOU??? I NEED YOU BACK FOR MY OWN SANITY!!!

And then Casey treated me to a cup of freshly made Ricoffy (yeah i'm pretty sure it wasn't real coffee). Thanks buddy =) You're welcome for the Cafe Verona.

I've been working on playground grant stuff all day today...just a couple more trips to CashBuild and price quotes and conversations with my supervisor and a signature from my country director! I slept for about 12 hours, but I'm still off. It feels like it should be mid-day right now. Instead it's 830pm and I haven't eaten dinner yet.

Hope everything's still well at home. "Be safe. Be vigilant." (That's the Peace Corps SEcurity mantra here...)

Deb, I can't search the WantAds in the Bay City Times for that perfect dancing job for you anymore! It's up to you now. Hmp. Thanks for actually saving popcorn balls for me. They were ALL GONE by the time I landed in Joburg!

Oh and thanks for the American Idol update this morning, Mom. =)

Dad, did you take the 55 for another test run this week yet? Without all four brakes locking up???

<3
Am

Kea Leboha! (Thank you)

I just want to thank all the people that were there for me when I came home for Gram's funeral. I actually came home for my Dad and family, but it was nice to have other people to lean on too. Face time is so important. I don't know how many times I told Kim, but that's one of the biggest things I've learned while in Lesotho. There's a difference between knowing friends and family will always be there -- and when they are ACTUALLY there (in person) to show that they care. It wasn't an easy visit back to the States, but just BEing with family and friends made it so worth it. I'm no poet, so it's hard for me to capture this all in words.

Please just know that I appreciate everyone that I saw and got to talk to while I was home. As my mom would say, I'm a 'lucky duck' for being blessed so richly.

See you in 15-ish months!

<3 Am

Goll, I'll never live down the Ashlee Simpson CD night. Especially now with a video revolving all around that! =) Thanks Billiam!

<3 Am

A couple pics

My donkey for the day, Hlanya, and I in Semonkong




Some of the Standard 5 class at Phelisanong

Please check my facebook site for more updated pictures -- its too much time to upload pics twice!!! Love and miss you all!

P.S. Video due to reach the States soon, including my center and me talking about some of what I've been doing the past 10 months...Talk to Gary and Joyce...

Love you with all my hearts mom and dad

<3 Am

3.26

Hey guys,

Just wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter! Posted a few more pics.

<3 and miss you all

Am