Category: Africa 2012
Play, dance & some crazy stuff.
After the elections in Inhambane, I stayed among the palm trees and chose to make my way to the amazing beaches in Tofo. As most other travellers, I stayed at Fatimas nest which is situated beautifully right on the beach. The first day I met some people in the hostel bar but was completely exhausted after the elections and decided to just spend the evening at the beach, watch the sunset, and crash early.
After a long sleep, I woke up to the sound of the sea and decided to take a morning walk on the beach. As I was walking towards Tofinho beach, picking up pretty shells, I met the two young brothers Fernando and Nelson. They started following me, searching for seashells as well and giving me the nice one’s they were finding. We started playing, kicking sand, jumping around, running, throwing rocks into the water, eating cashew nuts.. At one point, I sat down to get my back away from the sun for a while. The brothers joined me and sat around playing with the seashells we had picked together. They were singing a little song in their local language and I was smiling inside. Their Portuguese wasn’t very good, they told me their ages and names and that they were currently on holidays from school. We didn’t need to talk much anyway, we were just playing and it was great. That’s what I love about kids, hanging out with them is often much more fruitful than interacting with adults. There are no weird social rules or limitations to keep in mind – one can just play, sing and jump as one pleases – or just hang out. I spent four hours with Fernando and Nelson and they followed me back to my hostel before running back to their home, shouting “see you tomorrow, Carolina!”.
My time in Tofo consisted of the hours I spent at the beach, plus the time I spent dancing, because during the rest of my time in paradise – I danced. First, I went with new friends to their home where we did a barbecue. Afterwards, we went to a club and started dancing.. and did so without stopping until the sun got up. Or maybe even longer. It was raw, real and fun. I get so happy when I get to dance that I never want to stop. Tofo gave me that and it came with amazing beaches and a very friendly people. So once again, I have found a place that I would like to return to some day. But as the cheesy Tofo-truck said – “Time will tell.”
Oh and as there are no photos from the different clubs we went to, I have some “crazy stuff” from Angola for you instead. And the Mozambican pride Lizha James of course. I really enjoy the music around here, it’s so much fun to dance to.
Adi Cudz feat. Yola Araujo – Coisa Doida (Crazy stuff)
Lizha James – Tote (Remix)
Haha, this was an all-in-one post. But hey, it’s friday!
Choosing a leader for “the good people”
Last week I got the amazing opportunity to join the EU diplomatic observation mission to observe the municipal by-elections in Inhambane. Inhambane is the capital of the province with the same name and is located about 500km north of Maputo. Nicknamed “Terra da Boa Gente” (“The land of good people”) in 1948 by the explorer Vasco da Gama, Inhambane certainly is a beautiful, palm tree-filled place with colourful colonial architecture and a very calm and friendly athmosphere.
On Wednesday, the people of Inhambane voted for a new mayor, as their last one passed away in December following a heart attack. The two parties taking part in the elections were MDM and Frelimo, with candidates that both are former professors with wide popularity. The Frelimo candidate Benedito Guimino won over MDM’s Fernando Nhaca with 78,5% to 21,4%, and the voter turnout in the municipality was 38.8%.
The role of the international observers is to be present and see if the procedures are running smoothly, keep their eyes open to spot possible fraud or irregularities and check if regulations are being followed according to Mozambican law. So, for example – checking if police and security forces stay at a distance of at least 300m from the polling stations, or that no campaigning is being conducted in the area. The observer is, however, not allowed to interfere in any way, not even when there is an obvious fault or issue – what they do is to watch and take notes – and later report back and give feedback that can be used for future elections.
The polling stations were scattered in schools all over the municipality. Some of the stations had electricity, other didn’t. Some didn’t even have proper windows – or walls. We drove around to different places, taking a look in and around the polling stations, watching the voting procedures and talking to people. In the evening, as the voting was closing, we stayed at one place and observed the entire counting process. It continued until late at night and was quite tiring as every ballot had to be counted and the name of the chosen candidate read out loud, every ballot was also shown to all people present in the room, before it finally ended up in its designated pile on the floor. When the counting process was finalized, the maths had been done and a local winner had been declared – we left, met with the team again, and wrote a report before crashing to bed.
A thing I was touched by was in the beginning when I was watching the people who were on their way into the polling stations. There, in a remote rural area outside of town, I saw a young man with completely wrecked clothes and only one shoe. He showed his voting card and entered the polling station and got the same instructions as everybody else were being given. He seemed to be a first time voter and he seemed to be pretty lost but taking the procedure very seriously. I asked myself whether this man had any genuine interest in politics or if he maybe had been forced by somebody to go and vote for their candidate for a small amount of money. But then, after a couple of minutes, he came out again from the polling station with his face shining of pride. He looked at his index finger that had been dipped in ink – he had made his choice and nobody could take that away from him.
In a country like Mozambique, with a very recent history of violent conflict and continuing problems of poverty and corruption – seeing democracy and politics going beyond that, smoothly, calmly and considerably fairly – giving every person, no matter the position, a right to express his or her preference, is amazing.
The elections in Inhambane was my first ever election observation, and I was there with the best support I could have imagined. My supervisor knows everything about elections and is always patient enough to explain, share and answer my questions. In her company, I got the opportunity to learn and get a broader understanding of what we were actually doing which turned every single moment into a fruitful and interesting experience.
As usual, I give you the visual part of the story, enjoy.
Formalities
Changed my flip flops for a formal dress and my crazy busrides for an evening at the Swedish residence. Combining the embassy life with my hippie travelling lifestyle isn’t very easy but extremely rewarding. This is what I’ve always wanted to do, being able to enjoy both – I guess I’m a hippie in a suit. haha
Yum
Botswana – the last glimpses.
As I’m on it today – I might as well show you the last photos from my travels through Botswana. I wrote about my trip between Maun and Namibia before, but these are the real colours from this long and interesting day.
Botswana – meeting new faces, making new friends.
I spent some time waiting on the border between Zimbabwe and Botswana, as the company I was doing the Chobe-tour was supposed to pick me up there. They didn’t. When I realized they must have forgotten about me, I hitched a ride instead – and met Moses. Moses is a tour guide for a different company that does Chobe park tours, and was just about to drive to Kasane, which is the town just next to the Bots-Zim border. We spoke about my plans in Kasane and he asked me where I had booked my lodging. which I of course hadn’t yet.
So I got:
“Well, this will sound very strange and I don’t know why I’m saying it – but you’re pretty cool – so if you want to, you can feel free to stay at my family’s place. I’ve never done this before but I can ask my mother and see if she thinks it’s okay.”
Moses dropped me off by the Kalahari tours office and as you saw, I got in time to join their tour anyway. While I was on the boat cruise, Moses texted me that his nephews were eager to meet me. He picked me up after the tour and we drove to his home.
The house was a bit outside of Kasane and Moses lives there with his mother, his sister, and his nephews. I got to meet them all except from the sister who was out travelling, I was to sleep in her room. I also got to see Moses’ room that he had decorated by painting different characters on the walls. The walls in the living room were decorated with magazine clippings. There was a room for the kitchen where are the kitchen utilities were stored but Moses said: “We Africans like to cook over fire, so we cook outside” while pointing at a fireplace next to the house. The kids had a playstation, but only one controller.
Moses went off to have a shower and I spent some time talking to 20 year old Kachere who was too shy to look me in the eyes – instead he kept looking into the tv while talking, with a huge smile on his face. “What’s the matter?” I asked.
“Nothing, sorry! It’s just that this is so strange. You are the first white person to visit our home. And the first white person I have ever spoken to. I’m so happy. This is great.”
We laughed about it. And then we spoke about Zlatan, Islam, kannibalism and Bill Gates. I took some photos. And while I went to take a shower, Kachere wrote a message in my Moleskine:
Moses came back with his nephews who had been too afraid to come in to the livingroom. It was weird for them that I was there and they giggled away while answering my questions. The brothers, 17 and 9 years old, were clearly very attached to each other which was very nice to see despite the big age difference. They were both shy, but what I really noticed was that the younger Panashe was a very bright kid. Moses confirmed that the boy with the name that in Subia language means “where god is” was exceptionally good in school so it wasn’t only me being biased by his crystal clear English. Great!
Later, the mother came home. I jumped up to greet her and we instantly connected in the way only ladies can. We hugged, laughed, giggled, hugged again and laughed even more. Moses translated which was great – but it was not necessary. I expressed my gratitude for her letting me stay there, she was happy I was visiting and wished me all the best. We hugged again, and laughed even more. It was amazing.
Me and Moses had a talk about his childhood, family and future. I felt extremely privileged to get those quite heavy insights into his life, and thankful for his trust and honesty. We spoke about electricity, as I noticed that all the lights and electronics in the entire house were on from the moment it became dark. Moses told me that that was the custom, and that the electricity company usually walks around the townships, exchanging normal light-bulbs to energy saving ones. Electricity is very expensive. So I asked why they didn’t save electricity by turning the lights and TV off when they left a room. There was no real answer to that. They just simply don’t. Not even when going to sleep.
In the evening we went for dinner at Moses’ best friends place that was just a short walk away. The food he had cooked was great and we spoke about humanitarian aid, politics and Top Gear. It was already late as we walked back home, and some dogs followed us all the way.
In the morning Moses gave me a copy of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency with a nice dedication, and at 5am I was on a bus again. On a bumpy & slightly chaotic ride to Namibia. Very thankful to Moses, thankful to his family, and with a refilled karma-account that I now will have to spend on a stranger.
I love friendly and helpful people, and I’m sure the world would be a prettier place if more people were like Moses and his family – assuming that they would also turn off their lights before going to sleep, of course. ;) Good night!
Where the elephants are.
On my first day in Botswana, I went on a tour to Chobe National Park with Kalahari tours. The tour consisted of a river cruise and a game drive where I got to get very close to my favourite of African animals, the elephants. I have unlimited amounts of fascination for this huge, intelligent and seemingly calm animal, and the baby elephants were just adorable. I also saw other animals in Chobe, you’ll see those below as well. Anyway – here you go, the photos:
This trip was a part of my two week “Easter trip” around Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. So there’s more photos & stories coming up.
Black & White
As spring is starting to brighten up your realities over in Europe, Maputo is gradually becoming cold, rainy and dark. By 18:00, the sun is gone around here, and I have had to buy warm jumpers and long pants. So, enjoy the first warm winds over there because here we are moving into winter – and this otherwise so vibrant city is loosing its colour.
