Tons of people here – and of course, UNICEF is still around as well, tomorrow is the last day of FACIM. On my first day, when passing by the Turkish pavilion, I told the hosts there how much I like their coffee and got the promise that I could get a bag of the coffee they serve in the pavilion if I come by in the end of the fair.

And guess what, they kept their promise!

I’m at FACIM, the annual international fair in Maputo, come visit us!

I love being able to come in after a proper breakfast and then sit in the office until late, which is my prime time in terms of productivity. In the Embassy I always had to be in at 7.30 and leave before all the diplomats had left.. Here, I can just stay around as long as I want to, listen to music, and keep on working – managing my own time. #likeabaws.

I remember the school desks we had in primary school. They could be opened and used for storing books, pens and those colourful erasers that smelled nice. We would all fasten pictures and drawings on the inside of our desk to make it more personal – it was our own sacred little space in school.

A school desk fills more functions than being comfortable and helping to keep order by giving every child their designated space to sit in in the classroom. A school desk is of huge support when learning how to write. The hard surface, the position of the hands – remember how ugly those first A’s of yours were and how difficult it was to write them? Now imagine if you had to lay down on the cold ground or dirty sand with a soggy notebook on top of your backpack while learning this so valuable skill.

Ideally, there would be school desks for all children, but there are many reasons to why this is not the case, poverty being the main one.

So if you need to choose, you to make sure that at least all first and second graders get access to school desks. And that’s what UNICEF is doing in the Child Friendly Schools initiative.

Because just as I would take my school desk for granted when I was a kid, it is indeed an essential tool. For supporting the children in learning how to write, and for their growing backs to stay heathy.

The photo above is from a school I visited today in Gaza. I can’t wait to show you more photos.

I just came back to Maputo after another four days in the field, by the way. Again, completely exhausted and overwhelmed with impressions – I absolutely adore this job.

I can’t write anything here without mentioning the 17 year old girl I just met. She takes care of her younger siblings all by herself and is determined to finish school and become a nurse. Keeping orphan children in school here is not easy, but the four siblings all study and they all have dreams, and I’m trying hard not to be too sentimental but that little family made me keep my breath.

The photo above is of a girl I met earlier today while talking to some children that also go to a school here in Chibuto.

The interactive part of today’s work has just ended and we’re on our way back to that guesthouse off the grid where I will try to compile all my impressions and chaotic notes in English, Portuguese and Shangana into stories I can actually share.

So it seems I will be staying in a place where I’m off the grid. That’s less nightly blogs for you and more sleep and isolation for me. Now we’re going to a place where we can find food so I might have network at some point to publish this. Here’s a photo of the big car with the antenna again, and a glimpse of the driver.

I’m in the midst of deciding whether to go to Europe for a week or not, it’s a very expensive and complicated trip but my contract with UNICEF got extended so if I don’t go now I won’t be able to go before sometime in December. What do you say?

On our way out to the field again. Only a couple of hours away this time so we have our own transport – and a very big UN antenna.