Planning LIFE in Mozambique...

At World Press Photo 2007 with Spanish Sergio and Sandra



Planning Life at Night and Day

I don't think I ever would have expected-before yesterday- to go to the opening of the World Press Photo 2007 exhibition in the old fortress in downtown Maputo (organized by the Dutch Embassy as apparently World Press Photo is a Dutch non-profit organization) , to end up having dinner with up to 20 (!)Valencianos (on a 'developing country experience' holiday or something like that) and go dancing afterwards in Africa Bar on Mozambican and other vibes (today I have got a day off!), and all this on the same evening...But all this is possible, here in Maputo, nothing is ever planned beforehand, invitations kind of fall from heaven,...Nice, very nice, surely for a person like me, who lives the day as it comes...Don't think I already met here with a person who knows what he/she will be doing 'next week'...Let alone next month or even next year...How different from how my home country is organized, socially and professionally...
The last years, surely in my functions as coordinator, I really did efforts and by miracle managed to learn to plan and organize, at least in my professional life (I even urprised some friends who hadn't seen me for a while:)) ...I am afraid those skills will water down, as here, meetings, seminars, ...are mostly only announced the day before or even the day itself (there is no need for a lot of 'stimulation' of this rather Slovak characteristic of mine:)). The latter means you need to re-schedule very often, you have to cancel a lot, but also that you end up working often much more than you would have 'planned'...and yes, improvisation skills are a good quality:) And for a good understanding: this way of working is not only Mozambican, but also very xpat!



Planning Vida Nova
One of the taxi drivers I am often relying upon clearly also had lived a radical change in 'plans' after his wife gave birth two weeks ago... Miguel is one of the four taxidrivers belonging to a company my organization has made a contract with and I am thus relying upon for my transport to meetings in town. Miguel is always rather sad (he always replies he is "mais o menos-more or less" when I ask him " Tudo bem?-How are you", with the accent on 'menos') , which is remarkable as most Mozambicans I have known until now I would describe as be it "carpe diem" or be it very calm and peaceful. Yesterday he showed me suddenly a picture of his newborn kids... twins... 'a casal', a couple, boy and girl thus...Of course I congratulated him, but I expressed my surprise about the fact it were twins (as I didn't remember him telling him his wife was expecting twins...). His laconic reaction: "Me too, I didn't know. I only found out when my sister called me from the hospital to congratulate me with the birth of my twins." Apparently nor his wife had felt she was carrying twins in her belly for nine months and according to his story they only found out when the nurse still felt/saw 'something' after the first kid had exited the mother's belly...A nice example how Mozambican reality suddenly struck me, me rushing from one meeting to another meeting, meetings to discuss health policies and others here in Mozambique...Miguel told me they didn't have money for echographies and they thus in reality hadn't gone to see a doctor...What a difference with Belgium (and I am sure the rest of the 'West') where pregnant women have to see-in my humble opinion, even though I am not a mother- doctors at way too many occasions, where mothers get instructions to do this and especially NOT that in order to prevent this or that...Don't understand me wrongly, of course, I am not criticising our health system, but the HUGE contrast between an OVER-organized health care system and an almost non-existant (and if existant often non-affordable; a tourist told me lately she had paid 300 USD for an emergency consultation due to an allergy at a private doctor's here...) one means often the difference between death and life.... And of course this is only one example (in a paradoxical way of the contrary, of an extra unexpected baby) , and no, I wasn't surprised, and yes, of course I am informed about the Mozambican dramatic state of health system (that's one of the reasons why I am working here), ...Moreover I am sure the doctors here, working in the field in the provinces, would be able to tell you a lot more stories; this -even rather positive news story- was just meant as an illustration... and also an illustration of how I may not forget to (go to) see the reality behind the relatories and documents on neo-natal and maternal health (one of the biggest problems in health) I am discussing and studying on a daily basis in XYZ meetings...

Kisses, Katarina.

P.S. For more pictures, go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14251318@N06/