I wanted to surprise you all by having a blog on Wednesday…..but maybe today is Saturday so it means I didn’t make the mid week blog.
I had written two blogs prior to this one but I thought they were saved somewhere on my blogspot dashboard but I cant seem to find them….hmm! Anywho, I pretty much remember what they were about because on Saturday I went to the internet café to kill some time waiting for Jan (don’t forget its pronounced Yan) as we were going to visit Costa do Sol. We were supposed to meet at 11am and I arrived at 11.20 after waiting 1hr for a chapa. The actually journey time once in the chapa is only 20mins but the waiting time just adds a whole new dimension to the journey. Jan didn’t arrive until 1pm. He left his house at 9.30am so he was none a little hot and bothered when he arrived at the café. He said something about no chapa’s being stuck in traffic, the chapa breaking down and having to get out of the chapa and PUSH. We didn’t make it to The Coast of Sun because surprise surprise we couldn’t see any chapa going in that direction….you really need a car here just for convenience sake because otherwise everything is LOOOOOOOONG. I would have also said safety purposes but youre just as likely to have an accident whether in a car or in a chapa. I closed my eyes on the way home today. Maybe the chapa driver was drunk but he probably wasn’t. Imagine a really crowded bus stop at home…..maybe like how it is when school is finished and the pavement is rammed….double the people on the pavement and have some standing in the road…..ok good…. Imagine that when this chapa driver was coming toward the mass of people at the ‘bus stop’ the front of the chapa was heading directly toward the crowd despite maybe 3 secs before that were were speeding past a few other chapas at that stop at 60mph. He then does some Lewis Hamilton style turn so we are parallel again we clip a few people (why not eh), there are people running alongside the chapa…..the cobrador has his head out of the window shouting out where he’s going to stop…..someone drops but people keep running and then…this brother just keeps on driving……eerrrr hello…….what a madness….the ladies behind me kept screaming…..it was ridiculous I don’t know if you had to be on this chapa to really understand the madness. When the local people are scared (this is shown by screams and shrill cries) then you should be too because like I said these are had back women…..nothing scares them!
Just to change the subject….Im a little bit over washing in a bucket with a jug. I would just like water to rain down on me without me having to create that effect with a plastic jug! The water gets all over the floor and then I have to get a mop and mop the floor but today I just couldn’t be bothered to dry the floor….I know its bad but I was just so over it I just pretended to look for the mop and then went to my room. Im sorry….I know that’s not cool.
Today is Tuesday 1st March the above was written yesterday….I had a really good day at Ingrid Chawner today. We did maths with the boys this morning and its something that they really enjoy. Adrien pointed out that this is because maths has a direct use for the boys when they are living on the street. They are buying and selling things all days so they need to be able to calculate how much they are receiving or giving away. It was an interesting thought but it is so strange when we do maths because they are sooooooo well behaved and no one messes about. In the afternoon Sarah and I decided we would take one child each to help them with their reading and writing. I had the challenge of Carlton who is lovely when he doesn’t have to write the alphabet. He started off well. I literally got him to write AAAAAAA then aaaaaaa then BBBBBB then bbbbb we got to CCCCC and he said he was tired and started to pretend to fall asleep….I was very patient with him but he really was not willing to go any further. His written skills are not very good hence the need for more practice but I really don’t know how I can make writing fun for him. Its just something he has to do….but I’ll see if I can come up with something. Despite feeling tired he was very keen to do maths instead…..suddenly he came alive and sleep had vanished and Carlton was doing 2+1 and 5+5 and having a ball with it….he’s not getting way with not doing his Portuguese. I’ll be back on his case next week! Me Sarah and Adrien left early today as the boys received new shoes and clothes. They lined up outside the main office in age order to be fitted with a second hand pair or Nikes or Reeboks….what I liked was that some of the trainers were defo for girls as they were pink but the fact the trainers looked new made them so happy. We did ave one unhappy camper who received a pair of ‘skater boy trainers’…….do you know what I mean?...... when he came out the office he had a face like a wet weekend and the other boys were wetting themselves with laughter. Im telling you tears were rolling down some of their faces which set me off which I know is very unprofessional but hey…..I couldn’t help myself. Hopefully you can see a few snaps below…..it just showed me that children are children wherever they are in the world. The same things are funny and the world over and it was so nice to see.
We are going to do Paper Mache round two on Thursday and Friday. Then on Friday afternoon we are going to have a sports/games afternoon. Im VERY excited. I’ll take lots of pictures for you to see. Sarah and I have also been thinking about having the boys take part in a African dance class once a month or once every two weeks dependent on the instructors schedule. I think it would be so good for their freedom of expression and we have some real movers. The other thing we wre thinking about was Yoga….maybe just 8 children at a time to do some basic calming stretches. I personally think it would be good but it was met with some negativity but I think we have to at least try to expose the boys to all manner of things if we can. They need some time for being calm so this might be the perfect setting for it and I really think some would find it really beneficial.
Oh…that’s what I wanted to tell you guys…myself and six other volunteers have clubbed together and have rented a flat in the city for what works out to be £10 a month. When I say flat though its really just a cemented room with a tin roof…..it saves us from trying to get home late or waiting for the first chapas at 5.30am. Its fine for our purposes but it’s a far cry from the luxury of my home in Casa Branca. Today Joanna and I went to the market to buy a few bits to make it feel like home. Before we left the flat we all had a discussion about when would be a good time to go to the market as when the white volunteers go anywhere without a Mozambican with them the prices just rocket. Joanna and Linda (another volunteer) have amazing Portuguese. I said that people think I am a Mozambican so I could go with one of them for decoration purposes as long as they spoke….I would just pretend to look like I knew what was going on and utter a few Sims (yes) or Naos (nos) in the right places. We went and it was really nice…..Joanna was on top form and I played my part well. The Mama who we bought our bucket, 7 mugs and bamboo sleeping mat from was really nice. It was a little touch and go to start with but Joanna got chatting and somehow informed her that we were volunteers working with the street children of Mozambique. The Mama was really impressed and gave us thanks and blessing for looking after the boys and then came the discount….wooop wooop! I was really pleased and its things like that that make me really proud to do the job I do. The Mama could see we were not just bombing about on holiday we were actually trying to help her countries children PLUS Joanna’s Portuguese was marvellous and with me as a smiling, voiceless, Mozambican decoration we couldn’t go wrong!
Tomorrow I am off to Mozarte….I wont talk about Mozarte until something good actually happens as right now I have nothing but negativity to report about the whole thing and therefore I will leave it there for now…..
Today is Wednesday the 2nd March (HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHRYN) and yesterday I said that I wouldn’t mention Mozarte until I have something positive to say so I kind of have something positive to say. I had to make some waves and I hope that I haven’t upset to many people in the process but a lot of the staff are very set in their ways and have fallen into a routine which allows them to do very little work and get paid for it. This morning I had enough. I have been coming in every other day for the past 3 weeks to sit and do nothing. Its very very frustrating. Ive given myself work to do and have designed a very small womens collection and will complete the same for the men. My years at Ted have definitely helped me to create a more structured work environment that I hope the designers will be open to once we eventually get started. I am in the midst of creating a small range plan and critical path which will be adjusted accordingly. I was very frustrated and passionate in the meeting this morning. I spoke to the director and aired my concerns. I also asked if it would make more sense for me to reduce my hours at Mozarte until the whole team arrives as we are still waiting for two people from VSO. I wanted to do some sourcing with the leather designer but was told I needed to have about a thousand pieces of papers signed and a costing of the trip……are you joking. It simply just delays things even more and again we stay stagnant and no work is being done. The Director agreed that in order for costings and new ideas to arise we have to be out and about so on Monday Horacio and I are finally going to get to go to the metal work company. Fingers crossed. I do think eventually things will change but I feel like there is a lot to do in my year ahead and if the pace remains like this then nothing will have changed this year despite any good intentions. I now have been given the freedom to source and so hopefully this will be done over the next few weeks. The purpose of the sourcing is to help build a clearly picture of whats needed at the centre in order to present it to the government so Mozarte to get the necessary funding for them to achieve their end goal.
Today is Thursday 3rd March. I had a marvellous day at Ingrid Chawner. I really love it there….we made the paper mache pigs guys and it was a massive success….YEY!. It was soooo good. We had soooo much fun and the 7 boys that made them were so proud and very protective over their ‘babies’. We had about 13 children today and everyone tried but it was difficult to translate that they had to be gentle with the balloons whilst using cello tape to attach the legs, ears and nose. When Mateus, for example, tried to reposition an ear he just tried to ripe it off the balloon and the result was a big fat….BANG! So we had about 5 casualties which was disappointing for them and for us but some tried again which was very positive step as I thought they’d want to give up. I was so proud of everyone involved and having 7 completed pigs compared to the disaster of before was fantastic. We still have to paint them but as I was so thrilled I thought I would show you pictures of before they are painted…..next week I’ll post them completed.
Now I have just deleted a paragraph about me hand washing my underwear but it just exposed myself a little too much so its gone. I thought about it this morning while I was being cooked inside the chapa on the way to work and I just thought.....nope.....you need to give yourself boundries Kam people dont need to know all your business plus I think maybe you would have viewed me in a new light had you known how many pairs I washed and how long it took me.....lol. Thats all Im going to say.....
Anyway guys and dolls on that note….Ate logo (see you later) caio caio (bye bye)….Bom fin de Semana (Good weekend)!
PS: There are no pictures becasue I forgot the cable for the camera. Sorry....maybe this week I will just do a blog of pictures!
So its 10.13pm here and I ate dinner at around 9ish but this time its my fault as I came in at around 8.45. I thought I would ‘quickly’ tell you about my trip to Inhaca Island which as MARVELLOUSLY BRILLIANT! I woke up on Saturday morning at 5am in order to dress, eat and wash so I could be out the house at 6am and on a chapa so I could reach the ferry to Inhaca at 7am. The boat took 2.5hrs and I cannot tell you the amount of people that were drinking beer at 7.30am. Hard back Mozambicans who clearly had not slept the night before and were just lacing themselves with more alcohol to stay awake. Im surprised, actually wait there, am I really surprised that they let people drink alcohol on this boat…..errrr no. Im in Mozambique! Im thinking about it and the sides of this boat were sufficiently low enough for a drunk person to just idly fall over board. It happened on the way back and everyone was shouting “Just leave him in the water….” This was only some 30mins into the journey. Anyway, we arrived with Inhaca just in our sight. The boat doesn’t take you all the way to shore so you have to get in a speed boat (for more money) which almost takes you to shore. You then have to walk through water infested with star fish, crabs, sea urchins and Nastasias favourites - crabs. Nastasia and I did the walk in together screaming like proper girly tourist all the way. People were staring at us and at one point we just stopped with water up to our knees and just laughed to the point of tears. Reallllll city girls. It took us ages to walk to shore….when we finally arrived we quickly by passed the ‘island security’ (don’t ask). You have to pay 100 metical’s to these men as an ‘entrance fee’ to the island HOWEVER if you are from the cruise ship you pay nothing….out of order. Nastasia and I didn’t see these men so we didn’t have to pay…..in your face! Next….more drama! Where to stay? We had planned to make a weekend of it. Apparently the four of us had said we were going to stay on the beach…..I don’t remember that conversation but none the less I thought maybe it would be cool to be in a hut on the beach. The area of the Island we wanted and had heard from other volunteers was a really beautiful was a place called Santa Maria. We managed after a length negotiation to borrow a tent as apparently there were no beach huts where we wanted to go and sort out a ride there. The tent cost us nothing but the ride there was £50 spilt between 4 people there and back. Apparently this was waaaaaaaaay to much and we really should have only paid about £20 between us but when you are a ‘tourist’ the price of everything triples and we have not yet mastered the art of bartering. We will get there don’t you worry about that. 
So to cut a verrrrrry long story short we ended up camping on the beach and it was really lovely. Frenke, who lent us the tent, came along for the drive and helped us set it up. We paid the driver half the cash and then RAN to the beach which was literally 2mins from our tent. I felt so relaxed and it was just so nice. We got to the beach at around 3 and went back to our tent just before sunset at 6….. I decided to be a brave solider and partaking in a little snorkelling. I was convinced I was going to see a shark and parts of my body were going to be found washed up on the shore but Jan said I should stop being so stupid! It wasn’t stupidity Jan I call it ‘keeping it real’. He said the opportunity could not be missed as he had seen Octopuses, puffer fish (poisonous….another death threat) and a plethora of other sea life. The Octopus really did put me off but when my fearful friend Nastastia plucked up the courage I followed shortly after. I was cacking my bikini the whole time but I did see some amazing fish….it was like being in the film finding Nemo. The coral was so beautiful and there were clams and rainbow coloured fish and it was really amazing. Im glad I did it. My heart was beating double time the whole time I was in the water and at some points I couldn’t wait to get out but despite all of that I really enjoyed.
