I forgot to mention before that the hotel has a fantastic open elevator, a version of which I'm sure was original to the building, one of those where you open the door as if stepping into an ordinary room when the elevator gets to your floor and the walls are mostly just an iron grate. It's beautiful.
Today was more of the same. Aman, Emma and I went to a little Italian restaurant for lunch. We sat outside at a picnic table and enjoyed our pasta and Cokes. My Coke can was noticeably sturdier than your average US can. Lunch was fun, we cracked each other up quite about talking about everything from Aman's youthful love of Jean-Claude Van Damme -- and confusion when he didn't win any Oscars! -- to how Mozambique is "Africa lite" compared to places like Addis Ababa and Abuja. That is, Mozambicans leave you alone when you walk down the street, crime is low, it's not horribly hot, etc. That sounds like an insensitive, essentializing comment, but from what I've heard and from what Aman and Emma said, it's true.
After getting back to the hotel I talked with Leanne, did some more email-type stuff and went to the gym before ordering room service again. It's expensive but not as expensive as the @*!# buffet. I'm not paying for it either way, of course, but jeez.
Tomorrow will be work all the way through, as we finally do the workshop, but I will try to take at least part of Friday off. The next time I come here I am definitely going to try to get to Swaziland. The Hlane National Park is only about 60 miles from Maputo and if you can join a group it's not so expensive to take a day trip out there. Lions and elephants and giraffes, oh my! I probably won't even get to swim in the ocean this time around. But that's finer than it would be in an ordinary week because I was just at the beach last week.
Last thing before sleep: This hotel, for all its niceness, kind of sucks. The food is insanely expensive and barely good and they don't have outlet adapters or shaving cream. What? Surely I'm not the first American to stay here and forget either of those things at home. Plus the staff don't speak enough English to understand what shaving cream IS, so when I asked for it (once and then again an hour later), two separate people brought me a shitty safety razor. Call it whining but for as much as AKF is spending for me to stay here, that's a pretty pathetic showing.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
day 2, morning 2
Yesterday was busy-busy. Woke up at 4:20 or so, tossed and turned for a while, gave up, watched Al Jazeera, ordered breakfast -- much more reasonable than my dinner the night before, although I found out this morning that that's because it was actually, um, free and all I paid for was the room service fee -- and came into the office. The AKDN office here is one block from the Serena; you can see them from each other. The office is an attractive old one-story building with wood floors and a pretty garden in front. Both buildings are on Avenida Julius Nyerere, which is Maputo's main drag.
Work got going pretty much from when I walked in. We went until 6:15 or so. In the morning it was the AKF Moz team and me plus a market development consultant, Raphael. In the afternoon we were joined by the country director for one of our potential partners. Lots and lots of discussion around which crops we should work with and how. For lunch Emma, Aman and I went to a little restaurant down the block. I had spaghetti with salmon and a Coke. Pretty tasty. The later afternoon dragged quite a bit thanks to lack of sleep and jet lag.
Back at the hotel, I talked with Caryn and Leanne about how things are going. They kept telling me to take a break and eat or relax or whatever but it's really preferable to just knock everything out and THEN have dinner and so on. Hard to focus on relaxing if I'm thinking at the back of my mind about getting back to my computer for Skype speaking purpose.
After that I found my way through to the gym, which is tucked away in the spa. When I say "tucked away," I really mean it. There's no signage for it and when I asked at the front desk, the lady just told one of the random helpers they have standing around to lead me there. It would have taken me ten minutes at least to find it on my own. All the exercise equipment is the same brand as the Islamabad Serena and the spa has the same name: Maisha. Wasn't much of a workout but I was glad to get the juices flowing a bit and stretch well.
By the time I had showered and eaten my room service dinner (grilled chicken burger with grilled pineapple and fries), I was too tired to process written words. So I took an Ambien* flipped on the boob tube and vegged to random sports -- South African rugby, the Tour of Spain and Chelsea football TV commentary, anyone? -- until I conked out.
*The stuff works. I slept like a baby until 7:30 and feel good today. Won't be any need to take another one tonight. Duly noted.
Work got going pretty much from when I walked in. We went until 6:15 or so. In the morning it was the AKF Moz team and me plus a market development consultant, Raphael. In the afternoon we were joined by the country director for one of our potential partners. Lots and lots of discussion around which crops we should work with and how. For lunch Emma, Aman and I went to a little restaurant down the block. I had spaghetti with salmon and a Coke. Pretty tasty. The later afternoon dragged quite a bit thanks to lack of sleep and jet lag.
Back at the hotel, I talked with Caryn and Leanne about how things are going. They kept telling me to take a break and eat or relax or whatever but it's really preferable to just knock everything out and THEN have dinner and so on. Hard to focus on relaxing if I'm thinking at the back of my mind about getting back to my computer for Skype speaking purpose.
After that I found my way through to the gym, which is tucked away in the spa. When I say "tucked away," I really mean it. There's no signage for it and when I asked at the front desk, the lady just told one of the random helpers they have standing around to lead me there. It would have taken me ten minutes at least to find it on my own. All the exercise equipment is the same brand as the Islamabad Serena and the spa has the same name: Maisha. Wasn't much of a workout but I was glad to get the juices flowing a bit and stretch well.
By the time I had showered and eaten my room service dinner (grilled chicken burger with grilled pineapple and fries), I was too tired to process written words. So I took an Ambien* flipped on the boob tube and vegged to random sports -- South African rugby, the Tour of Spain and Chelsea football TV commentary, anyone? -- until I conked out.
*The stuff works. I slept like a baby until 7:30 and feel good today. Won't be any need to take another one tonight. Duly noted.
Monday, August 29, 2011
que horas son en mozambique?
Well, right now son las 10:20 PM. Just got back from dinner at the outrageously (repeat: outrageously) overpriced buffet restaurant in the hotel here and I'm Skyping with Caryn. The flight from DC to Johannesburg via Dakar (no disembarkation, we just sat there for an hour or so) was long but smooth. I slept in a few chunks, thanks in part to my new friend Ambien and also in part to the fact that the flight wasn't near full, so I had at least two seats to myself the whole time. Somehow the trip felt shorter than going to Dubai, maybe just because it didn't feel like it could possibly have been one continuous stretch. I watched "The Hangover" early on, but that feels like days ago. Also, "Michael Clayton." Such a good movie.
Anyway, the Polana Serena, where I'm booked for the next four nights, is elegant in a way the Islamabad and Kabul Serenas aren't. The building is about 90 years old, for one thing, and built on a more human scale than those two. Beautiful furniture and decor, of course. Less ostentatious and I didn't have to fight to carry my own blanking bags up the stairs after I checked in.
I didn't check my work email but once at the beach but I just found out the workshop doesn't start until Wednesday, so I'll have tomorrow to catch up and hopefully see some of Maputo. Weather is supposed to be great -- 80-85 and sunny -- and it'd be nice to take advantage of being in a foreign land where an expat can actually walk around. Yeah, that's worth mentioning: This is my first night traveling overseas for AKF where there was no guard screening visitors at the hotel/guest house. No wall.
With that, I'm getting a bit tired and need to shower. Tomorrow I'll need to see about getting a plug adapter because the hotel doesn't have one that converts to US-style plugs. Wack.
More tomorrow
Anyway, the Polana Serena, where I'm booked for the next four nights, is elegant in a way the Islamabad and Kabul Serenas aren't. The building is about 90 years old, for one thing, and built on a more human scale than those two. Beautiful furniture and decor, of course. Less ostentatious and I didn't have to fight to carry my own blanking bags up the stairs after I checked in.
I didn't check my work email but once at the beach but I just found out the workshop doesn't start until Wednesday, so I'll have tomorrow to catch up and hopefully see some of Maputo. Weather is supposed to be great -- 80-85 and sunny -- and it'd be nice to take advantage of being in a foreign land where an expat can actually walk around. Yeah, that's worth mentioning: This is my first night traveling overseas for AKF where there was no guard screening visitors at the hotel/guest house. No wall.
With that, I'm getting a bit tired and need to shower. Tomorrow I'll need to see about getting a plug adapter because the hotel doesn't have one that converts to US-style plugs. Wack.
More tomorrow
Friday, August 19, 2011
running book list 2011 - bump
So I don't have to go looking for it.
EDIT 1/31/2011: Worth noting that my pace for January has been slow because The Wire has taken up large chunks of time that would otherwise have been devoted to reading. One season to go...
EDIT 3/1/2011: Finished The Wire. Counting it as literature.
1. Aeschylus, Agamemnon
2. Virgil, The Aeneid
3. David Simon, The Wire
4. Patti Smith, Just Kids
5. Plato, The Apology of Socrates and Crito
6. Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
7. Michael Chabon, Maps and Legends
8. Frank Miller, The Dark Knight Returns
9. Anton Chekhov, The Duel
10. Ian Fleming, Casino Royale (shut up, it's a classic, plus I needed a break from Devils)
11. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Devils
11. Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations
12. Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
13. John McPhee, The Curve of Binding Energy
14. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
15. Robert Alter (translation and commentary), Genesis
16. John O'Hara, Appointment in Samarra
17. Steven Mitchell (translation and commentary), Job (twice in a row)
18. William Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style
19. Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly
20. Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country
EDIT 3/1/2011: Finished The Wire. Counting it as literature.
1. Aeschylus, Agamemnon
2. Virgil, The Aeneid
3. David Simon, The Wire
4. Patti Smith, Just Kids
5. Plato, The Apology of Socrates and Crito
6. Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
7. Michael Chabon, Maps and Legends
8. Frank Miller, The Dark Knight Returns
9. Anton Chekhov, The Duel
10. Ian Fleming, Casino Royale (shut up, it's a classic, plus I needed a break from Devils)
11. Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations
12. Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
13. John McPhee, The Curve of Binding Energy
14. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
15. Robert Alter (translation and commentary), Genesis
16. John O'Hara, Appointment in Samarra
17. Steven Mitchell (translation and commentary), Job (twice in a row)
18. William Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style
19. Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly
20. Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country
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