Homeless in Africa

I won't try to explain money to you since Bart did a good job when he was in a similar placement last year (the currency situation has changed since - more of the money is gross, and the Met has dropped 35% since early in the year, leading to some of the food insecurity uprisings in maputo. Funny that some hotels still use a posted rate of 25, when it's actually 36):

'Any denomination of mets 200+ (200, 500, 1000), are all nice new crisp bills. The twenties, however, look like they've been in a long distance runner's sock (or worse) during a marathon. I'm afraid to touch them – not only because they are absolutely foul, but because they are so delicate from so much use that I imagine them disintegrating into a fine mist if I handle them – like some ancient papyrus scroll.'

The recent film on Thursday movie night was 'Burn After Reading'. Since then I've moved a few times, with mixed results. Sadly, it hasn't gone well. Can't get power. Can't get internet. Can't get water. Can't get clean!! Most people would say relax, TIA. And the reality is that this is TIA, but there are 'western' expectations of me - the results are all anyone will pay attention to in the end. All the challenges are real, and are faced by billions, who have come to accept these things as part of their everyday lives.

From 9/9/10 F/X $1 = 35 Mts

Would you believe that 'bread' is 'pao' in portuguese! Pronounced just as us guju's would! And another one is 'pagar' which more or less means cash.

I've been on two motorcycle journey's, getting to know about small enterprises and how the bank can serve them better. Some are experiencing very poor sales due to ramadan - and since in such countries, food production/sales is a very typical microbusiness,

If any of you have good portuguese websites, please let me know as this place is COMPLETELY void of English.

Beautiful beaches for sure. Check us out on a map and you'll see how well we are positioned for a future tourism industry!

EXTREMELY expensive for packaged goods; more than Dar, with much less availability. Everything is from South Africa. I guess we're at the end of the road, so it makes sense. Parmalat has a local juice brand, where you can get 1L for 70 Meticais (Mts) ($2) - good to see it's 'local', but sad that in a tropical country, juice is so pricey. Similar to Dar, - rarely is it 'pure' juice. Milk here @ the supermarket I just checked out was 90 Mts! Over $2! How would the average person afford such things? Many low end jobs (houseworkers etc) get 1200 Mts/mth (though min wage is 2500). A 'Yop' like bottle of yogurt is $1. Cereal in Dar often goes for $7-8, and I think here it was not far off that. <1L of cream goes for 220 Mts - $6!!!! Perhaps this is why we are seeing riots in Maputo.

Went to 'Osman' - It's the closest semblance to a supermarket, but they didn't have dates or figs - I was looking for fibre since everything is protein (read: grilled chicken) and carbs here (read: white bread and ugali aka xima). So I bought corn/maize on the street, as I often did in Dar (but without the chili/lime salt sprinkling).

Very excited to go to the expat movie night. A show called 'The Prophet'. It's Chandraat tonight too, but I'm skipping out as I'd like to get to know some of the other NGO's etc working here.

Ok, I'm off to see a guy from Karachi who's lived here a while regarding a place to live! FMB is paying about $50/nite for me right now, totally not worth it since I can't be independent way out there on Wimbe Beach. On another note, a Vancouver TKN volunteer for HR just arrived today for 2mths.