Dia de Cidade!

October 21, 2013

This weekend I returned from my first organization conference in Pemba city.  According to the contract I received from the organization we are supposed to have weeklong conferences once every month in Pemba (the big city in Cabo Delgado province).  From what I understand, we will be lucky if these conferences happen every other month, and more likely they will be once every three months.  But hey, I can’t really complain about a free week in Pemba every few months.  Plus per-diem – but that’s another story.

So I had been pretty excited about going to Pemba for our first conference, not just because Pemba has a beautiful beach, I would have air-conditioning and hot water for a week, or Dia de Cidade was taking place when I would be there.  I was also excited to be in meetings where all the employees of Fundacao Ariel would be present and different ideas would be discussed regarding programming, new regulations, etc.  Rather, what I got was what seemed to be a poorly managed agenda that didn’t really include any of the things I was expecting.  The bulk of the meetings consisted of the Program Officials (those people working in the district capitals to implement Ariel’s strategy) releasing data collected from the previous three months on graphs that made no sense to us volunteers.  (For example, there would be a data point that showed the percentage of pregnant women who were given an HIV test for the first time in their life and the percentage would be 210%.  We still have no idea how that works nor could anyone from Ariel explain to us how you calculate that percentage).  Not to mention we were in the office for close to 10 hours each day. But c’est la vie, right?

So clearly the highlight of the week – in addition to meeting all the full time staff of Ariel – did end up being the AC, hot showers, beach and last, but certainly not least, the celebration that is Dia de Cidade.  As some quick background, every city in Mozambique has a Dia de Cidade (or City Day) where the city government hosts parties, festivals, parades, etc. and the whole city comes out to party.  For a little more background, Montepuez had its Dia de Cidade 2 weeks ago. And. Nothing. Happened.  So out of coincidence, and maybe a little luck, our conference ended up being the same week that Pemba was celebrating Dia de Cidade.  The party was Friday night, on the beach right across the street from our hotel.  There were stages set up for musicians, dancers, entertainers, etc., people crowded the beaches to the point where it was tough to get around in some areas.  But it was more than enough for my first real party in Mozambique.  The highlight of the night has to be the line of 200 women along the street who grilled chicken ALL night (from like 2pm until 4am).  For 10 meticais (or .33 cents) you could get chicken on a stick that had about the same amount of meat as a large chicken wing.  I must have bought 15 of these.  So in all I spent about $5 on chicken and ate more than any person should in one night, but it was so fresh and perfect that I couldn’t resist.  And it was a party so what was I going to do, not eat the delicious chicken?

One of the biggest perks I get going to the conferences in Pemba is the per-diem I receive to cover the cost of living in a hotel and needing to go out to eat for all of my meals.  For each day I am “on business” if you will, I receive 800 meticais, equal to about $25.  So for the week I spent in Pemba, I received about $175 to cover all costs.  And being the resourceful Peace Corps volunteer that I am, I managed to save a good chunk of that money.  (On a related note, volunteers places with Ariel used to receive 1500 meticais per-diem for each day they were on business.  So I could have pulled in close to $350 and that would have been sa-weeeet, but the per-diem changed and such is life.  But I can’t say I’m not happy with receiving what I did.  Perks of working for large NGOs!).

I am now back in Montepuez for one week before I get to go to Maputo for two weeks – one week for an EGPAF training about gender based violence in Mozambique and the following week for Peace Corps’ Reconnect Conference.  To say I’m excited to be going to Maputo would be an understatement.  Maputo is an entirely different world from the rest of Mozambique.  It is more or less a first world city in one of the poorest countries in the world.  Having spent the last 3 months in the poorest province in Mozambique, the prospect of going to Maputo is pretty awesome.  Hopefully this time the conferences will be a little more informative than the last one. 

It’s starting to get really hot here in Moz.  I’m a little jealous of all you guys at home watching the leaves change colors and the fall weather that comes with it.  Sometimes thinking about it, and all of you, help me get through the heat of the days here.  But I do love it.