The day after our field day with Helvetas we made our way to the remote island of Ibo. The day began with a not so moderate degree of uncertainty and stress, given that our transport changed driver unexpectedly, and the vehicle transmitted close to zero trust in making the long drive to Tandanhangue within the time needed (a public chapa boat leaves for Ibo every day at high tide, there is no other option – apart from private hires). We did finally make it in time, just… as we arrived we filled the last three spots, and the boat left. The boat ride was pleasant, especially given the fact that we managed to make it, and despite the fact that a goat was located directly beneath our legs. After setting off at 4 A.M., we managed to arrive at the island at 12 A.M.
Read MoreWednesday was a very exciting day. We had the chance to go into the field with a Project manager from Helvetas. Our aim was to get a real feel of how the work on the field was for Helvetas, to understand the different actors in the value chain and to also understand the culture better, in respect to the social and hierarchical aspects of a project.
Read MoreWe left Ilha de Moçambique at 4 A.M. on Monday, in a mesh of drowsiness and mild voracity (due to a lack of breakfast), and made our way to Namialo. We sat at a café and ordered a coffee, which turned out to not be opportune. In a moment of panic amidst a “lost-in-translation” situation. Coffee had to be left on the spot, paid in a second, whilst Alberto and Xavi sprinted off behind the “bus to Pemba”.
Read MoreOur experience in Ilha de Moçambique was absolutely riveting. It was our chance to get very close to the local people, to understand their living conditions and the components that filled their unique culture. Ilha is a UNESCO Heritage site, a well deserved status. It is a town that has lived through the ages, running from the rule of the Sultanate of Zanzibar and Oman, to Portuguese Colonial occupation and then to the devastation it suffered during the war of Liberation. In the last few years the town has been rebuilt and cleaned up, and is considered a gem within Mozambique. Our experience of Ilha was exclusively of the island, but it covered a spectrum of flavours and colours of adventures!
Read MoreThe journey to Ilha de Moçambique from Ponta D’Ouro was a titanic feat, including all forms of travel: land (both road and sand), sea and air. The journey also included private and public forms of transport, and began at 9 am one day (with a little bit of anxiety) and ended at 5 pm the next day. Needless to say it was an exhausting trip that took us from Ponta D’Ouro to Catembe, to Maputo, to Nampula, to Namialo and finally to Ihla de Moçambique.
Read MoreOur journey to Ponta D’Ouro began with a scarce handful of hours of sleep, involving a taxi, followed by a ferry, followed by a chapa and then a 20-minute walk uphill with all our bags. The road to Ponta was interesting, amidst the cramming of a 4 by 4 chapa we had the chance to observe the new infrastructures (roads and bridges mainly) that Chinese companies are investing in, and how they are hoping to connect Maputo to South Africa through Durban.
Read MoreThe sun rose in Casa do Gaiato at the chime of the “rise and shine” bells, ringing again shortly afterwards to call for breakfast. We had slept in separate buildings, Xavi and Alberto stayed together in Casa Mae (0-6 year-olds), and Jaime stayed in Casa 2 (9-11 year-olds). We had a great breakfast, after which we shared some time with some of the kids from Casa Mae, whom came to say hello.
Read MoreFriday was probably the day with the heaviest and most thrilling meetings of the trip, we were put on the spot, constantly having tremendously complicated questions thrown at us.
Read MoreToday was structured a little differently to what was usually done. We began the day visiting the HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis clinic and laboratory of Communidade Sant’Egidio – Project Dream. We were greeted by an absolutely formidable 25-year-old 70-year-old lady, Florentina, the head nurse of the centre.
Read MoreToday’s post will be relatively brief, but we will recap how today has gone. We woke up as always, to seize the day, but we were encountered with a mishappening, which fortunately concluded positively.
Read MoreAfter some indecision, we decided to spend the weekend in Maputo with Muheti, rather than venturing to Inhaca. Maputo’s weekend was full of unexpected surprises, ranging from a beautiful sunset at Dhow on Saturday to a delicious street food meal on the highway, involving “cachorro” (A.K.A. hot dog), and a ginger-lemon-sugarcane drink made on the spot. Both Saturday and Sunday included a change of our headquarters, thus the mornings were slower than others, but we made sure to take advantage of the afternoons and evenings.
Read MoreOur second day started a little slower, the accumulated exhaustion from the journey to Maputo and a heavy first day of meetings and preparations for the meetings took a toll. We began the day by making calls to different cooperation agencies to try to get meetings in order to further inform ourselves about the NGO landscape and the role being undertaken by the different missions. This was a recommendation of both Alexia and Stefano, respectively the heads of Fundação Khanimambo and the Italian Cooperation Agency.
Read MoreAfter a handful of days in Tofo, the final two involving a lot of preparation towards the upcoming meetings, we took the chapa to Maputo. On the last day in Tofo we had very good waves, and two incredible meals: lunch at Guju’s Beach Bar (an Indian restaurant and sunset bar decorated with the owner’s art and music) and dinner at ZanziBeach.
Read MoreThe first weekend in Mozambique was spent in the seaside village of Tofo. The sand dunes posed a whole new experience for all three of us. It was an ongoing fight between us and the mosquitos, us and unpredictable electricity, us and sand, us and sand, us and sand, and in case I hadn’t mentioned it enough, us and sand.
Read MoreAfter a plentiful night, plentiful of mosquitos that is, we rose at 6 AM in the “Sala Azul” (the nursery of the Khanimambo). We headed for a cold shower, then packed up and joined the children, volunteers and workers for a bread-and-tea breakfast.
Read MoreThe journey begins! Today we commence this expedition towards Mozambique, where InAGlobe aims to bring engineering project proposals to world-leading Universities in Europe, allowing students to design solutions to problems arising in areas of poverty and scarcity.
Read MoreKicking off the InAGlobe Education blog!
Read MoreInAGlobe Education is a partnership building social enterprise. By facilitating partnerships between humanitarians and academics we seek to tackle the effects of scarcity and poverty in developing countries with technological innovation and in turn help educate engineering students about the most important global challenges.
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