Well I am sitting here sick as a dog in my apartment. I attempted to go to work today, but the nasty cough and cold sweats were too much. So acting on the suggestion of my coworkers (and one wise, beautiful, new brunette) i decided to come home and take a day to recover. One good thing about being home sick is that it forces you to find ways of entertaining yourself besides sleeping (of which i am a pro). It forced me to consider that i have been ignoring my obligations to this blog.
Work has been getting busier. The project of which i was put in charge of has quite a few programmed events coming up, and that has kept me busy scurrying around to meetings and reviewing documents. I even had my first opportuntity to sit on a selection panel for interviews for an administrative assistant position. I was given the primary task of testing the candidates English language proficiency (a tougher task than one may imagine given that most individuals lie about their fluency in English on their CVs). In addition, I was brought on board into another project: Legal Empowerment. I will be working as a part of a small team managing a project that is supposed to assist Mozambican civil society to begin the process fo national consultations on issues related to access to justice and rule of law, labour rigths, property rights, and entrepreneurship. The project is part of the global initiative "Commission on Legal Empowerment if the Poor", and has as its goal exploring the manner in which developing countries may reduce poverty by strengthening the rule of law and ensuring access to justice for all persons. It attempts to identify the possibilities and opportunities for briging the gaps between the formal and informal sectors of the economy in developing nations (the latter being more often the major contributor to developing economies, an extralegal sector in which the majority of the population and particular the poor engage daily). In short, it proves to be quite the interesting project, and needless to say has added quite substantially to my work load. An opportunity and a change that i am sincerely thankful for.
Personnally, it has taken some adjustment to living on my own. Working most of the day leaves little time for all the other tasks of keeping a livable space clean, fridge well stocked, and clothes smelling fresh. Each presents there own challenges. Cleaning the apt at night is counterproductive as you do not get a true feelign for how much dust there is. Plus, lacking still the proper clean tools make improvisation tricky. Grocery shopping is also quite challenging too. Not only do I have to trudge the groceries 7 flights of stairs, I also have to make time to go to several places in order to get the best prices and availability of products. This of course takes a lot of time, and coordination as well, not to mention that I find it quite expensive to maintain the same level of diet here as I have in the past. Lastly, hand washing ones laundry is amazingly time consuming, expecially if you have accumulated laundry for over a week. I have developed quite a respect for the majority of the world that has never known, and most likely will never know the benefits of a washing machine and drier.
Added to this is the frustrating task of purchasing the necessary items in order to settle in properly. I have put off much of these purchases for two reasons. First, I had the pleasent company of a friend from Canada this last week, and the weekend was spent mostly enjoying hte wonderful weather. Second, and more importantly, the prices for things like bedsheets and towels of any decent quality, among other items is unbelievebly expensive here. I have been told to wait until I go to South Africa to make these purchases, but I am not sure I want to wait that much longer, or spend my time in South Africa in shopping centres. I think I may just suck it up and buy the most essential items here.
My goal is to have the place nice a livable for when Kat plans to move in, in June. I will be visiting her in Joburg in a little less than two weeks (thank God as the distance is unbearable at times). She finished her internship in June, then is travelling with her brother who will be visiting for a full two weeks, at the end of which she will be residing with me (I relish this opportunity to be together, opening my eyes in the morning to find her there, and closing them at night knowing that she lays beside me). There are several opportunities in the works in terms of employment for her, both here, and not to far away in SA. Whatever the outcome, I know that we both want the same thing, to be together.
Overall, as I close in on 3 months of living here, I can confidently say that I am begining to get well adjusted. There are naturally goign to be ups and downs. Times where I could not imagine being anywhere else, and times when all i can think about is being somewhere else. And so it is that we all go about our days, some easier to get through than others. I am going to go make some tea and relax to see if this fever passes. And life goes on...
Monday, May 21, 2007
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
At a Stand Still....
Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Two posts in April. Not very good Bruno. I will have to do much better this month. In my defense April saw me take quite a bit of advantage of the slow pace of work and do some travelling. Kat came up twice for a visit, and once we went to Tofo as I had mentioned, and this last time we hung around Maputo and then I took a long weekend in Johannesburg. It was fantastic, and I spent some amazing time with Kat. Combined with my apartment hunting it served to keep me quite busy in April.
Not sure what May will bring. I have moved into my new place. It is nice, not too small, not too big, clean, modern, and cheap. It needs some more furniture and stuff, and the good news is that most of the purchases I make for the apartment can be deducted from the rent. So I think I will wait mostly until Kat moves in in mid June before making any major changes. The one thing that I am hoping to get installed very quickly (today if I am lucky) is the Internet. As nice as it is to have ones own place, the lack of evening communications with people (especially those of you in Canada) is quite difficult as I currently only have access during the days at work. And while it continues to be painfully slow here, I can find the time to send emails and upload photos and the like. But what happens when it gets busier? Hmmmm, wont worry about that just yet.
The other benefit of having the Internet at home is having a good source of entertainment. There is no point in television, and reading has its limits when you come home from 8 hours of reading volumes of dry evaluation reports and financial audits. I like going out, but at the same time I am a person who does not like feeling the pressure to do so. The option of a quite night in is one that is often appealing for the soul, the mind, and the wallet.
After my last visit with Kat, and the subsequent hosting of her two visiting friends, I have run into a bit of rut. The move kept me busy this weekend, but I found that my motivation for going out is mostly out of a sense of necessity than entertainment. It has caused me to dwell a bit. After all, I have a good group of diverse people here, and have some recent fun hanging out with some locals. I think a large extent of it has to do with being away from Kat. Distance is distance. The difference is that the current distance is much more manageable. And ultimately as she says, I just got to keep my eye on the prize (she moves in mid next month). Still, I must admit that I like the person I am when she is around. Knowing you have a wonderful and amazing person waiting for you when you get home from what is currently a mind numbing work routine of nothing, is great motivation to keep getting up in the morning and getting through the day.
Sorry for venting out my frustrations, but the fact of the matter is that feeling accomplished at the end of the day, having something to show for the 8 hours that you sat at your desk, is something that is extremely important to me. That sense of satisfaction that tells me that I have filled my day with something meaningful, allows me to relax and the rest of the day comfortably. The current feeling when I come into work is that I am at a stand still. While those around me scurry around, and type away, I am often making my own research schedule, or reading the news to try to keep informed. It makes a significant difference when it comes to ones sense of self worth.
But as always, one has the option to get upset, or angry, or frustrate. Or the option to view this as a learning experience, a challenge, or a blessing that I have an opportunity to be exposed to this environment, learn to live on my own in a foreign and developing country, practice and further develop my language skills in Portuguese, and where possible try to make provide a positive input. After all, it has only just recently been two months since i have arrived. As always perhaps all that is needed is a little patience.
Hmmm, feels good to reflect in writing. Should do it more often....
Not sure what May will bring. I have moved into my new place. It is nice, not too small, not too big, clean, modern, and cheap. It needs some more furniture and stuff, and the good news is that most of the purchases I make for the apartment can be deducted from the rent. So I think I will wait mostly until Kat moves in in mid June before making any major changes. The one thing that I am hoping to get installed very quickly (today if I am lucky) is the Internet. As nice as it is to have ones own place, the lack of evening communications with people (especially those of you in Canada) is quite difficult as I currently only have access during the days at work. And while it continues to be painfully slow here, I can find the time to send emails and upload photos and the like. But what happens when it gets busier? Hmmmm, wont worry about that just yet.
The other benefit of having the Internet at home is having a good source of entertainment. There is no point in television, and reading has its limits when you come home from 8 hours of reading volumes of dry evaluation reports and financial audits. I like going out, but at the same time I am a person who does not like feeling the pressure to do so. The option of a quite night in is one that is often appealing for the soul, the mind, and the wallet.
After my last visit with Kat, and the subsequent hosting of her two visiting friends, I have run into a bit of rut. The move kept me busy this weekend, but I found that my motivation for going out is mostly out of a sense of necessity than entertainment. It has caused me to dwell a bit. After all, I have a good group of diverse people here, and have some recent fun hanging out with some locals. I think a large extent of it has to do with being away from Kat. Distance is distance. The difference is that the current distance is much more manageable. And ultimately as she says, I just got to keep my eye on the prize (she moves in mid next month). Still, I must admit that I like the person I am when she is around. Knowing you have a wonderful and amazing person waiting for you when you get home from what is currently a mind numbing work routine of nothing, is great motivation to keep getting up in the morning and getting through the day.
Sorry for venting out my frustrations, but the fact of the matter is that feeling accomplished at the end of the day, having something to show for the 8 hours that you sat at your desk, is something that is extremely important to me. That sense of satisfaction that tells me that I have filled my day with something meaningful, allows me to relax and the rest of the day comfortably. The current feeling when I come into work is that I am at a stand still. While those around me scurry around, and type away, I am often making my own research schedule, or reading the news to try to keep informed. It makes a significant difference when it comes to ones sense of self worth.
But as always, one has the option to get upset, or angry, or frustrate. Or the option to view this as a learning experience, a challenge, or a blessing that I have an opportunity to be exposed to this environment, learn to live on my own in a foreign and developing country, practice and further develop my language skills in Portuguese, and where possible try to make provide a positive input. After all, it has only just recently been two months since i have arrived. As always perhaps all that is needed is a little patience.
Hmmm, feels good to reflect in writing. Should do it more often....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
