And Life Goes On...

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...