An Important Lesson

Many times, a Westerner will come to Africa with the view that he or she is the expert and others have to learn from them.  Often times it is the locals who teach the Westerner something. 

When I was in Mozambique, the greetings protocol used to make me INSANE.  This especially happened when I wanted to get something done.  I really didn’t care how your goats were, I wanted to get in, get what I wanted from you and get out.  There were important things to do in Mozambique which didn’t involve sweating it out in some dark meeting room.

However, time has changed my view on the protocol required in African contexts.  Yesterday is my case in point.  As many of you who have followed me on Facebook or talked with me recently, you know that I am helping out a Namibian friend here with the social media requirements of her business.  It’s proven a daunting task.   She’s sometimes very mistrusting of people she doesn’t know (me) and technology she doesn’t completely understand (Facebook).  So it’s taken almost a month to even get her to trust me.

Yesterday, we had 2 hours set aside to work on her Facebook page and put together a fundraising campaign.  However, the first hour was spent just catching up.  This is something that I only noticed later worked very well for us.  She now trusts me so much that she is sending me her banking information to get her all set up with the fundraising campaign.  All we had to do was ask each other how we were.

Interesting what happens when you slow down.

Ian

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I’ve been toying with the thought of writing a book about my time in Africa.  My experiences today have a lot to do with the title and with my desire to write about Africa.  It has felt VERY good to start up this blog again.  I feel like it is a place where I can put my experiences down on ‘paper’ to process them more and also feel like I’m talking to people back home.

The title of this blog is my phone number from Peace Corps Mozambique.  It was my connection to the outside world and my lifeline for making things work at site.  To me, over the corse of the 3 years I spent there, I felt like it was a barometer of my time in Moz.  I started out at 8 (out of 10) because I was nervous about what was ahead of me.  I then went to a 2 when I was dropped off at site and given the keys to my house.  I was in the middle of nowhere!  Or at least so I thought.  I then slowly made my way up to a 5 when things normalized for me.  After my first project spectacularly failed, I was down back to 2.  Got used to the failures, and I moved up to 3.  After I really started getting used to Mozambique, made friends and made it feel like home.  But it still wasn’t really ‘home’ (where was that?)  So I got back to an 8.  Then I was leaving and sad.  I got pushed down to a 2.  Yet Africa was under my skin and I went back home one.

I’ve felt all those changes today.  THis morning was wonderful with the National Botanical Gardens and a trip to the farmer’s market.  Then I went out to another cafe to try out the wireless internet.  It didn’t exist.  I went across the compound to the wireless internet I could find and I put myself there for a couple of hours.  When I got home, I tried to get some of my checklist done.  But the house was too quiet and I couldn’t get motivated.  But, after some more food, I was able to get motivated and I found out all the movies that my friend gave me play on the television in my living room through a USB connection on the DVD player.  I’m definitely living a very 1st world existence here in the Namib Desert.

It’s the little things right?

Out of Practice - or am I?

You have to have a certain type of chutzpah to make it in Africa.  There is just a constant bombardment of the senses that if you are not 'always on,' you might just get ripped off.  I think it's similar to the feeling you can get on stage when you are required to be completely on for the the course of the show.

My Peace Corps Country director said to me once in a dive bar near the border of Zimbabwe, "Volunteers have a 24/7 job.  The minute you wake up to the minute you go to sleep, you are working, representing America and that might be the toughest job you ever have."  I think people may also be curious on how we sleep!  But, I digress.

I was walking to downtown Windhoek today after work and passed by a section where the majority of registered hawkers set up shop to sell you all sorts of Africana.  Alot of it is the same that you'll see in Namibia, South africa, Swaziland or Mozambique, but I stopped by a stall because I saw something that comes from Mozambique.  I know it as 'pastas de palha' or palm wallets and like using them for the abundance of coin I get when traveling in southern Africa.  It's also very nice because it stops the coin from jingling in your pocket.  I asked the person at the stall how much and she said N$180! (20 USD). This is for something I would buy for 5-10 Meticais in Mozambique (20-40 cents)  I laughed at her out loud and said I felt insulted she thought I would be so stupid to pay that amount.  She immediately dropped her price to N$120 - which is still too high.

A man came over to me and asked how much I was willing to pay, I said N$4 because that is equal to MTn10.  He laughed at me.  Taking some words of advice from a friend in Vermont who had been to this part of the world since the recession of 2008, I asked if I paid N$100 (which he wanted), what would he give me?  He pointed to some small tschaky and I picked out what I actually wanted.  So, long story short.  I walked away from the market with a bag full of curios as presents for people for N$150.  All were happy and I don't think I'm as out of practice as I previously though.

Now, why would I say I am out of practice?  I lived in the Mozambican bush for 3 years after all.  But, the thing is, I've lived a cushy existence in America since then.  I felt particularly out of practice when my friend Lauren came to visit from South Africa.  She's lived in SA and Moz for the past 5 years save for a 6 month break back in PA.  We had gone out to a bierhaus on her last night in Windhoek and took a taxi home.  Naturally, most taxi drivers think that everyone coming out of this bierhaus is a tourist.  We asked for a taxi and were told it would be N$50 dollars for a 2 kilometer ride.  That ride is normally N$9 a person.

We eventually found a normal taxi and gave them a N$20 for us to get home.  But, on the ride home I thought things were bad.  I couldn't understand the driver and thought he was slurring his words.  I later realized he only spoke nominal English.  I admired my friend because she was just a chatty Cathy with the drivers and had them laughing with her or at her.  I felt that night I couldn't do things like that anymore and would rather stay home than have to deal with it.

Needless to say, we got home safely and after the experience in the curio market today, I might not be in such bad shape after all!

More soon,
Ian

Teach a person to fish....

Sometimes in Africa, you get a lot of time to think about things in your life.  I've had the pleasure of going 'back to Mozambique' this past weekend.  I knew that I had to get out of 'white' Windhoek so I didn't go crazy starting at walls.  So, I went to this place called Katutura, the location or township for Africans north west of the city.

Katutura (The place where we wish not to settle) is 10 kilometers outside of downtown Windhoek, but it could be another world.  As I took a taxi into the location, I noticed immediately that the sights, smells and sounds changed and I was transported to Mozambique.  I went out there to look at a project called KATU TOURS.   The project received some funding from the office I'm working in now and I wanted to work out some of the details of the project in order to help with some of the social media marketing.  Since, according to a recent CNN article, most Africans access the internet through cellular technology, it makes perfect sense to put your marketing there.  Also, when you're a start-up with little capital, it works to your advantage.

KatuTours is run by Anna from Angola.  She takes people from the city around Katutura to foster communication and some understanding.  The ride is 10 kilometers and you stop at shops, the market and other spots throughout the location in order to get a better view.  The best part for me was when we stopped at the Shebeen of Tate Buti.  He's one of the biggest singers in Namibia and I'll be looking for a CD soon.  While we were at the Shebeen, people were sharing with me beyond belief.  The meat was delicious and kept coming, the beer was cold and the conversation was great.  You need anything more?

What I like the most about this project, is that for N$350, I got 6 hours of a wonderful time with a woman who really cares about her community.  She lives where she works and teaches others how to ride bicycles.  Hopefully, she can get just a little bit of help because she is definitely learning how to fish.

Back to the beginning, I said in Africa you get alot of time.  It shows you what is important.

More soon.

Ian

A photo of me with Anna

Hello from the Windy Corner

Christuskirche & the as-yet-to-be-opened Independence Museum brought to you by the DPRK.

I am writing to you from //AE //GAMS.  A place you and I know as Windhoek.  There is a small shopping center here in Klein Windhoek with that name.

It reads

Klein //AE //GAMS Mall.    

There are two clicks in there.  They kind of sound like a horse call out the side of the mouth.  There are 3 or 4 different languages in that title alone, depending on who you ask.  Others will say it is only one ie Namibian English - which is proving to be an interesting version of English to master.  I know I definitely can't speak it, I don't know if I will be able to after 3 months, but I'm finding it easier to understand.  I think if I tried to speak like a Namibian though, it would come out VERY weird.

Positives today

Did it all by myself
everyone is so friendly
retracing some old steps from 4 years ago.
getting people to talk with me by saying just

hawayu!

More Soon.

Ian

Last Days in America....

I haven't written a post like this in awhile.  But tonight is my last day in Vermont before I head to the airport (JFK) to fly to Namibia.

This is the flag of the country which has been independent since 1990.  I'm very excited because independence day is March 21st (1990) and I will be there for the 23rd anniversary of independence.  I know this is a fanciful comparison, but I wonder what America was like in 1799 - 23 years after our independence from Britain.


I know the answer to part of this question.  I'm also not trying to compare Namibia to America or vice versa.  I'm just trying to process that I WILL BE GOING BACK TO AFRICA after an absence of 4 years.  It's going to be a different experience because I'll be living in the "best" neighborhood of Windhoek.  For those of you that may know Windhoek, I'll be staying in provided housing in the Klein Windhoek or Ludwigsdorf section of the city - depending on who you talk too.  I've also heard, that Klein Windhoek is the original settlement, i.e. the entire eastern section of the modern city and then Ludwigsdorf is the actual neighborhood.  Ahhhh Africa!  I'll let you know when I get there.


Some things I'm looking forward to the most about Africa:

-Heat , especially last night after sliding back down to the railroad parking lot by the river.  Man it was cold and slipper.
-Color
-Spicy smells
-Smell after it rains It'll be the dry season. :(
-Cheap, fresh food
-Music
and lastly, MOST important

GETTING ADAM CHRISTOPHE TO AFRICA!!!!!

My next post will be coming from Windhoek.  I love the fact that I am going from weather that's in the 30's Fahrenheit to 30's Celsius.

More soon.

Back From The Dead

I'm 30, it's 2013 and I'm in my 2nd year of a Master's Program at SIT Graduate Institute.

Every aspect of that sentence has made me realize how quickly time has gone by.  Many times, when I am talking about Peace Corps, I'll say,  "Oh yes, I just got back...." four years ago.  I realized quickly, I had to rectify that.  Four years away from Africa is just too much time for me. 

Since I have been back, there has been alot going on, but I'm not going to bore you with that.  I'll just start in 2012.  I've been working with the marketing department at my school as an intern for the past 6 months.  The title of my job has been SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR and I've learned alot.  Most of my day is spent monitoring social media feeds and what not online.  It's proven fun and difficult.  Fun because I am learning new things and meeting many people online.  The difficult part is that I am online all day, so when I get home I don't want to be connected and don't do school work.  Thankfully that has changed.

December and the month of January up until yesterday were rough times here.  Long story short, my body realized I am going back to Africa so the thyroid and some skin on my back decided to act up.  I guess it is my way of saying that I can't do anything lightly and really had to ramp up the stress level before I left.  So, with a benign thyroid goiter and a scar from a remove melanoma on my back, I'm leaving for Windhoek, Namibia on January 31st.

I'll be living in Windhoek for 10 weeks and hopefully be getting back to Mozambique before I leave to come back to America.  I've decided to start up this blog again because I'm going back to Africa.  Also, my brother Noel is currently working in Barbuda down in the Caribbean.  So please follow him at www.noelhefele.com/blog as well.

Ate breve,

Ian

It's the little things

I feel I've used this title before for a blog post. However, I don't feel like I have the patience to go back into the over 5 years of blogs to find it. It's also a song from that rather cooky musical COMPANY. But for me, it's becoming my life mantra. Something happened yesterday when I dropped the kids off in the computer lab. There was one kid E who whipped it out of his pants and decided to urinate on the floor of the lab. I don't know why but I lost it laughing. Does that make me a bad person?

The other much more positive little thing I learned about today is all the way out of Africa. I finally saw some pics from the theatre competition that I started in 2006. It went from 6 schools in 2006 with $1000 budget to a 2 day competition with 22 schools and an almost $10,000 competition in 2009.

I'm happy!!!! No Zanex involved.

Ladysmith Fish out of Water

It's been quite the ten days. Last weekend, I went with my brother and sister to go see Freshly Ground in New York. It was wonderful. This past weekend, Ladysmith Black Mambazo played at the Mann Centre in Philadelphia.

I've traveled around for some time now. (after my calculations, 8 of the past 10 years) The Mann Center is one of the best venues I've ever been to. Anyone who comes to visit maybe will be able to go to a concert there. Getting there is a whole different story and man does it work out for quite a story.

Philadelphia is built in the sensible grid pattern that many American cities are built in. Philadelphia was in fact the first "new European" city to be constructed that way. Anyway, the streets that run North to South are numbered from the Delaware River to the Schuykill River. East West streets are named after trees that grow here or places "in the colonies."

Now from Front Street to 50th Street, Philly is safe and normal. After 50th street it gets a little shady. Noel was kind enough to tell me that fact after I had to go to to 52nd street. I thought I would be green and take public transport to the venue. That meant I only had to take 2 subway lines, but I went to a different world. I took the blue line EL and transfered to the Green Trolley Lines. I was the only white person on the trolley and people started giving me weird looks. I was definitely out of my league. But you all know that it doesn't really bother me to be out of my league. I got off at my stop of 52nd and Lancaster. I had to walk. I noticed lots of greenery towards the north so headed that direction. When I got to some train tracks, I knew I was going the right direction. I called my brother though because I wanted another route back. It seemed a little too risky to walk back under the train tracks after dark, by myself and with my credit card. I did!

I stuffed everything into my underwear and just set off with a mission. I felt fine, just hurried not harried... until someone came my direction. The guy was with his girlfriend, so I wasn't too scared, until I notived how BIG this guy was. He greeted me with a hearty "How ya doin' dude?" I burst out laughing. I retorted with a "How YOU doin' dude!" and went on my merry way. As soon as I got to the stop, the number 10 trolley came and I was off.


The CONcert was amazing too!

New found distraction

I'm back in the land of the living and excited about all the bright, flashy things that are on offer. My favorite of the moment is Netflix. For $10 a month, I get one DVD at a time and unlimited streaming. Unlimited streaming!!! I'm catching up on all my favorite old BBC shows. Now I have access to finally watch ALL of Absolutely Fabulous. Netflix was also founded by a Peace Corps Volunteer from Swaziland. After 3 years in Africa, I feel like I know why he started it. Pure need. He's also famous for quoting "After hitchhiking across Africa with $10 in your pocket, starting a business doesn't seem so scary." I agree but would substitute teaching in there.

Yes I know I'm insane, but it is a wonderful distraction when your students tell you they saw their father get shot the night before. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I teach in the concrete jungle.

Another one of shows is Keeping up Appearances. It is almost 20 years old, but I love it. Unfortunately, as with most TV shows, it gets repetitive when you watch 3 episodes in a row! The need to put my brain off has become ENORMOUS! There is something curiously foreign about that British show though. Do people like that exist in America? There is the phrase Keeping up with the Joneses, which is said to originate in New York. But Americans in general are not so stuck up about class. You'll just have to see my neighborhood when you come visit me!

I'm definitely up for visits... hint hint... nudge nudge.

Been Thinking

So I'm almost back in America one solid week and I haven't made it beyond Brooklyn. I hope the extended family is not getting mad at me. It has been snowing almost non-stop since I've been back though so I can understand the "better safe than sorry" mentality in traveling, especially since that is what I used in 3 years in Africa. But I thought about how Africa is still in my blood. In exactly a week, I will have experienced 3 Africa themed things in my life.

Last Friday, we went to the MOMA (which FYI is free every Friday from 4 to 8 PM) to see the American premier of the first Mozambican produced movie called A Terra Sonambula or Sleepwalking land. Then today I found out that one of my favorite singers is playing in NY this week. Her name is Zolani. She's amazing. I'm taking advantage of all of this on top of going to see the Daily Show for the important day of Bush's goodbye and the hello to a new era. (Hopefully in my life too!)

More Soon

What my mother taught me...

My mother taught me many things, but one thing I remember in particular is she always told me it's not polite to stare. Truthfully, I thought she was crazy. Now coming on to the middle of my 36th month in Mozambique (hot damn) I really understand why it's not polite. Walking to work this morning, two things happened to me that made me really look forward to the day when I won't be the mulungo anymore.

I was hacking out my 5th lung of the morning. My head cold still hasn't gone away. Some one in front of me started laughing. She came up and asked me if I were sick (I thought it was pretty obvious) and then just started laughing. I couldn't stop coughing, so I kept walking and so did she - right into a telephone post. She was too interested in my coughing (whoa! white people cough too!) About 5 feet later, the same thing happened. Not someone laughing at me in pain, but someone walking into a tree because they were more interested in me than in where they were going!

Am I that interesting?

Only in Africa

My dog is in heat. You know what that means. She drips across the floor, gives herself an examination and then fines it ABSOLUTELY necessary to come over and try to lick my face. I can deal with all those things because I'm usually able to tell when she's about to come over and keep her away. The thing I can't stand are the 5 to 10 horny romeos that come and circle my house like a pack of wolves almost every night. I try to keep Kuri inside because she is a smaller dog and I've seen some of the male dogs in my neighborhood and it wouldn't be a pretty picture. Kuri wouldn't have it at all though. She whined and whined and whined until I let her out! Two hours later I get woken up by this scared sounding bark coming from Kuri's little doggy ditch she dug under my wall to get in and out. I'm a little nervous for her so I go outside. She's desperately trying to get in under the wall, but for some reason can't. I try pulling her but either she (or something) is pulling back. I go and get the keys to unlock Fort Knox and go outside. Kuri is no longer on the other side of the wall, but I can hear her off on the other side of the compound. Keep in mind that this is all happening with my in my pj's and a small little maglite flash flight so I can see. "White man running around at night in his shorts" was not the local newspaper heading the next day, because we don't have one. Anyway, I start getting this feeling that someone is looking at me. KINDA FREAKY because it's about 1 in the morning at this time. I call Kuri, she comes running over hackles raised and stands between me and the darkness barking into the darkness. I'm freaked at this point and slowly raise up the light to see a HUGE dog like creature staring back at me. The dog was up to my waist I feel and just huge. I backed away slowly, grabbed my dog and ran into the compound. Did I mention the thing was huge? I think it was an African Wild Dog, but I talked to my neighbor the next day and he said I should be careful because there are reports of werewolves in the area. I thought I didn't understand him first, but then he said that it was a person changing from a human to an animal.

Gotta get me my mistletoe and silver dagger to keep next to my airhorn and pepper spray now.

Death's a Bitch

She isn’t pretty, she’s comes too fast and here in this country she’s so damn unpredictable. There is this old guy that has been working in my place probably as long as it’s been running. I think he’s a founding member of the organization. Anyway before the move, he was fine. Now all of a sudden, he’s skinny skinny skinny, beady eyes, doesn’t eat or recognize anybody. This is all being told to me by a colleague. Now he’s on death’s door. Someone else that gave me a ride from Xai-Xai to Maxixe last year died. (AIDS) This man who’s been working with us… dare I say it? Almost made it 2 years and then 4 people close to me are close to dying in one year. Damn the fear of this disease.

You never know in Africa!

So I've been in Africa for some time now. I don't see animals on a regular basis. Most of the animals were killed or fled during the war. I DO see amazing birds everyday and they seem to know that they are amazing! They do wonderful dives through the air just to make sure you see them in all their glory. I thank them for that. Now I've had encounters with a couple animals throughout my 3 years here in the wild. Baboons - I go running the other way. Hyena - i didn't even leave my house to see if this one was true! And here is the story about what happened last night.

Last night was the first time I had really questioned my reasoning for bringing my dog back to live with me in Maxixe. She started barking at about 1 AM. I noticed the barking right away but also heard it to be more of a what the hell are you doing here in my territory kind of bark. Not Ian watch out there's an intruder!!! I thought it was a cat and I was right it was a cat but not the cat i thought it would be.


Here's a picture It's called a large spotted genet. I didn't even know it existed!!!