Kruger National Park

I am catching myself smiling more often…

So it has been 5 months that I have survived Maputo and I can honestly say I have even surprised myself.  It helps that I am working with children every day and I feel blessed that I have been given the gift to work and help children with all abilities.  I have been writing and running educational programs for a Holiday Club, the moms & toddlers program and the Alphabet Soup Literacy workshop and I have even surprised myself how the creative ideas are flowing out like I have stroked the fountain of youth.  I am not myself until I work or get to be around children, it is the greatest blessing to be around the smartest people on this world.  Every time, I travel to a new place I notice the children’s spirits and how they are getting along there and I thought that New York Manhattan streets were full of some of our best but I am really starting to fall in love with the kids here too.  They are so mature for there years and so calm.  I have met a few little ones that I would like to adopt for sure… 

I bought her some clothes and I allow her to come to the library every chance I can and I try to teach her everything I can from spelling her name to labeling colors.  My love lives with her grandmother and I thought she was going to be very upset when I bought the clothes but she wasn’t she was very happy and grateful indeed.

So I have been at the Library for the last few months running programs for toddlers and children from ages 4 to 11years of age.  It has been a very busy month and exciting at the same time.  I instantly fell in love with all the children coming to the programs and at first I was working with 3 teachers from Zimbabwe, Africa.  They started to come to the school intermittently and then it became an issue of how they spoke to the children when the children were not listening or just bored with the program.  They used words like “punish and naughty or bad boy or girl” then the topic of “beating” children came up.  One teacher told me "That our cultures are very different and in your culture you just hit kids but in the Africa culture they "beat" children to teach them a good lesson." This was said with pride and my response was “Why do you beat kids here what does it accomplish, all your teaching children when you “beat” them is that violence is ok." Then I added, "I wonder if Gandhi and Nelson Mandela thought the same way that violence is ok to instill in our children?"  The teacher just responded with silence and what I really wanted to say was, yes our cultures our different but I am here volunteering in your culture not the other way around.  All 3 teachers eventually stopped coming to teach at the school and that left just me and a wonderful, loyal Zimbabwean assistant who has been with the school for many years.  It was hard work but we managed and the children seemed very happy and would chant my name when I would come in the mornings and jump all over me and hug me.  I tried very hard to individually program plan for each child because we would have no more than 8 children at majority of the times.  I was very tired but I loved it!!!  It is not uncommon here to discover that teachers do not even like children here, it's a job and low paying too.

Things I am learning about the culture are interesting but some things are so international, it is just really about viewpoint whether your right side up in Africa or upside down in North America.  For instance, relationships here are very funny, women and men both cheat, men are more flamboyant about it while women are more hidden about it.  People do not seem to have any close-minded issues about love being monogamous however the desperation for having any type of relationship still doesn’t reside within me.  The women here are still treated very unequal in relationships.  My Portuguese friends back home have the best saying “Its better to be alone than to be in bad company: Amen.

I think I am actually getting use to the streets and the broken sidewalks and the beautiful beaches and scenery available to me.  A lot of people really like Maputo and Mozambique because it has a lot more freedom then other places in Africa.  People here are lot more free spirited and open minded in comparison to cultures where white and black people do not even dare to mix. 

I went to South Africa for a Kundalini Women’s Health Yoga Retreat/Workshop for the weekend.  I went with some other teachers and students and I can honestly say it was a slice of heaven.  We stayed at a country estate and the yoga studio was on the same estate was so beautiful and the women Claudia sharing her home to all 10 women plus the Yogi was amazing.  The little homes were on a land so expansive and full of nature.  There was bird watching on the grounds and I have always wanted to participate in it.  I know a lot of people do not know that about me but its true maybe it comes from growing up with a father that loves bird and tried at times to capture and tame a few wild ones.  It is also quite spiritual to be a follower and an energy sender to birds it becomes profound at times that you cannot even explain it in words.  While staying on this estate I saw an owl, many, many colorful birds (one day I will know their names), hawks, guinea foul, deer’s (doe), antelope, and a monkey while we were driving on the road.  

South Africa is so beautiful and picturesque and home to Krueger Park (a safari where you can see all kinds of animals-my next destination) and has food, stores, shops, clothing etc.  A little civilization that is good for the eyes and soul.  I do have to admit though you do miss Mozambique and just thought of anyone wearing a capalana in South Africa has you eschew from embarrassment.  It is known that South Africans do not seem to like Mozambicans they were many killings of Mozambicans in South Africa a few years ago because of issues like Mozambican taking jobs and not being clean.  So they decided to start fighting racism with more racism.  Racism exits with whites and blacks and blacks with other blacks.  It exists in every culture within every race, skin color, sex and gender and abilities vs. disabilities.  

So back in Mozambique, we decided to take a little tour of the Salt Lake in an outside borough where they make salt and have a little salt factory and also they are flamingos that reside nearby.  Also, part of the tour was a visit to a local artists home and have lunch there.

So I will be starting a Babies & Mom Yoga program at the school this coming week for the next 8 weeks because the kiddies are back in school and the Holiday Program does not begin until November, December and January again. 

I must admit too that I am completely and utterly homesick too.  I miss my life and wonderful friends and family surrounding me but for now I am at my present and I have to go deeper into my journey of self.  This is what it is all about the people you meet along the way and the getting raw with your true self and so far so good.

I had to take a picture of this boat at Catembe it had my mom's name on it ESTER.

Love & Light to ALL of you ALWAYS and please send white light, mantras, meditations and prayers my way and send love to all the people that I may be able to help here.

Beautiful Tofo Beach

So I was able to visit one of the best surfers beaches I have ever seen Tofo Beach a few weekends ago and I am still in awe of what I saw and experienced.  There are places to stay right on the beach but all the places are very eco friendly, very natural settings and they work beautifully syncing with the environment like a sonnet.  It will be my mission here to learn how to surf, it looks like such a peaceful thing to do ride the waves when you can actually get it right and when you don’t get it right you constantly have to get back up and try and try again.

Adaptations

July 1, 2012

Be sure of what you wish for, you actually might receive 75% of it…

I was walking to give a yoga class one day and the walk takes about 40 minutes and as I was getting in to my walking mediation of listening and connecting to all that I was surrounded by, like my footsteps, people, cars noises etc.  I was chanting my miracle chant in my head and then I spotted an elderly women on the island of the road crawling on her knees with something in a wrap tied on the back of her waist.  I couldn’t believe my eyes as she started to crawl across one of the busiest streets Julius Nyere.  Just as I was about to run across the street to help her I realized that if I did I would only be slowing her down because she was moving so swiftly and she was going to be safe.  On the other side which she was trying to get to there was a bus stop and about 30 people were waiting for the bus who were all just watching her as she kneeled up on to the sidewalk and waited for the bus.  I started crying and walking at this point, I couldn’t believe it the miracle that I was chanting for was that lady herself; she is the miracle of life.  My perspective changed drastically I felt lucky to be alive and grateful to be here in Africa.  As I came home I told my room mate that was staying with me temporarily and lives in a more rural area in Mozambique and she told me that especially in rural areas she sees many people with disabilities that crawl everywhere and she has seen people with no wheelchairs crawl on buses a lot.  I asked her does anyone get up to help?  She responded “No I have never seen anyone help.” WOW
The other day I was walking to work and I saw a nun helping a child off the sidewalk where he was sleeping.  I thought about the book "Half the Sky" I read in that book that it is the missionaries and churches that help the most in developing countries.  It was a beautiful sight I couldn't help but to cry. 

As I am reaching my third month in Mozambique I am starting to adapt and I am starting to really enjoy myself as I let myself go.  Sometimes letting go of the past completely and just being present in the moment and accepting everything that is happening to you at the moment can be very liberating when living abroad.  At first, I was told by my office here many times over that Mozambicans are like this and Mozambicans are like that or excuses to why kids are treated the way there are or how girls being pregnant at 10 years old is the norm here even if she was cohered.  Well it might be the way here but it doesn’t mean I have to accept it or go along with it, at the end of the day I have to be myself even if my colleagues, friends or others do not agree with me.  I think saying things like it is my culture not to show up 3 times to a scheduled meeting with you on 3 different occasions is an excuse, and I think we all know that excuses are self-abuses.  It is the type of excuse that leaves you and everyone around you living in the dark ages and that is what stereotypes do too, they lead us to believe that not only as human beings we do not have much potential but it also enables the government and other Babylon systems to engage in things like stigmatizations.  I truly believe that it is one of the greatest gifts to be a human being and it is the highest level of all beings so we must use our lifetimes well and happy.  Also, it is you as a person, the context of your character to know the difference between right and wrong the difference between kindness, compassion and selfish-lessness.  It ought to be common nature to all of us or an innate ability for us to give up our seats for pregnant women or the elderly or to help people with disabilities get on a bus.  It is common nature or common sense to telephone a person when your running late and it is common nature or common sense to know that you should not harm a child in any way.  There is no excuse for sleeping with your daughters and impregnating them and there is no excuse for having sex with a child, it is not part of your culture it is part of your character.  Your culture or your countries reputation should not suffer because of you and you should not suffer because of your country or your countries government.  I am Canadian, Italian and in part of my culture we are stigmatized to the stereotype of being known for our “Soprano” ways, but you do not see me walking around making arrangements with my Uncle Bruno and negotiating cement shoe sizes for all who have pissed me off.  I think one of the biggest parts of adapting to another country is realizing that it is not about us and them, we and they, thus it is just like all the years I have worked with children with special needs you would never want anyone to be excluded but only included.  We are human beings we are not animals we are not here to fight, we are here to love and interconnect with everyone and everything around us.  Love everywhere is the most important thing we all want to share, talk about, analyze, obtain and discuss.

So I keep reminding myself that I wanted everything that I am involved in right now and it is true.  I wished for a place where there was less junk food so easily accessible, here there is fruit stands and people walking around with fresh apples and ready to peel oranges for you every 5 steps.  I wished for a place were there were no line up, no one lines up here or even minds the line.  I wished for a place that was free and now I want to come back to Canada and imitate the Mozambicans and start my own business on a street corner in Toronto and if anyone tries to stop me I would yell this is a free world!  I hoped for a place where I could live that I could be safe, running water and electricity and double the small boxed 1 bedroom condos I was dwelling in the city of Toronto and now I am living in spaces with room mates that would go for half a million in the city of Toronto.  I wished for a place where smiling and socializing mattered more than material items or people checking out the labels that you wore, now I have one of the best social life’s I have ever had in my life and I am meeting some very like minded people.  I wished for a place where art, music, dancing and expressing your self creatively was necessary and important, here I am surrounded by it on a daily basis.  Tonight I left my window open and for hours listening to a group of people singing and singing.  People sing here all the time, celebrations such as weddings, baptism, church, going to work on the back of the pick up truck or going home on a 10 hour bus ride, music is important.  I wished for a place were the beaches were preserved and the food was fantastic and the animals were a common sight to see and here there is all of that plus plush more.  Maputo is like a African Las Vegas, I feel like I am in Mad max sometimes but I just keep thinking to myself especially after I was able to visit Bazaruto Islands that Africa is poor my ass! The most beautiful things in life are for free.

I went on a journey with some friends to visit some of the famous Mozambican beaches so I met some friends in Vilankolos.  Originally the city is spelled with a K and later a C because the Portuguese do not use K as much in their language.  I did the trip on a fancier bus going with a semi-working toilet on board and it included cookies and juice on the 10 hour ride.  I was sitting beside 3 boys from China and at 5am when we started our journey 1 of them started to take pictures of me still for unknown reasons.  When I arrived the city folk were very nice, use to tourist so the people were friendlier and very helpful but you do feel like you are in a western movie while strolling in to town.  However, we were quite lucky that the weather was pretty fantastic on the weekend and we took a boat ride over to the islands so we can snorkel.  The beautiful wooden sailboats are crafted for the ways of the fisherman and the sea 500 years ago.  Once we got on the boat the sailors started to prepare us a meal, in the charcoal pit they had on the boat but when one of asked if that was dangerous, a chuckle was the response.  We stopped to snorkel the 1^st day and the area was full of jellyfish so we decided against it and moved on to relax on the untouched island and preserved beaches.  We arrived at the beach and it was miles and miles of sand dunes and nature.  It was glorious and surreal for me as we sat on the sand and mad ourselves comfortable the boys from the boat set up a little area where we could eat.  The food was fresh crab and fresh fish grilled to perfection, rice, potatoes and tomato sauce made from scratch by mincing a whole bunch of tomatoes (the tomatoes here are Italian) with garlic, onion, salt, some of the mixture that you put in to make soup but seafood taste and sautéed with a lot of vinegar and a salad.  This one of the best meals I have had so far here, this was such a decadent affair but it was so simple.  At one point a fancy motor boat pulled up beside the 2 wooden sail boats that made them look ancient but I just thought to myself “This ain’t Miami bitch, move that boat out of the way your ruining the scenery” HA!   We went on another sailboat that was much bigger the next day and we sailed off to another island Mac and we snorkeled for a bit there.  I felt a bit of a ball hit my arm while I was snorkeling to realize later a jellyfish bit me but I survived and lived to write about it.  The 3 of us took a different bus back called a Macebomba, 10 hours back while you're sitting very, very close actually snuggling and the music being played at full blast capacity, commencing at 1am.  This bus had no toilet on board and no food at one point I almost thought I lost my will to live and but I made it without having a panic attack but lavender oil on a tissue helps too.

I love the learning experience I am having with learning a new language and I have been confident enough to carry on conversations with others in Portuguese.  Some have even exclaimed how well my Portuguese is and sometimes I think it is just because I am a good listener.  I soon will be able to travel around outside of the country because my derie, my residence card will be ready in a few weeks!  I was interacting with immigration offices and personnel here for a few weeks and the process is just as you would expect it to be in a developing country but I survived unscathed and smiling.  I also have been able to get a volunteer job more permanent position with a wonderful organization called “Livro Aperto” and what they do is go to different neighborhoods and help children with literacy programs, teaching children how to read, write and much more.  I am very excited about my new full time volunteer position and relieved that I will be working with children and families again.   This means I will transfer to the education department at VSO Mozambique under a new program manager who seems to be very passionate about helping children and youth in the education systems.  I have been and hopefully will be able to continue doing Yoga with the Youth at AEFUM and some other places.  I particularly love doing yoga with the youth because they seem to be swallowing the thirst they have for knowledge, peace and love.  I have also been able to do some visits with a therapist here that helps run a school CERCI for children special needs.  The only word that I think can describe my experience at this school is the adjective “barren.”  Some of the parents are financially well off and they decided to start a school for children with special needs it is very rare that schools or other environments will include children with special needs.  The conditions were pretty bad and the therapist keeps trying to include the youth into programs in the community.

I have been to Livro Aberto a few times already and I am loving the experience .  I officially start this coming week so wish me luck!

http://www.livroaberto.org/#!news-and-events

Live Love Laugh & Learn

Rosetta

Teaching Kundalini Yoga with Youth

The Beautiful Yogi's 

In Moz