Archive for October, 2008
31.10.2008
johnny be good. i went to see if you were in china and there you were, probably not in china i didn’t check, but you said you were having lunch on the beach, and i called you at 8a.m. here!
this means that you were able to spend your birthday with a sunny day and not with water ’till you knees! thank goodness, you had me worried… anyway, just wanted to say, i’m thinking of you all the way over here!
baci
nine months and still gorgeous
how could i forget such a date… ROSIE’s 9 months old and i miss her like crazy. i heard she’s big, i heard she has 4 teeth, and that she crawls all over the place. i hear that she’s like “a cowboy in a tutu”, right mommy? the best expresison ever!!!!
my dear little COOKIE GIRL, hope you’re still smiling that beautiful smile, hope you see me in your dreams because you sure are in my prayers. i miss you little girl. i miss everything about you and also the things i can’t see from here. don’t forget our italian conversations and how we used to make great music with your coloured blocks… ah and also don’t forget to say “ecco” everytime you achieve something new!happy nine month birthday! hope you still smell like cookies!
our new home
it took a while for us to make the decision, but i think we knew the moment we walked in this house where Rosinha and João have shared so much for the last 8 months (also the house where he asked her to marry him… maybe it was really in the stars!!!), where they have created a great and comfy space, and where they welcomed us, complete strangers, into their home and shared it completely.
i fell in love because not of it’s beauty, but of it’s comfort. i also liked the thought of not having to look any further, we tried, i swear we tried, we saw one house, spoke to two agencies, and hear three people say “are you nuts? don´t look anymore, if you like it, for that price and those conditions you´re better off not even knowing what disasers people call houses in this city!” so enough said.
it’s decided, because i’m sure, most importantly this house on the Street of the Sun, number 39 chose us that first moment when we arrived still a bit scared of all of this new adventure.
the pictures i´m showing are from the facade, but if you want to see more of how it looks now, you can take a peak through their eyes… if you can read portuguese you´ll even be lucky to read it, but the pictures are nice. this way i´ll only have to show more when we do more work on it. we´re thinking of repainting the facade and arranjing the flowers in the entrance.
here is:
– the bathroom, the living/dining room, the master bedroom, the guest room… and the other guest room is missing
so, what do you think? the people in the picture are the current renters who we are staying with.
and for those who actually are thinking “oh they actually live in a house!”, those who thought i´d go live in a loveshack, not really, like i said a thounsand time, Maputo is a city not the african jungle!!!! eheheh
detail #001
if you get lost in Maputo you just need one thing, an easy way to remember street names is knowing all the comunist people that ever existed in the world… ah sorry i forgot, Robert Mugabe is the name of a big saqure, and unfortunately he’s still alive.
miss mc portugal
miss portugal has a mac! yes, they have computers here ;) eheheh!!!
let me explain. we were supposed to start working on the 3rd of November. we decided last monday the 21th of October to go to our offices and say “hello” actually i was planning to say “hello, how are you? we’re fine thank you, see you in two weeks!”
we ended up saying “hello, how are you, we’re fine thank you… … you look stressed… … shall we start working earlier?… … hmmm… … wednesday??!!”
stress in Maputo you ask? well, apparently there is! we both starting working this morning, of course the concept of working has a few different diteails, we start at 8a.m. (yes, it’s early but i confess it’s too hot to sleep more anyway), stop at 12:30p.m. and everyone goes home for lunch (Aldo and i walk because our temporary house is 3minutes walking from our offices) have a lunch break until 2p.m. and work until 5pm… stress you ask? well, i never ate lunch at home, so to me that’s the stressiest moment… I HAVE TO STAR COOKING TWO MEALS!!!!
it wasn’t the most prodctive day i’ll ever work, i was so amazed by the big screen i confess i stared at it for a while. but i’ll be working on a project of a huge office building but the deadline is already at the end of November… maybe a bit stressed then, but the office closes for SUMMER HOLIDAYS (remember i’m in the south hemisphere!) for 3 WEEKS in December!!!! yeah to me… this is MANINGUE NICE (translation VERY NICE)!!!!!! grea, already dreaming of Christmas in the sun.
ta ta
“benvinda a maputo”
it’s what i’ve heard for the past three days around here, “welcome”. they welcome us to this city but to me it feels almost like i never left since last year. i recognize still everything, some things i already know where and when to expect them but they still have such a new feeling. it happens everytime i move, i own the city i chose to live in from the very beginning. some are hard to conquer, others not at all. don’t worry, Antwerp might have been the hardest, but i never got so much satisfaction from a place than there, and A’pen knows it!
before i get started, we flew first class and the plane took off with us sitting inside the cockpit! minor detail, but such an exciting one!!!!
so, let me fill you in on something. we’re looking for a house, for the first time we’re doing it together, me and Aldo. he picked the house in Milan, i picked the one in Antwerp, so it’s nice for a change to look for one together. the unusual thing this time is that we think the house chose us! i was reading a blog a while ago from Rosinha and João, a couple who moved to Maputo 8 months ago and by leaving eachother comments on our blogs they ended up, hopefully not forced to, inviting us to stay ith them until we found a house for us. we accepted of course, not only for saving a bit of money but bcause this way we’d make friends from day one and could be oriented by people under forty, seeing that my family of friends of family here are of another generation. seeing Maputo through the eyes of a 28year-old might be a plus right now. João picked us up from the airport, which this time didn’t scared me so much, and we went to pick up Rosinha for lunch, and my uncle also and were able to see we would be friends with them from the beginning, it’s a pity they’re leaving. he asked her to marry him and in 3 weeks they’ll be leaving Maputo to start organizing everything for the big day in april… and this means they’re leaving their house. eventhough the prespective of staying in this house of theirs, with which Aldo and i fell in love with the first moment we arrived, makes me very happy, i’d rather have them here for a while still. i can see us being very close and learning so much from them. but just like we came here as another step into our future, they are also very happy to make the next step, and i just hope the distance can still allow us to know how each of us is doing.
this takes me to the fact that eventhough we have looked at another house, and searched for other things in newspapers and in an agency, i compare everything with this one… it’s a 3bedroom apartment, plus living room, one bathroom, one kitchen and a balcony for the washing…
and it’s on a street called “rua do sol”, which means Street of the Sun. isn’t this a sign???!!!
i’ll post pictures of it as soon as we make a decision…
so, “BENVINDOS A MAPUTO”, welcome you all to maputo!
17.10.2008
i couldn’t pass the oportunity to wish you, Domien The Mean Machine, a great HAPPY BIRTHDAY or if you wish in mozambican/portughese: PARABÉNS! for the second year in a row in Africa.
last year i was enjoying the warm sun on a paradise island, now im in a capital city still enjoying the warm sun.
it looks like that for a while i won’t be seeing you get older… but i hope you never change!
miss you always
the big one
i am standing on a wi-fi airport machine, waiting for that horrible moment where i step into an airplane that will take all night to get me where i have to be… or don’t i?
my family said goodbye, and for the first time in my life my mother cried to see me go, i know those tears meant “i love you” but still it was the moment i think i realized what was happening… this and when Greet called this mornig and i thought that if she’s calling it means she’s saying goodluck.
i have to go, they called my flight to board.
next time i’ll write on this blog i’ll be in africa… but then again wasn’t that why i open this blog? if i dissapear for a little bit, please wait for me.
the big forty eight
forty eight hours until the moment i step into the plane that will take me to the other side of the world, south ways speaking. it’s already here, forty eight hours have arrived .i got used to the feeling of doing things and thinking that the 15th of october would only arrive in another lifetime, i guess all the crap stuff one has to do before embarking on this trip, like doctor appointments, allergy checks, visas, computer crashes, etc, would keep me busy until i looked around me and i’d already e in africa… but noooooo. i’m still here, and now Aldo’s also here.
i have never missed anyone so much than him these past weeks, but having him here makes things so much more real. almost as if he’s my reality check. he has been my reality for a long time, but like this almost feels crazy. if he’s here we are definitely going, i can’y daydream anymore, he’s here, it’s here and we’re going.
but who else would make sense of this other than Aldo? no one! i have had very good support from my family, telling me “it’ll be great but be careful of the snakes!”, “i wish i was going with you, but i’m too scared of the sharks!”, “maputo is a great city, but be careful to not get kidnapped!”… ;) best wishes from who want the best for me!!! eheheheh
but i know i wouldn’t be forty eight hours away from this if it wasn’t for my friends who have made sure i felt as if this is what i was meant to do.
we will be staying with a very nice couple, who even if they are leaving Maputo soon, i hope we become great friends, i hope they help us in that city with everything we can, can’t, must and should do. i don’t know how to thank them enough for taking in complete strangers and letting us a room… of a piece of their floor, i just really wanted a roof over my head.
i’ll try to write to you tomorrow… about the big twenty four… which right now makes the big forty eight sound so nice…
after so long
today, 11th of october, i was bale to spend my sister’s birthday with her… last time i did this she was 19… now she’s all grown up and she’s 26. these kids now a days, grow up so fast!!!!
parabéns maninha!
miss portugal
one way to africa 