Yep, I did it again—another 24-hour trip to Maputo, which has consequently consumed nearly 6 passport pages (they have an annoying habit of placing a sticker just so, taking up nearly another page each entrance). But I have a three-month visa, so why not go?
We left mid-morning, and arrived in Maputo in the early afternoon. Rather than hit the beach, which was very tempting, I decided to try to take in some culture and see a new part of the city, since it was my third time there after all. I joined the car that was heading to a cool art gallery, then to the central handicraft market, and finally to view the French cultural center downtown. After a couple of hours of more culture than I’d had in some time, it was time for a large group dinner at the fish market—still as good as back in August!
After some downtime at the large house in central Maputo where all dozen of us were staying (some very nice former Mbabanites and my hosts from several weeks earlier), we headed out to a special event, a jazz show that was taking place at the old train station. The venue was complete with two several bar serving drinks and jazz musicians (Americans in fact, sponsored by the US Embassy) performing on a train flatbed. After the show and just around midnight (yippee, late night!) we headed over to Rue d’Art, a unique outdoor bar and club, housed in an alley way of sorts, with a DJ spinning music in the middle of the street corridor, and an indoor bar off to one side.
We proceeded to dance for approximately 4 hours, although the last hour was admittedly more, “hey, let’s try to make it all night ‘til sunrise” because who wants sleep anyway? In fact, a few people’s early morning hunger pangs won out, and we went on a mad search for pizza—apparently not easy to come by in good ol’ Maputo. We finally did find it, but the location was less than ideal. Some street revelers pointed us towards what ended us being a gentleman’s club. Luckily the overt club activities of the evening had already ended as it was after 5am, so we managed to beg for a last-call order of pizza and then struggled to keep our eyes open until it arrived. When the pizza finally did arrive pizza, it was not half bad, and then we made way for home, as the lighted sky promised we had nearly succeeded in our goal.
The next morning included another trip to Café Sol of famed bagels and coffee (not really famous but it is to Swazi expats) and some Thai take-away—the perfect dinner to savor back safe and sound and early to bed in peaceful Mbabane.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Grant Me Freedom
Boy am I glad I went to Moz last weekend, because as I suspected, things at work would be getting quite a bit more hectic upon my boss’s return from leave. We have an enormous proposal due next week—well really October 1st, so we have to have it ready to print sooner than that.
In the meantime, we have been brainstorming, writing, editing, and debating endless options for our proposal to the Dutch Postcode Lottery to which we are applying in conjunction with a NGO in the Netherlands called Stop AIDS Now!, along with a number of other collaborating partners. Apparently 4 of the 60 million Dutch play the Dutch Postcode Lottery, and they take half the earnings each year and donate them to charity. CHAI and SAN! submitted an early-round proposal and are now up against ten other proposals to see who will make it through to the final round. The potential payout of the grant would be 8 million Euros—of which the CHAI Swaziland office would be able to use 4 million to implement a number of “interventions” with the hopes of radically scaling up HIV testing and treatment by making it accessible to all Swazis, which in theory it is now, but for any and all reasons, the HIV epidemic is growing, and Swaziland can sadly boast the world’s highest rate of infection, striking 26% of the general population and 42% of pregnant women.
We have been brainstorming existing barriers to getting people tested and on treatment—rural population, lack of community involvement, weakened health communication system, never-ending list….and coming up with targeted projects to address as many as possible. Four million Euros seems like a lot on one hand, but as soon as the programmatic budgeting starts (and my main job has been crafting the budget), the money goes very quickly. But considering our current country budget is in the hundreds of thousands, a grant of this magnitude would be a huge boost for our ability to implement new initiatives. Just a few more late nights, and hopefully in a couple months time we will know if our hard work pays off…fingers crossed!
In the meantime, we have been brainstorming, writing, editing, and debating endless options for our proposal to the Dutch Postcode Lottery to which we are applying in conjunction with a NGO in the Netherlands called Stop AIDS Now!, along with a number of other collaborating partners. Apparently 4 of the 60 million Dutch play the Dutch Postcode Lottery, and they take half the earnings each year and donate them to charity. CHAI and SAN! submitted an early-round proposal and are now up against ten other proposals to see who will make it through to the final round. The potential payout of the grant would be 8 million Euros—of which the CHAI Swaziland office would be able to use 4 million to implement a number of “interventions” with the hopes of radically scaling up HIV testing and treatment by making it accessible to all Swazis, which in theory it is now, but for any and all reasons, the HIV epidemic is growing, and Swaziland can sadly boast the world’s highest rate of infection, striking 26% of the general population and 42% of pregnant women.
We have been brainstorming existing barriers to getting people tested and on treatment—rural population, lack of community involvement, weakened health communication system, never-ending list….and coming up with targeted projects to address as many as possible. Four million Euros seems like a lot on one hand, but as soon as the programmatic budgeting starts (and my main job has been crafting the budget), the money goes very quickly. But considering our current country budget is in the hundreds of thousands, a grant of this magnitude would be a huge boost for our ability to implement new initiatives. Just a few more late nights, and hopefully in a couple months time we will know if our hard work pays off…fingers crossed!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
If you're feeling newish, there's always someone Jewish...
L'Shana Tova, and Happy New Year! Year 5771, to be exact.
Not surprisingly, there aren’t any synagogues in Swaziland, although to be fair, there was a legitimate Jewish tribe in Uganda. Still, lo and behold, there are still a number of Jews in Swaziland. There are a few of us among the expat community, and on Friday night we held a Rosh Hashanah dinner for over a dozen people. The four or so Jews in attendance helped preside over a brief service, complete with homemade challah and plenty of apples and honey. At the dinner, a couple people mentioned another overnighter trip to Maputo for the following night, and I figured, why not—in keeping with my personal motto of “always go, never leave” ☺
I awoke the next day to a misty, foggy, rainy view out my window and was confirmed in my commitment to flee towards the warmer potential of Maputo. After a smooth 3 and a half hour trip, we arrived in Maputo and made our way to the Cinema Avineda, which was hosting a local African film festival. It was nice to sit in a movie theater again (there is none to be found in the whole of Swaziland, although rumors have it that one is on the way in just a few months!). After an early evening cappuccino, we made our way to the house of some friends of those I was traveling with (doctors who had lived in Swazi and now reside in Maputo in a huge house right off the main street.
Even though I haven’t been away all that long, the rest of the evening was quite a treat in a return to some things I’ve been missing and craving—Thai food and tennis. We walked to a Thai restaurant for a very delicious dinner, then headed to the bar next door to watch the Federer-Djokovic semi-final, which ended up being quite the match! Finally, after taking in some late night local music at a cool bar, Gil Vincente, we crashed, only to wake up (not late enough) the next morning head out to the beach to play Frisbee. And by play Frisbee, I mean watch other people play Frisbee. Frisbee playing is no joke here—and at that morning practice, despite a strong wind along the beach, the players were not messing around. A local player kindly gave me a brief instruction on how to improve my throw (no where to go but up!) and then I lounged on the beach until it was time to hit up the craft market and grab a delicious gelato on the way out of town.
All in all, another great, if brief, to Maputo. Swaziland really is a little gem of a location in Southern Africa, and it seems only appropriate to take advantage of the proximity to some other fascinating countries.
Not surprisingly, there aren’t any synagogues in Swaziland, although to be fair, there was a legitimate Jewish tribe in Uganda. Still, lo and behold, there are still a number of Jews in Swaziland. There are a few of us among the expat community, and on Friday night we held a Rosh Hashanah dinner for over a dozen people. The four or so Jews in attendance helped preside over a brief service, complete with homemade challah and plenty of apples and honey. At the dinner, a couple people mentioned another overnighter trip to Maputo for the following night, and I figured, why not—in keeping with my personal motto of “always go, never leave” ☺
I awoke the next day to a misty, foggy, rainy view out my window and was confirmed in my commitment to flee towards the warmer potential of Maputo. After a smooth 3 and a half hour trip, we arrived in Maputo and made our way to the Cinema Avineda, which was hosting a local African film festival. It was nice to sit in a movie theater again (there is none to be found in the whole of Swaziland, although rumors have it that one is on the way in just a few months!). After an early evening cappuccino, we made our way to the house of some friends of those I was traveling with (doctors who had lived in Swazi and now reside in Maputo in a huge house right off the main street.
Even though I haven’t been away all that long, the rest of the evening was quite a treat in a return to some things I’ve been missing and craving—Thai food and tennis. We walked to a Thai restaurant for a very delicious dinner, then headed to the bar next door to watch the Federer-Djokovic semi-final, which ended up being quite the match! Finally, after taking in some late night local music at a cool bar, Gil Vincente, we crashed, only to wake up (not late enough) the next morning head out to the beach to play Frisbee. And by play Frisbee, I mean watch other people play Frisbee. Frisbee playing is no joke here—and at that morning practice, despite a strong wind along the beach, the players were not messing around. A local player kindly gave me a brief instruction on how to improve my throw (no where to go but up!) and then I lounged on the beach until it was time to hit up the craft market and grab a delicious gelato on the way out of town.
All in all, another great, if brief, to Maputo. Swaziland really is a little gem of a location in Southern Africa, and it seems only appropriate to take advantage of the proximity to some other fascinating countries.
Friday, September 10, 2010
A (Few) Day(s) at the Beach
I missed out on summer. Well, not exactly—I certainly experienced all the humidity that a DC July has to offer, but there was not a ton of relaxation to be had. As myself and too many of my friends have experience, unemployment does not equal relaxation. Yes, you have all this “free time” but also feel like you should be constantly making efforts to land a job (although some people can get past this, and I admire that to a point!). Nevertheless, there were a few days of funemployment and trips to NY to see friends, but there was also anxiety, unpacking, interviewing, and repacking. So when I had the opportunity to tag along on a beach weekend—I jumped at the chance.
We were planning to head to Xai Xai, a chill resort spot on the Mozambique coast a few hours north of Maputo. But upheaval around Maputo put a giant kink in that plan. It very abrupt to hear of the riots, although apparently tension has been building there as the bread prices have risen dramatically. Whenever family and friends worry about my being in Africa and asking whether I feel safe, I truthfully answer that much of the time I really do. Yes, it’s important to be aware and on your guard, but it’s often not nearly as unsafe as the general perceptions or media often lead people to believe or fear the unfamiliar. But I will say that I sometimes sense a precariousness, as a result of many dire social and economic circumstances brewing, that when the tension mounts and nerves snap, it seems to spread more easily and rapidly. Apparently police fired into the crowd of onlookers and from then on the city was on tight lockdown. In fact, one Swazi expat was in Maputo for a work conference that week, and confirmed that the city was on lockdown.
Instead, we took a 4-5 hours drive down to the South African coast with no problems (although that country continues to have issues as well, and by that I mean massive nationwide strikes). Thanks to yet another expat connection, we stayed at a large house owned by a friend of many attendees just a short drive from the beach, and a short walk from main street. We spent the weekend on the beach, game driving, and feasting on seafood—certainly a perfectly acceptable “backup” vacation.
In fact, a couple people from the group even went out fishing the last morning, so we had a braai complete with fresh fish upon our return to landlocked Swaziland!
Monday, September 6, 2010
So What?
Last week I attended a 6-day training focused on techniques for efficient and effective implementation of new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines concerning prevention of mother to child HIV transmission (PMTCT). The approximately three dozen attendees included mostly Ministry of Health (MOH) employees and regional supervisors, and only a handful of partners (NGOs)—Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), Mothers to Mothers, and of course CHAI (represented by yours truly). The new guidelines, were recently adopted by Swaziland, and call for some significant adjustments to standards of care for pregnant women, such a prophylaxis to be given to children and calling for sustained breastfeeding for 12 months with continued prophylaxis.
The course for the week was basically like a rapid Executive MBA, put on through a joint effort by Johnson & Johnson (funding), UCLA Anderson School of Management and AMREF (instruction) through an initiative called the Management Development Institute. It had just finished trainings in Cape Town the week beforehand; there was another going on in Ghana.
Needless to say, many parts were redundant for me. We had three-hour courses on Leadership & Management, Organizational Planning, Financial Management, Marketing, and Operations.
The most interesting part for me was developing our goals for implementing the new PMTCT guidelines—significant changes include placing the mother on ART medication at 14 weeks of gestation and placing an exposed baby (meaning the mother is HIV positive; antibodies in the baby’s blood stream from the mom means that the baby’s on HIV status cannot be determined until six weeks) on prophylaxis at birth and continuing on it through (the encouraged) 12-months of breast feeding plus one additional week. Phew. And that’s just two of them. Things get quite technical quite fast.
In any case, back to the goals. The 35 participants were split into 5 different teams—one for each region and one national team. I was team Lubumbo, the eastern region that is one of the poor regions. We had to write out what we considered to be the major current challenges and barriers to implementing PMTCT (this can go on forever—lack of systems, human resources, training, etc.) and then decide on three problems to target, and develop a mission statement for each goal and then a process-oriented objective (i.e. Train one nurse from every facility in the region) and an outcome oriented objective (i.e. Enable nurses to provide better PMTCT care for patients) that had to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely). We were asked to continually test our goals and objectives by asking “So what?” Such as, we are training 30 nurses—so what?? Do we really think they will then be prepared to implement all the new guidelines on a regular basis?
It proved to be very challenging for our team, as proved by the fact that that task took us close to 6 hours to accomplish. And, in fact, it’s really not simple—I should use that SMART rule for more goals in my life. The surprising thing was how hard it was to come up with goals that really hit home on those five points. And how to measure it??? I know we talked endlessly about measuring impact in many of my nonprofit management courses, and there remains no simple answer—just continued effort to try to really hone in on goals and align funding and time with these as carefully as possible.
As the only non-African participant, there were certainly a few lonely dinners in the midst of a sea of other colleagues who knew and worked together, as well as moments were I felt suffocated by a life lived day-in-day-out within a hotel and fueled by teas and enormous, underwhelming buffets every two hours. On the other hand, by the end of the week, I had formed friendly connections with many of them, and definitely bonded with my Lubombo Team (Exhibit A), and seen many of the other participants challenged and absorbed in learning and processing all the new material thrown at them. I was happy to be free of the buffet line, but also happy to have had the chance to attend.
The course for the week was basically like a rapid Executive MBA, put on through a joint effort by Johnson & Johnson (funding), UCLA Anderson School of Management and AMREF (instruction) through an initiative called the Management Development Institute. It had just finished trainings in Cape Town the week beforehand; there was another going on in Ghana.
Needless to say, many parts were redundant for me. We had three-hour courses on Leadership & Management, Organizational Planning, Financial Management, Marketing, and Operations.
The most interesting part for me was developing our goals for implementing the new PMTCT guidelines—significant changes include placing the mother on ART medication at 14 weeks of gestation and placing an exposed baby (meaning the mother is HIV positive; antibodies in the baby’s blood stream from the mom means that the baby’s on HIV status cannot be determined until six weeks) on prophylaxis at birth and continuing on it through (the encouraged) 12-months of breast feeding plus one additional week. Phew. And that’s just two of them. Things get quite technical quite fast.
In any case, back to the goals. The 35 participants were split into 5 different teams—one for each region and one national team. I was team Lubumbo, the eastern region that is one of the poor regions. We had to write out what we considered to be the major current challenges and barriers to implementing PMTCT (this can go on forever—lack of systems, human resources, training, etc.) and then decide on three problems to target, and develop a mission statement for each goal and then a process-oriented objective (i.e. Train one nurse from every facility in the region) and an outcome oriented objective (i.e. Enable nurses to provide better PMTCT care for patients) that had to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely). We were asked to continually test our goals and objectives by asking “So what?” Such as, we are training 30 nurses—so what?? Do we really think they will then be prepared to implement all the new guidelines on a regular basis?
It proved to be very challenging for our team, as proved by the fact that that task took us close to 6 hours to accomplish. And, in fact, it’s really not simple—I should use that SMART rule for more goals in my life. The surprising thing was how hard it was to come up with goals that really hit home on those five points. And how to measure it??? I know we talked endlessly about measuring impact in many of my nonprofit management courses, and there remains no simple answer—just continued effort to try to really hone in on goals and align funding and time with these as carefully as possible.
As the only non-African participant, there were certainly a few lonely dinners in the midst of a sea of other colleagues who knew and worked together, as well as moments were I felt suffocated by a life lived day-in-day-out within a hotel and fueled by teas and enormous, underwhelming buffets every two hours. On the other hand, by the end of the week, I had formed friendly connections with many of them, and definitely bonded with my Lubombo Team (Exhibit A), and seen many of the other participants challenged and absorbed in learning and processing all the new material thrown at them. I was happy to be free of the buffet line, but also happy to have had the chance to attend.
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