Writers, journalists, editors, poets, and translators

Sometimes paradise comes under the most unexpected guises. For example, a workshop with a panel of American writers, poets, journalists, editors, and translators.

Invited by the Cultural Center of the U.S. Embassy in Maputo, a group of five writers from the University of Iowa presented a series of workshops talking about what they do, why they do it, how they do it.

The audience, mostly young journalist students from Mozambique, were hungry for information and seemed eager to know more about the craft, the process, the career, the challenges. The writers were fun, honest, approachable and down to earth. Not to mention engaging and interesting. The flow of the conversation, though carried in two languages, was kept at a good pace by a very skilled interpreter and some of the participants who were bilingual. What else
can one ask?

Mozambican poets and writers also had the chance to present their work. The following day, there was more time for discussions during the presentation at the Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos (Mozambican Writers Association). I felt fortunate to be able to fully understand the nuances of both languages and had a great time observing the coming together of these very different cultures.

You can play 'Where is Waldo' and try to find me in this photo.

Plus, in a weird way, I felt at home. It was only during these presentations that I realized how much had I been missing my readings, my writing groups, my “real” work, books, meetings with colleagues, my libraries (Oh, VPL, if you only knew how much you mean to me!). Next obvious step, was to raid the bookcases of my friends here. Picky-ness out of the window due to lack of choice, I've been reading some *interesting* stuff.


But at least I won’t read-starve.

Voluntarios nacionales en el distrito de Nlhamankulu

"Em Dezembro de 2009 o Distrito Urbano nº 2 do município de Maputo recebeu a designação de Nlhamankulu. Este distrito está divididos em 11 unidades administrativas também chamadas 'bairros'. Quatro destes bairros são designados Chamanculo A, B, C e D." Os outros são Aeroporto A e B; Xipamanine; Minkadjuíne; Unidade 7; Malanga e Munhuana. Por lo menos eso es lo que dice Wikipedia. Bonga Mbilo tiene el prescolar en el barrio Chamanculo D y la oficina y recolección de residuos sólidos en el barrio adyacente Minkadjuíne.

La semana pasada nos reunimos con otras organizaciones comunitarias que trabajan en diferentes barrios del distrito Nlhamankulu (suena casi igual que Chamanculo) en el Centro de Desarrollo Comunitario donde se encuentra el prescolar.


La reunión esta vez era para presentar dos de esos proyectos: uno sobre voluntarios nacionales y otro sobre acción comunitaria y voluntarios.

Es que en los últimos años en Mozambique se ha estado intentando promover la idea del trabajo voluntario como una solución para muchos problemas sociales, desempleo y entrenamiento de jóvenes. Aquí pueden ver un video sobre el tema.

Cambiar ideas y comportamientos no es fácil. Aún a muchos les cuesta la idea de que alguien quiera trabajar sin remuneración o por casi nada y tampoco lo consideran como algo que pueda ponerse en un CV. Sin embargo, la realidad es que todos hacen todo tipo de servicio comunitario de manera informal en forma de favores a su familia inmediata o extendida, o a su comunidad o grupos de pertenencia. El desafío es extender ese sentimiento de pertenencia más allá de esos grupos reducidos.

Luego de presentar los proyectos y contestar dudas y preguntas -donde anduve traduciendo del inglés al portugués y viceversa (ja, ja)- fuimos a otro barrio a encontrarnos con los miembros de otros dos grupos. Las preocupaciones son similares: basura y saneamiento, educación y apoyo para los niños y jóvenes, HIV/sida. Las ganas de hacer, muchas; la gente, divina; algunas de las inciativas, increíbles. Y sin embargo, para que cambien las cosas, hace falta el compromiso de mucha más gente. Y de muchas, muchas otras cosas...

Community participation and consultation: talking to the chefes

After the initial meeting with local leaders and the workshop I wrote about the other day, it was time to meet with the different representatives of the community to inform them about the project, evaluate their interest, answer their questions and doubts, and ask for their input.


Here is how the meeting went:

Initially we were concerned about not being inclusive enough, but as it turned out, there was a fair amount of women present and the age range was also broad enough.

The report back from the team was that the meeting went well and there was enthusiasm for the project.





The discussion was conducted in Changana*, a Bantu language spoken in Southern Mozambique and one of the most common languages in Maputo together with Portuguese.

What were they saying? Not sure, but it looks like it was funny.

Representatives from VSO, the city and Cruz Vermelha Moçambique.

Where did all this take place? In the neighborhood of Chamanculo C, a part of Maputo outside of the cement city.

 Below are a couple of photos** taken around the neighborhood.

 

 

* If you want to learn some Changana, check some everyday vocabulary here.

** Photos by Elizabeth Kuttner.

The Polyglot Dilemma: Which language do you choose to communicate?

My Move to Mozambique? Minha mudança à Moçambique? Mi mudanza a Mozambique?
English? ¿Português? ¿Español?

The first consideration is always which language to use for the blog, as every option has its pros and cons:

* English serves in many cases as the lingua franca.

* Spanish would be easier and would reach family and friends who don't read English that easily. Plus it would serve to link and (hopefully) help to bridge that huge knowledge gap that sadly separates both continents.

* But I'll be working in MZ and I need to start using my very rusty Portuguese and bring it to an appropriate level of work-related correctness.

In all likelihood I'll be switching from one to the other, according to the mood, or the topic, or the language I've in my head at the moment. And I'll be mixing and Spanglish-izing, or Portuñol-izing, and even Engluese-izing things, butchering each language in the process. For that, I apologize to native speakers.

Using Google Translate or any other automatic translation tool will be enough to give you an idea of what the posting is about (use the button included on the right side to pick your language).

If you do know the language, in particular Portuguese, feel free to correct my writing. In no way will I get offended. On the contrary, I'll appreciate it enormously. Pointing out factual mistakes or any other inaccuracy, also appreciated.

Disclaimer.- If, initially, the postings in Portuguese seem to be a tad erratic and pointless it's because I'm following the advice I often give my students: there's no better way to learn a language than actually using it. As I haven't written in Portuguese in 20+ years, I will use any excuse to ramble in Portuguese about everything and anything even mildly related to the move to MZ. I apologize in advance.

Key combinations for funny symbols

On a related, multilingual note, I've been figuring out key combinations to be able to write in Portuguese. The c cedilha and the circumflex accent, at least on a Mac, are as follows:

Ç shift + option + c

ç option + c

ÂÔÊ option+i+[capital vowel]

â ô ê option+i+vowel

ãõ option + n
à option + `

And, while we're at it, we might as well learn the combination for Spanish symbols:

á é í ó ú option + e + vowel

ñ option + n + n

¡ option + 1

¿ shift + option + ?

Until later! ¡Hasta luego! ¡Até logo!