Way back when

In Mozambique.

We played.

Mozambique

My Mozambican doll collection just grew. Marni gave me one of the dolls below as a birthday present.

These Handmade Dolls from Mozambique are dressed in colorful patterned clothes. Each doll carries a basket, a cloth-wrapped bundle, or a small pile of sticks on her head, steadying it with one hand. The other hand stretches around to the small of her back, where a tiny baby is securely held in place by a soft sling.

When you buy one of these dolls, one is given to a child in an orphanage in Mozambique's capital.

I fell blessed. As gifts go, this one is pretty special.

O que andas a fazer?

Summer was always so much fun in Mozambique.

My routines here follow the rhythms of the girls' school schedule. Summer break has started and the river's course changes.

We roamed the neighborhood inventing games and exploring the fields, breaking rules only occasionally.

O que andas a fazer? - What are you doing?

It was a rhetorical question, she knew we were spending our summer days away.

Here's a striking image of Africa.

On with summer ...

Celebrating Africa

In Art Masterpiece at school.

Tribal women in Namibia gather after the rains to repaint their mud houses using their fingers as brushes. They work in harmony and do not compete. I taught this lesson in a 5th grade class today and I asked most kids individually what they remembered. They remembered that the women worked as a group.

Turning points

Thirty three years ago a decision to leave Mozambique was being made in the room below.

At 13, I had no idea what impact that would have on my life. I carry a bit of the country with me.

Matrecos

These tables are staples in all Portuguese social clubs and cafes. The sounds of the game are unique.

We are novices, but this level of expertise must take many years to develop.

The game was invented by this guy, and there's also a human version. Some people are really fanatics.

All in all, this is part of my childhood experience which I can share with my family as we did at a party yesterday.

An African Soul

To my friend who dares to love.

(picture borrowed from her website)

Here she is in Beira, my birthplace. Visit her blog where she shares her love for Africa.

Old Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills - my kind of play

Matacuane, in Beira, Mozambique was my childhood playground. My sisters and I played outside, with many of the kids in the neighborhood. We were always inventing games that had very little to do with toys. My favorite memories involve building a cabana in our back yard, out of palm tree leaves. We had to dismantle it because we later found a snake inthere. We collected fish from the rice fields during the rainy season. The water level reached our waist. We always had to figure out a way to dry off before going home. Or the time we sucked on sugar cane, leaving our side walk full of that fiber. I was a regular tree climber. We were risk takers, and our days were rich with activity and friendship.

Listen here for an NPR report.

Play on people!!

Beira - For the history

Orphans in Mozambique

Juicing up with Sara Tavares

My amiga bequeathed this cd as a Christmas offering. Oh, the sweet sound of Sara. Thanks amiga. Take a peek here.

Life in Mozambique

A South African, Axel Schmitz took these pictures on a holiday in Mozambique. Check out the BBC in pictures

Beach near Beira.

Girls getting water, Chimoio.

Low tide at Vilankulo Bay.

Selling to passing buses, north of Beira.

Hung out to dry after dying.

Hope

by Helen Papworth

What does the picture represent?

Hope for Africa and many, many more personal experiences in and about Mozambique.
I love water colors. Its soft, nonrigid quality is how I prefer to view life.

Where in the world are the Vieiras?

My Mozambican family. And just like most Mozambicans who left in the late 70s, they have found a way to maintain their African roots. The Internet has lessened the sense of loss felt by those of us who unwillingly left.

Cheers, primos!

Zalouk

The Soul of a New Cuisine

I flip through the pages, checking list of ingredients, looking for clues as to what are manageable recipes to start with. My pantry is not stocked with smoked herring or the various - and there are many - types of chilies.

I chose a variation of Zalouk, a Moroccan dish, named "Warm Eggplant-Butternut Squash Salad."

This weekend, me and my shopping list will dash to the food store (I have 3 favorites), and bring home the beginnings of my masterpiece.

Red alert! -Taste buds are salivating!

The Soul of a New Cuisine

My "One woman" project. One woman doer, one woman audience, one woman customer/critic.

Award-winning chef Marcus Samuelson, returns to Africa, his birthplace and explores the continent through its cuisine.

I'm going to attempt to follow some of the recipes in his book "The Soul of a New Cuisine".

Details later.

~ Chef D ~

:-D

A lifetime is over

She was born here

She started a family here...

lived here...

and ended here.

Adeus, cara mae.

The so familiar walkway to the back house

I see a lot of cementing was going on. Today, I heard the story of how these pictures came to be. Many thanks to the brave guy who wandered in there and produced a gift that will provide closure to many who left that all behind. The grape vines are still there.

It was lost, and now it's found...

Matacuane, Beira, Mozambique

May 2007

My childhood home. The windows on the right were the dinning room where my friend Alfredo and I looked over our stamp collections. I can see that the planting space in front of that same window was removed and the space cemented. The bars in the windows weren't there in 1975.
The clothing lines weren't in that spot. I could swear that the door is the same, but could it have lasted 30 years? The step by the door was where my mother informed that that cutting the hairs on my legs would only make them grow back thicker, and where she often stood to comb my younger sister's hair. On the left of the door sat her Singer sewing machine out of which came much of our clothing. The floor tile inside that room was light green and it was so cool on hot summer days. She was my home for 8 years.

Connecting the dots ...

Kelli is visiting Beira, and took some time to find my childhood home. Here's her account of that experience.

"But today’s most incredible accomplishment was finding a friend’s childhood home. She grew up in Mozambique and asked me to try to photograph her old house. With the decaying roads and neighborhoods in mind I wasn’t hopeful, but I told her I would try. She printed off aerial maps of the area and gave me her old address – certainly I’d be able to locate this tiny spot 10,000 miles away between two small landmarks. Right?After showing the maps to our driver and patiently driving and then walking in circles for about 30 minutes, not only did we find the house, we found the family who has been living in it for the last 31 years. The neighbors remembered her. They were surprised and very interested in hearing about the first people to ever come back and photograph the neighborhood. It was surreal. They looked at the Google maps and stared at their homes as seen from space. They couldn’t get over the technology, or that a woman now living in America was looking at them from so far away, wondering about the small cement house she once called home. I can’t wait to share the photos with her when I return." - Kelli

I want to share this with my sisters.