'field' work

Monday morning began with a hotel breakfast promptly at 7am and a stop at the office before we headed out on the road. We rent the first floor of a house and all the necessary equipment and technology for about 5 months out of the year. There are 4 full-time staff that stay primarily at the office – an admin assistant, an office manager, a cook, and a cleaner. There is also an office for the finance staff, one for logistics staff, and one for visitors. Everyone was very gracious and I was happy to recognize most of their names since I manage the budget that has their salaries included! We then headed out to Mocuba, one of the 6 districts where we are responsible for paying the local staff hired throughout the spray season, which was about a two hour drive. A car and driver have been hired for the office staff throughout the season and he drove myself and two colleagues to various construction sites throughout the region. The driver looks like he can’t be a day over 20 (although he claimed he was 27 when I told him I was 28) and is an easy going guy, which is important since Quelimane is the city of painful potholes and the highways between the districts are really two lane roads of which maybe 2/3 is actually paved. My company has been entrusted with overseeing the construction of 18 evaporation tanks, which allow for DDT-impregnated equipment to be cleaned properly without contaminating the ground water, and 5 warehouses, which house the extra/replacement equipment at one base in each district. We visited 4 different sites in various locations throughout the day, which are typically next to hospitals, and met various local staff who are involved in the spraying.

My favorite part of the day was getting a peek at the training session being held for the chefes de brigada (brigade chiefs) who oversee the locals who actually do the spraying. One training supervisor gave me a tour of the grounds where the training is held, which is an abandoned textile factory that covers multiple acres and would have been the largest in all of Africa if it had continued past the initial stages of functioning.

Later in the day we passed a large cashew factory that has also been out of service since the 1970s. Truly sad to think how different this region would be if the factories had survived their civil war (which I need to read up on, because I know nothing except that it happened after independence in 1975, and the two parties on either side of the war are still the major political parties today).

After a couple hours of relaxation back at the hotel, we went for dinner at a pizzeria run by an Italian couple – brick oven yumminess. Mário ran into yet another person he knew – an Italian man who had worked for him previously in Maputo and is now here working for a contracting company. I swear he runs into people he knows at least twice a day – there were 3 people on our plane here that he knew. That’s what happens when you work in the Ministry of Health for 20 years, I suppose!

Tuesday started bright and early with a meeting with the Provincial Health Director at 7am – luckily the office is behind our hotel, and we decided to eat breakfast afterwards. I can’t get used to being introduced as the ‘boss’ from the States – I suppose since I manage the budgets, I’m seen as the one who holds the purse strings and therefore has some sort of power? People in the office call me “Dona Emily” and “chefa” – I keep telling them that they all know more than I do and I’m no one’s boss. In any case, the Director was maybe two years older than I am and very familiar with the work done on this project – he listened attentively and asked good questions, and I was able to converse some in broken Portuguese.

On the way to the office, I saw cars with World Vision and Save the Children logos, and have seen many UNICEF and USAID symbols in various places – there is definitely significant development work being attempted in this region. A good day at the office – I was able to help out with some finance-related issues, and you can’t beat having someone bring you a morning snack, coffee, and making lunch. Mário brought various people he was meeting with throughout the day back to meet me, and I was surprised by people asking permission to interrupt me or enter my ‘office’ – it works the other way around back in DC. Work hasn’t slowed down outside of Mozambique, so it was great to be able to have access to email all day and get some other things accomplished. Tomorrow we hold training for the pay clerks which go to each district and oversee the distribution of payments to the local staff. I’ve been asked to help out with part of it so we’ll see how that goes!