It's been pretty busy here over the last week or so, not helped by the fact that internet access has been erratic to say the least. I'm off to Ibo in a few minutes to do some birding with Malcolm. I'll try to post something more interesting next week!
posted by Rebecca @ 9:06 AM
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One of the harder things about living in Pemba is that people come and go frequently. Many come on 2-year NGO contracts or the like, and just as you are getting to know them it's time to move on. So we have got used to casual, short-term friendships, enjoying them while they last but not investing too much emotion. It's easier that way. It's different when old-timers, like our friends Mike and Gal (3rd from L front row and 2nd from R back row) have decided - after 13 years here - that it's time for something new for them and their girls.
I'm very happy for them. They've found a place they love - Temecula, CA - and they're excited and happy about their new start. But it brought a tear to my eye to close the last chapter on our story.
It's a story of friendship
Of new arrivals that grew together and played together
And a bit of a love story too
And so obviously I hope that we'll start another chapter of another story, not just a Pemba story and maybe a different kind of story, but a good story anyway.
Boa viagem, Karivs! Estamos juntos!
Labels: Pemba life
posted by Rebecca @ 10:32 AM
1 comments
Hmm, not doing very well in keeping this blog up to date, am I? It's been a month since the last post, and what have the Phillips-Marques clan been up to? Much of the usual as it would turn out.
Joaquim's doing well at school; his report card for last term mentioned an exceptional ability in maths for his age. I think it's a bit early to be proclaiming him a maths genius, but it's certainly his favourite activity after drawing. His drawings are great: full of dinosaurs, boats, planes, aliens (not usually all together), very dynamic and detailed. Sebastian has also discovered that he can draw. It all started with planes - still an abiding obsession - which continue to be his favourite subject, but he's branched out into cars, dinosaurs and stick people. Our fridge is that stereotypical item of a young family's household: an exhibition of frequently changing, many-hued young people's artwork. I love it!
Paulo is as always busy on many fronts, but especially pouring lots of time and energy into the houses in Chuiba. They're really coming together, and we're hopeful that we may have two or three finished by the New Year. Many compliments have come our way, and we think they look pretty good. It occurs to me that I should post some photos...
I am fattening up nicely, a combination of slack tummy muscles and a desperate chocolate craving. Number three is a busy child, wriggling and kicking and generally making its presence felt on a regular basis. I'm in that happy window between the nausea and prodigious burping which characterised the first three months of this pregnancy (completely unlike either of the previous two), and the last three in which I will inevitably be huge, lumbering, and hot. Why do I always time my pregnancies so perfectly so as to coincide with the hottest time of the year here? Have I not learned my lesson? Oh well, bit late now.
Been spending time on Ibo. Last week I was there for a few days, discussing the community camp on neighbouring Matemo island with a possible investor. I hope it works out. The camp is in a beautiful spot, and has huge potential. As I flew back I saw breaching humpback whales from the air for the first time. They were tiny, little white tic-tacs leaping from the water and causing a huge splash. We've been lucky enough to see lots of whale activity from the shore this year, even Joaquim and Sebastian got a good view the other week-end and were suitably impressed. It's an astonishing sight, no matter how many times you see it: this huge creature rearing out of the water almost to its full 14 or 16 metres, 60 or so tons of whale flesh shooting up into the air then falling in apparent slow motion into a pure white explosion of foam. Definitely one of the highlights of the year.
Another of which is of course the season of the beloved mango, officially opened with the consumption of my first two yesterday.
Marvellous
Aromatic
Nectar-filled
Glorious
Orange-fleshed food of the gods. Sigh.
Labels: Ibo, Joaquim, mangoes, Paulo, Pemba life, Sebastian, waxing lyrical, working mum
posted by Rebecca @ 10:02 AM
1 comments
So I realise that reading about other people's holidays is not always thrilling and as such I shall keep this year's resume to a hit and miss list and a few photos.
HITS:
Family. An all-round winner; many happy hours spent in the company of parents/grandparents, siblings, cousins etc.
Friends. Many and varied and best of all several whose path we haven't crossed for far too many years. Wonderful.
Dinosaurs. The Natural History Museum once again scored highly on the boys' holiday satisfaction reader. The animatronics, the big teeth, the toys! What's not to love?
Aquarium. Going strong in its third summer holiday, the Lisbon Oceanarium is a must-see, and the sea otters don't get any less cute over time.
Food. Daily ice-cream, real cheese, stylish sea-food restaurants, awesome take-away curry, freshly picked figs and super-Maman's home cooking. Yum.
Dentist. Unlikely one this, but we all got the all-clear. Result!
Murtal. 3 days in the country cottage where we got married, eating fruit staright off the trees, swimming in a glorious fresh-water tank, reminiscing and the rest.
London Zoo. Much changed since my last visit (decades ago), my sister and I enjoyed this as much if not more than the kids.
>MISSES:
Lost luggage. My bag did not turn up in Lisbon. I think it's still in Heathrow. BA have no idea where it is. Grrrrr.
Sea. Lovely beaches, shame about the bloody freezing water in bot the UK and Portugal. I have clearly lost my nerve. The boys overcame their initial reluctance to romp gaily in the frigid waters of the North Sea/Atlantic. Obviously take after their maternal garndfather.
Pregnancy-related anxiety. I was very much looking forward to sharing the good news of our forthcoming thrid child with all my friends and family when a very dodgy nuchal translucency result - implying a heightened possibility of all sorts of chromosomal and heart abnormalities - went and threw a spanner in the works. Cue biopsy of the placenta (large needle stuck into my tummy, no pain but no fun either) and several weeks of background anxiety until the final results and a further two scans showed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the little one after all. Not exactly what we had in mind for the holidays, but on the other hand our final HIT is that we are indeed expecting a perfectly healthy baby at the end of February, and no we don't know whether it's a boy or a girl, and although it's pretty obvious what I might be hoping for (Paulo is genuinely indifferent to gender) I am just grateful that all is well and I will love equally whoever turns up in 5 months.
After all, going on past form, we won't do too badly!
Labels: holidays
posted by Rebecca @ 3:30 PM
4 comments
We've been on holiday. Normal service to resume soon.
posted by Rebecca @ 12:36 PM
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After last year's roaring success, Il Pirata hosted the second Pemba Open kite-surfing competition two week-ends ago. Much larger and with more on offer than last time, even the less than ideal wind conditions (after howling gales for 2 weeks the winds dropped to the point of no kiting on day 3 of teh competition) were not enough to dampen the ethusiasm of the crowd and the competitors. Wake-boarding substituted kite-surfing when the wind dropped and Paulo as DJ and MC ran a series of silly competitions to hand out six-packs of cider courtesy of a sponsor. Music on the beach, grilled food, bar and coffee shop, South African Sport TV and a local station and an excellent turn-out in the crowd all contributed to atmosphere which was pure Pemba.
A few pics (courtesy of my colleague Dave Reynolds) to give you an idea of what we were up to:
posted by Rebecca @ 11:19 AM
2 comments
How the toad got his belly.
One day a father toad and his son were in the forest. The father told his son to wait for him in the shade of a tree while he went out hunting for lunch.
As the little toad waited a man walked past. The toad had never seen a man and was astonished at his size. Afraid and in awe, he crouched in the shadows silently and waited for the monster to pass.
When his father returned he told him that a huge creature, the like of which he had never seen, had passed by while he was gone.
"How big was he?" asked his father. "As big as me?"
"No, much bigger," replied the son.
"This big?" asked his father, puffing himself up.
"Bigger!"
"This big?" puffing himself up further.
"Bigger still!"
"This big?" puffing himself up as far as he could.
"Even bigger! He was enormous!" replied the little toad.
But when his father tried to deflate himself, he found that he was stuck, and that is how the toad got his belly.
(Told me by a Makonde artist as I admired his block prints at an arts and crafts fair last week. I was looking at an illustration of this tale.)
Labels: Pemba life
posted by Rebecca @ 12:14 PM
0 comments
Feckless family of four struggle against all odds to make it in darkest Africa. Only sometimes it's less dramatic than it sounds.
Eight years in Northern Mozambique, juggling work at the Quirimbas National Park, two small boys, building a house, running a home, two companies, and sufficient time on the beach to chill out a bit. It's tough in paradise.
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