Global Poverty Monitor

[After a short flight from Maputo to Tete, in the northern region of Mozambique.]

We were picked up by three World Vision cars, and drove for about 15 minutes to the Mozambique World Vision office where they had prepared a snack for us before our long drive. We then got back into the cars and drove for two ours to the Ubezi Tiger Lodge, where we will be spending the next five nights. On the way, it was really interesting to watch the landscape and especially to look at the huts as we drove past. The huts were made of sticks, mud and straw, and were so old-fashioned looking that the whole scene looked like something out of a movie.

We were picked up again at about 7pm, and taken to the Chitima town youth group. This was where we would meet the leaders of the area, and some of the local youth. When we got there (about a 30 minute drive) the youth group started singing and dancing as we pulled up. There was a very lively, happy atmosphere amongst everyone there, and it didn’t take long before we all forgot that we were tired and started dancing with everyone else. We took photos with the children, and they loved seeing their picture on our LCD screens after the picture was taken.

After the celebrations, we listened to some speeches from the ADP leaders, and then the church leaders. After that, we all had to come up one by one and introduce ourselves. Alex, who traveled in the van with us, was translating very fluently from English to Portuguese and back. When it was my turn, I said my name and when I said my age, there was silence and then some people started to laugh. Alex whispered to me ‘you are very small’. It was a pretty funny moment – realizing that the confusion about my age is universal, and not just confined to Australia as I originally thought! I then went on to say that I had two years of university to go, and that when I finished I would be a lawyer. I then thanked everyone for having us and said that I was really excited and happy to be here. After that there were a few prayers said, some more dancing and photos, and then we left. We were definitely getting a heroes welcome here – when the speeches started someone brought us some chairs, and we had people lining up to shake our hands as we left. I know there is a certain amount of fascination going on about us, in that a lot of the people, especially the kids, would never have seen a white person before. But there is also a feeling among the Mozambicans that we are their saviors, which I’m not sure is such a good thing.