Individual Goals

There are many goals I hope to accomplish during my stay in Mozambique and the most important being a life changing experience. I made a promise to myself that I would write in a journal every day I am there. And in that journal I promised to always tell the exact truth about how Mozambique makes me feel. Am I sad? Joyous? Lost? Bewildered? Touched? And to tell you the truth I hope I endure all these emotions.

As for my group project goals I am in the culture group. Since culture is such a broad topic we decided to focus on religion. We thought that religion is such an important part of a culture and it ultimately determines the way people think. We will be looking into the indigenous animist religions in the northern regions as well as Catholic services in the south. We hope to interview with priests, natural healers, witch doctors and elders from every community that are old enough to have lived through liberation from the Portuguese as well as the Civil War. We will also be looking at traditional song and dance that are associated with the religions that we will be studying.

For my individual project I was going to focus on traditional music but have decided to try and do an artistic video journal. As a filmmaker I have been working with experimental video and kind of want to base my individual project along those lines. Something fast paced, raw and real. I want the video to speak Mozambique. I want to embrace the landscape and the people that inhabit it.

I can't even begin to explain the excitement I have in my heart. The thrill I have to travel to this country I have only been reading about in books. Bon Voyage! See you in two weeks!

Transforming Mozambique

I have been learning so much on this journey through Mozambiques history. And what astonished me about Carrie Manning's book was that Mozambique went from being one of the poorest, war torn countries in Africa to becoming the most sustainable. By implementing democratization into their country they have boosted their GPN per capita and have maintained peace among the rivaling groups FRELIMO and RENAMO. The more I learn about the country the more shocking I think it will be to be there seeing and experiencing this post-war country. It will be interesting to see as well what democracy has done to re-build the city. I liked when Manning referred to in her book as Mozambique being a UN success story. For democracy to take so well to Mozambique's conflicting groups and stop the civil conflict that was brutally devistating their country. It is estimated that 1 million people perished in that 16 year civil war. And just what these people did to one another. The horrific thought just makes my stomach turn. So the more I learn the more I want to be there for the historic reason. To be a part of witnessing their 4th democratic election, to listen to peoples thoughts, speak to some elders that have lived to see the transformation from war to peace and how it has changed them or changed the way they think.

Mozambiqe and US

It is hard to believe that in just two weeks I will be arriving in Maputo, Mozambique and gazing out at the land I have been dreaming about for the past several months. No longer will I have to click from one image to the next to get me to my destination. No longer will I have to slave long nights in front of a computer screen reading text after text until my eyes dry out of my sockets. I will be there, ready to take it all in.
I have to say it has been quite the task preparing for this trip. And with that said I have had to do all of these things in just little over a month.
Paperwork, visas, immunizations (for me 5 shots in one sitting and one more to go)(yikes!), learning Potruguese, group project research, individual project research, a 4 1/2 hour class every Wednesday, travel medication prescriptions, bug defense shopping, extensive readings, BLOGGING!! This class has already been an experience worth sharing but I am getting ready to see it all in the lime light.
So, Mozambique. Their fourth democratic election. A coutry so new to democracy, how will it all pan out one might ask. Do they get excited about elections? Do they discourage elections and this whole democracy thing? How many people really get out there and vote? I hope I find the answers to these questions. Although this country is new to all of this they really don't seem different than any of us here living in the States. In the south it seems like any other big city with restaurants, clubs, bars, museums etc...In the north you have your more rural areas, the farmers, self sustained villages, small tribes and then the big city of Nampula with a large Arabic community. The big difference between the US and Mozambique is the obvious. We are established and have been for a long time. Mozambique is still picking up the pieces from their recent civil war.
Within their democratic system they have two major political parties such as the US except theirs are known as RENAMO (Resistence) and FRELIMO (Liberation Front). I have read about one smaller party that exists but receives little attention. And maybe as Mozambique progresses over the years more parties will be added such as the US.

What does democracy mean to me

I am not a politcal science major, nor do I have extensive knowledge about the subject. But a few words come to mind when I think about democracy as an American living in a country that practices this system.

Equality
Freedom
Expression
Governmental
Civilized
Participation

For me the most important thing about democracy is freedom and expression. We are lucky to be able to voice our opinions about government. And I think we take it for granted sometimes. We have not experienced what it is like to not be a democratic system. I can only imagine if we switched systems and did not practice democracy. We would resort to fighting for freedom like in other countries that aren't as lucky as us.

I think the development for democracy in Mozambique is important for the people after 400 years of colonialism from the Portuguese. I want to see these people get in touch with their TRUE ROOTS and not that of another country that was forced upon them. The Mozambicans have lost so much of their own culture. I would hope that democracy can help them to express and educate themselves about their true heritage and one day be able to incorporate this back into their colonized culture.

My visit with Anne Pitcher:

I was interested in what Anne had to say about the farmers and their cashew trees. She explained that if someone plants a cashew tree on a certain piece of land that they automatically look at this piece of land as theirs. It makes me think of a time where this is how land was decided to these people a long time ago. That this is something that was practiced before colonialism. The way Anne spoke of this made me think of these people as having a spiritual connection to the land. Its as if they tend to the land, make it fruit and in return the land gives back to them. I look at Africa as a whole being a very spiritual place.