A candle and a laptop

back to the beach!

alexanjorge — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:27:25 +0000

It is holiday time, and we are back in Mozambique to enjoy the warm weather and the company of family and friends!

We were in one of our favourite beaches, Ponta do Ouro, with its beautiful blue and greenish deep sea water and white sands. White waves breaking into the sharp rocks with natural pools full of sea live, fish, shells and corals. The deep green mangrove vegetation and creamy white and soft dunes.

So much beauty, still so intact, despite the many developments in the last 20 years (after the civil war that devastated many of the villages). Many private houses are now nicely repaiered or rebuildt. We met many old friends there like in old days…

Because we just went and came back between Christmas and New Year, we just avoided the usual hours of queues to the ferry boat that takes us to the other side of the bay. Very unusual to have such a smooth and pleasant trip!

We stayed again in the very confortable wooden houses just facing the beach, 5 minutes’ walk down to the sea.

The last time we have been there was 2 years ago. Many things changed, new restaurants appeared, old restaurants disappeared (some were destroyed by fires) others changed ownership (and decreased quality), but the enchantment is still there! It is indeed a special and lively place!

My experience in Nairobi

alexanjorge — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:01:31 +0000

Almost 3 months later… Time went fast despite the distance from home. Too much work helped to keep me busy. It is now time to stop being a student and go back to real work again! A lot of painful learning (painful because many things went wrong and I had to learn the hard way but the most efficient way). Learnign how to troubleshoot was one of the objectives. I had (and still have in these last days here) many opportunities to troubleshoot!

Nairobi again

alexanjorge — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:54:00 +0000

Here I am, already 3 weeks in Nairobi… This is the last part of my research placement to learn about molecular tools. This is my last big chance to learn everything I wanted to learn about biotechnology. Although 3 months sounded like a very long time, in fact time goes very fast and may not be enough to learn all the details I need to learn. I will have to prioritize. I have been working more than 12 hours a day, but since there is not much else to do, it is not a bad thing to do…

This time I am staying out of the campus which is not so convenient in terms of transport. It is a challenge to work late hours and stay off campus. It means a huge bill in taxis and a bit of planning…

The weather is pleasant, raining mostly at night and temperate during the day. I am learning how to “cook” my dinner in 10 minutes and learning about quantities for 1 person. I am amazed that half a dozen eggs and 250g of butter can last for 2 weeks. I have been cooking from the same package of spaghetti about 4 times and there is still a lot left… I am experimenting all the nice looking meals ready to eat from the supermarket. Some are terrible but others are quite good!

I am becoming too addicted to skype to communicate daily with family and friends. It was a major crisis yesterday when the sound system in my computer went wrong and stopped working… Luckily, I borrowed another computer from IT just to be able to communicate with my world! But pity that I have no music now and cannot watch any movies on the weekend, until I get the computer fixed…

I am enjoying the overdose of learning new things, but missing home a lot. Trying to over work so do not think much about it…

A few days of real holidays

alexanjorge — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 19:13:59 +0000

From someone leaving abroad, going back home usually means doing medicals, vaccinations, renewing IDs, Passports, driver licenses, home insurances, etc, etc, etc. So this means that there is a lot of work to be done but usually little real holidays! We started to try to have 2-3 days of real holiday each time we go back to Mozambique and at the same time a good way to get to know the great and beautiful country we have.

Last month we headed north again (Pemba), and this time of the year a great idea since it is winter in the south but still a mild winter in the north! The warm and clear blue waters, the warm temperature and bright sun, the relaxed atmosphere, the quiet and colorful sundown, the exciting boat trips in front of the beach, the tasty seafood and seeing old and making new friends! The diverse and amazing seashells, friendly people and time to read and enjoy nature! The pleasure to spend the day in shorts, flip-flop and a hat… carrying only sun screen, a bottle of water and snacks…

A few photos to prompt others to visit the north of Mozambique:

A paradise in earth

alexanjorge — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:13:54 +0000

Because I am compensating from more than 3 months not posting any blogs, and do not want to miss talking about this one…

There are times that we realize that there are still pieces of paradise in earth. We had the opportunity and the blessing to briefly visit two of these earlier this year. It was after Easter, so the weather in the north of Mozambique was perfect, not too hot not too cold. Sunny and shiny.

One was by the sea,Vamizi island in the famous Quirimba Arquipelago and the other one in the opposite west side of the country, Nkwichi lodge, by Lake Niassa (also internationaly known as lake Malawi, since Niassa in the local language means lake).

It was something beautiful, that we would love to experience again. It was luxury, it was nature, it was pleasure, it was full of peace and harmony. A few pictures show what the words cannot describe:

Vamizi, a paradise difficult to bevieve!

Niassa lake, an hidden treasure difficult to predict (I was there more than 20 years ago and did not know it was so pretty)…

Pemba, one of the most beautiful bays in the world!

Montpellier in April

alexanjorge — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:54:00 +0000

I was working a bit late in the office as usual. I was picking up my bags to go home as it was getting late and the kids had arrived from school and were waiting for me. Suddenly, the office phone rang. It was a call from Washington, a lady I did not know, asking if I would be available/willing to represent the AWARD (I have been an AWARD fellow for the last 20 months) at an important meeting with donors in Montpelier for occasion of the 40^th anniversary of the CGIAR (the consortium of research institutes I work for) in a few days. This was going to be a great opportunity to influence their opinion about what to do (what should and should not be done) and what to fund for the next 40 years of the CGIAR (currently under a structural reform).

My first reaction was to refuse, since I was suppose to attend a training course during those days. But after a few moments I realized the chance and opportunity I was going to miss! I thought about what I had learned in the last few months with AWARD, grabbing the opportunities when they are at reach! I then decided to accept this honor and chance to provide my feedback about a programme that help me grow so much in the last few months…

I was going to have 5 minutes and 3 slides to do my speech and to make my voice heard. I worked the next few days on the draft of what to say or not to say. After a few tries (and great support from all my directors and colleagues), I selected the important key messages and extracted the ‘juice’ to present during the plenary session.

http://www.cgiarfund.org/cgiarfund/Ad_hoc_Funders_Forum

The most important thing was being myself and sharing my own experience on my own words. It was a great experience that I will not forget. Being one of the 4 scientists at a panel session, amongst a world food price winner and selected experts! I felt proud of my African roots.

Curiously, this event happened on the 7th April, the Mozambican National Womens day and I was representing the AWARD (African Women in Agricultural Research and Development)! http://www.genderdiversity.cgiar.org/resource/award.asp

I also loved Montpellier! Such a charming town with so many research institutes working on such interesting projects. Being a VIP visit I was spoiled with an extra day VIP visit to my areas of professional interest!

And because networking is so important in these days (and also a different and much more fancy word to define meeting old and new friends/coleagues!) I also spent the few extra hours I had free to meet some work related friends that kindly showed me downtown Montpelier and experienced the delicious and famous French cuisine!

Meeting old friends…

alexanjorge — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:09:50 +0000

While in England, I took an extra day to see two of my close old friends from childwood, that I did not see for 18 years… I was very excited and happy with the idea. It is amazing how real friendships last forever! How we still feel connected after so much time apart. How we somehow (at least I did), feel like time did not pass and if we close our eyes we could feel (almost) like we were a teenager again…

I was touched with the extra lenghts and efforts they all did to meet me so it was convenient to all, picking me from the airport, meeting me in Brighton, despite the horrible windy, cold and wet weather that Sunday!… Greatly enjoyed the view and feeling of the British seaside, downtown London, the musical show, the Big Ben, Oxford street…

I really enjoyed talking about all the major events that happened the past years and future plans; amazing to see all of us with such big and beautiful children, the amazing partners we all chose; I felt Really Refreshed, Renewed and Ready to Resume my work during the meeting in Brighton, the following week!

The work meeting also gave an opportunity to meet (newer and more recent) friends and coleagues that is always a pleasure to met and interact! We gain a lot from this type of interactions and talking about common work areas, ideas, problems and solutions! But sometimes after a full day of hard work, just having fun together!

The most diverse place in earth!

alexanjorge — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:12:53 +0000

When I was a little girl, I heard my parents talking about the Kew gardens in London. They really liked the beauty and magic of that place. I finally had the chance to see a glimpse of what they talked about while visiting the Millennium Seed Bank – the largest ex situ conservation project in the world – not in Kew but still connected to Kew gardens. I had a meeting nearby and we were privileged to visit the seed bank and to hear about the amazing work they do there. I could not forget the vision of the cold rooms, probably the place in the world with the largest number of different species per square meter! The link below provides a great overview of the MSB. http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/save-seed-prosper/millennium-seed-bank/index.htm

I feel very proud that my current work is closely linked to the work they do and the amazing research they carry out to know more about seed conservation, use and seed germination.

Talking about diversity, this simple word summarizes what I am currently doing and facing at all levels:

Conservation of diverse species… To know more about the importance of this work, a recent article in the National Geographic magazine emphasizes why it is important do to it well! I had the pleasure to meet the journalists that came to Ethiopia searching for materials/information for this article (they looked somehow like Indiana Jones movie stars…) http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/food-ark/siebert-text

Working with a diversity of issues and topics (seed research, seed science, field work, plant health, molecular lab work, nutritional lab work, admin issues, finance issues, procurement, budgeting, proposal writing, reporting, monitoring and evaluation, work plans, managing and supervising personal, public awareness)…

Managing and juggling between children, husband, parents, friends, work, home(s), social commitments, charity initiatives, leisure… sometimes (but hopefully not very often) not finding enough time for myself!…

It can be sometimes difficult and chalenging but definitely never boring!

The tsunami alert

alexanjorge — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:40:21 +0000

In the last day of the my meeting in Bali, I realized at breakfast, that I was not dreaming at night when I felt everything shaking strongly. I have never felt an earthquake before! It was rated 6.5 and most people woke up with the shake.

Later that afternoon we heard about a strong earthquake in Japan and the 10m tsunami wave that did so much damage. We started to receive messages about a possible tsunami coming to Indonesia. Some people at the meeting panicked, packed their computers and decided to run. We left in a hurry without passports (most of them were left in the room) but we all agreed our computers (that we all had with us!) were far more important than the passports and the money we had left behind!

One of our colleagues lost a close friend in the 2004 Tsunami. The rest of us still have in our memories the devastating images of that Tsunami. I kept remembering my little daughter panic about Tsunamis. Every time we travel some place new she asks about the possibility of Tsunamis and typhoons to happen there… I just hope she does not watch the news these days!

We discussed briefly where to go. The recommendation was to go to higher floors (higher than 3rd floor) on well structured buildings. Our hotel had 4 floors but the building looked a bit run down, so we were not sure about the strength of its foundations! Since most of us are genebank managers we are trained to take decisions to minimize risks!

One of the persons in the group wondered why did we make so much effort to save our plant germplasm for so many years and now who would take care of it if all of us disappear!

One hired a taxi (in the middle of the rush he paid the taxi signing on his room number, forgetting he was staying at a nearby hotel – so minutes after we left the taxi got a call complaining about the fraud… that he promised to paid in cash after returning) for a few hours and took several of us to go to high ground. A second car was waiting for the rest of the group and was suppose to go the same place we had gone, but for some reason they never left the hotel and the message we left did not reach them.

We did not know where to go but just asked for a mountain nearby. The taxi driver took some time to understand what we meant, but when he understood, he quickly called his wife (they live near the sea) to warn her about it. The taxi driver identified the right place and drove us there. We soon realized (for our dismay!) that we were still near the sea, but after checking the altitude with the GPS we felt safe to see we were at 80m! This sounded high enough and we started to relax a bit.

We ended up on a beautiful cliff with a temple surrounded with gardens. The only problem was the hundreds of monkeys that were quite aggressive taking any accessories from the people. One of our colleagues had his reading glasses stolen twice. The first time he got them back (after giving food to the monkey to force him to drop the glasses), but the second monkey was more cleaver and did not return the glasses. Luckily our colleague had a spare set in the car! We felt sorry for the monkeys and wondered if they were trained to do that, once every time they stole something the locals nearby gave them food and then asked the owners of the items to pay them something… But on the other end, monkeys are extremely clever and does not take long for them to take advantage of such situation! They are however extremely fat as they are constantly eating… They do not look so healthy!

Only two of us had a telephone with us, one of them with internet connection. We started then to send emails to the other colleagues trying to find news. We also communicated with our families in different countries trying to get updates from the internet about the predictions for the tsunami in this region. After a couple of hours of indecisions, reasoning, communication attempts and a relaxing beer, we realized that we were far away (south west) from the place predicted for the tsunami wave to reach Indonesia (north east), it was getting dark so we could not see the spectacular tsunami approach anyway, one of our directors was at a reception near the sea with 20 ministers (so if they were safe – and they would know – we should not fear!) and we had to attend the conference dinner with a musical and dance show that was already booked at the hotel.

We also learned later on that the sea shore in Bali is very flat, reason for the boats to have difficulties reaching the shore (so the island stayed isolated form invasors for a long time, preserving its rich cultural and religious traditions) and the tsunamis are less likely to do great damage!

We went back and had a nice relaxing evening with spectacular Bali dances and music!

Later that evening when I was already packing my suitcase I felt another short earthquake… I got quickly dressed again until I went to bed, just in case… I must admit I am very happy to go home soon! These shaky areas of the world are very beautiful but a bit too scary when they start shaking this much!

Bali trip

alexanjorge — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 15:02:13 +0000

Getting into Bali (for an International meeting) was a bit of a rush, with a very short connection in Kuala Lumpur… I had just a 25 min connection and still had to get the boarding pass to do the check inn. An officer was waiting for me outside the airplane and we literally run until the check inn and then run again to get the bus to the other terminal. I got into the plane 5 min before departure… Obviously my luggage only arrived to the final destination a day later… this was anyway a good excuse to buy a new dress! (it was great that the luggage eventually arrived, since last month I permanently lost one of the bags I took to Nairobi!).

Going on a business trip to a typicaly tourist destination is a bit strange. Several couples in honey moon next to me, with very short shorts, slippers and several face piercings but a lot of space for hand luggage with computers, as they tend to travel light! Very colorful seats in the air Malaysia airplane!

Arriving at Denpasar airport and negotiating transportation to the hotel went well, as the first taxi that approached me asked for 35usd but after checking in the official taxi boots realized they only charge 12usd…

A few comments:

The hotel was huge and full of Russians (as many other hotels, we were told!). Many restaurants and shops have signs in russian…
Very few tourists with children.
Bali people are extremely friendly.
Prices of items are highly variable, up to 3-4 times more from shop to shop, highly depending on the level of bargaining.
Costs of services incredbly cheap, even at major hotels.
Shops are open from early morning to late evening but the sellers rotate frequently (as well as the prices).
There are temples and offers with flowers and food everywhere and all the time.
Weather is terribly humid and hot. The papers get curly and the hair reaches maximum volume…
Althought many people look quite poor I did not see one single beggar or street kid. Quite amazing!

Taking advantage of some free time before the meeting, I did a snorkeling trip with one colleague. The rest of the people in the boat were there to dive. We did not have the time (nor the courage!) to do it. We went by boat to Nusa Penida, a highland with beautiful cliffs and clear blue waters. The first jump into the sea was scary for me. So much water under me and feeling so small in the imense dark sea… Also thinking about sharks (Australia is famous for them and it is not that far…). The second jump (and the confortable feeling of having a floater next to me just in case!) was better and I could enjoy more! The corals and fish were amazing! But a pity we had to be careful to distinguish between the fish and plastic bags, in a area with a strong current that brought a lot of rubbish from elsewhere!

On the way to the airport we had a chance to go via Ubud (a major touristic village attraction) and cross the charming villages, each one specialized in a different craftmanship!