Here’s a video I took way back when on Mozambican Independence Day, June 25th. It’s pretty darn fun.
From the Vault
Aug 20th, 2009 by morrisctm
AMOMIF and the Traveling Salesman
Aug 20th, 2009 by morrisctm
Over the past couple weeks I’ve started to devote more of my time to Kiva MFI (microfinance institute) recruitment. Essentially I’m selling Kiva. This involves meeting with any number of people in hotels, cafes and government buildings, giving them a Kiva education and trying to bring them online as Kiva partners. While there is a certain Glengarry Glen Ross aspect to this work the winners aren’t drinking coffee, they’re just trying to efficiently get capital to people that need it. It has been a great experience meeting with people with decades of microfinance experience and fancy three letter suffixes following their names.
Mr. Kemeron, your order is ready! This is how my name was spelled on a receipt yesterday. I think I might start using this as an alternative spelling.
Mr. Kemeron here is your receipt
Changana 101
Aug 19th, 2009 by morrisctm
ISH YOWE!!!The office has been full of laughs this week as I’ve been struggling to learn the basics of Changana, one of the native Mozambican dialects. The office maid really gets off on it, she started doing extra sweeping around my desk so that she can teach me more words and laugh at me. It’s a fun language, particularly when you start improvising and by improvising I mean spouting of noises that sound like Changana followed by a hearty ISH YOWE!!! So here you have it, a few of the basics accompanied by a video aide. Learn it, love it! I expect to return home to a chorus os ISH YOWEs!!!
Ish Yowe – Cool, awesome, hyphy, let’s do this!
Mati Ya Tchane – Breakfast
Mati – Water
Dzixile – Good Morning
Na Ku Zanzda- I love you
Banapple Gas?
Aug 19th, 2009 by morrisctm
Too Much Banapple Gas?
This has nothing to do with Kiva, microfinance or Mozamique and is mainly geared towards the middle aged reader. What the hell is bannaple gas? It’s the title of a Cat Stevens song and the lyrics are the following:
Banapple gas, oh Banapple gas
Everybody’s sniffing it Banapple gas
O-o alas!
All the world is stuck on it Banapple gas.
Does it do you good, make you better
Set you healthy when you’re bed-tied?
Well I don’t know if it makes you well…
But it must be healthy
‘Cause it don’t smell.
This seems somewhere in between the Grateful Dead and Rafi. Please, someone that lived through the 70s tell us what this means? Is bannaple gas a good thing? Sounds good!
Make MOSAMBA a Winner!
Aug 17th, 2009 by morrisctm
Friends, family, employees, ex-girlfriends,
Mosamba.com is officially in the running to be named the best 1st person, personal account, Kiva Fellows blog in the blogsphere. Through a lengthy process my friend Cissy and I have determined that our blogs are the two very best Fellows blog and are now ready to duke it out to determine which of our blogs is actually the undisputed BEST. The winner will be determined by the number of hits each blog receives. I usually start my day by looking at my blog metrics, taking screenshots and sending them to Cissy to keep her feeling insecure about her inferior numbers. However, this Cissy Deluca is scrappy and recently pulled close to even with me. We are both currently at around 1500 hits. From here on out this promises to be a heated battle that should primarily benefit you, the loyal mosamba.com reader, as I push to publish even more top notch content. So I call on you to bookmark mosamba.com, visit the site many times daily, email it to friends, tweet and retweet it and do what must be done to help us (the entire mosamba community) get this victory.
Update: I just finished integrating handy social media links into the blog. Now you will be able to share your favorite Mosamba posts on Facebook, Twitter, Digg etc with one click. Check the buttons out at the bottom of this post. I also optimized some backend processes that should make everything a bit more fun for everyone!
Thanks,
Cameron T. Morris
Chief Scribe/Mosamba.com
Observation: I already have something special planned for the day we reach 2000 hits. Let’s make it happen!
Saturday Afternoon in Maputo
Aug 16th, 2009 by morrisctm
I spent two hours reading in a garden with this view
Jardim dos Namorados
And then spent several more hours eating, drinking, chatting in this garden with my friend Cecilia from Peru.
Jardim dos Professores
Not bad, right?
Left your book in Boane,MZ?
Aug 16th, 2009 by morrisctm
Yeah, me too! Yesterday when I arrived in Maputo I realized that I had left my book (King Leopold’s Ghost) in Boane, a 1.5 hour bus ride away. Fear not, just buy another one. Maputan sidewalks offer a literary selection that rivals Moe’s (on telegraph in Berkeley, CA) at a fraction of the cost. I’m not kidding. Upon my realization that I was bookless and was planning on reading for two hours I just started browsing the sidewalks. I settled on The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, a book that I’ve been meaning to read. Other options included a book of New Yorker short stories and some crazy African Adventure novel about the fictitious Prester John. Now I have to decide if I should continue reading Kavalier and Clay or King Leopold’s Ghost. Suggestions?
BOOKS!
Pizza & Internet House
Aug 16th, 2009 by morrisctm
A couple weeks before my Moz departure two of my friends, Tim and Kirsten, were taking a gander at my Mozambique lonely planet book (which by the way is about 50 pgs thick, not much is known about this place). What was the most interesting thing they found in the book? Ilha da Inhaca, Pemba, Ponto do Ouro? No! It was a place in Maputo that apparently doubles as a pizza parlor and an internet cafe. We all had a good laugh about this. Some enterprising Mozambican must have improperly patched together the western phenomenons of connectivity and pizza. Yesterday while strolling down Mao Tse Tung Avenue I was struck by the site of the “Pizza House”. While I didn’t eat pizza or use the internet there I did verify that they provide both services. NEAT!
Embaixada da Suecia
Aug 16th, 2009 by morrisctm
Someone once told me that my sister was getting married to a Swede. It was many years ago, and I’m not sure if I believe that person because it has yet to happen. Either way, yesterday while wondering the streets of Maputo I ran into the Swedish Embassy. Here is a photo of the Embassy plaque and the view from the other side of the street. Maybe you guys should get married here!
The Residence of the Swedish Embassy
Nice View!
Toss Me a Bone!
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