Arrived safely in Mozambique

I left Reagan National Airport at 7 AM on Wednesday, June 2, 2010 and flew to JFK in New York. From there, a 15 hour flight non-stop to Johannesburg, South Africa arriving at 8:15 AM local time. Navigating the International Transfer process for the flight to Maputo, Mozambique was relatively easy. I was on time for the 9:45 AM flight to Maputo. That flight was also easy, and it arrived early, around 10:30 AM. This is 24 and a half hours since I arose on Wednedsay morning to take a cab to Reagan National Airport.

My luggage followed me as it was supposed to and I cleared the Mozambican version of customs quickly. The latter consisted of sending my baggage through what appeared to be an x-ray machine that nobody was watching and picking it up on the other side. At the exit, a nice man was waiting with a CDC sign and he drove me to the Southern Sun Hotel where I now reside. After I had a couple of hours to shower and change my clothes the driver returned to deliver me to the local CDC office for initial briefings and introductions to staff. I must have met 30 people whose names are a bit of blur, but I'll figure it all out in due time. I did meet the other 4 summer fellows and traveled back to the hotel with them at the end of the day (5:30 PM). Their names are Jasmin, Rebecca, Rhondette and Terry, all CDC employees on short-term overseas assignment.

That evening the 5 of us took two small cabs to the InterThai restaurant and had dinner together. We went from there back to the hotel and walked to a nearby restaurant for dessert. The next morning we all had breakfast together in the hotel dining room and the CDC driver picked us up at 7:30 AM for delivery to the CDC office. On Fridays, the staff work only until 11:30 AM so that everyone has time to get to where they might be going for the weekend before nightfall. It is not safe to travel out of the city after dark.

On my first full day in the office, I got my computer set up to access the local area network, went to the embassy to have my ID card prepared, received a briefing from the Regional Safety Officer an met with the Community Liaison Officer for information about what to do in Maputo. At 11:00 AM I was back at the CDC office just in time to take a van to meet the Director of the Mozambican National Institute of Health, the man who I will be working with most directly. He is a young physician/scientist of Indian or Pakistani extraction who is very informally dressed and speaks perfect English. He is obviously very bright and busy and committed to what he is doing. During this meeting I learned that the group of young people who I will be working with has grown from 2 to 5, so tomorrow morning I will need to meet and get to know people whose names I don't even know as yet. They will be expecting me to guide them in setting up the Bacteriology Reference Laboratory at the Mozambican NIH.

I got back to the office at 1 PM had to wait until 4 PM for a driver to take me back to the hotel. The place was empty except for Beth Skaggs, my CDC supervisor who needed to work late. I got back to the hotel around 4:30, napped for an hour and went to dinner with Jasmin, Rebecca, Terry and Rhondette. We all took taxis "Amy's house" for a wine tasting party where I met another 20 or so people. It was a nice evening and we went back to the hotel around 9:30. The girls were going out to the Africa bar, but I went to bed after calling Charlene and Annie. This was pretty full day for my first whole day in Africa.

On Saturday we all had breakfast together and the girls went to a little kid birthday party that they had been invited to. I hung around the hotel writing in my journal. I got invited to Beth's house for dinner on Saturday evening. Prior to that, 4 of us found time to take taxis to the local supermarket to buy the supplies that I either couldn't pack or forgot to pack as well as some non-perishable food items. I was back in time to get ready to go to dinner. Dinner was really nice. Good food and I got to meet Beth's family and to see the house that I will be occupying in July while they are on leave in the USA. I also met another couple, Stuart and Sophie, who were a lot of fun to talk to. It was a really nice evening.

Today is Sunday, June 6, 2010 and I haven't seen anyone all day. I turned down an invitation to join Jasmine, Rhondette and Rebecca for lunch at an Italian restaurant because I had just finished a late breakfast. I don't think they made it to breakfast. This evening we all just did room service for dinner, so I've been on my own except for a couple of telephone conversations. Tomorrow should be very busy as I try to get to know my new friends at the NIH lab.

That's it for tonight. I'll try to figure out how to post a few pictures this week.