Yesterday, well rather last night… I didn’t feel so good
again. New symptoms. I looked up the side effects of Cipro and I think it was
making me better and worse at the same time. So I stopped taking it after 2
days, hoping that was long enough to kill whatever bug I had. Which I think it
did because today I feel so much better. I still get random cramping, but
unlike contractions, the cramps just keep getting further and further apart.
Well so all week, Nunu and I have been working on these
three things. Prepare for your mind to be blown at how complicated some of
these things are. Also, remember I’m not talking about America, things are done
so differently here. I have a rule of thumb that if it makes sense to me
(meaning the process is easy and comparable to what I would thinkg), something
must be wrong. Keep in mind that public offices are only open to 3:00 pm and
some only keep their doors open to 1:00pm. None of these offices are close to
each other and so Nunu is taking schapas (mini-van buses) all around town
trying to get these things accomplished.
1. The Dire. Julia told us that we need to register at the
Foreign Business office. We’ve been told by a larger orphanage in Pemba that
even though Projecto Sonho is a national ONG (like NGO in States), because we
want foreigner to come over we to get their permission. Or at least this is how
the other orphanage has gone about things. So Monday morning this is where Nunu
starts. They are confused and are unsure why he is at the Foreign Business
Office if the organization is national. They are so confused that Nunu is left
wondering if he is asking on behalf of Projecto Sonho (Mozambique) or The Dream
Project (USA).
Tuesday he goes back to explain again that it’s for Projecto
Sonho (PS) and so they tell him he needs to go the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).
At the MOJ they tell him to write a letter explaining what PS needs and bring
it back with all of PS’s official paperwork.
Nunu has some of the documents with him, but the rest are up
in Pemba. We are already waiting on another scanned item, so we call to add
these items to the list. Sound easy, right? Not so much.
Most of our workers in Pemba don’t have much computer
knowledge. Antonio can type
documents and print them, but I’m not sure how much he knows about he internet
(another thing I hope to help our workers in Pemba with). Also, he has to go
into town to use the net and pay for it and for each item you need scanned.
Yesterday Julia also told us to try to get in touch with the
guy from the other orphanage to find why we need to be registered with the
Foreign Business office. It takes a day to track down his number and when Nunu
gets ahold of him, he is in a meeting.
For 2 days, Nunu receives text messages from Antonio saying
the documents were emailed, but we get nothing. Yesterday he texted his email
to make sure Antonio was using the right one. Today we get a call from Sumate
saying that Antonio was in a motorcycle accident on his way to the internet and
he is at the hospital. We’re not really sure if it was serious or not, Sumate
will let us know as he finds out.
An hour later Antonio calls. He is okay! He is banged up but
okay. Bless his heart as soon as he gets out of the hospital he goes to use the
internet and sends us the documents. What a guy!
2. The Despacho. Monday Nunu went to the Ministry of Justice
(MOJ) and found out that in order to receive a new Despacho, PS needs to have a
meeting with it’s Members, write a letter stating that they need a new Despacho
and they all need all the members to sign the letter.
When PS became and ONG a lawer named Bruno headed the
efforts up. He is now a judge. Julia asks us to call Bruno on Tuesday as she
talked with him a while back about needing a new Despacho and he didn’t mention
anything about a meeting. A meeting might be hard, as the officers would need
to meet and Julia is currently in Brazil.
When Nunu calls Bruno, he is told to go back to the MOJ to ask
for the Segunda Via (second copy, duplicate). He does this on Wednesday
morning, but is told once again that the Members need to sign a document.
Today Nunu calls Bruno again and Bruno tells him that the
Members will need to meet and get the document signed. I talk to Julia via
skype this evening and she tells me that she will have to do this when she
comes to Maputo this summer.
One down two to go!
3. The Land Permit. A bit of background… We were given through
January to build on the land. In November and December PS was planning to build
on the land, but then someone had the idea to file for an extension (seeing as
money is tight for the organization). First I heard about the extension it was
to be filed and completed in Maputo. Then a few week before I came to Moz, I
heard that someone had found a way to file for the extension from up in Pemba.
Great!
When I arrived in Maputo, Nunu told me that he had been
trying to follow up on the extension for the last few weeks, but he needed a
document from Pemba. The document was supposed to be email 2 weeks before my
arrival and he kept texting & calling asking that his message be relayed to
the person who was supposed to send the email. The guy who was supposed to send
the document lost his cell phone and so communication has been difficult. Nunu
was under the impression that because the document hadn’t been sent that things
were squared away and we had gotten the extension. Of course there are two
sides to every story and the other man thought Nunu was able to get his work
done with out the document. Big miscommunication… whatever, moving on!
The man in Pemba who had said he could file the extension is
no where to be found (his office says he went out of town or to another office…
it’s confusing). So we are back at square one, with no extension and our paper
work is out of date.
The task at hand now is to find out if we can still build
and file for an extension and what we need to build. We talked to Pastor Felipe
and he tells Nunu that it shouldn’t be a problem to get the extension for the
land because it is in the bush (meaning so far out, I can testify to that!).
Felipe says we should build something first before asking for the extension.
One interesting thing about Mozambique is you can never buy
land, the government always owns the land. You can own trees, fences and
building, but not the land they sit on. So what Felipe is suggesting isn’t out
of the ordinary.
Julia is okay with this plan, but would also like to know
what the Department of Agriculture says, so Nunu heads there on Wednesday. He
finds out that official response is that we need to write a letter explaining
why we haven’t built in the allotted time and ask for an extension. Then the
letter needs to be turn that in with the land permit that we have.
Today Nunu calls Bruno to get his take on the land situation
and he says it is probably best to write the letter and submit.
So in 4 days we have made some progress. We are down to 2
tasks, but only because we are unable to complete it. I feel like Nunu has been
running around like a mad man but even though I’ve been sick, I still feel like
I’ve contributed. Being that a miscommunication is what got us here, at least
for some items, I’ve tried to keep Julia in the loop so we don’t do anything
unnecessary and so she is able to keep giving us input and ideas of what to do
next.
I haven’t had much spare time, but I was able to get the
remote access working for my old architecture firm. So I have logged some
hours, at least enough to cover the cost of a few of my nights here. I hope to
do more as I feel better. It’s not the most convenient working environment
because I have to sit right by the wireless router to get a signal and that is
in the dining room. The main house is also usually much hotter than my room.
While I don’t like being hot, I also don’t want to fry out my computer. Also
they shut the net off around 10:30 each night, I’m sure they would keep it on
it I ask, but I’m sure they have their reasons… so it is what it is.
- That we would see progress for all of this work!
- That Projecto Sonho would be able to support missionaries for 1 year visas!
- Continued health!
No comments:
Post a Comment