I Dodged The Malaria Bullet!

It’s Tuesday, I’m feeling better. I’m thinking I drank some bad water (ice cube) or got some sort of traveling bug (dodged the Malaria bullet this time… phew). My doctor in the states prescribed Ciprofloxacin should I become sick. I feel so normal, just the really strange stomach (I think?) cramping. So I started taking Cipro that last night and I feel better today.

So now to explain what I’m doing here in Maputo… you might need to take notes. It’s confusing. There are actually three things that Nunu and I are working on. Today I’ll give the basics as I’m not sure my mind is completely wrapped around everything yet.

Side note: The Dream Project (TDP) translated to Portuguese is Projecto Sonho (PS). In Mozambique we are Projecto Sonho, a national organization. When TDP was starting in Moz there was talk of foreign non-profits being asked to leave and so the decision was made to start PS. I guess you could call TDP and PS sister organizations. They are one in the same, just on paper they are different… at least that is how I see it.

1. The Dire (dearie). A Dire is similar to a one year resident visa. In order for volunteers to spend one year in Mozambique, they need a Dire. In order to obtain a Dire, you need the support of an organization that has been approved to support a Dire. Projecto Sonho is seeking that approval.

2. The Despacho (dis-patch-o). I’m not exactly sure what a Despacho is, but what I gather from looking over the photocopied sheet in Portuguese is that it’s similar to an American non-profits by-laws. Projecto Sonho currently only has copies of the Despacho and we need to obtain a new original document.

3. The Land Permit. This is the land in Ponta de Ouro. This land has been gifted from the government. We are working to get an extension of the time-line we were given for building on the land in Ponta. It is possible the extension has been filed for, but so many people have been working on this… it’s gotten a little confusing.

Okay so those are the basics.

Nunu and my goal is to turn in the necessary paperwork to get us these three things or have a plan in place for how we get things organized to move forward.

Where do we start? You might be thinking we need to look online to find the requirement for each of these things. Wouldn’t that be nice? That doesn’t exist. I would guess those kinds of list don’t exist in any office here in Mozambique.

What’s my role in all of this? Well on Friday I wouldn’t have really been able to tell you exactly what I would be doing. My guess would have been that I would have gone each office with Nunu. Being sick has more or less kept me from doing that. Even thought I’m feeling better I don’t want to leave the house. The last thing I want is to be sick in a public bathroom (or sidewalk) in Maputo.

So yesterday set the tone. Nunu ran around to the different offices and when he was done he came to Casa K to discuss and make a plan for today. While we are discussing, I email Julia to make sure we are on the right track and not having any miscommunications or misunderstanding. We also use my laptop to type up the documents we need to turn in. So my role is technology and communication.

I feel like one of the things I’m supposed to do with Dream Project is help with communication, but I always felt it was between our children and supporters in the states. I thought I would be communicating about life. About individual personalities. About how little boys get scratched knees and make silly jokes. At least for now, this is not the case. Instead I am writing about Dires, Despachos, and Land Permits!

I think that is enough for today, I’ll try to write through this process. I know things like this can be difficult in Moz, but I guess we will just have to wait and see!