U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

The mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the U.S. abroad. The work that diplomats do has an impact on the world as they serve at one of any of the more than 270 embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions in The Americas, Africa, Europe and Eurasia, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

The duties of a Consular Officer include to provide emergency and non-emergency services to American citizens and protect our borders through the proper adjudication of visas to foreign nationals and passports to American citizens. We adjudicate immigrant and non-immigrant visas, facilitate adoptions, help evacuate Americans, combat fraud, and fight human trafficking. Consular Officers touch people’s lives in important ways, often reassuring families in crisis. They face many situations which require quick thinking under stress and develop and use a wide range of skills, from managing resources and conducting public outreach to assisting Americans in distress.

Day trip to Macaneta

The train we took from Maputo to Maracuene

The great thing about being in a location like Maputo is that it makes for doable weekend trips in the country or to neighboring countries like South Africa or Swaziland. The most challenging aspect with every trip, however, is figuring out transportation. To be able to do practically anything in Mozambique or go anywhere you need a 4x4 vehicle since the roads are at times barely passable. There is also not a nation-wide system of transportation which is not something I truly appreciated until now I don’t have it. It’s quite a shock coming from Japan where it seems that almost every inch of the country is criss-crossed by some form (if not multiple forms) of public transportation.

Ready for the ride across the sand dunes to the beach

This past weekend I knew that I wanted to spend a day in Macaneta, a nearby beach that can be tricky to reach. I reached out to the guides-in-training at the American Cultural Center for some advice and said that I wanted to hire someone for the day to help me make it there. Another roommate decided to come along to make the trip which was great because it helped share the transport costs.

Fish Beach

First we took a taxi to the train station at 6:30 in the morning on Sunday. There are a few trains in Mozambique but they tend to be expensive, unreliable and low-quality. We were hoping to get on the local train that ran to the South African border but passed through a town near the beach. Instead of meeting our one guide at the station, four decided to come along for practice, which was a bit hilarious but turned out to be a lot of fun. Our guide informed us that some days the train doesn’t run, for whatever reason. Fortunately, that Sunday it was working and although it left a half an hour late after buying our 24 meticais ticket (37 cents) we were on our way. The train was slow and made a lot of stops but it was interesting to see the Mozambican countryside along the way.

When we made it to a town called Maracuene, we got off and walked through the town about a mile to reach a river where there was a makeshift ferry making crossings for both cars and people to the other side. We were told again that there was no guarantee that the ferry would be running since it tends to break down a lot. The mode of transport that moved us across the river could hardly be called a ferry but was more like a homemade raft with a pulley. Before we got on, I asked everyone if they could swim and thankfully, we all could. The ride across the river took about ten minutes and cost 2 meticais (3 cents) per person.

Enjoying lunch with our four guides

Once safely across, we hopped onto a 4x4 jeep for the final leg of the trip to the beach. As we bounced across sandy trails and hills, it felt like we were getting an additional dune ride for free. We made it to Praia do Peixe (Fish Beach) at around 10:30 in the morning and went immediately to one of the beach restaurants. Since service is notoriously slow (or doesn’t happen at all) it’s common practice to order your food hours in advance and specify when you are going to eat. We all picked seafood and said that we would like it to be ready at 12:30.

Amazing fresh shrimp

We spent the rest of the day lounging on the sand, soaking up the sun and enjoying the time and quiet away from the chaos of Maputo. The seafood lunch with a cold beer was fantastic and then at 3:30 we started the long trek home again. Sadly, the train did not arrive at its “scheduled” time and came about two and a half hours late. Suffice to say, after we had exhausted all conversation with each other, I made it through a chunk of my novel. Kate and I made it home at about 9:30pm sandy and sunburnt with just enough time to unpack and shower before crashing in anticipation of an early start the next day and another long work week.

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Sarah Sanderson

Going hashing

As I’ve been meeting new people who work at the embassy and getting to know the Mozambican students who frequent the American Culture Center, I’ve been surprised at how many people recommend going “hashing.” At first I was confused about what everyone was talking about, but after a little research I learned that the “Hash House Harriers” is an international social club that runs and drinks together. There are hash clubs all over the world and the club in Maputo is alive and thriving. The club is also known by its slogan that it’s a “drinking club with a running problem.”

The Maputo Hash House Harriers or H3 meets on Saturday at 2:30 on one of the main avenues of embassies in the city. I decided to go and dragged a similarly introverted roommate with me to experience the weirdness that I had been warned about. Other colleagues had cautioned me that the hash isn’t for everyone and that the group can be obnoxious and raunchy at times so I was a bit apprehensive and didn’t want to go alone.

We showed up at the meet-up spot, paid our 80 meticais (“hash cash” - about $1.50) and waited for the event to begin. The shenanigans started shortly after with an introduction of the “hares” – the members who were selected to set out that week’s trail in a secret location using flower and chalk. The rest of us were the hounds tasked with following the trail and eventually finding the hare. The hares wore red shirts and the hounds wore anything from normal running clothes to strange and funny costumes. After giving directions to the hash location, we carpooled to the site and everyone started running around looking for the start of the trail. What’s interesting about hashing is that it’s completely noncompetitive and set up to be social and inclusive. One way that this is accomplished is by making false trails and tricks that force the faster runners to run more to investigate while allowing slower runners to catch up. There are also several check points (some with beer) along the way to make sure nobody is lost.

Besides the drinking, socializing and exercising, the main draw of this activity seems to be the goofy rituals and traditions that everyone follows. For instance, every member has a special hash name that has to be given to you and is only given after showing commitment to the club. Names are usually embarrassing and can be inappropriate, which also reflects the flavor of the sport. During this hash, I ran with “Swiss Pimp” and “Lip Service” – an intern from the Swiss embassy and one from the Canadian embassy who quickly got me up to date on all things Hash. Other members included an extremely diverse mix of nationalities, ages and even families along for the run or hike (there are separate tracks for each).

After the hash, everyone returned to the “hash house” for speeches, awards, general banter, initiation, songs and chants which were all led by the “hashmaster.” Since it was my first time at a hash, I had to answer some horrifyingly embarrassing questions about myself in front of everyone and then chug a beer. That part is still giving me nightmares, but the rest of the evening was fun. To be honest, going hashing was exactly what everyone predicted: an evening jogging outside of the city with lots of opportunities to drink and socialize while at the same time being slightly inappropriate and entertaining. I’ve already looked up hashing clubs in Tokyo and I’m happy to report that there are several to choose from! I wonder if Sean will be up for it?

Read More 2 comments | Posted by Sarah Sanderson

Practicing Portuguese

One of the things that I wanted to do while in Mozambique was improve my Portuguese and also learn about how Mozambican Portuguese is different from Brazilian Portuguese. Although I do have a lot of chances to practice Portuguese, I never get beyond the day-to-day usage and practical vocabulary and would like to learn more. Also, nobody ever corrects me when I say something wrong. In addition, most of the local staff is really working on learning English and thus try to speak with us in English whenever they can even if I try and speak Portuguese.

This week I started at a language school called “Nova Escola de Línguas” and have been going every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 90 minutes after work. I’m taking private classes and so far the teacher has been very good at pointing out some bad habits in pronunciation, when I’m using Spanish and when my Portuguese is too Brazilian that Mozambicans won’t understand. I have to write an essay before every class which he has corrected for me when I get there. My current topic is giving advice to people who have to live in a shared house with people who like to party 24/7 (not a coincidence). This is because we are practicing making commands in Portuguese.

To me, Mozambican Portuguese feels like a mix between Brazilian Portuguese and Portuguese from Portugal. In terms of pronunciation, while Brazilians pronounce words like “tarde” and “noite” as “tar-gee” and “noy-chee” Mozambicans say “tar-day” and “noy-te”. Regarding grammar, the forms to address “you” differ a bit as Brazilians use “voce” universally and Mozambicans discriminate between “tu” and “voce”. In addition, a Brazilian would say “estou fazendo” to explain what he is doing at that moment and a Mozambican would say “estou a fazer”. This has taken some getting used to. There are also a surprising number of differences in vocabulary that has caused some amusement. Hardly any of the Brazilian slang or explanations mean anything here and there are some key changes in word choice. For example, to ask where the bathroom is you don’t say “onde fica o banheiro” but “onde fica a casa de banho”.

I’m finding it much more difficult to understand Mozambican Portuguese because they speak faster and cut off the ends of their words and vowels. Unlike Brazilians, they don’t speak with a drawn-out sing-song cadence that makes it really easy to follow along. But in other places I’m lost entirely as only about half of the population speaks Portuguese and within that only 10% speak it as their first language. Most everyone speaks one of the many indigenous languages, many of them with Bantu roots. As soon as I leave environments like the office, a Rotary meeting or my language school and go to the market, take a bus or walk past fruit and vegetable vendors on the corner, I’m not hearing Portuguese but rather conversations in Tsonga, Chopi or Makonde.

Read More 7 comments | Posted by Sarah Sanderson

Kruger National Park

During the long weekend, one of the interns suggested that we all go to Kruger National Park, a place famous for wildlife viewing in the neighboring country of South Africa. I was super excited and quickly volunteered to participate as spots in the car were limited. I’ve rapidly come to realize that since Maputo has no reliable public transportation system in place, it’s vital to make friends with people who have access to their own wheels. The other female interns have solved this problem by simply dating a Marine or one of the children of DoS employees who are here for the summer. Obviously, this is not an option for me but thanks to Rotary and Brazil, I can offer cash and language skills, both of which are in relatively short supply in the intern and summer hire group.

We decided to do a day trip to the park which is doable since it’s only about a two hour drive away. What can take time, however, is the border crossing between Mozambique and South Africa, especially on the weekend. To prevent this, we left early in the morning and came back late at night, right after the border opened and right before it closed. It also helped that a few of the interns had special diplomatic passports because of their parents so we were all able to go through much shorter lines. Among the other perks of being connected to the embassy that we utilized on this trip were showing a badge when we were stopped for speeding and not having to pay a fine and showing the badge again when stopped randomly for bribes but being waved through without having to pay. I’m constantly amazed at the benefits of being a diplomat abroad – they live an upper-class lifestyle according to their own rules. Again, I’ve never seen anything like it.

Kruger National Park was incredible and only cost about $20/person to enter. Seconds after we crossed the park boundary we had to slow down for a herd of gazelles to move across the road. The amount of wildlife that we saw and the ease with which we saw it was unparalleled. The park is huge and although we only drove through a fraction of it, we managed to see elephants, baboons, giraffes, zebras, hippos, water buffalo, wild boar, monkeys, loads of birds and an astounding variety of four-legged antelope-like creatures such as elands, impalas and reedbucks. Most of the time, the animals were so close that you could almost touch them by reaching out of the car – it was so cool! One of the main rules was that you couldn’t get out of the car except for at the designated rest stops where all picnic tables were equipped with long sticks to fend off the monkeys (seriously).

I could have stayed at the park all day and even campaigned for the carload to stay overnight since we had Monday off as well but I was overwhelmingly outvoted in favor of a trip to a nearby South African mall. Sadly, we left the park to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening bowling, eating at Nando’s and seeing a movie. This all would have been fine except for the fact that there were lions, leopards and rhinos still to be seen and only a few minutes away. All of the interns wanted to get their mall fix because we are not allowed to go to the mall in Maputo as it is owned by some sort of drug kingpin. Needless to say, I hope to find some way to get back to Kruger before my time in Mozambique is up so I can check off the remaining three of the “Big Five”.

Read More 2 comments | Posted by Sarah Sanderson

4th of July Events

I was lucky enough to arrive on one of the busiest weeks of the year in terms of public events because of the 4^th of July holiday. On Thursday all of the interns worked to prepare and decorate the ambassador’s house for the annual evening celebration. It was to be quite a party and I was fascinated by how much thought and time went into every little detail. My official job once the event started was “house minder” which meant that while mingling, eating and drinking, I had to stay inside and keep an eye on a few rooms with valuable items on shelves. I also had to make sure that nobody went upstairs into the residential part of the estate. Suffice to say, I will happily sign up to be “house minder” anytime in the future – it was a great gig. I know that other staff were rolling their eyes at having to be at “just another fancy evening event” but for me it was super exciting and I had to hold myself back from taking too many pictures.

Posing with Ambassador Pittman

The purpose of the event was to invite Mozambican dignitaries to celebrate America’s Independence Day together and thus not every staff member at the embassy was invited because space was limited. Thus, we interns were thrilled to be able to go even though we had to “work”. The evening started with an elaborate receiving line which escorted guests outside where drinks and hours d’oeuvres were being served. They couldn’t find a chef who would do American cuisine so we had French food with an American twist (think bbq crepes – an interesting combination, to say the least). After both national anthems were sung and the flag was raised by the Marines there were speeches by Ambassador Pittman and various representatives of Mozambique. Everything was in Portuguese and I was impressed at the Ambassador’s commitment to and quality of the language. After an impressive amount of food and drinks, the party ended promptly at 9 pm. After cleaning up everyone who still wanted to hang out headed back to the interns’ house, which is the informally designated “after-party” location of sorts. There are people hanging out there at all hours and I’m so grateful to have my own room so I can escape the chaos if I want to.

Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty

A day later, on Saturday, the embassy hosted a community 4^th of July picnic at the American International School. My job was to sell food and drink tickets which was fun because then I got to meet everyone who came for the event. Besides serving lunch (hamburgers, hot dogs and grilled chicken) and drinks (pop, beer and sangria) there were lawn games, a bounce house, basketball and volleyball, a chili cook-off and a bake-off. There was also a DJ who played American music for the entire event. I had a great time especially because I got to meet and talk to Ambassador Pittman and his husband. The Ambassador is from the South and calls everybody “sweetheart” which initially caught me completely off guard as I haven’t spent much time in the South. Probably the most interesting part of the day was chatting with the regional security officer of the embassy who was making change for the tickets I was selling. He had spent a lot of his career in Brazil before being placed in Mozambique so we had a lot to talk about. At the end of the day they gave all of the interns a goodie bag for helping out and it had a bottle of wine, red, white and blue Mozambican printed ties and bows, pins, stickers and pencils. Once again, everyone came over to the interns’ shared house to continue the celebrations. I usually make it until about 10:30 or 11pm at which point I climb into my mosquito net and put in my ear plugs. Happy 4^th of July!

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Sarah Sanderson

Global Peace Index Grant

This past year, I was one of Rotary and ICU's Global Peace Index Ambassadors. This meant that I took part in additional online training to learn how the Institute of Economics and Peace measures peace and ranks countries in order to produce the annual index. I also had the opportunity to design my own project and apply for a competition to get funding. Another Peace Fellow, Josh Campbell, and I designed some basic ESL lesson plans utilizing the Global Peace Index information as the theme and content. Part of the requirement of the grant was to present the projects at conferences and at Rotary Clubs. I presented our lesson plans at a conference in Okinawa and at one in Tokyo.

This was a really cool project to work on and one that was very practical and useful. We made our lesson plans very self-explanatory so that we could give them to teachers who want to introduce the theme even for just one class period. I have already used a few of the activities when I've been asked to give guest talks in English classrooms. Being one of the ten winners was exciting and extremely helpful financially. We were awarded $800 which is going toward the cost of the conferences and printing.

You can read the article that Rotary wrote about the competition here. I highly recommend checking out the Institute of Economics and Peace website along with the Vision of Humanity website if you are interested in the trends of peace and violence worldwide.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Sarah Sanderson

Wanderlust

In Mandarin: 旅遊癮 (lǚyóu yǐn)

According to my Mandarin teacher, the term 'wanderlust' can best be translated as 'a travel addiction or craving'. In the above translation, 'yǐn' has several meanings such as 'a strong impulse', 'a longing', or 'a desire'.

U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

Day trip to Macaneta

Going hashing

Practicing Portuguese

Kruger National Park

4th of July Events

Global Peace Index Grant

Wanderlust

In Mandarin: 旅遊癮 (lǚyóu yǐn)

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