Pope is in Angola

From NYT

Here is the NYT report of Pope Benedict's visit to Angola. Pope Urges Angolans to Help the Poor and Embrace Democracy.





Sitting next to nosso presidente, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Pope Benedict said the following:

In a second address, this one delivered hours later at the residence of
President José Eduardo dos Santos, he challenged Angola and other African
countries to free their people “from the scourges of greed, violence and unrest”
through “modern civic democracy.”

Oh, the irony! I'm not clear on something. Olha Senhor Papa, just who is the one that needs to be freed from this greed and bring democracy?





(Looking around, sitting next to him he sees the president who has served for 29 years but only held one presidential election and has somehow managed to acquire insane wealth at the same time...)





AWKWARD!





According to reports, Zedu handled it well and agreed with everything the Pope said. Smart tactic.





Zedu later said that "a igreja nao pode fazer muito para mudar as regras establecidas, mas tem forca moral para influenciar os coracoes e as mentalidades dos que decidem. The Church cannot do much to change the established rules but it does have moral authority to influence the hearts and minds of those who decide." In other words, don't go thinking you have more influence than you do, Catholic Church.





I must say, I really wish I had been in Angola to see this.

"Papa, Amigo, Angola está contigo!"

Photo from BBC. A vender qualquer coisa!

The BBC has a good summary of the Pope's upcoming visit to Angola.



The article brings up the restrictions the government has placed on Radio Ecclesia, the Church's Luanda-based radio station that is currently only broadcast in Luanda. I'm quite interested to see what the Pope says about corruption (if he says anything at all). Actually, I'm more interested to see what the government says/does if he does...

Pope to Africa

On Tuesday Pope Benedict will travel to Africa, including Angola!

In Angola, which emerged in 2002 from 25 years of civil war, Benedict is expected to meet with politicians and diplomats to speak out against corruption and assert the renewed role that the church hopes to play in fostering democracy and civil society in Africa.

He will also mark 500 years since Catholic missionaries began converting people in the former Portuguese colony and meet with groups promoting the role of women in Africa.

It'll be interesting to see what the Angolan government thinks about the Pope preaching against corruption. I wonder if they will also celebrate the 500 year anniversary since they converted slaves before shipping them off to the New World...

Whoa: China extends US$1 billion line of credit to Angola

According to AngoNoticias (link in Portuguese), José Eduardo dos Santos, president of Angola, met with Chen Yuan, the governor of the Chinese Development Bank, to discuss a US$1 billion line of credit to be offered by China to Angola. . The purpose of the credit would be to fund agricultural development projects. And, I presume, a few personal interest projects of some people in the government.

If nothing else, click on the link to see the weird cartoonish font used in the accompanying graphic.

Sligoville

Just so you don't go thinking Jamaica is all Caribbean shoreline.... Pictures from Sligoville, in St. Catherine parish. The founder of a foundation we support lives here.

Named for Howe Peter Browne, 2nd Marquis of Sligo, then Governor of Jamaica. The first free village in Jamaica.

We got there around 4:30 pm. By the time dark came, the temperature dropped to 55 deg. F and a strong wind was blowing. This, of course, was my favorite part of the visit:

For shame...

I'm currently in Jamaica and out of the Dominican baseball loop, so I am a little late to this:

Dominican Republic’s powerfully offensive team lost for the second time to the Netherlands, and is eliminated from the World Baseball Classic.

Oh man, I wish I were in the office to hear my coworkers talk about this! Bad enough for the DR to lose, but to lose to the Netherlands?!?!?! Ouch.

In good sports news, the West Indies beat England in the five-test series cricket match. I know absolutely nothing about cricket. Zip. But the only radio station I get in my Japanese car is KLAS, Jamaica's sports radio station. Test Cricket takes forever (5 days) and is very British, complete with breaks for tea. So while I've been driving around Kingston, I've listened to the series. I wish I actually undestood what was happening, because apparently it was quite a dramatic series.

It's there, I promise!

Part of the benefits I get with this job is that I am allow to take a company car home at the end of the day and on the weekends. It makes my life leaps easier. There are 3 of us in the office with this right and there are 4 cars. Work matters of course always take priority.

The last few weeks have been a little frustrating in terms of the car. A 4th car is out of comission until a part is shipped in from Japan and for a while, a 3rd car was in the shop. As the lowest person on the totem pole, I had to go without. This was okay for a while, because I just walked everywhere, getting a little bit of exercise in. The 3rd car came back after a week, so it wasn't too bad.

On Thursday the car I usually drive had to go up to the Haitian border for some project monitoring but was supposed to come back Friday afternoon. After waiting patiently until 6 pm, I finally started to ask around about the car. Sure enough, the manager who took the car was "not in good health" and "unable to drive back to Santo Domingo." The facts that the manager is from the town where the monitoring took place, has family and friends there and it was a Friday night, perfect time for knocking back a Presidente or two, are purely coincidential. Since I am going up to see Carnaval with a friend today (Saturday), he promised to have the car back by 9 am.

This morning before coming over to the office I called my coworker to make sure that he had come back and left the key on top of the secretary's desk, as we planned. He assured me that all had gone according to plan. I walked to the office (about 45 mins) and sure enough, couldn't see the key anywhere.

I called my coworker again to make sure that I wasn't going crazy. "Oh no, it's there. I put it right on the secretary's desk." I hung up and started looking again. No luck. I called him again. "Hmm, maybe I accidentally left it on my desk." So I poured through his office. Nothing. Finally, he admits, "Oh, I actually still have the key. It's in my own car."

So although he knew perfectly well that he hadn't put the key on the secretary's desk, he let me do all that work, pretending that he had. Sigh.

Direct flight USA - Angola?!

According to AngoNoticias, in September Delta Airlines is to begin a twice weekly flight to Luanda. The flight will originate in Atlanta and stop in Ilha do Sal, Cabo Verde before heading to Luanda.

In my opinion, it is a huge mistake to make Atlanta the US city of destination. I mean, it's not like Houston is a strategic city of interest to Angola, right? Yeah, I know Atlanta is the hub city for Delta and I clearly have a bias in favor of Houston. (In December I had the misfortune of Delta cancelling a flight, forcing me to stay in Atlanta.) Heck, there's not even an Angolan consulate in Atlanta to submit an application for a visa you will never get...

Antigua Guatemala

After the workshop ended I took an extra day to go up to Antigua Guatemala. Antigua is a beautful colonial town. I can't do it justice here, so I will just post pictures from the day, which happened to be beautifully sunny and about 70 degrees F.

Guatemala

I spent last week in Guatemala for work. We had a regional workshop on emergency shelter construction. A large part of my job involves emergency preparedness and response, and thus far I've been lucky enough to avoid any of the response aspect. Why lucky? Because I don't have a lot of on-the-ground experience in emergency anything, other than a hurricane or two and some mild earthquakes.

Our faithful supervisors

My favorite part of the workshop was constructing the shelter. So often we project managers pass the time in an office and supervise the work being done from the comfort of our desk. Now, I love being in the field and getting my hands dirty, but because my organization does not directly implent projects and instead works through local partners, I rarely get to do it.

We traveled to Chiquimulilla, near the border with El Salvador, and were tasked with building a model shelter similar to what we would do in our emergency projects all over the world. (A model that is always adapted to local customs and materials, of course.) It was a great experience, in spite of building one of the ugliest things I have ever seen!

We had planned one full day of work; it took one and a half. We planned to have the materials prepped and ready for construction; they weren't. The wood was supposed to be light and pliable; it was so heavy and dense we had to run back to the hardware store to get special nails. I could go on. My favorite part of the day was when Don Andres, the elderly Guatemalan man whose property we built the shelter on, came over and said with no hint of levity, "Hay muchos errores. There are a lot or errors."

This looks like the start of a bad joke: How many NGO workers does it take to measure some wood?

Don Andres, surveying the damage

In spite of all the snafus, it was a great experience. In fact it was a great experience because of the snafus. In our group we had architects, engineers, doctors, people with master degrees... and we could barely follow a simple manual. Now imagine you are an illiterate widow in Indonesia after the tsunami and some organization has just come and given you this manual. It was humbling and a reminder that the person we seek to serve is the beneficiary.

The final product, warts and all.

The Metro is Here!

My very first morning in the DR, my organization's driver gave me an informal tour of the city on our way to the office. I commented on the crazy traffic and he said, "Oh, but it'll get better soon- we're getting a subway!" Although inaugurated in early 2008, it just opened last week.

The Metro is controversial. In a country as poor as the Dominican Republic, is a multimillion dollar rapid transit system the best use of resources? Those in favor often cite the horrible traffic found in Santo Domingo. Traffic here is truly awful- I will not get into how bad because losing my temper twice a day (driving to work and driving home) is too much. To give you an idea, I have a 20 - 25 minute commute, depending on what time I leave.

I live about a mile and a half from my office. Imagine how early my coworkers who live on the outskirts have to wake up in order to get home. In this sense, yes, the Metro might help. The bus drivers who make the route are already threatening protests and blockades, so it must work somewhat if they are mad!

Those against point out that the amount of money being spent on the Metro is disproportionate to the benefit. According to Wikipedia:

... as of February 2008, the budget allocated for the Santo Domingo Metro
was higher than the added budget of three important ministries and 5 pivotal
governmental institutions, including the ministry of superior education, science
and technology. For example, during the single month of February, the Santo
Domingo Metro received more than 231 million pesos (7 million US dollars), while
during the month of January, it received twice that amount.

Seeing how much is spent on the Metro when there is an inconsistent supply of electricity , poor health care, poor education and corruption everywhere is a bit infuriating.

I think it's too soon to judge whether or not the Metro is a good thing or not. I haven't been on it yet, although I'm lucky because there is a station less than a block from my house.

However, I do have one complaint: the station names. I looked at the map and tried to figure out which station was the one near my house. The station sits on Avenida Maximo Gomez; is across from the American consulate; and is in front of the Teatro Nacional (National Theater). So I of course look for a name implying one of those 3 things. I see a stop labeled "Maximo Gomez" and think, "Oh, that's it!" But when I look at the cross streets, it is nowhere near the stop I thought it was. Turns out they named all the stops after prominent Dominicans. Fine, but I guess they didn't stop to consider to match the Metro stops named after famous Dominicans with the streets that are ALREADY named after the same famous Dominicans. So the Maximo Gomez stop is not one of the numerous stations that is on Maximo Gomez Avenue. Sheesh.

Perhaps I'll be won over when I actually try it. Or when they open up the other planned lines. Too bad the other lines aren't happening anytime soon (2010 is the projected date).

Back.

I received an e-mail from my father the other day requesting a blog post. Here it is!

I haven't posted in a while for a number of reasons.

Angola was so different for me in so many ways and I had so much to say about what I was seeing and experiencing. Couple that with little to no social life, an at times overwhelming sense of isolation and you get prolific blogging.

Here in the DR it's a little different. There is plenty that is new and different to me, but after Angola it sort of pales in comparison (with all due respect to the DR!) and the number of things that inspire me to blog. It's not the DR's fault. Frankly, my life is a lot less exciting here- in a good way. No more worries about being pulled over and put in jail because the cop doesn't understand my visa. My life here is calm. I go to work, go to gym and then come home. That's the bulk of it.

The last two months have involved lots of traveling for me- 10 days in Jamaica for work and then over 4 weeks at home in Houston for my home leave.

But I do enjoy blogging and for those of you who are still reading, thanks. I'll try and post more.

Whoops!

From today's New York Times:

As a clerk at the Dominican Republic Consulate in New York, Francisco
Estevez enjoyed a number of diplomatic perks, including something any frequent
flier would covet: an exclusive visa that amounted to an airport E-ZPass.

Mr. Estevez would travel to the Dominican Republic and interview potential
customers face to face to make sure they resembled one of his family members,
according to the authorities. Once he determined there was a match, they said,
Mr. Estevez would give that person a family member’s passport and an A-2 visa
and fly with them to the United States. He sometimes took as many as seven
people who would pose as family members.

Not good when diplomatic immunity is taken away, is it?

Kuduro

I was catching up on a blog I enjoy reading and came across this post about kuduro. Kuduro is music from the musseques (slums) of Luanda. (I've written about it before.) According to the post, kuduro is taking over Europe! Of course, not kuduro as Angolans listen to it, but "improved" upon by European DJs. Follow the link and decide for yourself if you like it.

This got me nostalgic for kuduro (which means "hard ass" in Kimbundu). So here is a kuduro song that was HUGE in the months before I left. It basically is a conversation between a father and a son. The father is hassling his son, who is a real bandido- doesn't study, gets a girl pregnant, etc. I like it because there's a lot of Angolan Portuguese phrases and sounds in it. And like any good kuduro video, it's filmed in a musseque with the people who live there and little kids dancing all crazy.



And here's one of my all-time favorite, O Comboio by kurudo powerhouse Os Lamba. (Comboio = train)

Conversations I Have Had: Jamaica Edition

Riverton Community Center, Kingston, Jamaica

I rely heavily upon the map of Kingston while I am here. After a few days I get used to the place, only to forget it all again once I leave. Therefore I was disappointed to find it had gone "missing" from the car. So I set out to find a new one at the bookstore.



Me: Excuse me, do you have street maps?


Bookstore employee: Street maps?


Me: Yes, of Kingston.


...Blank look...


Me: Maps with the names of streets. So I don't get lost.


Employee: No, we don't have any street maps.


Me: Oh.


Employee: We only have road maps.

I went to visit our partner in Seaview Gardens, a rough and tumble neighborhood of Kingston. I had never really been out to visit the community before, so two of the formidable community liasons, Miss Effie and Carolyn, took me around. We stopped in at the local police station.



Me: Do you have enough police to handle to problems of the community?


Sargent: No man, we need more.


Miss Effie: They need a lot of things here. They need a new car, a new fence...


Sargent: Yeah man, we need a new kitchen.


Miss Effie: They really need a new bar.


Me: A bar? I'm sorry. What's a bar? [Thinking, this can't really be a bar, like, for drinking.]


Sargent: A bar, man, for drinking. [Pointing to 2/3 bottle of Appleton Rum on his bookshelf.]


Miss Effie: Yeah, for when they don't have anything to do.


Sargent: Yeah, we really need one.

Bahia de las Aguilas

Last weekend I went with a few coworkers to the provinces of Barahona and Pedernales. The purpose of the trip was to go to Bahia de las Aguilas, a beach located in the Parque Nacional (National Park) Jaragua. Although we spent way too much time in the car, it was well worth the trip.

Along the way we stopped to see some Taino cave carvings.

...And a park inhabited by iguanas. Can you spot the baby iguana?

There he is!

"Do Not Enter with Firearms."

Bahia de las Aguilas is the most beautiful beach I've seen in a long time. Recently a Spanish resort corporation tried to buy the land in order to build a resort. Environmentalists lodged a protest and, fortunately, were able to prevent the resort from being built. Hard to imagine this beautiful landscape marred by an all-inclusive!

Cocoa Tea Calls It

From The Jamaica Gleaner

A friend I work with- and who has traveled to Jamaica frequently for work- came over to watch the election results on Tuesday. As they called it for Obama, she said, "I can't wait to see what the Jamaican newspapers say tomorrow."

They did say this:

Barack Obama's victory should now instil a higher level of confidence in
Jamaicans, says reggae artiste Coco Tea who, through his musical tribute, had predicted a win for Obama several months before the presidential elections.

Yes folks, Cocoa Tea called it! We should all listen to him.

Reggae Superstar for Obama

Folks, let's face it. The world has Obama fever. The other day on the news here they were interviewing Domincans, asking who they would vote for if they could vote in the US election. "Obama! Porque parece a nosotros y nos entiende mejor!" (Obama! Because he looks like us and can understand us better!) It doesn't help that McCain's father led the US invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965. (Just read the comments on that second link to see how people feel about it.)

I haven't been to Jamaica since August, but even then everyone had Obama fever. I was cruising the Jamaican on-line papers and found this article about Cocoa Tea recording a reggae song in honor of Obama. I dare you to listen to it and not like it.

Why I've been absent

One of the more exciting reasons I haven't posted in a while- in other words, the only reason other than work- is that I've finally settled into life in Santo Domingo and have a things to do other than sit and home bored. Hooray for my fledgling social life! My friend and former coworker from Angola also came to visit from the other side of Hispanola (she was working in Haiti), giving me the motivation to finally get out of the house and start seeing this beautiful place where I live. Most importantly, after almost 6 months in the DR, I can finally say that I've been to the beach. Here are a few pictures:

From the malecón, which runs along the edge of Santo Domingo.

The beach at Juan Dolio

Dominican beauty at Juan Dolio

At the start of El Conde in the Zona Colonial, Santo Domingo

Wrong place, wrong time

As we were making our way to Dajabón, we happened upon a strange scene. About an hour outside of Santiago, we saw a military helicopter coming towards our direction. Strange, but not so odd. Five minutes later we realized why: there were about 4 completely armed, masked police surrounding several SUVs. As we approached, one of the ninja-masked men started waving his hand at me- I had no idea what he wanted me to do, so I slowed. We saw about 20 handcuffed individuals, men and women, sitting on the ground. At that point, even if the ninja wanted me to stop I wouldn't have! We got the hell out of Dodge.

About 1/2 hour later we heard on the radio that a raid had taken place and several arrests had been made in connection to the infamous Paya, Baní case. The helicopter was brought in to take the suspects into holding. I don't know enough about the case to go into detail, but it involves drugs, mass murder and corruption. Quite the brush with danger!