“Fancy Chapa” to Maputo

After a handful of days in Tofo, the final two involving a lot of preparation towards the upcoming meetings, we took the chapa to Maputo. On the last day in Tofo we had very good waves, and two incredible meals: lunch at Guju’s Beach Bar (an Indian restaurant and sunset bar decorated with the owner’s art and music) and dinner at ZanziBeach. That evening, during dinner we decided on going to sleep early to be rested for the 4 AM chapa to Maputo. However, Xavi was the only one who followed this, being the weak-link in the group, and went to sleep at 9:30 PM. Alberto and Jaime did not follow the ground rules which meant they set off the trip to Maputo with a little less sleep, after seeing the lunar eclipse. After a 9-hour chapa, we finally arrived to Maputo. During the ride we discovered a secondary function of the chapa, which was also used as an informal postal service for the whole Maputo before dropping us off. In the evening in Maputo we had a very pleasant dinner with Muheti, a potential partner that has been extremely helpful throughout and since the early stages of the project.

In the morning, we set out early to meet the Universidade São Tomas de Mozambique. We spoke with the dean and the vice-dean and reached very positive conclusions, even scheduling a workshop with the IT and Agrarian Sciences for the following week. We presented the initiative, and clarified doubts about the inclusion of InAGlobe in the curriculum rather than as a student initiative. We will continue to keep contact during the embryonic stage, and will hopefully build a working partnership for the design of engineering solutions. Secondly, we met with three representatives of the Universidade Pedagogica. From this meeting we agreed on the present working relationship and exchange of information that will allows us to carve the direction the partnership will take. Both universities are extremely interesting because of their vision of empowering their students to drive development in Mozambique.

Lastly, we were received by Stefano Marmorato at the Italian Cooperation Agency, which gave us extremely valuable insight and advice on potential partners as well as the approach to them. Stefano was a recommendation and referral of Alexia Viera of the Fundação Khanimambo because of his long standing relationship with East and South Africa as well as with his involvement in human development. We apologise for the late post, between the exhausting chapa ride and a day full of meetings and preparations it has been hard to find the time to write. During our time in Maputo we will be posting very frequently, so keep a look out for more updates!