Rick and Morty

Today’s post will be relatively brief, but we will recap how today has gone. We woke up as always, to seize the day, but we were encountered with a mishappening, which fortunately concluded positively. As we were gearing up the engines, mentally preparing for the meetings of the day, in the way down from HQ, the elevator came to a sudden halt. After minutes of holding the alarm and power surges within the elevator, it descended to the bottom floor, -4, and then rose to the highest, 17th. After what seemed an eternity, the lift began descending, and once again, coming to an abrupt stop on the 2nd floor. After an identical exercise as before, the lift returned to ground level after 10 minutes, with all of us unharmed, and with baby Xavi needing a little bit of reassurance.
In any case, we set off to wow Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) on time (Xavi and Alberto did their share of wowing with their promptness this morning, being on time – in Jaime terms –). Our meeting with GAIN went incredibly well, Katia gave us invaluable insight and showed great interest in our proposal. GAIN is an NGO that has been shifting from a healthcare-based to a nutrition-focused, given the incredible improvements that appropriate nutrition can cause to the health of the most vulnerable (women, children and especially pregnant women). A diversification of our approach with a less conventional form of health-related NGO turned out to be a very positive decision.

The second meeting of the day was with the Centro de Investigação de Saúde de Manhiça (CISM), a leading research centre in Malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. The nature of the relationship we would be looking to form with CISM is slightly different to that of other parties here in Mozambique. CISM shares a common vision with InAGlobe that both parties want to exploit: Capacity building. We both want to drive development in Mozambique on a long-term scale, and by empowering local Mozambicans to take agency over the development of their country. Once again, the approach to CISM was another diversifying partner, and again it has enormous potential.

The second half of the day was spent making phone calls, and scheduling further meetings for the second half of the week and visits to missions on the ground further up North. It also allowed us to brainstorm and gather our thoughts on approaches for the follow ups with the most promising partners which we hope to collaborate with in the near future. While this was taking place, Jaime put into practice his survival and mending skills by sowing a button onto his pants for the first time.