Mozambican Adventures of the Beilfuss family (Madison chapter)
20 May 2007
"Loja do Chitengo"
Here is the team for "Loja do Chitengo" -- the Chitengo Gift Shop (l to r): Mane (head carpenter) , Maneca (assistant), Jose Carlos (or Zeca for short), and Sophia. Mane, Maneca, and Zeca have built all the shelving for the shop as well as secure storage trunks and cabinets for keeping the shop wares, and a wall to screen ff the area behind the shop, all out of locally-available bamboo. They work hard, they are friendly, and, most importantly, they put up with my Portuguese! We now have added a woman, Maria, to the team, and hope to train her to assist Natasha with the children's activities as well.
Our family has moved back to Madison (we returned mid-August 2008) for a variety of reasons. While we are very sad to have left the Chitengo family we had come to love -- and the extraordinary natural resource, Gorongosa National Park -- we are very excited to be back in our old Jean Street neighborhood in Madison, and to be able to see and communicate with our friends and family more readily.
"A Complicated War: The Harrowing of Mozambque" by William Finnegan.
"Drawn from the Plains: Life in the Wilds of Southern Africa", by Lynne Tinley, wife of the ecologist who documented the plants and animals at Gorongosa before the wars. Out of print but available through www.abebooks.com
"The Safari Companion: A Guide to Watching African Mammals" by Richard D. Estes
Here is the team for "Loja do Chitengo" -- the Chitengo Gift Shop (l to r): Mane (head carpenter) , Maneca (assistant), Jose Carlos (or Zeca for short), and Sophia. Mane, Maneca, and Zeca have built all the shelving for the shop as well as secure storage trunks and cabinets for keeping the shop wares, and a wall to screen ff the area behind the shop, all out of locally-available bamboo. They work hard, they are friendly, and, most importantly, they put up with my Portuguese! We now have added a woman, Maria, to the team, and hope to train her to assist Natasha with the children's activities as well.
