Fabio is Coming

Today was the kick-off for the strategic planning workshop I'm co-facilitating for a start-up NGO. Last night I was at the office of the consulting firm that contracted me until 9:20pm. (!!!) This on the heels of having worked all damn day on Saturday. Seriously, for as many downsides as the life of an independent consultant may have, let me just say that I L-O-V-E having control over my own time, being able to work like mad for 2 days in a row, then take it super easy the third day. Alas, not so when you are on somebody else's clock. But the workshop is going quite well and it is nice to interact with some new people and, of course, the paycheck is a perk as well. :)

Mozambique is having lots of weather-related difficulties lately. I don't know if it made the news where you all are, but last week saw some serious flooding along the Zambezi valley in central Mozambique. Heavy rains up-river in Zambia and Zimbabwe caused peak levels in the river above the Cahora Bassa dam in Tete Province. The dam managers decided to increase the outflow of the dam gates, thus pushing the already high waters along the lower length of the river over flood point. Things were especially bad around Caia in Sofala Province, the site where a donor-funded bridge over the Zambezi is currently being constructed on the country's main highway, the EN1. Apparently 85,000 people were displaced as a result of the floods, and the UN had to bring in helicopters to do evacuations.

Mozambique is a funny shaped country, like a long fat Y resembling an upside-down afghan hound. The capital, Maputo, is all the way in the south-eastern corner, practially smashed against the borders with South Africa and Swaziland. Since the highway system is dismal and there is still no bridge over the Zambezi (except in Tete Province where it's really not necessary for linking north with south), Mozambique is practially divided in two. North and south might as well be completely different countries, because what happens in one part barely affects the other parts. Case in point is all the flooding. Here in Maputo it was dry as a bone, hot and humid, but with no sign of the storms causing such havoc further up the coast. If not for the images on TV and the reports in the newspaper, residents of the capital would never guess the rest of the country was in such dire straights.

Apparently this week they've closed the flood gates at Cahora Bassa, so the flooding is back under control, althoug there are the subsequent problems of food supply and general reconstruction of lives affected by the rising waters. Now, however, it seems to be Maputo's turn to hold its breath and hope for the best against Nature's potential fury.

A cyclone is heading towards us, having passed to the south of Madagascar and into the Mozambique Channel. Cyclone Fabio is currently a Category 1 storm and is expected to make landfall tomorrow evening near Vilankulos, a resort town a couple hundred kilometers north of Maptuo. However, erratic as storm paths tend to be, there is a chance that Fabio will not veer north and will instead make landfall at Maputo Bay. Right now it's a relatively weak storm as far as these things go, but I must admit the prospect of cyclone is simultaneously exciting and panic-inducing. I'm sure meterology nerds in the hurricane belt of the US understand.

Maybe my workshop sessions will be cancelled on Thursday because of the cyclone!