Four Years...Seems Like Yesterday

Finding Short-Term Housing in Maputo

Even though it's been two-and-a-half years since we lived in Maputo, I still get several requests per month from people planning trips there and wanting advice on how to find short-term housing. This was a tricky proposition when we lived in Mozambique (2005-2009) and I imagine it's only become more difficult as the expat population grows, gas and oil discoveries abound, and rental prices skyrocket.

Without being totally up-to-date on Maputo life these days, I base my advice on a few assumptions, namely:

1) I believe the already inflated rental prices in Maputo have increased significantly since we lived there. Expect to pay a premium for any place that is available.

Rico and I had a 2-year renewable lease on our apartment (good location across from Hotel Terminus/Vila Algarve, street parking, crappy building with water problems, 3-bedrooms, nice natural light, beautiful wood floors, totally outdated bathroom and kitchen, lots of "character", several repairs needed) and paid US$550 per month. We never told people how much we paid in rent because it was a fantastic deal (especially for expats) and we were afraid someone would turn up and offer our landlady double the money and she'd kick us out. We did a lot of repairs and upgrades to the place (replaced the water heater, put in a separate water system for the apartment, painted everything, bought new furniture that we left behind, etc.) so I guess in the landlady's eyes it was worth the low rent because we had a long-term contract, didn't cause any problems, and fixed up her flat so she could get a lot more money for it when we left.

When Rico and I moved away, friends took over our lease and agreed with the landlady to up the rent to US$800 per month. This was in late 2009. I haven't heard what happened after that, but I'd say it's safe to guess that the apartment would easily rent for US$1,500 per month now, if not more.

The nice 3-bedroom flats in the high rise buildings on Av. Julius Nyerere used to rent for US$2,500 to US$3,000 per month back in 2009. I'd imagine they go for around US$4,000 to US$4,500 now.

A fantastic house in Sommerchield with 4 bedrooms and a pool used to go for US$3,500 to US$4,000 in 2009. I wouldn't be surprised if those types of houses are now rented for US$5,000 and up.

I suppose an easy way to check would be to look at the classifieds on Club of Mozambique...

2) I doubt there have been any improvements in the ease of finding short-term rentals. I think a lot of housing is still found informally, through word-of-mouth, especially if you are looking for something less than a one-year lease.

Much of my advice to people looking for a short-term lease or to find a roommate situation is to rely on social networks. This can mean hitting up your Facebook friends to see if someone knows someone with a room for rent in Maputo. You can try Couchsurfing and see if there's a sofa available for you for a couple weeks.

If your trip is sponsored by an academic institution, see if they have any contacts with university housing or students in Maputo who would have a room to rent. If your trip is to volunteer with an NGO or a branch of the UN, see if they can give you names of previous volunteers and email or call them to see what their strategy was for housing.

3) It's easier to find a place once you are in Maputo rather than before your trip. That said, Murphy's Law rules, and you should definitely have a backup plan in case you aren't able to find an apartment or roommate situation while in Maputo.

I often recommend to people that they plan to stay in a hotel or backpacker's for the first few weeks on the ground, so they can have a chance to meet people and network and potentially check out a couple of places in person. Ideally you will find something decent and relatively quickly. However, you might not, and it's important to think about the possibility of staying at a cheap hotel or backpacker's for the duration of your trip if necessary. 

You might try to negotiate long-term rates with some of these establishments: Fatima's Backpackers, the Base Backpackers, Hotel Africa (multiple locations throughout the city), Hotel Terminus (more expensive, but very nice and conveniently located), Hotel Monte Carlo.

And now a request for anyone who has moved to Maputo within the last three years and tried to find short-term housing. What was your experience like? Where did you end up staying? How did you find a place? How much did you pay? 

If you would kindly share any information in the comments, it would really help out the next round of travelers who are trying to figure out short-term accommodations as I am definitely out of the loop these days. Thanks in advance! 

Patrice Lumumba

I was just hit with a gut-wrenching pang of saudades for Maputo after looking at this blog post on Avenida Patrice Lumumba by Brandie at Out and About Africa. I remember that street so well, flanked with dingy modernist apartment blocks, acacias and jacarandas, and a sidewalk that had certainly seen better days. I used to walk on Patrice Lumumba to go from our flat to the Centro Cultural Franco Moçambicano, one of the better spots in Maputo to see local and international art exhibitions and films, not to mention weekend parties with live music.

Something about seeing Brandie's photo made me miss being there so much. When I think about Mozambique in general, big-picture terms I don't have such nostalgia, it's pretty easy to consider it a well-lived chapter in my past and remember the exciting new road I'm on here in California.

But when I think about the specifics - the roundabout where Hotel Cardoso is located at the beginning of Av. Patrice Lumumba (and what was that other street called, the one with what used to be Vila Itália and then became Tapas restaurant - the Austrian ambassador's residence is on the corner, and if you walk a bit further you get to the snack bar called A Francesinha...this is driving me crazy, as Rico and I lived for a month on that street in our banana client's empty flat...the picture in my mind is *so clear* yet I can't for the life of me think of the street name!) - the little Indian grocery on Av. 24 de Julho and Av. Mártires da Machava where the owners used to live in Dallas Ft. Worth and drove a Buick they'd imported back into Mozambique (I can still see the layout of the closely-spaced shelves in my head, full of Black Cat peanut butter and Ceres juices and Salticrax crackers and feta cheese from Clover).

It's these little vignettes of daily life that really hit me, and for a brief moment I'd give anything to go back.

I'm a Star in a Metalsmithing Video

You can see me in all my film-worthy, jewelry-making glory on my Alexandra Amaro blog (click here).

For the Love of Web

I am working hard on my jewelry website, Alexandra Amaro, and it never ceases to amaze me exactly how much freaking work goes into establishing and maintaining a good online presence.

Blogging is one thing - I enjoy writing and feel confident that no matter how much time may pass between posts when I'm busy and school rules my life, it is something I will always revisit. Blogging seems like a part of my life, the digital evolution of the volumes and volumes of journals I filled in my teens and early twenties. Blogging is about telling my story, recording the moments I don't want to forget, ensuring that an accurate record of my experiences and emotions is available to look back on, to share with others, and to pass on to my children one day.

Website maintenance, on the other hand, is not natural for me. :) It's this big beast looming on the horizon, something I don't quite understand, am never quite up to date with for my high standards. It's especially challenging to learn how to manage a new platform, which is what's happening with the new version of my jewelry site. In order to put up content you need to have finished pieces, then have good photos, then resize the photos for the web, write copy, create the component pages for a category or gallery, arrange everything in the back end of the site, then press publish and hope for no broken links or mistakes.

It gets easier as I become more fluent with my new site structure, but I'm in the midst of some frustrating times these days. I'm hoping to be done with the content updates and have the new shop up and running within a month or two. Definitely by the end of the summer.

So what else is new in my life these days?

I finished the school semester about a week and a half ago, which was a relief but also strangely depressing. I've talked before about how it's hard for me to go from 10,000 miles per hour and total craziness while classes are in session, to suddenly skid to a stop and have all this free time and little structure on my days. The solution to avoiding the post-semester blues, I've found, is to stay busy. It's a bit of a delicate balance as I clearly need a vacation and some decent rest, but I really am happier - not to mention more productive - if I have full days even during the first weeks of summer break.

My studio is up and running, which will make a massive difference. This will be the first summer during which I can work from home, torches and all, and that means I can take on custom orders and work on some of my own production stuff. Happily I have several custom orders queued up, not to mention the designs of mine that were accepted to the American Crafts Council show in early August and still need to be made.

I will be taking a summer school class in June - Intro to Garment Structures - and will be the teaching assistant for the pre-college metalsmithing course offered at CCA in July. So both of those will keep me on my toes.

I'm also really kicking up the frequency of my exercise. I was only working out 2 or sometimes 3 times a week during the second half of the semester (which is fine, I'll take any exercise over no exercise) but it's not quite enough to keep me feeling less crazy. So now I'm aiming for 5-6 times per week, with a combination of running (with my running buddy H.), personal training and cardio dance at Hipline. Already I feel better and it's only been a week or so of increased physical activity.

What else...

My snake phobia, which has been ever-present in my life, has gotten markedly worse. The hills of Northern California are known for being prime rattlesnake territory and several friends who enjoy hiking have alerted me that the rattlers are definitely out and about already this spring. In fact, most of my hiker friends have seen at least one if not two snakes per hike during the last month. I have been strongly advised to stay off trails until the weather gets cooler, something I'm more than happy to do (although I'll miss running at Tilden).

I went on a hike the other day with my family while on a day trip to Denver - we went hiking at Red Rocks - and I totally freaked out about the possibility of seeing snakes. Think panic attack, uncontrollable shaking legs, sobbing and severe sweats. It was pretty embarrassing, but my family was kind about it and we turned around early and went back to the car. Thankfully there were no snake sightings, but just the idea of seeing one was bad enough to really set off my anxiety. Fun times.

What else...

I really miss my mother-in-law and my friends H. and A., all of whom came to stay with us recently.

I'm enjoying the near-perfect weather we've been enjoying lately in the Bay Area. I made the mistake the other day, though, of saying that all I wanted to do was spend the afternoon sitting in the sun. I was at the dermatologist's. Whoopsie. I wear sunscreen and a hat, but apparently that didn't matter to the ladies in there who looked at me like I'd announced my plan to shave my head or something equivalently unthinkable.

I've also been enjoying catching up on sleep. Speaking of which, it's time for me to say goodnight to the computer, so long to the website frustrations. Maybe things will flow easier tomorrow with a nice cup of coffee and some homemade waffles. :)

Lost and Found Exhibition May 5 - June 15

I am very excited to announce a gallery show that I will be participating in together with my fellow CCA jewelry students at D&H Sustainable Jewelers in San Francisco. The show will feature works made in the Lost and Found class that focuses on recycling, repurposing and reusing materials. There will be an opening reception this Saturday, May 5th from 5-8pm (there is a wine bar in the gallery so fun times for all). Work will be on view through June 15.

Here is the card for our show as well as the official press release (that I wrote - yay for business skills coming in handy).

 The students of the “Lost and Found” Jewelry/Metal Arts class at the California College of the Arts will be presenting works created throughout the Spring 2012 semester in an exhibition at D&H Sustainable Jewelers in San Francisco, on view from to May 5^th to June 15^th  2012. There will be an opening reception on Saturday May 5^th 5pm-8pm.

Through discussion and experimentation, the class explored the formats of jewelry, functional object, and sculpture to change perception about found materials. A primary challenge was to transform waste materials into objects that have purpose, thus allowing potential landfill to have a second life.

Using a wide array of materials including discarded jewelry, hard drives, phone books, antique trade beads, found wire, and recycled metal, students created reimagined pieces with new layers of meaning.

For more information on the “Lost and Found” exhibition or the Jewelry/Metal Arts program at California College of the Arts, please contact Curtis Arima at curtis@curtisharima.com  or visit www.cca.edu. D&H Sustainable Jewelers is a fine jewelry design house that works only with reclaimed precious metals and ethically sourced diamonds and gemstones, located at 2323 Market St., San Francisco, CA, (415)500-2550,  www.dnhjewelers.wordpress.com.

It's All Downhill from Here

Every time I write that phrase I am unsure if it refers to things getting better/easier or things getting pretty shitty. I'm sort of convinced it can refer to both, which is strangely apt for how I feel about the rest of the semester at CCA.

This has been the hardest run yet in terms of studio work, but it's been a really emotional semester as well. Lots of family stuff, we've had a ton of house guests, I moved into a new workspace at home, I had my junior review.

Last week in particular was really tough. It started with 32 family members and friends coming into town for my grandmother's 90th birthday (fun and nice, but draining), then I had to prepare and install my junior review (a one-day gallery exposition on campus that shows my work thus far), then I went through the review itself (mixed feelings on this one, and definitely a post for another day), then on the heels of taking down the installation I had to whip two additional projects out of thin air for my jewelry classes.

Now I feel like I'm on the other side of the hardest part of this semester. I am relieved and feel less stressed and like the f-it button is on in a good way. But I am also mindful that I still have four final projects to design and make, and that I always underestimate how challenging and fast-paced the tail end of the semester can be.

Downhill, here I come.