Kung Fu Panda Changed my Life

Morning morning....

Sitting in Maputo sipping my instant coffee...just got up early today to watch the sun for a little while. I know, I am a total weirdo. So, for a while now (a week, ok), I have been off of coffee, I don't know why, but I suddenly decided that I needed to drink more tea....today, I instinctively made coffee without thinking in my sleeplike state....so much for trying to kick a bad habit.

And so, here I am getting ready for the day, making sure the report I have been working on is okay and getting organized for the day and the week...and thinking a lot about kung fu panda. Apparently this was a big hit in the US a few months ago. I arrived in Maputo and found it in my apartment, delivered straight from the street.

Now, I always like cartoons (or animation) but this one made me laugh because well, it had some good messages and well, a giant panda doing kung fu is pretty hilarious. So yeah, as I am trying to read these reports on community based health care, my mind is wandering to the kung fu panda.

The two major things that I learned:

#1: "There are no accidents." Ok, this one was spoken by the wise old turtle master who later disappears into a breeze of flowers.

#2: "There is no special ingredient." This one is spoken by the panda's duck father, a slight detail, never explained.

Why am I thinking about these 2 things? #1: I would say that a good 50-60% of the time, I wonder what I could possibly be doing in Mozambique and whether I should have done this or that or something else. Well, sometimes you just have to accept a decision and also trust yourself a little bit. Decisions seem out of the blue sometimes, but they could still be the right thing. Seriously, why was the panda chosen to do kung fu, guess that was just the way it was. Ok, #2: I keep trying to find some big answer for what would be a good health strategy on a small scale and what people would need. But hey, as a lot of people are saying nowadays, not one thing works alone. I hate to admit it but sometimes it is easier just to find a quick answer and solution to lots of things at the same time.

Alright, so I am a grown woman talking about cartoons. And also starting to sound like a self-help book. Still, I remember how much the Little Mermaid changed my life when I was 8 years old, just trying to remember that feeling again. And sometimes, the simpler the better just to get a really good message across. What can I say....there is a reason why people respond positively to simplicity and colors and shapes.......

Here is to a great week in Maputo. Have some comings and goings, but hopefully I can manage to keep it simple and efficient. And although I love the variety of the big city life, am looking forward to getting back to Beira to the streets of sand and the smell of drying fish...