Katrin Schmidt meets two different women with distinct lives - one from Ireland living in Mozambique, one Mozambican living in Ireland - but finds their experiences to be remarkably similar

When Eileen Dwyer met her future Mozambican husband in 1995, she decided to stay on for good in Beira, the second largest city in Mozambique. There, the Irishwoman has spent the last few years focusing on her children – two 11-year-olds and a nine-year-old. But very soon she’ll have another mission on her agenda.
Next month Dwyer begins development work for the Austrian company Light For The World, which is committed to saving eyesight, improving the quality of life and advocating for the rights of people with disabilities in underprivileged regions around the globe.
As the mother of a child with special needs, it’s the lack of a reliable medical service in Mozambique that stands out for her.
“Medication for people with special illnesses is expensive and not a lot of people can afford that,” she says. “I can afford to get a physiotherapist into my house for my daughter. Here I can have two sessions for the price they would charge me back in Ireland.
“But nevertheless, I’ve already made appointments in Ireland next summer, just to double-check everything be-cause there are differences in the quality of medical services.”
Dwyer also notes the lack of investment in education: “The classrooms don’t have a proper structure; they don’t have desks. So I think that education is the key.
“My children are already looking forward to going to Ireland,” she adds. “It’s going to be very exciting for them, because in Ireland there are a lot more things available, like new toys and new clothes.”
However, life in Moz-ambique isn’t all bad. Having learned how to speak Portuguese fluently, Dwyer says she gets along very well with the natives around her.
“The people here are so welcoming, tolerant and just talk to you as a friend,” she says. “In fact, more and more people here are learning English because Mozambique belongs to the Commonwealth.
“Also, my children go to school with other children from different countries, such as Germany and Australia. It’s a very multicultural experience for them.”
Indeed, Irish and Mozam-bican people seem to have a lot in common in terms of interpersonal relationships. “There is so much respect towards grown-ups and old people,” Dwyer points out. “And if there is a funeral, it’s just like an Ireland, the person is celebrated.”
Even so, she has also noticed the darker side of life, saying that “some people can react nastily towards white people because of their skin colour”.
She remembers one particular incident: “When I was waiting in a toilet queue, one woman just pushed to the front. When I asked her why she was doing that, she just said ‘You are white and you are a foreigner in my country.’ I was just wondering how she would know I wasn’t a Mozambican. That was really nasty.”
But that experience aside, she doesn’t really feel that she’s considered a stranger: “Maybe it’s because I’m married to a Mozambican,” she says.

Manuela Madeira – from Nampula province in Mozambique’s north – was a frequent visitor to Ireland throughout the 1990s, witnessing much of the change happening in Irish society.
But the Mozambican wom-an, who met her Irish husband when he was working in her country as an aid volunteer, really saw her homeland from a different point of view when she made a permanent move to Ireland in 2002.
“When I first came to Ireland, I couldn’t see a lot of people from other parts of the world,” she recalls. “But when I came to live in Dublin in 2002, I saw more diversity and openness towards different cultures. That was a really positive impression. But it was very difficult to find a job. I sent out around 200 CVs. That was really frustrating.”
Five years ago, Madeira relocated with her husband and two children to Waterford, where she says she feels welcomed. “I regard myself as part of the community. In fact, I have many Irish friends because my husband is Irish.”
She adds: “All in all I think I’ve really adapted to the Irish culture and become part of society without losing my own values.”
Discrimination has not been a significant factor in Madeira’s experience so far – her way to cope with racism is “to let people know how you feel”, she says.
“Oftentimes when there is a conflict, I try to get it right. But there are so many good people around me. So it’s sometimes just not worth it to spend my energy on those who are not respectful.”
Recently, Madeira has been involved in volunteer work for the local community, conducting interviews for a survey on families with young babies. She also spends much of her time on her favourite hobby: painting.
“I have no job at the moment,” she says, “so painting is a good way to combine joy and work. It’s just lovely to see the outcome of that.”
Lack of work notwithstanding, Madeira has found settling into Irish life relatively easy. Her favourite Irish food is stew, although she still prefers to cook Mozambican food “like curry and rice”. She also enjoys traditional Irish music, commending the musicians’ talent. “And of course I like the Irish weather,” she jokes.
In fact, the Mozambican climate is something she misses most about her homeland. When she recently made a return visit with her children, she noted that they liked how “the weather is good all over the year and that they never had to wear a jumper there”.
She also misses her family and friends back home. “They already came to visit me here and really liked that Ireland is so green,” she says. “Compared to Ireland, Mozam-bique is so yellow and dry. That’s really a challenge.”
But while the geography may be in stark contrast, Madeira thinks that humour is something that both countries have in common. ”I love the sense of humour of the Irish,” she enthuses. “Even during awkward situations, they just make a good joke out of it.”

Economically, of course, there are great differences between Ireland and Mozambique, especially in terms of “education, hospitality and technology”, she notes. Nevertheless, Madeira is proud that Mozambique is catching up in the area of technology, and sees potential for her home country in this field.
“Mozambique wants to keep up with technology,” she says. “You have to have a good knowledge about technology in order to survive and not to be left behind.”