Christmas in Maputo
on Karen in Maputo (Mozambique), 28/Dec/2008 16:18, 34 days ago
Feliz Natal e Feliz Ano Novo!Eu falo portuguese um pouco...I have been lax in not keeping my blog up-to-date. I had promised myself I would do this weekly but Portuguese language classes and regularly being locked out of our apartment have intervened! Dolly, Diane and I have serious problems with the various locks and padlocks on the door and have been locked out 3 times (or it is 4?). We have had various visits from locksmiths and it turns out the door is out of kilter and needs to be fixed. So several locks have been broken in the interim to allow us access!Late in January 2009, after Portuguese finishes (it is hard!!!), I will be moving into another apt. on Av. 24 de Julho at Av. Vladimir Lenin. I will be sharing with Simone, from London. The apt. is lovely - 3 bedrooms, large, 5 balconies with views of the harbour and Catholic Cathedral or the north of Maputo. It is furnished with heavy Spanish/Bordello red velvet furniture and a heavy dining room table and chairs. We are very lucky!!!! We have a stipend to buy household supplies ie. dishes and cutlery etc. and I have already been to the Saturday craft market to buy a nice big wooden salad bowl and orange batik as a bedspread. We will have to buy new bed mattresses but that is okay. We have a stove and frig and hot water - we are exceptionally lucky.We buy fruit and veg on the street and it turns out - Q-tips, nail polish, and shoes! My favourite internet cafe is Pirata on Julius Nyerere. I have been able to phone/skype my mother, brother, son and friend Shayla. My son David is off to Edinburgh to celebrate New Year's and should have a fabulous time.We cooked a proper Christmas Dinner ie. chicken, potatoes, veg, salad, curry (a modified Geoff's airport curry recipe) and rice. There were 5 of us - all VSO volunteers - Diane and Dolly who I share the current apt. with and Simone, who I will share the new apt. with, and Ethjel who is leaving tomorrow for her placement in Beira.We were supposed to hold Ethjel's going away party at the beach today but it has been pouring rain so we went to a Chinese restaurant nearby and had spicy prawns, beef in oyster sauce, spareribs etc. Mozambique is known for its prawns. I had hot sauce on everything so I was very happy!Things I have noticed: drivers have no compunction about running pedestrians down, there are a very high number of albinos in Maputo, a very high number of beautiful pregnant women and the most wonderful hairstyles imaginable plus finally - live chickens on the chapas (vans) for Christmas!I am the pits at bargaining on the street and in the market and speak to everyone - sometimes confusing good morning with good afternoon or good evening (bom dia, boa tarde, boa noite). There are strict rules about when these greetings change. I wink at some of the older men on our street and they wink back. I am told I shouldn't do this but they are 80 and sweet so I cannot resist!!! Guess I have a thing for older men...There are guards everywhere - banks (deliberately emptied of $$$ on holidays - rather inconvenient), houses, businesses, restaurants. They have wonderful uniforms (a big thing in Africa I am told), handcuffs and batons - no guns! However, the police and military have machine guns - they also say bom dia but won't let me take their pictures.We took a chapa ride on Christmas Eve to the border with Swaziland - visa renewal issues - and I got some good pictures there. Busses were filled to the gills, food and live chickens were de rigueur as well as red dust and lots of wind. It was a great adventure. We have to renew our visas in January so Dolly, Diane and I are planning a week's holiday in Swaziland to stay at a wildlife reserve, take photos of the animals and birds (me) and go to Mbabane to get our visas renewed. Then we all have to start our placements.Feliz Ano Novo, Karen