Anyways, I hope all is forgiven now, and that you enjoy my account below, of an incredible country that I couldn't possibly try to understand in the 6 short days that I was there, but still left a lasting impression on me.
The Journey
So the first thing to note was the journey. It was my first time flying long-haul business class and I stumbled through the process like a wide-eyed baby, pretending to be impressed by nothing, while secretly noting everything! The flight was quite roundabout, from Tunis to Frankfurt to Johannesburg to Maputo. The 10-hour flight from Frankfurt to Jo'burg was on the Airbus a380 and I squealed with delight as we were led upstairs!
We had the fully reclining beds like on the adverts and they served us a three course meal - including Classically Roasted Goose for main course! It was my first time to have goose, so I didn't really mind if it was classically roasted or in a curry, I was excited. To top off the brilliance, I even managed to sneak a pair of wooden knitting needles on to the flight (don't panic people, I did have some more in my check-in luggage in case they had been confiscated). Only slightly less exciting than the flight itself, are the business lounges, where you can while away the hours, while enjoying free refreshments, wifi and shower facilities (not all at the same time).
I had a bit of a 'moment' landing in Johannesburg. It was my first time back in Sub-Saharan Africa since starting my new job, this trip was the final step in a year's worth of work for a report I had written, and it was exactly the same departure lounge that I had nervously sat in in 2006 on my first trip in Africa, as I awaited my transfer to Zambia. In these 6 years it's so hard to believe how much my life has changed, how fortunate I have been and how much love and support I've had from my friends and family, all of which have helped my to touch my dreams. At that moment, I just felt so happy and loved and blessed and fortunate, and it was really nice.
First Impressions
Maputo has a big new airport, everything was a breeze (facilitated by my diplomatic passport) and it didn't take long before we were zooming through the city to the hotel. And I mean 'zooming'. There is no traffic in Maputo. It's the first African capital that I have been to where the traffic level never really got up to much. You could regularly spend 3 hours in Kampala, just sitting in the same place (I used to keep a book in the glove compartment) and the work I did in Accra was all about how to manage the unbearable peak-traffic flows. But in Maputo, vehicles seemed in very good condition and there were not too many of them.
I was staying at a beautiful hotel on the Ocean, called the Serena Polena Hotel. I've been so fortunate to stay at a Serena hotel before in Stone Town, and I used to also have dinner at the Serena Kampala (in the Indiana Jones Restaurant!) so I've had a bit of experience with these hotels, which are part of the Aga Khan Development Network. I like the way they do things. They often take a old colonial building and vamp it up nicely. This is exactly how it was in Maputo. Our meeting were all in the hotel, so it's a good job that it was a nice one - and I saw ALOT of it!
Food
The food!! oh the food! I took an extremely gung-ho approach to prawn consumption and for the first couple of days had prawns at every single meal. This was not my best idea. I developed crippling stomach pains and things all became a bit... fluid. It was terrible. I instantly blamed the prawns - especially the ones from the buffet (Who eats buffet prawns... what was I thinking??). On the third night, I organised a big group exodus from the hotel to a local Portuguese restaurant and rather than 'go easy' on the food. I went a bit mental, as it all tasted so good, and I considered that given the state of my gastric system, this was all pretty much free-calories anyway. I was punished severely for this mentality and spend the rest of the trip eating dry toast and bananas.
The Glorious Prawns
I think I should take a moment to defend the prawns. The beautiful, delicious, fresh, pink prawns. You see, when I was in Uganda, I had become a bit of a Maverick. My colleagues who were still working from the UK office used to call me "Our girl in Africa", and I always aspired to be worthy of the title. I would brush my teeth in the tap water, my stomach had adapted to the Malarone, and I never gave second thought to having ice-cubes in my drink. I have to accept that I have become a pansy. I am not as strong or resilient as I was. So maybe it wasn't the prawns after all, although, they probably didn't help much!
Right at the end of the week on my free half-day, I did manage to try some really good traditional local food. The disk was called Matapa and it was basically a Crab, Peanut and Casava curry served with Rice (this is the stuff that my Dad's nightmares are made of).
Crab Matapa
I don't really know why it was green. But it was completely delicious. It was a bit bland, but then you get a dish of chillies in oil to spice it up with. Otherwise, fresh bread is a big thing in Mozambique, which is a contrast to East Africa, and of course, all seafood. I had a dynamite fish and chips on my last night. I was all euphoric because the work was all done, but so sad to be leaving after hardly seeing anything - business trips are weird.
Fish & Chippies, be still my heart
Other things
- So Mozambique made a solid attempt at communism, and the evidence of this still exists with huge, sad, residential, high-rises in the middle of the city. They're a bit of an eye-sore now, but give the city a really southern European feel.
- Even though they were part of Portuguese East Africa, they drive on the left, because they know what's important.
- My Portuguese was terrible, I just about managed to say "good morning" to people. I learnt on the last day that "obrigado"/"obrigada" are gender sensitive to the person saying thank-you, not the recipient. So I had made a lot of mistakes there.
Some More Photos?
Yep, you know you want them!
Art sellers in Parque dos Continuadores
Chilli Vendor
Traditional Dancers
Throwing caution to the wind with a Portuguese Kebab
In car shopping on Julius Nyerere Road, tax disk holders and canaries
African Sunrise over the Indian Ocean
Nice Menu Translation!
In other news I am starting Anna Karenina today. The translation I have is 850 pages long - which is 100 pages longer than Nelson Mandela's 'Long Walk to Freedom'...oh man... I think I'm going to do a targeted strategy: If I read 25 pages a day... I'll finish it in the UK and be able to watch the new film at the cinema. I just finished another translated book by a Russian author, so I feel well prepped. Here is goes.
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