Big River

I'm back in Maputo after a week on the Zambezi River. It was quite a trip, with broken roads, potholes that could swallow an elephant, a road full of baboons, and a friendly how-de-do from a little scorpion that decided to explore my foot. Thankfully, it was too small to sting (I think) and I was able to carefully remove it without incident using a quick flick of the ankle.

It was good to get back in the field. Spending too much time in Maputo made me forget that Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world, and that there are places where people are struggling just to get a meal or two each day.

Para aceder aos seus blogues

I still haven't figured it out. For some reason, when I initiate a session in Blogger, the commands, layout, etc... show up in English. At other times, the system recognizes that I'm signing in from a Mozambican IP address, and everything comes up in Portuguese. No major drama, but it's interesting to note that when I viewed my profile I found out that the Portuguese translation of my industria, which is listed in English as non-profit, is "Sem fins lucrativos." This literally translates to, "without profitable purpose." A little disconcerting.

Vamos a comer

Good ol' Bairro Central. Lunch in the neighborhood around my office can be a challenge.

Directly adjacent to my office a very nice woman makes hamburgers (simples or completo), egg sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, and fried cornmeal things called bagias that are sort of like hush puppies. The food has some flavor, she's quick and enterprising, and the price is right: roughly two bucks for a hamburger completo, which includes a fried egg and soggy chips (french fries) inside the bun (don't ask because I don't know either). But it's easy to grow weary of the limited and very unhealthy menu, and the food sometimes (often) gives me the squirts.

Mimmos, a ten minute walk, is part of a South African chain. There you can get tasteless pizza, tasteless burgers, mediocre pastas, a very bizarre chicken kabob thingy, or a decent Portuguese-style grilled half chicken with chips and salad. Mimmos is more expensive, the menu also gets old quickly, and the food is generally uninspiring. But it seems to be easy on the intestines, the walk is nice, and one of the day managers is an old Afrikaner lady who screams at the staff in one of the most gravelly old smoker's voices I've ever hear, which is sometimes entertaining. Somewhat more entertaining, though simultaneously disturbing, is the local practice of young women sending their names and phone numbers to me on a scraps of paper via the server. It would be flattering except that recently the name written on the piece of paper was "Hurricane." I'm no genius, but I'm guessing she was being more entrepreneurial than romantic.

Finally, there's Mira Flora, a quick three-minute walk from the office. It's sort of a beer joint cum sandwich shop that is often out of bread, which in my book is a very important ingredient of a sandwich. I also know for a fact that there's a bread shop around the corner. Sometimes they run out of cheese, the sandwich machine was once broken for over a week, and the service is ... bad. Atrocious to be frank. The food is OK and it's cheap, but the combination of apathy and incompetence led me to boycott the place entirely. I'm into cultural sensitivity, but not when I'm hungry.

Maputo has good food. Just not in the neighborhood where my office is located. Bottom line: I'm bringing my lunch from now on.

Afreeka

The first thing you might notice about this post is that it's been eight months since the last post. It's not laziness; I promise.

Perhaps explanations are in order. I left the U.S. in late August 2008 to take a contract job for a UN Agency in Mozambique. In my office in the capital, Maputo, our internet connection can be sketchy. Outside of the office, I don't have internet connectivity. Initially I was just coming over until the end of December. Had I known I would be here this long, I would have probably gotten internet in my house. Add the internet issue to the fact that I showed up here to start a new project from scratch that was already several months behind the eight ball, and it all adds up to no time for B&G.

But now I'm on my way out. My contract ends on April 30, and I've decided not to extend. In an attempt to record a few passing observations and impressions of my life in Mozambique before I leave, I'll try to update B&G a few times over the next month.