maputo
five cool things to do in maputo:
1. get a root canal fixed. i had my very first root canal done in dc on the friday before I left the US. so we didn't have time for a crown or anything but the doctor thought it would be ok, just that i shouldn't chew any nuts on that side. unfortunately, i am coming to realize that not only do i habitually chew all my food on that side, the right side, but mozambique’s biggest industry is cashew nuts. so on my second day or so here i noticed it was hurting and when i took a look at it, saw a big gaping hole in the temp filling.
fudgiscles.
i was getting ready to fly to south africa to have a dentist take a look at it when my coworker gijs said no worries, he had a good dentist here in maputo. i said, right, let me just book this ticket to joburg. he said no really, she’s good. she’s a portuguese dentist who has been living here in maputo for 4 years. she came down to start the dental school program in the local university. so, i gave it a go. she identified 2 problems: one, a gaping hole in the temp filling which she fixed (no novacane required!) and after taking an x-ray with a prehistoric machine where i had to hold both the camera arm and the plastic thing in my mouth and then the camera made ridiculous amounts of noise taking the photo (i just hope that the amount of bzzzzz that the camera makes is not correlated to the amount of radiation), she said there was a small infection. she recommended antibiotics which now i have a prescription for and have to find a pharmacy.
and wouldn't you know it, the next day i ran into carla, the portuguese dentist at the gym as we both tried to figure out how the steam room worked. and then the day after that i ran into carla on the street. and then i ran into carla at africa bar. i think the expat scene is rather small here....
2. go to inhaca island, a stunningly lovely little island 18 miles off the coast of maputo. we went with sergio, a portuguese guy who has a little 15 person boat that will take you out there in about an hour. this is much preferable to the cattle-car / ferry that takes 100 people and three hours each way that those less informed tourists take. we left maputo around 8 and pulled up to the dock on the beach of inhaca’s one hotel, a 5 star deluxe hotel around 9, and after a coffee at their tikihut bar, we promptly set up house at the pool (which the hotel is apparently quite happy for us to do). had lunch, strolled on the beach, swam in the pool, and headed home sunburnt and happy.
3. train the waitstaff in various restaurants: when the waitstaff at my local cafe sees me now, they all yell “super-mixta!” this cafe serves basically three kinds of sandwiches (on white bread as the country has not discovered any other kind): a ham sandwich, a cheese sandwich, or a “mixta” sandwich (mixta is portuguese for mixed, so it is a ham and a cheese sandwich). as i want ham, cheese, lettuce, and tomato, and i figured this would take too long to explain each and every day, i have dubbed my own sandwich the “super-mixta,” something which they all find hilarious. however, when i walk in, they all yell “super-mixta!” laugh, and i get my sandwich.
4. join an overpriced gym. i joined a little gym here on the top floor of the hotel avenida, for, get this, $118 a month. it is about 1/5 the size of my $35 / month gym back home but is modern and flawless and has a steam room and just about every western expat, including dentists, is a member. on thursday evenings it is social hour at the hotel avenida gym. some things in mozambique are super-cheap. other westernized things, well, i guess you have to just pay and arm and a leg for.
5. run the hash: it really makes you feel like you are in africa. i mean, living in the city of maputo, which for all its quirks, is a city, like cities everywhere is not that different. i remember when I got to india, the indianness of it all just hit me right in the face as soon as i got off the plane. and when i got off the plane in maputo, i did not feel that. i was starting to think that perhaps all the things that i associate with africa (lions, jumping guys in red outfits, masks), maybe only existed in places designated for tourists while the rest of africa had gone about modernizing and just getting on it. i mean, really, i have wireless internet access in my apartment, had take-out thai food last night, and text folks on my phone while drinking my green tea in the morning. perhaps african culture was just not a “strong” enough of a culture to remain standing after the onslaught of westernization.
but then i run with a group called The Hash House Harriers, maputo chapter. (yes, yes, this is “The Drinking Club With a Running Problem” group). we met up at a place in maputo, but they organized the run to be outside the city. so I popped in a car of a zimbabwean couple who had been designated my caretakers and off we went. we headed north out of the city and it was a beautiful drive along the beach. so beautiful, it made me wish that I lived outside the city and had a car.
about 15 minutes later we pulled into a dirt parking lot and, without further ado, started running. we ran on a dirt path that took us through lots of little local villages and grassy marshlands. i think my
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
sneakers are permanently ruined as hares (those who set the trail), often have a mean streak and like to set their running trail through the gnarliest, ugliest, messiest trails. At first, i tried to be dainty, but after wading through a couple of knee deep muddy water patches (while the hares reminded us to look out for water snakes (yikes!)), i just gave up, thanked my lucky stars that I had a maid that could clean my sneakers, and then gleefully just stomped / waded through all puddles, drainage ditches, and watered out pathways until my feet were no more than mud caked blobs at the end of my legs.
the villages were what one thinks of when one thinks of africa. the little kids lined up and smiled and waved at us as we ran through. every once in a while a bus loaded to the hilt with people bumped down the dirt road. some houses had music blasting out, always fun boisterous dance music. we passed the local refreshment stand, filled with about 10 folks who all smiled and waved. mozambiquans have great smiles. there were lots of kids having a great time playing - you could feel the small town vibe where the kids played in the dirt path but there were adults around who had one eye on them.
but that is all just my run-by impression.
mozambique was a portuguese colony until 1975. if you were a colony, i think you would rather be colonized by the british as the portuguese didn’t really believe in the non-violence gentlemanly approach to colonies. they relied more on the oppression and terror approach. as a result, in 1975 when the portuguese left the country en-masse (and, as rumor has it, poured concrete down the elevator shafts and all the pipes of the 20 story Four Seasons building that was under construction. it’s still standing here today as an abandoned building that no one really knows what to do with), they left mozambique, a country with 20 million people, with six economists, two agronomists, not a single geologist, and fewer than a thousand black high school graduates. of the 350 railroad engineers working in 1975, only one was black and he was an agent of the portuguese secret police.
mozambiquan joke of the day:
Q: what is mozambique’s largest industry?
A: development aid! ha! ha! ha! (aid makes up about 60% of the government’s budget). ha! ha! isn’t that funny!!!
the abandoned four seasons building. rumor has it that the US embassy just bought it and will implode it in february and build their new high security compound there.
running along and through the water. naturally, i am in black
