Lots to report today. The week was pretty busy trying to get everything wrapped up before the holidays begin. On Thursday we were invited to lunch by one of the local supporters of AIESEC who has been helping us a lot. On the way to the restaurant, we ran into a local celebrity! He saw us and actually stopped his car to say hi to us and took a picture with us. And what do you mean you don’t know who MC Roger is? He’s the one who sings this of course!
Eventually we made it to the lunch, which was at a very nice and fancy restaurant where the meals were a quarter of our monthly salary each! (not that that’s saying much). Anyways, it was really good. I had “three pepper steak” and apple pie for dessert.
That evening we had our alumni Christmas dinner and invited all of our new members. Most of them were able to come and it was nice to see everyone all together again and we did a small gift exchange. I ended up with a small souvenir that says Mozambique.
On Friday evening we went for our team Christmas dinner, so Daudo took us to a very Mozambican restaurant called Xima Bar. I had something called a “radical sausage” which, I have to say, was pretty radical. Daudo gave us all Christmas gifts (swanky colourful sunglasses from Malaysia) and then we all had icecream.
On Saturday we met up with Tania (our Portuguese friend) and we went for lunch in Costa do Sol (the beach). The traffic down the one road there was crazy, so we ended up going someplace a little closer but still nice – a little restaurant along the edge of the beach. There was a nice view of the city and a lot of guys walking along the beach selling things to tourists. At first it was pretty normal… a painting here, a wood carving there. And then they started to get weirder. Want to buy a 4 foot statue on the beach? What about a coffee table? Or maybe an inflatable horse?
Wanna buy a table?
After lunch we went to the Mercado Pao Preto (Black Wood Market) which has a lot of local arts and crafts and many hundreds of sellers ready to give you the very best price, only 200% more than it should be! I did manage to get one new top for 100 mets ($3) which was pretty good. I’ll have to go back another time with a local to know how much things should really be.
Pick out your souvenir now :P
I mentioned before that there is a HUGE competition between the two cell phone companies here. One thing I noticed at the market was there was this whistling that I recognised. Then I realized I knew it from one of the cell phone commercials. They had the guys who sell the credits on the street going around whistling the jingle, which us actually pretty clever.
After the market we went to see a basketball game, but not just any basketball game. It was the final of the national basketball league of Mozambique! The place was packed! It was Maputo vs a team from Beira and the fans were really getting into it. The game was really good, with the Maputo team going up about 10 points in the first quarter. Beira cam back in the third, getting to within 4, and then fell back again. Then they made a last minute surge in the fourth, coming within three points with just a couple minutes left, but Maputo held on and forced their way back to a 6 point lead before the final bell… and the place exploded!! It was really awesome, and we made it on TV several times sitting in the crowd!
Saturday evening we were joined by two Kenyan AIESECers doing their internships in South Africa. We went out for dinner and then for some dancing. Today we walked with them around the city and I talked with them a lot about Kenya. It was nice.
Tomorrow (Monday) it’s back to work a bit to finish off a few things, then on Thursday Lilian and I are heading north to Nampula, the capital of Nampula province. We will go on the 24th to Beira, in the centre of Mozambique, where we will spend Christmas with our friends from Portugal. Then it off on the 26th to Nampula. We haven’t made any definite plans yet but we have a few ideas of places to visit. We will be back by the 10th at the latest, so look for another GIANT blog post from me in the middle of January,
Until then, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks for reading!
Cool music
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