Mozambique, the African country with the touch of latin
Dated: 27th July
Location: Maputo, Mozambique
Here portugese fills the air with its musicality and almost poetic aftertaste. It sounds slightly lyrical. And yet its tones, when spoken fast becomes less musical, like notes stop short, un-allowed to resonate. It is as though the gritty undertone of the everyday life here in Mozambique has permeated into the language and given it a metallic edge.
Maputo is Africa. I have been waiting for Africa to pop up these weeks. Apart from the hakuna-matata-esque of the plains of Kruger Park, I have been in an Africa of MBA students and business plans and nice restaurants and hotels and shopping malls. This city is messy. It’s full of unfinished buildings, with menacing steel rods arching into the sky and old buildings with rusty grills and soot-covered exteriors with clothing drying from windows. Hawkers line the road with their wares and batik-swathed women carry goods stacked atop their heads. Barefoot children play soccer in a dusty field next to busy streets and intersection where all sorts of transportation go honking by.
This city also smells of the sea and glorious seafood. I rounded a corner to smell grilled fish cooking in delicious spices. Yes, I see the sea. I see the ocean. It’s warm and salty and on the other side of it lies Asia. Yes, it’s the Indian ocean. Even though its winter, the water is refreshing and not at all freezing cold.
I look forward to heading out of the capital city and going to the sea.
