Parallel universes
Flying to Africa is like taking a trip back in time. There you are crossing the heavens in a state of the art flying machine, a moment later you are speaking to a man in immigration who not only does not have a computer, but the stamp he uses in still made from a pealed potato.
I arrived yesterday noon and my body is rapidly adapting to the weather, food and mood. The weather is extremely humid with lots of heat. Imagine living in an armpit and you will get close to the feeling of walking around in Mozambique.
If you are the kind of person that suffers when your tofu is overcooked, Mozambique is hell. Mozambican food is a combination of Indian spices with local ingredients consisting on anything ranging from chicken to earthworms but mostly seeds and grains mixed with seafood or fish. Today, at home, we had shrimp caril with Xima (polenta). This dish should be hung besides the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. It is simply the best dish ever. Forget those TV shows with nouveu cuisine, have some Xima with coconut juice and shrimp and you will send nouveu cuisine, together with the delicate cooks to the jungle to see how its done. Those readers who have been to Mozambique please stop drooling over the computer. I am sure no one has yet tried to give shrimp caril to the dead cause it would have revived him or her. It’s so good, your brain forgets to shut down the craving area and you can just eat for days.
Somehow Africa has maintained its origins in the nurture department. Food here tastes like it should be. Living in Europe makes you think of a tomato as a red colored fruit you put on salads to give it color. Here, when you eat a tomato it’s a real tomato: - juicy, fresh and full of whatever a tomato is full of. Vegetables are grotesque and not uniformly similar like all the vegetables in Europe. Don’t get me started on fruit. Papayas, Mangos, Masalas, litchis, avocados hummmmmm!!! It’s a feast for the eyes and stomach.
However, what hits you most is the language thing. In recent times, there has been a revival of local dialects in Maputo. As before most Mozambicans felt they should speak Portuguese to be seen as educated, today they´d rather communicate in their own tongue, which of course leaves you, the visitor, completely out of the loop. Another reason why local dialects are in style is due to recent immigration of thousands of farmers with little knowledge of Portuguese. Moreover, I think they just got tired to talking to us and discovered its more fun to look at our faces as we try to make sense of what is being spoken.
Criminality. South Africa is hosting the 2010 football World cup. The Fifa threatened the country to cancel the games and transfer them to Germany unless they cleaned their act up. For many years South Africa competed for the worlds´ first place in violent crimes. I guess their jails are full, because they are exporting their murderers to neighboring countries, mostly to Mozambique. Whereas a few years back crime was mostly theft, today we have organized kidnaps and extremely violent breakthroughs.
Welcome to Mozambique. I love it.
I arrived yesterday noon and my body is rapidly adapting to the weather, food and mood. The weather is extremely humid with lots of heat. Imagine living in an armpit and you will get close to the feeling of walking around in Mozambique.
If you are the kind of person that suffers when your tofu is overcooked, Mozambique is hell. Mozambican food is a combination of Indian spices with local ingredients consisting on anything ranging from chicken to earthworms but mostly seeds and grains mixed with seafood or fish. Today, at home, we had shrimp caril with Xima (polenta). This dish should be hung besides the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. It is simply the best dish ever. Forget those TV shows with nouveu cuisine, have some Xima with coconut juice and shrimp and you will send nouveu cuisine, together with the delicate cooks to the jungle to see how its done. Those readers who have been to Mozambique please stop drooling over the computer. I am sure no one has yet tried to give shrimp caril to the dead cause it would have revived him or her. It’s so good, your brain forgets to shut down the craving area and you can just eat for days.
Somehow Africa has maintained its origins in the nurture department. Food here tastes like it should be. Living in Europe makes you think of a tomato as a red colored fruit you put on salads to give it color. Here, when you eat a tomato it’s a real tomato: - juicy, fresh and full of whatever a tomato is full of. Vegetables are grotesque and not uniformly similar like all the vegetables in Europe. Don’t get me started on fruit. Papayas, Mangos, Masalas, litchis, avocados hummmmmm!!! It’s a feast for the eyes and stomach.
However, what hits you most is the language thing. In recent times, there has been a revival of local dialects in Maputo. As before most Mozambicans felt they should speak Portuguese to be seen as educated, today they´d rather communicate in their own tongue, which of course leaves you, the visitor, completely out of the loop. Another reason why local dialects are in style is due to recent immigration of thousands of farmers with little knowledge of Portuguese. Moreover, I think they just got tired to talking to us and discovered its more fun to look at our faces as we try to make sense of what is being spoken.
Criminality. South Africa is hosting the 2010 football World cup. The Fifa threatened the country to cancel the games and transfer them to Germany unless they cleaned their act up. For many years South Africa competed for the worlds´ first place in violent crimes. I guess their jails are full, because they are exporting their murderers to neighboring countries, mostly to Mozambique. Whereas a few years back crime was mostly theft, today we have organized kidnaps and extremely violent breakthroughs.
Welcome to Mozambique. I love it.
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1 comments:
Viva Mocambique ....... A luta continua!
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