No news

I didn't intend this blog to be a commentary on Maputo news. It's merely for my family and friends who need to reassure themselves that I am still alive and complaining. Recent weeks have been uncharacteristically exciting in Maputo - and I don't mean that in a good way, as the Malhazine posts indicate. Please do not be disappointed if future posts are limited to reports on milk shortages and the like stories which don't lend themselves to interesting photographs.

(Oh, yes, the milk shortage: last Saturday the Indian gentleman in charge of my local merceria was desolate that he couldn't provide my usual two cartons of skinny from the Parmalat factory down the road at Matola. There's a shortage throughout southern Africa, he tells me. I snagged his last carton of expensive Portuguese milk. It's like being back in Quelimane again, where milk drinkers had to hoard for the six months of the year during which the Zambesi was low enough to permit trucks from the south to cross easily.)

As a matter of fact I did get involved in something newsworthy last Thursday, involving a trip with Trudi across the border to Nelspruit to collect something so big and important that customs spent six hours inspecting it and bringing big men from remote places to set their seal on its papers. Trudi's near-perfect self-control in the face of bureaucratic provocation and her tireless polite cajolery are simply jaw-dropping. I took copious mental notes. This is the true sign of someone who knows her way around Africa.

Unfortunately I can't say exactly why we put ourselves through it all, as I've been asked to keep this matter under wraps until an official launch. That might take place next week, if I'm lucky. The secrecy is a little quixotic, considering the imported item spent Thursday night and much of Friday morning parked in front of our office on Avenida 24 de Julho, providing diversion for all the commuters from Matola and the outer western bairros. Suffice it to say that the project which has been dominating my life for the past six months is at last coming to fruition. I'll post the photos the instant I'm given permission.