Mobile in Manica

I promised to go through my notes on the mobile bank's debut, but that's just more pain than it's worth. My fortnight in Chimoio consisted mostly of worrying about hardware and software. I felt that my shortcomings as a project manager were on very public display. I shan't attempt to revisit that nightmare now; here you will get only a straightforward commentary on a few of the photos.

North of Inhambane, the EN1 - the main north-south highway - moves away from the well-watered coastal strip. The landscape dries out and the vegetation gets shorter and thinner, with a lot more of that dull olive-green which signifies drought-resistance. The soil turns red and, after you cross the suspension bridge over the Save river, you start to see huge granite inselbergs dotted about the plains.

The road to Sussundenga in Manica province, one of our mobile bank locations. One of the unforeseen problems we had to deal with was the large amount of dust that crept into the work area whilst on the road.

An abandoned house, built into the side of a granite cliff along the road to Sussundenga. Most likely the Portuguese owner abandoned it at independence, or perhaps during the war of destabilisation which followed. The war was extremely hard-fought in Manica province, with Renamo trying to cut off the Beira corridor, the main transport route from Zimbabwe to the coast, on which much of the local economy depended. When the war was at its hottest the Mozambican government controlled only the towns and narrow zones along the main roads.

A view of Manica town (not the capital of the province), one our mobile bank locations.

My colleagues Magalhães and Belmira, just before opening the bank on the first day of operations. I pulled out the camera to pass the time while we waited for the local authorities at Sussundenga to give us the final all-clear.

I spent most of the time in the work area with the tellers, waiting nervously for problems to arise and pouncing on any that did. The result is that I have no photos of the bank with queues in front of the windows; I only ventured out during slow moments, like this one in Sussundenga.

The consequences of producing a camera in a public place in Mozambique - all the men want to pose for a photo. Women are less forward, even when a woman has the camera. It's rare to see Mozambicans smile in a photo. I have heard it's because they fear people will think they've been up to something bad if they are caught smiling.