Dark Days

Don’t worry, not emotionally. We had a four day power cut. It doesn’t sound particularly radical, but if you consider that all water to the town is pumped and thus ground to a halt, while temperatures sizzled at mid-30s discomfort levels were getting pretty high. Candles became scarce, queues of people clutching gerry cans snaked along the river, shops threw out meat and sweating grumbling westerners despaired at the lack of fans and fridges. I had ‘baths’ using a saucepan of water from my filter for a day and a half before realising this wasn’t a long term solution; maintenance isn’t one of Mozambique strong points so I went foraging for supplies... All the way next door where my neighbour/saviour Aderito, accustomed to never having running water, sorted me out with a big canister cunningly procured via car from his friend’s house.

I’d already agreed to host a bit of a slumber party with some peace corps volunteers floating about the area as it was one of their birthdays. Home cooked goodies, cold booze and all things involving light, heat and wind went out the window. So we went out to eat (gas used for cooking) then wandered the streets chatting to randoms since the whole town was out in force, milling and doing the whole ‘in the same boat’ thing that we universally do. Then we went back to my house, ate biscuits by candle light and played ridiculous games til the morning. I don’t think I’ve ever so thoroughly enjoyed a game of charades. Hilarity! Anything with animals or mildly rude words in the title was gold – Free Willy, for instance, was an inspired performance. There was a frenzied interruption at one point when we spotted a mouse and sent the boys chasing it with a broom, which they broke through bashing (and missing), then momentary rapture when the lights came on for 10 minutes and we managed to charge our phones. Anyway we had a jolly old time (quite family-on-boxing-day-esque) so we’re going for a repeat performance this weekend by the beach - with power, which might just spoil it all and leave us monosyllabic in front of a dvd.

Sunday was spent basking in front of the fan, showering for a long time and using the internet in the office. Oh and cooking, after eating a lot of salad, bread and fruit. I had my weekly hour of Portuguese. The 3 conditional moods this week. I like my teacher, Nelson. We chuckle at verb jokes. (It’s just dawned on me I’ve turned into a geek).

Monday was back to business as usual, kind of strange in itself. Sadly the black-out was the repercussion of a disaster in Maputo. An arms depot seemingly overheated resulting in big explosions and the random release of missiles into neighbouring villages. Around 100 people were killed and over 400 injured. Good grief, it’s not as if heat’s a sudden and unexpected phenomenon. God knows what happened, pretty tragic. It highlights the difference in a developing country though. Not just it happening - defunct cooling system or whatever it was – but how swiftly everyone moves on. If that had happened in the UK there would be a public outcry, media frenzy, massive investigation, heads rolling, official mourning and ceremonies galore. The public value of life and acceptance of death differs greatly (unsurprisingly given the stats) as does the degree to which people’s legal and human rights have any bearing. Not a whisper about compensation nor established culpability/formal apologies, although I think there’s an investigation pending.