Aug 2010 Survey - Maputo, Mozambique

This was my second time surveying Maputo, Mozambique. I went in thinking that my prior experience in Maputo would help and that I would be more efficient, already knowing the layout of the survey and the city… which totally turned out not to be the case. It almost seemed that my prior experience in Maputo burned me this time around, as I went in assuming one thing and wasn’t mentally prepared for how difficult it turned out to be. And not that it was super difficult… sometimes you just have those cities where everything overwhelms you. I would wake up in the morning and run the list through my head of all of the prices I had collected and how many remained and would just feel the anxiety rising. One morning I even called home in tears and had a long talk with my father, trying to keep everything in proportion. I felt like I had regressed to May 2009 when I had similar difficulties in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The main problem was that I got permission everywhere in August 2009, but now, in August 2010, permission was nowhere to be found. I told my first bold-faced flat-out survey LIE this time. Usually I try to be vague or avoid questions altogether so that I don’t have to actually lie. But when I asked for the manager at one of the smaller supermarkets, the rather pissy store clerk told me to call Mr. So-and-So. So I called him, and he told me to call Mr. Other So-and-So. So I called but no one answered. And I was standing there on my cell phone, wandering what to do because my driver had already left and I needed to get these prices… so I faked a conversation on the cell phone, turned to the store clerk and said, “Mr. Other So-and-So said it is OK” and walked right in. My hand was shaking for the first twenty minutes out of fear that the guy would actually walk in to the store and I would be caught in my lie! And then I realized that none of the staff cared enough to follow up on me and I relaxed.

Maputo as a location was more enjoyable this time around – I had several friendly Couch Surfing contacts and met people at the hotel. On my first night in town, I went to the fish market. This was something that I had wanted to do back in 2009 but never got around to, so I set it as a must for this survey. Basically you walk around the market and buy fresh fish and seafood from the various stalls then take it to one of the restaurants on the side and pay them to cook it for you – BYOF (Bring Your Own Food). The restaurants all frame this outdoor seating area with live music and vendors. It was one of my top five favorite meals on survey for taste and experience!

Weighing our purchase and showing us the red gills to prove its freshness.

Live, beautifully colored lobsters, waiting to be eaten... making me feel guilty... as did the barrels full of fidgeting prawns.

The tasty, edible result!

Although the evening had a frustrating ending as we hailed a taxi back to the hotel. The driver took us around the block to get back to the main road and – surprise surprise – we were stopped at a police road block. Well, two policemen, and they weren’t technically blocking the road, and it seemed to be a very selective road block as many other cars were never stopped. I had a photocopy of my passport (after my Namibia fiasco the original remains always under lock and key) but my friend had no ID on him. And you know, even if we both had our original passports on us, they still would have found some bogus reason to extract a bribe from us, which is how this episode ended. The whole thing pissed me off, especially as I suspect that our driver was in on it. It made me grateful that I was using the same driver from August 2009, Languito. He spoke good English and had already worked with us for two surveys. He was trustworthy and I never felt like he was trying to pull a quick one on me – unlike most of the other taxi drivers I had in Maputo and Pemba.

The only other touristy activity that I did in Maputo was a brief visit to the Museum of Natural History. And the only reason that I wanted to go was to see their collection of elephant fetuses. Yes, you read that correctly. It’s a collection of fourteen fetuses that range from shortly after conception through to 22 months, when an elephant is ready to be born. How did they get 14 elephant fetuses? Well, during WWI the Colonial Government wanted to clear an area south of Maputo for agricultural use. They hired hunters to kill off the game, including 2000 elephants. And from the pregnant females in those 2000 elephants they found and preserved this collection of fetuses. The cleared land was never approved for agricultural use. Overall the museum had a very impressive collection -- tainted by the reminder that these were all once living animals.

The whole elephant fetus collection.

An elephant fetus at 9 months... when you and I would be pushing our way through the birth canal.

Looking down on a re-creation of a very active watering-hole.

On a more sobering note, there were protests and demonstrations in Maputo the first week in September 2010 -- one week after I left the country. People were protesting the fast-rising food / fuel / utilities costs. The Mozambican Metical has fallen about 30% over the last year, and when the majority of products are imported from neighboring countries, i.e. South Africa, the prices on the shelves go up and beyond the locals' budgets. Over a dozen protesters were killed.