The Big City

Maputo isn’t exactly what I thought it would be. In some ways it is just what I think of a big city… in other ways not so much. I think the best way to describe Maputo is that it’s 10x’s Pemba. I know that 99.99% of the people who will read this have never been to Pemba, so I will try to explain what I mean.

In America when you go from a small town to a big city there are changes in architecture, clothing, driving, food and so many things that go unnoticed. Here from Pemba to Maputo I feel like everything is just multiplied by 10. From the downtown part of Pemba to Maputo the buildings look a lot alike… they are just 10x’s taller. 90% of people here dress the same as those in Pemba… there are just 10x’s as many people. When I go to a restaurant the food is basically the same… there are just 10 more places I can go to eat chicken. Other things there are 10x’s as much of: police, cars, street vendors, taxi’s, the size of the city and schapas (buses).

There are some different things between Maputo and Pemba. About 10% of the people are dressed very well in trendy clothing with no holes and they stop along the way to have their shoes shined. Many of the cars are the same, but the variety is much greater here. I’ve seen everything from a VW “slug bug” to a brand new Mercedes luxury 4 door. There are also a lot of Rav 4’s and cars similar to the Honda Fit (I think that is what it’s called).

For as long as I can remember police have intimated me. Even in America when I see a cop, I get a few little butterflies and wonder if I’m doing anything wrong. I’ve noticed that the number of butterflies goes up significantly depending on the size of the gun and number of police officers I see in any given day. Maputo is crawling with police and they don’t have a cute little gun in a pouch on their side… they all have some sort of rifle on a strap hanging over their shoulder. Many of the police are dressed in what an American would call army fatigues. I know police are supposed to give you a sense of safety and security, but these guys scare me! I think the fact that they are usually walking around in pairs of two makes it worse… if they were driving past in a car I probably don’t notice as much.

Everything in Maputo feels like it takes forever to get to. A 30 minute walk is the norm, but all the walking is helping me to sleep better at night. Good bye jet lag!

I called South African and was happy to find out that my suitcase was waiting for me at the airport. The airport is on the outside of the city and so you can’t take a schapa to get there. Nunu thought it might be cheaper to take a schapella, so we did. A schapella is a little motorcycle on 3 wheels, the driver sits in the front and steers with handle bars, while the patrons sit in the back on a bench and the entire thing is covered by a canopy.

So thankful that I got my suitcase back in one piece!!!!