A long break after a long holiday in the UK and a lengthy adjustment to being back in Mozambique. Toto, we're not in Essex any more.
I arrived back to brown water, temperatures of 36 degrees and the shops in the same sorry state as when I left. In fact, last week our local Shoprite was closed for 2 days as inspectors combed the shelves after complaints that out-of-date food was being sold - or better yet - used in the shop's ready meals. Oh yes, to say coming back has been a bit rough, is a teeny-weeny bit of an understatement.
But of course there are positives: work continues across Maputo, with some significant developments on the roads into town, where large quantities of waste from informal settlements have been cleaned up and the steep verges covered in what appears to be shale - a vast aesthetic improvement to what was there before, although we have yet to see what the rainy season does to it. (Oh me of little faith...)
The work on the marginal continues unabated, with much rock-crushing in the early hours of the morning. We are very pleased to note that the `pier' outside our complex appears to be just one of several breakwaters. (A huge relief, given the amount of attention a pier gets out here from the wedding trade every Saturday).Following on the removal of the trees on the beach across the road, the weathered pines outside our complex have been torn down. All that remains of their existence are several small and jagged protrusions in the sand - like the browning teeth of a slain dragon. They were what marked the entrance to our complex for me and I have driven past on more than one occassion.
Our immediate beachfront seems bizarrely improved by all the work. The breakwaters are reshaping the way the sand lies and as the beach road is bolstered, the beach itself appears to look better. It may have something to do with the fact that the rancid stormwater drain is now in a pipe and the disgusting effluent runs further out to sea - but then maybe that's just me being pessimistic. On the surface it's looking good.
The road itself is, of course, absolute chaos, but the signs are good that in a year or two or three, it'll be very nice indeed. It will definitely change the face of the Marginal. Already the informal barracas that lined the street on the way to Costa do Sol have been bulldozed to make way for the road. It is a little sad to see them gone the way of the pine trees....local flavour lost to the promise of something glitzy and new. Which should make someone like me a happy bunny; but somehow doesn't....
All is not lost! Power outages are back with a vengeance. In such force, in fact, that they have succeeded in blowing up our telly (well, not our's - Mozal's). There was a pop and a great smell of burning. All of which made DB a very happy man, because he had an excuse to go out and buy a whopper of a flat screen. (Well equipped with a surge protector!)
Hmmmm - the mixed blessings of progress.
