Ho-hummmm

And so here we are. Still. The sky has not fallen, Chicken Licken (how's that for a literary reference?) but expats do seem to be bleeding out of Maputo. Good friends have gone - we hope temporarily. And we are all completely stressed out.
But the word on the ground is that things are looking up. I hear that some families will be back in the next two weeks and that the government is making some sort of move to reassure it's citizens. Ho hum.
Things are not normal. We are all advised to be careful and not make unnecessary journeys. Travelling North is advised against. However, the rapper 50 Cent was in town last night and DB attended the concert, crawling in at 5:30 with the rather lame excuse that `I couldn't get my car out so I went to a bar until I could...' Ho-hummmm.
Talking of a lack of normality: the Chinese are attacking the beach with gusto. There is a full-fledged assault going on, with Chinese road builders dumping ton after ton of rock, not only in the creation of breakwaters, but in an effort to build the Marginal up against the sea. And there is a curious building up of the beach in the dumping of lots and lots of grey material, which looks suspiciously like cement. I have no idea how this is all going to work, but the `beach' opposite our complex is now sizeably wider. Any engineering types out there like to hazard a guess about what is going on?
It really has been road-builder vs Mother Nature (and Mozambican Nature)for a bit. When the serious assault on the beach began, a large area was fenced off with a 8 foot high steel fence. All sorts of safety precaution signs were attached to said fence. I'm sure the idea was too keep the locals out of the work area. It was therefore particularly funny to watch the local beach-goers simply walk off the road, down the beach and along the inside of the fence (apparantly good protection against the nutters driving on the Marginal and one in the eye for the Chinese work gang...)
So shade cloth was attached to said fence (presumabley to stop the locals seeing what was going on and to instill a sense of caution). The very same night, Mother Nature sent a strong wind to blow the fence down....
The fence is now up again, minus shade cloth ,and certain barriers have been erected on the beach itself, but by the amount of litter on the new surface, I'm pretty sure the beach is as Mozambican owned as ever.
Aaah. Mozambique. Not much in the way of rules...