Está frio

A realisation about the southerly latitude of Maputo as today the temperature has plummeted and the wind has whipped up. Walking back from lunch along the coastal road, the sand was whipped into our faces and hair. Hours later I was trying to conceal dandruff until I remembered a good dune's worth had been flicked in.

In the evening I was invited to eat takeaway from a cute Rwandan cafe, with some new friends Bruno, Raquel and Tassiana. Tassiana's apartment is centrally located and in an old block once occupied by her family who have now moved to the suburbs. Many Mozambicans have fantastic English even though it's not their mother tongue, and this group was no exception. It's always hugely appreciated when a group adapts its language to include everyone. They were so impressive that I couldn't keep up with chat about the theology of liberation in Brazil, which they conducted in English.

I practised my Portuguese and they had very exacting standards about pronunciation. The name João still causes problems, which is tricky as about 50% of men have it. The stresses on words are different for a native English speaker to adapt to immediately. 'Falam', which is the 'they' form of 'speak', has a throaty nasal delivery and the word trails off by the second syllable as if it gets stuck in the mouth. It took about one hundred attempts before my pronunciation was deemed reasonable.

On the way downstairs, we were told by a passerby that some guys had been seen using drugs in the stairwell. In a very indiscreet move, said drug user introduced himself to us on the street: 'hey, do you guys live in this building? I've just moved from Germany to the 13th floor. If you need grass, coke, anything....'

I cut him off with some choice language. Who peddles drugs openly to people he assumes are residents of his own building? Dealers who don't want to walk far, or those so naive they haven't thought of the repercussions?

I've walked past these flower sellers several times. This time people were doing more huddling than usual, against the chill.