Catedral

Last night I was asked by our key government counterpart whether I could attend a breakfast meeting at the British High Commissioner's residence. The brief text message indicated that the British Secretary of State for the Environment would be there, but Google couldn't confirm that Michael Gove was in fact in Mozambique. It seemed important enough to say yes regardless.

At 6.55am I found myself the first to arrive, let in by a security guard and with the Commissioner's dog yapping at my legs and dirtying my smart trousers. I had been awake so late because of noisy hotel guests and am really in the early stages of understanding Mozambique, but I was required to sound informative and knowledgable as 15 conservationists and diplomats sat around a sumptuous dining table picking at salmon and scrambled eggs. The coffee only arrived halfway through. Other bleary faces indicated they had battled through morning traffic after a late night notification.

The Minister was an MP in Suffolk with additional responsibilities at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. She is in Mozambique gathering information ahead of a big October conference on illegal wildlife trade to be held in London. To his credit, the UK's role in spearheading this event was led by Boris Johnson during his tenure as Foreign Secretary. International aspects of the illegal trade in wildlife are de rigueur, so at least I was able to talk about my experiences of working on wildlife conservation in South East Asia and how this links to poaching for ivory in Africa. My former base of Cambodia has become an important transit country for ivory as the likes of Vietnam and Thailand have strengthened their governance. When I was there we secured funding to investigate the provenance of ivory found in markets, undertaking DNA analysis to identify its source location. I'll check what preliminary findings the team has had and share with today's group as it could help to enlighten our knowledge of how ivory is moved.

Later a kind offer to store my excess baggage ready for my move, by a friend Muheti who works for the VSO office. A few quick additional meetings with government contacts to push forward on some activities, all of which will become easier from next month.

One chat with a colleague Nazaré morphed into talk of Brexit as he gave me half of his papaya to scoop out. This was in the spartan kitchen in one of the government offices, much more my natural habitat than a dainty dining room.

He was generally anti the curtailment of free movement as an unhealthy symbol of inward-lookingness, which has a parallel in Southern Africa if ever the Southern African Development Community (SADC) bloc was ever to introduce stricter visa rules. He says some Mozambicans would likely vote for this even though it would be limiting for them.

Brexit is many things, most of them negative adjectives, but at least it has provided many a talking point with colleagues and random folk all over the world during the past two years.

Maputo immigration staff are so dismissive as to be aggressive, slamming passports down with true looks of disdain. The rudest I've come across, in a generally ruder-than-average profession worldwide. I was also surprised to be begged for a drink by the lady cleaning the bathrooms. Maputo may have money, but junior airport staff are clearly not seeing much of it.

This week has been nothing short of ridiculous.