Museu de História Natural

Maputo's Natural History Museum is well known for its exhibit of elephant foetuses at different development stages. I want to carve out the time to check it out as the museum is located fairly close to where I'll be spending time. I walked past this afternoon when going for some advice on getting my passport notarised, as it's a legal requirement to have your passport in your possession at all times and police readily accost people in the street, trying to catch them out.

I had my first official Portuguese lesson with Ilidio, and I think we will get on well. Knowing some Spanish is hugely helpful although it sometimes confuses the pronunciation. Although Ilidio was complimentary about how I'll take to the language, I'm not sure he appreciated my questions about the grammar of reflexive verbs when he was trying to teach me the basics of greetings.

An informal way of greeting someone in the street is 'como é?' (how is it?). Apparently the globalised youth of maputo are responding, in English, with 'nice' or 'fish'. Yes, you read it correctly. I'll try it out on an unsuspecting vendor.

Alcohol is not always sold in obvious places in Mozambique. After my lesson I went for some groceries before the shops closed but the assistant in Premier Superspar laughed and said the shop was 'halal' when I asked about red wine. I had to go searching in a separate bottle store, so Ali could be comforted whilst working in the apartment on an important deadline.