Tenement

Sundays in Maputo always put me in a pensive mood. There’s something about being here that I find more grounding than being in Dar es Salaam. It’s probably simply the more pleasant association with my current work here compared to Tanzania, where the atmosphere is more tough. And the presence of pavements to facilitate strolls to take in the tenements.

It is winter in Maputo, by which I mean bright and warm days with clear evenings and nighttime temperatures with lows of fourteen degrees. The chillier air took me by surprise and I fear that living in Dar es Salaam, where it is never not warm or hot, has further exacerbated my reluctance to operate in places with temperatures in the teens, or heaven forbid, single figures. These days I start to get concerned if it looks like I’ll be anywhere dropping below the low 20s. I can be justifiably called pathetic.

The good news is that the sun can still be strong in the daytime, so I maximised the middle of the day by laying in it and reading.

I met up with one of my friends, Dercio, and we went for Indian food. He was not impressed by the bright colour of my palak paneer, which has become my go-to Indian dish when there is no dopiaza available.