Humorous in Mozambique

Someone asked me once what I find humorous in Mozambique. It took me a while, because many things are different, pleasing, tragic, or just plain interesting. But here's a few:

It's one thing to see a woman walking along with a bundle of wood or a basket of fruit on her head. But you have to chuckle when a woman walks by with a modern duffel bag on her head. A clash of cultures, a clash of times.

The other thing I find funny is the lever gates. They're manual! You drive up and the guard pushes down the heavy, stumpy end, and the lever goes up. Voila, why do we need electricity?

With so many vendors catering to tourists, if you don't want them hassling you, you better not give any indication of interest, not even look at them. This becomes hard when you're having coffee at a restaurant on the beach, and vendors obstruct your view of the beach, forcing you to avert your gaze. But it becomes funny when they're behind a wall, and all you see is a wooden cat bouncing along.

Coming up next time (maybe): "Reflections on the Mozambican movie theatre experience", and "The Art of Telephone Conversation with a 3-second Time Lag"... but don't hold your breath.

We've developed a saying, from last week when we were faced with the decision of whether to order a hamburger in South Africa (our only opportunity usually), or to wait until our expected BBQ the next night. We decided that "Until the hamburger is on your plate (or possibly even in your hand, the way things often go here), don't count on anything."