Walking around downtown Nampula, it struck me that there are
many things people do here that would be very strange if this were Nova Scotia,
but here nobody bats an eye. So I have compiled a list of such things. These
are parts of everyday life here.
- · People carrying things on their head: a bucket of water, a bundle of charcoal, a sofa, anything!
- · Parking officers carrying rifles
- · Live chickens on public transportation
- · Young boys carrying dead chickens down the street by their feet
- · Heterosexual men holding hands
- · Unfenced goats just casually hanging out at the side of the road
- · Young children carrying babies on their back
- · Women breastfeeding unabashedly in public places
- · Men riding on the bumpers of trucks
In Canada, I think people would stare at these things. I
wonder what things are normal for me to do but would cause Africans to stare?
I think I could compile some other lists, too, like: things
I never thought I would learn to do in Mozambique, which includes a roundhouse
kick and making chicken tikka masala. Or: English words that mean very
different things in England and Canada, like pants (“On Saturdays we wear pants
around the centre”), or jumper (“I’m knitting a jumper for my grandson”). Or:
languages I interact with on a daily basis, which include English, Portuguese,
French and some Bantu languages.
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| A photo I took in transit of this typical scene |
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| Making chicken tikka masala: grinding up garlic with a mortar and pestle, a tool found in every Mozambican home |
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