Matola

One of my friends, Mateus, took me to Matola on Saturday afternoon. His friend, Alex, had a barbeque to celebrate his fiancee's birthday this past week. Matola is a township outside of the main city, Maputo, where I reside. It is about 25 kilometers outside of the city which takes far longer than it would in Toronto. The roads quickly deteriorated from two lanes, to one lane (which were driven as though there were two lanes), and then to dirt, and then to sand, and then to trail. There were no landmarks, road signs, or gas stations to help direct us to our final destination. It was a real eye opener to the living conditions outside the 'oasis' of Maputo.

Although the people there were not 'rich' by traditional Western measurement scales, what they lacked in financial resources they made up for in warmth, spirit, culture and character. Their modest homes are all meticulously cleaned and surrounding land tidied. I have noticed that everyone's clothes are always perfectly cleaned and pressed. They put my dry cleaner back in Milton to shame ;)

Alex lives in a township which is very remote yet I have discovered, reggae music truly is international. After he learned of my Jamaican heritage he put on the icon - Bob Marley - and his mother and I started a dancehall session.

Mateus asked me if I ate pork. I informed him I was not a huge fan. He proceeded to take me on a walk to the back of Alex's property where we picked out our next meal. The mother pig and her piglets had to be separated into two different pens because she was eating them when she got hungry. This serves as a reminder why I am not a fan of the meat.

Pictures: Mother pig, Piglets, Mateus and I.