MAPUTO MOZAMBIQUE …. “TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT”

So we traveled 2.5 days south along the African coastline to Mozambique. We docked in the capital … Maputo which is about as far south as you can get before South Africa. Mozambique …. again a country we both know nothing about … other than hearing the name and thinking it had a cool sound … reminds me of a name of an exotic bird.

Come to find out … Mozambique is the 5’th poorest country in the world … so not sure what we are in for. We have seen some serious poverty on this trip … Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, parts of India, but none of them were anywhere near the bottom 5 poorest countries in the world.

Mozambique has a similar history to all the others …. ( European Colonization … in this case the Portuguese ) … but it was exacerbated by continued problems after they gained their independence in 1976..

But … unlike the others … they had a very difficult time after gaining independence… lots of turmoil and internal conflict for control of the country went on for 16 years … ending with intervention from the UN in 1992.

Today the governments “ruling party” ( Frelimo ) is a Democratic Socialist Party … the opposing party … the “rebel movement” ( Renamo ) is the Mozambean National Resistance … both parties continuously butt heads making it very difficult to move forward on any new policy. ( Just like another country we all know 😜 )

Many acts of terror have occured … over 1 million deaths and displacement of over 4 million civilians due to landmines left over from 30 years of war.

Mozambiques’ landmine problem was one of the worst in the world … Tens of thousands of landmines were placed around dams, bridges, electrical poles and farmland … causing unintended explosions and MANY casualties … making it impossible to farm.

Economic growth was suffocated …. With the countries infrastructure badly damaged … they couldn’t build railways or power lines needed for commercial growth and domestic use. They spent almost 20 years demining … removing over 170,000 mines and declaring victory ( “Demined” ) in 2015.

With the work completed … the government gave farmers their land back. But the damage to the economy had been done …there was little to no foreign investment … while the rest of the world was prospering their economy was tanking.

The primary industry today is still farming ( 65% ) … corn, beans, rice, “oil seeds” ( a new word on me …Peanuts, Sesame and Sunlfower Seeds ) along with a mix of vegetables.

The biggest challenge right now is unemployment in the cities …. 1 in 3 are out of work ….

So with our boat parked in the city “we” … probably more “I” …. than “we” … decided to take the shuttle to city center. ( Turned out to be hill and yonder to get there ) We were dropped at a VERY LARGE craft market ( It went on for blocks ) … my hope was to find something interesting … help the local economy … the “starving artists” struggling to make a living.

… that turned out to be quite “the experience” … Everyone pounced on us … ( “we’ve got some live ones” ). It was dialed up to a whole new level then anything we had ever experienced … “aggressive” is being kind. Even more surprising… most of these “artists” were selling the same thing …. the EXACT same thing …. they presented themselves as creators of the art they were selling … “But would everyone be making the same art as the guy next to him or her????”…. and “would the elephant print pants I saw in one of the stalls be the exact same as the ones I saw in Malaysia ?????” … it didn’t really add up …

… everyone had a deal …. But everyone also had the “same deal” … A “special price” “only today” and “just for you” … it was “my lucky day”. 🤦🏼. … I guess it was just a “coincidence” that it was everyone else’s lucky day to. So Tom sized it up and quickly ran away and hid while I browsed and endured the harassment.

There were a few “artists” that were actually “fabricating” something … the rest spent their time on Phones or badgering anyone that glanced at their wares.

I finally ended up finding a stall where they had a few bright colored fabric bags and knick knacks from a woman who said she designed and made her own goods … she was located in the back of the market …. the only one that “allowed” me to look without being totally harassed …. So I knew if I was to buy anything ..it would be here …so I put together a small pile of stuff and we agreed to a value of $100 US.

… now it was time to pay … they don’t have the capability to take a credit card and “we cruisers” don’t typically convert currency because of the short time spent in each country … almost all countries take American dollars anyway .

But it turns out … the poorer the country … the more hesitant they are to take our money. We had the same problem in Guatemala … we couldn’t figure out why they wouldn’t take our $20 bill. We thought they would be thrilled to make a sale … it turns out there is so much counterfeiting in these third world nations that banks are reluctant to take their cash.

But US dollars is all I had … so she studied each bill very carefully … showing it to someone else and rejecting anything with the slightest tear, fold or mark. So that’s a problem … turns out most of our currency has one of the above. ( I had never studied the condition of our money before but most bills are far from perfect ) I was giving her a $100 bill that came straight from M&T Bank … but she didn’t like the look of the bill. I offered her the only other bill I had and she liked that even less. So after much hesitation she finally took it ….

With that whole exchange behind us … we decided we needed to get out of there. We walked the distance back to the entrance but as we started to exit … there she was … the woman I bought the stuff from …. she had left her booth from way in the back on the other side of the market and was running around looking for me … she had studied the money again and wanted some other bills. Well I didn’t have anything else …. and Tom was completely losing it. He just wants out of there ( he never did like conflict. ) So I nicely told her … “TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT” … I would give her the stuff back if she wanted.

She didn’t know what to do … the shuttle was waiting … Tom left and I followed … I thought more about it afterwards and realized it was another one of those “fundamentals ” we take for granted as a First Nation …. “Authentic Currency”….. what a problem when you don’t even know if your money is “Real.”

… they still struggle …. Infant mortality rate is one of the highest in the world … and lifespan is one of the worst … 62 Average Age for a Female and 56 Average Age for a Male. ( If that was applied to the population of the ship … everyone except the crew would be dead. )

But the population today is changing … it is young … 40% under 15… 66% under 30. The new Presidential nominee …. chosen by the ruling party in March and most likely to win ( Elections are in October ) … would be the first president born after the War for Independence. The hope is … a new generation will bring a “New Beginning.”

With the war behind them and the mines cleaned up … the Frelimo party would like to unite all the people of Mozambique … and begin to move forward … time will tell what happens next.

NEXT STOP … DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA … DAY 152