Early days

At first being in Mozambique was strange, bordering on surreal.  The first couple of days were taken up with form filling and we had a briefing on the security situation and do’s and don’ts.  If you took this too literally you wouldn’t venture out your front door.  In reality, like any big city anywhere you need to sensible and not wander down dark alleys pissed as a fart singing show me the way to go home. 

There are some places you should not go

There are some places best avoided after dark or alone but you could say the same about London or Glasgow.  Mozambicans are generally genuinely friendly and laid back with a ready smile and we feel pretty safe here.

Bem Vindos para Moçambique (Welcome to Mozambique)

Sat Nav for planes

Following the stress of the Heathrow baggage harridans and Portuguese language training the trip from Portugal to Mozambique was a comparative doddle.  We were flying with the Portuguese airline Tap from Porto to Lisbon and then a direct 11 hour flight from Lisbon to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique.  We were due to arrive around 10 pm on a Saturday night.  There was still the small matter of the excess baggage and Jane had been shoe and handbag shopping in Porto. At least we could spread it around a little more.  Things started well.

You are invited to Dinner

Burp! Oh excuse me - diplomats always give me gas,

They didn't mention this in our posting notes!

Não compreendo (I don't understand)

Porto in Portugal where we did our two weeks language training is a lovely seaside town and a great place for a weekend vacation.  Lots of lovely bars and restaurants, shopping, the port houses on the quayside, old baroque churches with crypts and other touristy type stuff.   Unfortunately we were there to work – six hours a day intensive language training with lots of trabalho para casa (homework). 

Porto, Porto, wonderful town

The adventure begins

For me it was a no brainer when Jane asked me whether I was sure she should accept the post in Mozambique.  I was working in a Glasgow call centre providing first line technical support.  My

Yes I know it says wireless - you still need to plug it in 

colleagues were fantastic, but the job was totally pants and was slowly but surely destroying my soul.   Fate had thrown me a lifeline.  When my colleagues started,only half jokingly, to discuss which of us was the most likely to crack and bring a shotgun into work I realised it might be a good time to move on.

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog recording the misadventures and assorted ramblings of our new life in Moz.  I have the good fortune to be married to Jane

A minha espousa A Senhora Jane aka der missus 

who works for the Department for International Development (DFID) that delivers the UK government's overseas aid programme.  Both of us are seasoned overseas travellers, but for the past seven years we and Monty the cat were settled happily in Prestwick on the west coast of Scotland (IMHO God's own country).  Pensions and free bus travel starting to peek over the horizon.  Then...