Timbila Muzimba

Last weekend some friends and I went to see a band called Timbila Muzimba play downtown. The band was awesome - mixing traditional Mozambican music (i.e. all the drums and the timbila - which are the xylophone looking instruments) with more modern stuff (i.e. a bass guitar). They started out with just the four drummers playing, then added the bass and the two timbila. I thought the pictures of them playing were interesting....





Note that some of the drums are homemade...


Couldn't resist photographing this...


The timbila is this xylophone type instrument.

Birthday Party at the Mansion

A couple weekends ago my friend Ermelinda invited me to her cousin's birthday party in Matola, a neighborhood outside the city. The plan was for her to swing by my place at 11am, so that we could head out together and arrive by 12 - which was the designated starting time of the party. Now, by this point in time I think we all know that Mozambican timelines are not very exact...but just in case you want one more example of why westerners go crazy in this country....allow me to describe my afternoon.

10:45 - Ermelinda calls. She'll be at my place in an hour.

12:30 - Ermelinda arrives. Plus two musicians who play for the national dance company (and for our dance classes), and who are joining us for the party.

1:30 - After going shopping for booze and waiting for a potential ride that didn't work out, we get on public transport.

2:30 - We arrive at Ermelinda's uncle's house, which is where the party is being held. We are the only people there (besides Ermelinda's grandmother and a couple little cousins). Mind you the party was supposed to start at 12.
Now, a quick sidenote from the timeline....this house turns out to be a MANSION (even by american standars). Huge. Two stories, high ceilings, music room, formal dining room, hanging out room with a fish tank and fancy bar with trendy bar stools, office, bedrooms, and other rooms that i didn't enter. Plus a swimming pool, a huge garden, and a big outdoor gazebo (moz style) complete with a bar and loft that overlooks the city of Matola in the yard.

This is the back side of the house - I took this from an elevated terrace that also overlooks the city.


This is a small part of the front yard


Aside from a swimming pool and a huge lawn, the front yard also boasts a half basketball court. These kids were playing around on the base of the hoop.


4:30 - People start showing up...but not on public transport like us. People roll up in flash cars with booming sound systems. I actually was starting to wonder at this point if somehow I had magically been transported to a different country. By this time, Ermelinda and I had long since set up the tables and the bar in the gazebo, and our musician friends had long since gone out in search of food. But things were now starting to look promising.

5:30 - Food has arrived from somewhere (apparently they cooked at someone else's house and brought everything already prepared), and everyone is all of a sudden present and eating. A sound system has been set up with several huge speakers, music is blaring, drinks are being poured....the party has begun.
Another sidenote: I guess it kind of makes sense, but Mozambicans have this uncanny ability to show up to parties at the exact right moment. Now, it's not like I thought the party was really going to start at 12, but I was thinking that at least by 3 things would be happening. What I can't figure out is how everyone else knew to show up between 4:30 and 5:00. Is there some mathematical formula that I haven't figured out yet?

2:30am - After a ridiculous amount of food, drinking, dancing and general merry-making, it is time to go home.

Cutting the cake in the outdoor gazebo thing. The bar is behind the two birthday boys, and the guy in the sunglasses to their right is a Mozambican pop star!


Ermelinda and I with Cadinho and Chico


No Mozambican party is complete without dancing passada....