Dance Party

I cannot describe to you how much I am going to miss Mozambican parties. This one was thrown by one of the girls from my dance class (which, unfortunately, never got going again after we got booted out of our room!) and was fantastic. Tons of people, tons of food, everyone dancing, and a short performance by some of the members of the "senior" dance troupe with live music! It was fantastic....

Some friends...


Live music...


And dancing...

Xipamanine

I realize it's been a while....but I am going to try and update this blog before I head back to the states....so be on the lookout for new stories over the next couple days!

There isn't much of a story behind this posting - my roommate Rhett, my colleague Jason and I simply went to one of Maputo's biggest second-hand markets (called Xipamanine) to poke around and see if there was anything interesting to buy. Well, we had wandered the maze-like market stalls for probably an hour or so, made a few purchases (one of which was a t-shirt that my colleague Jason bought that said - upside down on the front of the shirt in small letters - "if you can read this you are sitting on my face"), and were on our way out of the market when we made the kind of discovery that you can only make in a second hand market in Africa. A goat bag. Rather than try and elaborate, I'll just let the photos speak for themselves....

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....

Pierogies in Moçambique

Okay, so this one is mostly for my mom, who I had to email for the family pierogi recipe after I promised to make them for my roommates (I happened to find cottage cheese in a store and got excited about the possibility of making them...which turned into insistence on my friends' parts that I actually make them!).

Rolling out the dough...


Alternate uses for a wine glass...


Look at that skill....


and technique!


Aren't they beautiful?


Browning the butter....


Delicious!

Birthday celebration, part 2

Clearly we couldn't limit the double birthday celebration to one dinner....so we also had a birthday party for the girls at a bar in Maputo on Friday night.

The birthday girls....


Me and Rhett....


The birthday girls with their cake....


I don't know who arranged these candles but they were fabulous....


Me and the bartender, who was kind enough to mix us up several (decent!) margaritas....

Me with my friends Max and Lau...

Rhett and Alexis' Birthday Celebration, part 1

As chance would have it, both of my roommates celebrated their birthdays last week. Rhett's birthday was mid-week, so we began our birthday celebrations with a dinner at Maputo's brazilian bbq restaurant, Rhodesio Real. I think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves...

The birthday girls - Alexis and Rhett...


This restaurant was all about meat...


and grilled pineapple!


Me and Rhett...