Today, our Language Class (Me, Ryan, Anna, Don, and Kevin) took a trip to Maputo to take care of some business. We were supposed to practice our Portuguese at the market, but the torrential downpour prevented us from visiting. It was a pretty crazy drive into town as we got to see rivers flowing just about every which way into makeshift lakes of mud, trash, and sometimes people (we watched some guy nearly get swept away when he tried jumping across a “river,” but only made it three-quarters of the way). Here's a picture I took as we were entering the city. It'll hopefully give you a feel for what we were dealing with.
 |
| Dirty Water, yum. |
So, instead of going to the market, we kinda just winged it. Anna and I spent most of the first half of the day in the Vodacom Store trying to set up our blackberry's. No dice. They couldn't seem to get them to work. I ended up going back to Maputo just as I came, empty handed. Well, I did get a burger out of it so I guess it wasn't a total waste.
The rain cleared up just about the time we got out of the phone store, so we took to the streets and walked around the city a little looking for Portuguese-English dictionaries and capulana's (these are huge here, but I'm still not sure what they are/how to describe them, so once I learn more, I'll write about them). We really didn't spend much time shopping, and after traversing through park full of overly-aggressive street vendors selling Chinese-made African art, we stopped to eat at Continental, a local restaurant full of delicious looking pastries. The menu was pretty extensive, but it turned out that they really only had about two things you could order: The Continental Hamburger, or the Club Sandwich. The burger was pretty standard, but it came with a fried egg on it. Curious and desperate for something that was carbohydrate-based, I decided to order one and compliment it with a can of coke.
 |
| Don't get too jealous. I'm about 100% sure that I got some sort of parasitic worm from eating this. It was raw. And there was an eggy-mayonnaisey mixture on it. It sucked. |
I should have gotten the club.
After lunch, Horacio, our language instructor, walked us down to one of Maputo's historic sites, an 18th Century Colonial Fort!
 |
| Hooray Reminders of Portugal's Oppressive Past! |
 |
| Sweet Fort, bro. |
When we got there I nearly threw up. No, not because the burger was that bad (it was...seriously I cannot stress this enough, that burger was terrible), but because of the excitement I was feeling. I like history...a lot. I love getting smacked in the face with a hearty helping of history. This fort floored me. Very cool stuff.
 |
| This cannon once shot balls. That's right, explosive balls. |
Right around the time we were wrapping up or visit, we got a call and had to make our way back to the meeting point to catch the chapa home. With that, our day in Maputo was done!
 |
| Happy campers crammed in a Chapa on our way home (Rafael, Anneke, me, and Anna) |
No comments:
Post a Comment