Last night Americo and I sat down to the news and watched the devastation the fires in Australia have caused. There are some amazing stories of heroism and awful tales of loss. Our thoughts go out to the Australians at this time.
Actually our thoughts have been on Australia a lot recently. We are debating the pro’s and con’s of shifting to the other side of the universe. This is a topic that has had much mileage in our household. As much as I love my life here, in London, I really love the sun more!! In an ideal world we would be going home. Sadly though there is now no home to go to. We are of the lost Zimbabwean generation – two of millions that left always expecting to go back, only to find that there is nothing to go back too. And so we must find ourselves a new heritage.
Our search has been extensive, including a little sojourn into Mozambique. It was a fated trip from the beginning…
We had borrowed my sister in law’s car for the journey from Nelspruit to Maputo. The night before we were due to leave the mechanism for the automatic window broke so we sealed it in the ‘up right position’. Off we set in the sweltering December heat with our unopening driver’s side window for the border of South Africa & Mozambique. How to explain the border control…. Basically I sat in a delightfully air conditioned room, handed my passport over to some fellow who, for a small fee, got it stamped and cleared ready for entry into Moz – all this done without me once setting foot into the customs office. In any other country this would SO not be permitted but hey! Onwards to Maputo…
As I mentioned the window on Americo’s side of the car was sealed shut so every toll we came to he basically had to open the door, undo his seatbelt, step out of the car and hand over the cash. A long and drawn out process that, when you are stopped at roadblocks manned by police carrying AK47’s, becomes somewhat life threatening. I feel I should mention here that while some nations excel in sports, cultural diversity and so on Mozambique has taken corruption and honed it into a fine art form. The police are so crooked they make a zig zag look straight. In fact, I wonder how any illegal activity ends with a prison sentence as I feel that moral standards are left to the highest bidder!
So saying, YES we did get stopped by the police and YES we did have to pay a ‘fee’. Actually we were stopped by the police numerous times all desperately seeking something, anything.. At our last road block finding that there was nothing to hold us for, (we having become quite savvy) the copper requested that we drive to the nearest supermarket and grab him a drink – all that thirsty work! Thus we ended our trip to Moz
Once safely back on South African soil we were chatting to a bloke who contracts in Moz for a large company. He was very sympathetic about our bribery problems saying..
“If I had known you were going I would have given you my card”.
“Card?” asks Americo
“Ja man, the company pays a ‘donation’ annually to the police force, show them the card and no problems”.
Anyway we decided that Mozambique was not for us. It is fine for a holiday far, far away from civilisation, in the middle of the bush, but not for us who stupidly believe the police should be of some assistance!!
So we look to Australia and carry on hoping for Zimbabwe.
Actually our thoughts have been on Australia a lot recently. We are debating the pro’s and con’s of shifting to the other side of the universe. This is a topic that has had much mileage in our household. As much as I love my life here, in London, I really love the sun more!! In an ideal world we would be going home. Sadly though there is now no home to go to. We are of the lost Zimbabwean generation – two of millions that left always expecting to go back, only to find that there is nothing to go back too. And so we must find ourselves a new heritage.
Our search has been extensive, including a little sojourn into Mozambique. It was a fated trip from the beginning…
We had borrowed my sister in law’s car for the journey from Nelspruit to Maputo. The night before we were due to leave the mechanism for the automatic window broke so we sealed it in the ‘up right position’. Off we set in the sweltering December heat with our unopening driver’s side window for the border of South Africa & Mozambique. How to explain the border control…. Basically I sat in a delightfully air conditioned room, handed my passport over to some fellow who, for a small fee, got it stamped and cleared ready for entry into Moz – all this done without me once setting foot into the customs office. In any other country this would SO not be permitted but hey! Onwards to Maputo…
As I mentioned the window on Americo’s side of the car was sealed shut so every toll we came to he basically had to open the door, undo his seatbelt, step out of the car and hand over the cash. A long and drawn out process that, when you are stopped at roadblocks manned by police carrying AK47’s, becomes somewhat life threatening. I feel I should mention here that while some nations excel in sports, cultural diversity and so on Mozambique has taken corruption and honed it into a fine art form. The police are so crooked they make a zig zag look straight. In fact, I wonder how any illegal activity ends with a prison sentence as I feel that moral standards are left to the highest bidder!
So saying, YES we did get stopped by the police and YES we did have to pay a ‘fee’. Actually we were stopped by the police numerous times all desperately seeking something, anything.. At our last road block finding that there was nothing to hold us for, (we having become quite savvy) the copper requested that we drive to the nearest supermarket and grab him a drink – all that thirsty work! Thus we ended our trip to Moz
Once safely back on South African soil we were chatting to a bloke who contracts in Moz for a large company. He was very sympathetic about our bribery problems saying..
“If I had known you were going I would have given you my card”.
“Card?” asks Americo
“Ja man, the company pays a ‘donation’ annually to the police force, show them the card and no problems”.
Anyway we decided that Mozambique was not for us. It is fine for a holiday far, far away from civilisation, in the middle of the bush, but not for us who stupidly believe the police should be of some assistance!!
So we look to Australia and carry on hoping for Zimbabwe.
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