Afire

My most social whizzkid friend in Maputo, Steph, booked an early evening table at a restaurant with this view over Maputo Bay. A mutual friend of ours, Zina, is now working in Phnom Penh but is visiting Maputo again for a piece of consultancy. It was a sheer delight to leave the office at 5.30pm to join them for juice and snacks, as otherwise I would have become embroiled in a pressing review of a budget.

As I rode to meet them in his txopela, Paulo said the heavy traffic was because there was a fire on the Catembe-Maputo bridge. As I was heading somewhere with a direct view of the bridge (see the distance) I could effectively debunk that one. Unfounded rumours like this spread rapidly around cities like this, and I fear what might ensue if serious rumours of coronavirus surface. I saw an article today in the national press that four Chinese people had been quarantined on arrival. Obviously no one wants anyone to be diagnosed with coronavirus in Mozambique but I hope there is some reasonable basis for doing this otherwise it’s dangerously close to racial profiling.

I had a frustrating day of work, as my ability to handle convoluted internal coordination is limited from Mozambique and frankly I haven’t got the energy to spend on it when there are far more satisfying things to be doing with my time. When you can’t see anyone face to face it should mean you are absented from having to herd cats, or at least the extra challenges of doing it should be acknowledged. This can be a hard cultural thing to convey in an international organisation where all the most senior people are in the UK and not exposed to the daily frustrations of chasing decisions, getting inputs and having ‘water cooler’ chats from afar.