The knives are out

Literally, displayed on the pavement on one of Lichinga’s main roads. This reminds me that Mozambique is a fairly safe place, despite a commonly held view from outside that life is lawless and chaotic. Imagine a market vendor laying out large kitchen knives on the pavement in the UK or US (sidewalk). He or she would be swiftly arrested, with varying degrees of police heavy-handedness.

The knives can easily come out, metaphorically speaking, at our stakeholder meetings, given the diverse and outspoken characters in attendance. However this second day was relatively harmonious and we had good discussions about how to handle emergencies and how to drive forward the new partnership model for the landscape.