”La Famba Bischa” -The queue is moving...in my opinnion backwards. Couple weeks ago I had to deposit some money for my portuguese language school and it was not that simple. In Finland I have used to pay my bills in online bank, no queueing or opening hours. Here in Mozambique internet bank does exist but we don´t have internet home and to get the passwords for online bank is an another story.
So I went to my local bank Millenium Bim to deposit the money. The queue was long but I thought this won´t take long since people are just depositing money or drawing some. It didn´t go as I thought. I was waiting two hours in the queue, since every second person who came in the bank went in front of me in the line. After one hour I started to say everybody who passed me ”Where are you going? The end of queue is there behind me and these other people...” Bypassing is very common here and people don´t seem to care about it much.Well, I´m not loosing my nerves just a bit amused. All together, dealing with your documents in different kind of offices is atleast ten time more difficult here than in Finland. The officers are very slow and seem to be interested more to chat with each other than do their work Because of these facts I have strategy of ”one thing per day to be finished”. And don´t even think to deal your bank business in our lunch hour if you don´t know how to be very arrogant bypasser.
What comes to my school I have studied now almost three weeks portuguese in the languege school. We have interesting, very international group. Countries represented right now are: Gongo, Sout Africa, Swaziland, USA, Australia, Filipines, Serbia, Japan, Turkey and of course Finland. Until now I haven´t learnt so much new since I did the basic course already in Finland, but after some simple converesations with the locals, I have noticed that speaking becomes more easier day by day. I have heard already couple times from others that I speak well portuguese. Maybe they just want to be polite. In addition learning portuguese I have tried to memories some local language, shangane. I have noticed that it is great ”ice breaker” when I say something in shangane. And every time I make people around me laughing.
Here is couple examples (I don´t know if spelling is correct):
”Maali muuni maati?” - How much is the water?
”Kanimambo” - Thankyou
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| Instituto de Linguas |
Local languege starts to turnout somehow but some cultural customs are still little bit hard to assimilate. Greeting here is done portuguese style two kisses to the cheeks and for me it is difficult. 26 years living in the country of shaking hands and keeping far away from other and then jump to the country kissing everybody you meet! Funny, but sometimes I feel just a little bit uncomfortable because don´t know what to do. Maybe after one year here I start kissing people also in Suonenjoki, my hometown. Last sunday we laughed to that thought with my new friend from Suonenjoki! Yes I met here a girl from same Finnish town I come from! This world is very small.
Other cultural differences that make me smile is white and local rich people in the restaurants. These more expensive restaurants are cheaper than restaurants in Finland. Two people can eat and drink well with 20 euros, but here is ofcourse too expensive for most of the locals. What you can see in these restaurants is that white people quite often sit alone and won´t talk to anybody. Local rich people sit with their business partners or come with the whole family and have loud, good time together. Locals also like to set their cellphones on the table before start to eat. I guess to show what kind of communication device they have. I have also noticed that many people here have two cellphones, other one is for Mcel and other fot Vodacom operators. The service you get as a white person in these restaurants good but kind of condescending. The waiter calls you Madam or Sir and never look on your eyes, even the waiter is much older man than me he acts like lower servant. I don´t like this and I allways try to ”brake the ice” somehow and show that I´m not any higher position than the waiter or waitress. I normally do it by calling the waiter also Sir or just smiling and staring conversation by asking how he is.
Before I came to Mozambique I had to buy visa ofcourse. As I didn´t know the process I applied the longest, half year visa with multiple enries. Since I married to mozambican citizen I could apply more permanent residence permint or visa, but now I have to wait untill my six months visa will end. Because of the visa, I have to travel out of the country once in a month. Yes it is a bit annoying but since we have car now and both Swaziland and South Africa are very close I don´t mind it. Small holiday every month! This month we decided to go Swaziland to see my old friends and enjoy the Swazi mountain climate. Since 2010 when I was last time in Swazi things haven´t changed so much. In Mbabane only the KFC has become bigger and reparation one bridge have been finished. Though I noticed that it has become much more quiet than 2009 when I was staying there for longer period.Also the locals said to me that economy is going down and even saleries are not paid when should. Here in Mozambique they say ”Aluta continua” Strugle must continue...
My six month visa requires me jump out of the country every monts, but there is way to avoid this kind of bureucrazy and those ”bischas” too. If you just know somebody at the office, the problem can be solved in a short period of time and of course some ”act of testimonial”. Actually it seems that sometimes it is the only way to deal with your stuff.
Apart from small problems my ”honeymoon” with Mozambique is still continuing and I´m really enjoying my time. This week I´m going to start my voluntary work so next time I will also tell about Chamanculo and my work in Associacao Comunitario de Chamanculo.
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