ALL IN PERSPECTIVE
I had the privilege of visiting Maputo with Steve, our country representative, for a few meetings with the Christian Council of Mozambique recently in their national office. We flew, and I was glad, because it would have been a sixteen hour drive. I always enjoy going to Maputo. Being the capital of Mozambique it is a very vibrant place. It is very different than the rest of Mozambique. It is very near to South Africa and has access to much more then the rest of the country. It is a very cultured and cosmopolitan city with wide sidewalks and streets lined with flaming acacia trees shading side walk cafes full of people of all colors. It is a busy city, being the capital, but is also full of art and Mozambican jazz which is world famous. There are parks a botanical gardens and six cinemas to keep the families of foreign ambassadors and government people occupied.

Maputo is a city that shows what Mozambique could be like eventually. The streets are continuing to get repaired, new high rises are going up and the airport is getting revamped with a very modern design in an effort to update the main entry into the country. On leaving we passed a beautiful fountain framed by multicolored lights and drove down tree lined streets with art painted on the walls, through a traffic circle with a monument containing the body of one of Mozambique’s great leaders of the independence to our guesthouse. We stayed in a missionary guesthouse located near the city center and I took advantage of being able to walk every evening the streets full of children, past tropically colored houses and fruit vendors.

We were there to have meetings with the national offices of CCM Maputo about future strategy for our work in Mozambique. People kept complaining of the heat but I realized that it was much fresher, dries and cooler than either Beira or Chimoio. The meetings went well and were quite stimulating. As we left the office I was asking on of our colleagues how the environment was in Maputo these days. I was thinking specifically of whether it was safe to walk around in the downtown area, especially being the end of elections and all. I was hoping to enjoy a brisk walk each day to rejuvenate my spirit and to be able to get down to the Portuguese bookstore to buy a book for our daughter.

“Very agitated,” was the response I got from my colleague.

I was a little taken aback as I watched all the people enjoying late afternoon strolls along the sidewalks as we drove back to our guesthouse. I enquired further to see what he meant by agitated. I expected that violence was up because of the recent elections and that it was dangerous to be out, especially a foreigner who stands out, like me.

"Why is it agitated?", I asked.

“The traffic is terrible," was his response.

I was floored. Truly, Maputo had more traffic than the rest of the country but still not the levels of what I was used to in the US cities. His other colleague said that it is now easy to get less expensive cars from Asia in South Africa and everyone is buying them, filling up the streets and making driving more difficult.

I found this strange considering in the rest of the country people cram onto any car they can get into to travel because of the shortage of cars and every young boy dreams of having a car one day.

“Too many cars,” our driver said.

I bet if he did not have a car he would not have said that. At least traffic does not effect someone who likes to walk, like me. Was it safe, I wanted to know.

“Oh, yeah, you can walk even in the evening. No problem,” they said.
And that is what I did.