Mundo injusto

Unfair world. When the hotel staff beg you not to insist on a receipt for washing because they need to pocket the money for food, it's a sad state of affairs. The cheapest rooms at this hotel in Chimoio cost about 35 dollars per night, which is cheap by Mozambican standards as accommodation can be a lot more. As it's often busy I'm sure the hotel owner could still make a good profit with the staff being paid a liveable salary that soars above the Mozambican statutory minimum, which I think is about 6,000 meticais (approximately 100 US dollars) per month.

The world is such a scramble for fair and basic human treatment. Sometimes it's truly saddening.

My friends Kate and Robin have a friend, Will, in Chimoio, working on his PhD. He's affiliated with the same organisation I'm partnering with. We met for a stroll that promptly got rained off, and we had to shelter under various overhangs. It was so wild and heavy that we got pretty soaked anyway.

Chimoio is the sort of upland place where dampness lingers, so when we finally arrived for the lunch of roast pork joint that was being prepared for us, we had to get dry t-shirts and towels for our hair. The rest of our clothes were still moist several hours later. The food was delicious, and because I won't be in the UK for Christmas, it may be the closest to a festive roast that I'll get this year.