Boa cabeça

I located somewhere for a haircut, as it was getting rather unwieldy. The cutting approach was lacklustre at best, and although I wasn't having a head shave, the guy thought that zooming in and out with clippers would achieve the desired result. Meanwhile the adjacent hairdresser and he were mostly engaged in banter about trying to get the names and numbers of female customers. The neighbouring barber leaned to me at one point and joked about mine 'this guy is a cockroach.' Okay - just who I want to be stabbing at my head with a pair of clippers.

In Mozambique I find myself being much more reflective about wealth and poverty than when I was spending time in South East Asia. There the divisions are still huge but there is a booming middle class and wealth is less concentrated in the hands of either foreigners or a small elite. Here whilst there are plenty of Mozambicans with money, there seems to be a vast majority of have-nots, especially away from central Maputo.

Socialists like me bang on about the distribution of wealth and how unfair it is. Mozambique is a clear example of deep economic inequality. One clear way I can contribute to rebalancing this, even slightly, is to eschew the extreme examples of conglomerates and focus on street vendors or independent traders. If enough people with means did this, recognising the general stranglehold capitalism has over the world, could it create a fairer model of trickle down economics? Would it gradually build up the assets of the poorest? Would more money line their pockets and create opportunities? Or would other dominant market forces swallow these people up? I don't really have the foggiest idea of what I'm saying. I just empathise with people who here seem to be so far down the financial pecking order, and wonder how free market forces will ever help them. I want to give them more business as I have the luxury to make consumer choices.

I strolled the downtown Baixa area in late afternoon as most people were either a) packing up wares for the day and heading home or b) in the early stages of getting wasted. When people approached it was friendly chat, mainly just interested in what I was up to.

At the Central Market, some drunk lads who wanted money for drinks (I refused) then taught me a few words of Shaangan (Tsonga), the dominant African language of the region. They said I had a boa cabeça (good head) for repeating back the words. This flies in the face of my usual performance in my Portuguese lessons.

Graça, a lady selling cashew nuts, gave me a taster on the promise that I'd return for a packet in the future. She was lovely and I said I would when restocking the cupboards after my upcoming UK trip.