Bom dia Bon Jovi

The alarm sounded at 4.30 and I disassembled my tent in the dark. As Cyclone Idai has affected many river crossings in the region, the journey back towards Chimoio’s small airport has doubled in length and involves a detour around the middle of nowhere, passing through hills on the Zimbabwe border, off-grid communities and cashew plantations.

By 5am we were in the car and Contardo inserted his USB stick to give us some music. Hearing him whistle to the Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi and Britney Spears as the sun rose across this remote area, brought a smile to my face. It transpires he is a fan of the 2002 Avril Lavigne album, Let Go.

The Chimanimani area is beautiful and unique within the country, and is critical from an environmental perspective as the uplands supply water to much of the low-lying parts of central Mozambique. During flood years, such as this, the impacts are devastating. Normally the rivers are absolutely essential to keep healthy for productive livelihoods and agriculture downstream.

At the Chimoio Airport coffee hatch, I fuelled up and had time for a meeting with Andrew from one of our partner organisations involved in community programmes around the Chimanimani buffer zone. It’s within everyone’s interest to create programmes that truly integrate both the needs of people and the environment in this region. We discussed how to plan well together, and how to link up with the humanitarian agencies which have burst onto the scene in response to Idai. They have access to much resource thanks to public donations and their links with governments. The danger is that they may not take into account existing work. For example, if communities are supported to acquire goats as a quick source of meat, this could cause more degradation than pre-disaster.

Overall there are greater opportunities than risks of all the players in the landscape, but it requires a joined-up approach. I’m hoping to get funding for reforestation, especially around riverbanks that were stripped bare. This will contribute to achieving previous levels of resilience here, so that only extreme events like Idai have impacts that are very hard to prepare for.

I received a recommendation for a hairdresser familiar with cutting European hair, so when I arrived back in Maputo I trundled along. The salon is run by Diane from Ormskirk, who has been in Mozambique for 29 years, meaning she arrived during the civil war. From Ormskirk to Maputo. I was fascinated by this, so if she is willing to share, I’ll uncover more details each time I go for a trim. She bemoaned family members who have announced their intention to support the new party created by Nigel Farage, fresh from crawling out from under his rock yet again. I don’t think any of us have to scale too many branches of the family tree to make these discoveries, Di.