Hood

I relocated to a new guesthouse in my old hood, mostly through sentimentality. I had to wait to check in so I enjoyed a coffee opposite where I lived, in the simple café. There’s a very camp lad who has worked there for some years and I always wonder about his experiences of homophobia. He is wonderful and friendly and today we got into a conversation about plastic bags when I shunned one for some cans of Coke I was buying for the guards from my old building. I said I’d heard the Mozambique government has the intention to ban them permanently like some other countries in the region have already done. He speculated the bans are for human health reasons whereas I think it’s more related to waste management and marine litter, which Mozambique has an ugly problem with.

I know the blip community has been feeling the absence of Maputo’s Sé Cathedral, so here it is. From here I went to my old chill spot of Tunduru Gardens to experience the chattering of fruit bats and the singing of wedding parties who often come to the gardens for photographs. How can a random selection of wedding guests in Africa always sound so good? This is NOT the case in congregations I’ve been in anywhere else.