I am back in Melville after our big trip to Mozambique. Since last I wrote I was propositioned by prostitutes several times (at least I assume they were prostitutes) nearly set off a riot on 24 Julho Ave when I went looking for batiks, ate at least three fantastic meals involving Giant Mozambiquan King Prawns -- I cannot convey how amazing these enormous shrimp are. They are grilled fully intact, without the heads having been removed, they are big as plantains, and they just melt in your mouth. The beer flowed freely, and the fireworks on the beach to ring in 2006 were spectacular, though it seemed disjunctive to engage in such a martial display in a country so recently torn asunder by wars, civil and other.
The trip back was, mercifully, uneventful. We got through all of the border crossing folderol in well less than an hour and with zero hassles. It was insanely hot and humid today, though, the epitome of sweltering Africa. The drive across Mpumalanga and the Drakensburg Escarpment was breathtaking, and our Nando's lunch in Nelspruit could not have been more perfect. Nando's is South Africa's best fast food place, though to call it fast food really does it an injustice -- it sort of splits the difference between fast food, say KFC, and a serious restaurant. nando's chicken, with its many peri peri sauces, is legendary, the restaurants are always really nice, and with the sun shining it was a perfect way to decompress before the last long haul to Gauteng, Joburg, and Melville.
We are back at The Space, a great B&B on 7th street, where all the cool kids go to see and be seen. Tomorrow will mark my departure and separation from Marcus. We had a few touchy moments (ten days with a sibling? How could we not have) but barring an unforeseen disaster tonight, I'd say we survived and even had a great time. I am still coordinating things, but it looks as if I will travel overnight to Grahamstown tomorrow. I lived in Grahamstown as a Rotary Scholar at Rhodes in 1997 and I am looking forward to returning to the Eastern Cape. As ever, I'll touch in when I can.
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