This is the day at the end of October when Joana and I met our first KING! Regulo Abdul is in the middle, king of Matibane. He was very modest. We asked how to get in touch with him if we wanted to ring, and he revealed he didn't have a phone, and we should drive to Matibane again if we wanted to talk to him.

On the left is Bernardo Mualeite, an extremely enthusiastic functionary of the Nampula provincial government in tourism. He is still dying to take us around Mecuburi National Park.

And behind all three you can see Jaime, trying to get into the picture.

That's our house in white in the background. The mast is a tree.

We took a dhow to Matibane just for fun, with the cast of characters above. They were curious to have us at their mercy, and giggled at the bolder ones asking us for a sip of water and for their photo to be taken. I'll add movies for this.

Here we are in a chapa, the Mozambican public transport. Chapas are crammed with people plus produce, and in this case a passenger who wanted to be in our pictures. We took a few pictures and discovered he'd managed to get into all of them.

Introducing Higino, one of TechnoServe's senior management, who helped us with our meeting with the Minister of Tourism, and gave me some excellent Mozambican music. Also introducing some rather flashy nail varnish for Joana.

This is Amade demonstrating a boy dressed for 'Id'. The final day of Ramadan is marked with a celebration on Ilha, in which all the children process in Id dress around Ilha. The little boys wear ties, the girls wear beads. Amade was delighted to drag this boy in from the street for photos. After a posed one to camera, I suggested they tried a casual, informal pose, chatting. So they stiffly turned to one another, as pictured, and Amade said 'Errr. Today is Id,' and the boy said 'Yes.'

FECALISED!! Sorry - it's part of the Ilha experience. Fecalismo is the first 'social problem' everyone who knows anything will bring up when you discuss Ilha's tourism potential. The lack of sanitation is being addressed now by Swiss Coop and Millennium Challenge Commission.

JOANA WROTE: I object to this picture Rory!! It's disgusting, and there's no need to gross out our friends and family. Apologies to all, I couldn't quite enforce censorship on this blog...

This is Muarapo (pink t shirt) and his family. They live beside the main square with bandstand, visible on Google Earth. Their house is very ruined and this room has no roof at all. Muarapo buys fish from the fishermen and sells in the market, thus earning the money for everyone you see, his dad lives and works 2 hours away in Nacala. I've been trying to get him to save money, open a bank account etc, but only really succeeded in lending him the equivalent of £4, with a fish every so often as interest.

There are a few Ilha residents whose features suggest non Bantu African ('black' African) genetics. They sometimes show Arabic or Portuguese/European genes. The man in charge of the barrier to the bridge, the lady who owns O Paladar restaurant, the tailor's chum from earlier in the blog, the lady running the tiny convenience store in the colonnade are examples, as well as this shopkeeper in the hardware shop in stone town south of the main mosque, where I bought a grill for our charcoal barbecue.

We are inside a bar we like on Ilha, beside the old hospital. It is a converted container, and the lady proprietor is unfazed by the hoards of children, sleeping drunks, TV watchers, diners, furious wives who pass through the door. There is also a chicken who lives there unchallenged, who can be seen over Joana's shoulder here. When the chicken decided to flutter up and settle on the back of Joana's chair, there was a brief but intense skirmish for supremacy, which Joana eventually won...

In this bar, you can ask the lady to feed you, and you'll get an excellent plate of whatever she's prepared for the evening. Often a fish stew with sundried mango and coconut sauce, always gorgeous.

Hafiz Jamu visited us. He is the chief of one of Ilha district's confrarias, or muslim brotherhoods and is extremely charismatic, young and dynamic, and keen to work with NGOs to improve the prosperity of Ilha. You can see him on our film (link on post of Dec 10th).

Antoine, on the right, is the linchpin of our project on Ilha. He befriended Jake, Luis Filipe, Luis Bernardo and Heinrich all separately, who are, head of TechnoServe, revered Mozambican historian, ex Minister of Culture and published author, and international investor and Ilha lover. They now all form our steering committee.

Here Hafiz discusses with Antoine the dispute over those behind the Ilha cultural festival, to hold it during Ramadan, thus giving Ilha islanders the choice of drinking alcohol at the festival and break Ramadan's rules of deprivation, or miss the festival.

Returning to the sketchy linear timeline, we're back on Cabaceira beach with Joana's parents, Antonio and Fernanda. While we were on the beach, a boatload of fisherwomen carrying seafood must have disembarked further down the coast, and there was stampede of them racing to be first to market. They didn't even stop to try and sell.

So we started early on a couple of presents as they were food. J mentioned the things she normally eats with her family in Portugal so I nipped out, found and wrapped them. Gooey cheese (Queijo de Serra) and bread soaked in eggy cinnamon, then fried in sugar, gorgeous.

Sorry for skipping November, those photos will come later. As today is CHRISTMAS DAY, here is our Christmas Eve, in Hotel Africa II, Maputo. Presents are all under the TV (tuned to a station with a Christmas tree on).

We haven't cut our hair in a long time :-)

The pool at Escondidinho

G&T's by the pool

Sunday routine. On Sundays we head to the wonderful "Ancora D'Ouro" bar&restaurant for brunch, complete with smoked fish, mushroom tart, home made yogurt, pancakes... a "all you can eat extravaganza. Then it's time for lounging by the pool in hotel Escondidinho and catching some sun set cocktails. G&Ts come with lime and roasted cashew nuts

On the beach in front of our house, Antonio and Fernanda meet the inevitable boys fishing.

Family Freitas on the beach.

The mango salesmen face a tough negotiating team.

Antonio and Fernanda out for dinner with us on Ilha at O Paladar restaurant, central market. Famously long wait, but an Ilha must-do. Great local food and affable drunks.

Joana at O Paladar.

Antonio and Fernanda arrived on Ilha, here having an early evening read.

Family Freitas in the colonnade, Ilha de Mocambique.

Joana, Fernanda and Antonio, upstairs at our house, Ilha de Mocambique.

The four of us at Clube Naval.

In October, Joana's parents Fernanda and Antonio came to visit us. This is their first morning in Maputo, lunch at the Clube Naval.

In this one Luisa is bouncing with energy, so all you can see of her are her little hands on the edge of the table.

This is Luisa. J's INSEAD friend Joana Crespo lives and works in Maputo and has been negotiating to adopt Luisa, a Mozambican orphan. Luisa has lived with Joana for some months now and is delighted with life. Joana heard the happy news that she is officially Luisa's mum while we were there!

J swimming.


The ride by golf cart to the huts. One guy on the staff told me that once one of the drivers spilled it into the sea!

Me on Flamingo Bay's beach.

Joana, Flamingo Bay

As sunset nears, Joana begins to change into her night time alter ego.

Rory finally with cocktail with umbrella in it.

Joana in the bar, Flamingo Bay. Love this picture

Joana and I outside chalet, Flamingo Bay

Joana and I in the mirror

Joana outside our chalet on stilts at Flamingo Bay, Inhambane.

At the start of October we had presented the Ilha Development Plan to our Steering Committee in Maputo, and that weekend headed off to Inhambane for a trip to Flamingo Bay. The bus ride was hell of course, vomiting weeping unaccompanied children, blaring Mozambican chart toppers on a short loop, 7 hour journey. But when we arrived, a cocktail was pressed in our hand and we were taken over the water to our chalet on stilts by golf cart.

This is Jaime, Amade and Antonio (driver, day guard, night guard) watching Bruce Lee at life size on the wall, the day we borrowed a projector for our presentation. Great excitement.

After a long time off, I'm finally back to uploading key photos of our Mozambican adventure.

The catchphrase for the adventure has unofficially become 'don't try and understand'. This helps with a lot of the day-to-day oddness that is so copious you de-sensitise and find yourself just letting it go.

One example is the staring. There have no doubt been a lot of odder-looking white folk passing through Nampula in the past, and yet we are stared at shamelessly. It is most notable when the people doing the staring are themselves utterly extraordinary, meaning a mutual disbelief face-off: a man inside a chest of drawers (he was carrying it, fully inside, mate had drawers. Took time out to stare at us); two men handcuffed together (walking unaccompanied, neither was a copper, not in a hurry); a man carrying a massive number of stools on his head, maybe 30? (turned head + stools to stare at us).

This is the longer version (8 mins), complete with interviews from Ilha's top brass in Portuguese. It has music from Ilha's own Ali Faque, chosen by our Mozambican staff in TechnoServe.

After a long pause, here's some CHRISTMAS news!
It’s hard to feel Christmas time here, as it’s hot and sunny and in the North most of the population is Muslim (the big party of the end of Ramadan, “Eid”, has happened already). However, we will be in Maputo for Xmas eve where we hope to eat "bacalhau" and "bolo rei" (the Portuguese delicassies of the season)!

The project
Our work here is going well: we are in discussions with investors to bring hotels to this World Heritage Site Island and have secured the authorities support to convert landmark public buildings into historic hotels (including one beautiful neoclassical hospital, to be converted, while a new hospital for the local population is built nearby). The goal is for tourism to create 2000 jobs in the next 10 years, in a community of c. 50.000 people. We have started colaborating with an investor in the creation of a animal reserve and beach lodge. We are also trying to set an auction of ruins for foreign investors and use the proceeds to create a credit line for local residents to restore their houses.

The people
We have met some exceptional people, both island residents and foreigners that visit: the religious leader of the island, that tells us that during Ramadan men are not allowed to think about women other their wives (to which his wife promptly replies “yeah, it should be Ramadan everyday”); the curator of the African collection of the Bristish Museum going clubbing with the local Museum director; the enthusiastic conservation officer that has climber Kilimanjaro; the eminent historian that has been in the jury of the island “Fat Lady Competition”… reality and fantasy a bit more blurred around here!

Mozambicans are extremely hospitable and polite, and there is endless comedy moments on cultural differences and mutual curiosity (for example, “girlfriend” here is the name for mistress, as it is common for men to have a wife and (a) girlfriend(s), so people keep asking Rory, “if that is your girlfriend, where is your wife?”)

Island life
Island life is still fantastic, a mix of the slow rhythm of an African rural community and the eccentricities of the foreigners that have chosen to live here: there is a Sunday brunch and daiquiris in a restaurant owned by a Swedish lady; there’s G&T’s by the pool of a small charm hotel of Italian/French owners and fish gratin and mutton tagine in the French restaurant.
We must be the only people who have come here and gained weight (!!) despite our attempts at exercising and the recurrent stomach upset. Rory can now cook perfect coconut and seafood curries and (almost) speak Portuguese.

Rory has gotten malaria and I've gottern gastroenteritis (but we're fine now), we’ve been on the 8 o’clock news of TV Mozambique in an interview about our project (!!! V funny, one has to bear in mind that the other news were about “tomato farmers worried” and “vegetable oil saleswoman arrested”…:-)

The travel
After Zanzibar, we are still trying to make it to the most remote part of Mozambique, Lake Niassa, and will he be heading to Cape Town and Vic Falls for New Year's, for a final big trip!

Sorry for the long time, no hear - November got surprisingly busy. The film above is (part of) what we've been doing. We shot and produced it on my laptop to show Ilha's potential to tourism investors. It gives a good impression of all the beautiful things on the island we live on, hope you like it!