Postcard from Maputo

We're in Maputo, in a hotel which I can only describe as "palatial". Stark contrast with the poverty in the streets and surrounding shantytowns, but grrrreat room service.

I'm reading the new book by Jonas Gahr Støre, the Norwegian foreign secretary. Right next door to our hotel is the Norwegian embassy. Funny reading about Norwegian foreign policy right next door to a concrete manifestation of it. Støre's book is immensely interesting reading. Just finished a chapter where he interviews Tony Blair, revealing interesting differences and similarities in their ideology and approach.

Maputo itself has a distinctly Latin American flavour with a hint of Soviet Union. The language is Portugese and the seafood is great. It seems like a pretty laid-back and pleasant city, apart from the grinding poverty which so far has been ubiqitous everywhere we have gone.

Now we're going to go and have breakfast, and then maybe go for a swim in the enormous pool and try not to feel any cognitive dissonance.

Love,
Martin & Ragnfrid