Americans celebrate independance on July 4th; here we celebrate independance just a couple weeks earlier on June 25th. There are no fireworks or barbeques, and its the middle of winter instead of summer, but the spirit of the day is the same, its a day for pride in your country, and even in a country as poor and problem ridden as Mozambique, there is no shortage of pride on this day. The 25th of June is clearly am important day here as evident by the greater than usual number of goats slaughtered in the market, the larger than normal early morning crowds drinking at the street side bars, and everyone's eagerness to greet us with Boas Festas! Much of the celebrating however was the same as any other holiday: long speeches at the praça de heróis and the ceremonious laying of flowers at the star shaped monument dedicated to the martyrs of independance which can be found in the main square of every town across the country. Unfortunately our main plaza is
only meters away from the main highway uniting Mozambique and Malawi so we had sporadic interruptions from big rigs hauling gasoline to our landlocked neighbor, but no one seemed to mind. Our school youth group presented the theater piece on family planning they wrote and have been rehearsing for the past couple of months. With our mainly pre-TV population, people are easily entertained, so we were a big hit. The morning's formal events concluded with the Nyau's highly energetic traditional African dancing. One of the Nyau, wearing a beast mask with animal horns and brandishing a machette, was particularly scary; he had the masses fleeing before him as he repeatedly charged the crowd and punished anyone failing to get out of his way with a beating. Luckily we were safe in one of the chairs designated for dignitaries next to the chief administrator of our district subregion. The chief invited us to our town's fanciest Independance Day event, held at our
town's only non bamboo hut restaurant. (continued)
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