July 4th for Mozambique

This June 25th marked 36 years since Mozambique gained independence from Portugal. Basically its July 4th for Mozambique except no fireworks or barbeques. Since it feel just 3 days after the Governor's visit, the biggest holiday of the year was left mostly unplanned. The plaza ceremony was supposed to start at 8, but didn't start until 10. Our mayor showed up at 9 and was upset that he had to wait for the population to show up, instead of the other way around. He said he preferred to go into the villages for holidays where people always show up because they have no other excitement. After the ceremony, which was quite short because it only had three official speeches, we all paraded to the other end of town for the cultural events, which were only our two student groups, who did a great job. The mayor was also upset because his friends hadn't planned a party for him, so he had to put one together himself. To our great surprise, the 'party'was just us and two colleagues and the mayor. Even more surprising was that his cook was sick, so he cooked us dinner himself while we drank endless sodas and watches music videos on his TV. His menu featured Portuguese delicacies that we love like olives and fried chorizo. We're pretty sure he was honoring us by cooking, but the whole thing was kind of awkward, mainly for us because we weren't quite picking up on all the cultural cues. When we finally left the sun was beginning to set. A huge Nyau performance was happening just outside his yard, making it difficult for us to exit. The majority of the spectators were Malawi peasants from surrounding villages who
came in for the festivities. We could tell they were foreigners because they were gawking at us instead of the elaborate, costumed spirit-dancers covered in feathers and mud (local townspeople got over our novelty last year). We wanted to walk the streets to soak in the holiday atmosphere, but we found so many drunken students and colleagues and kids asking for holiday treats that we retreated back to our home, and, you guessed it, watched another Glee.