On June 3rd the Mozambican Torch of Unity passed through Estaquinha. It started in April from the Rovumo River, at the Tanzanian border, and is making its way south to Maputo, passing through every district in the country. It should arrive on the 25th of this month, Mozambican Independence Day.
Everyone in town and at the mission was called to meet at the main street early in the morning and we ended up waiting around 5 or 6 hours for the torch to eventually arrive from Búzi, our district capital. It will continue west through Chibabava district before heading south to Inhambane province.
I myself had confused the word chama, for torch, with chamada, the past participle of “to call.” A call of unity, that makes sense, right? but how does that travel across the country? Therefore, I spent much of the morning not really sure what we were waiting for (a parade? a car?) before it was finally explained to me. When it finally did arrive, we all had to stand in a line so we could each have the opportunity wrap our hands around it as it was carried along the street.
