apartment search

Last week Kenyon and I were looking at apartments. We saw five apartments in one day. Whew! The good news is, we found one we like on the lower end of the price scale (which is still higher than we would pay for an apartment in Kansas City). I am still perplexed by the prices. Yes, I understand supply and demand theory - there is a high demand and lower supply in Maputo, which leads to high prices. I also understand that one of the consequences of this humanitarian aid enterprise is that the infusion of foreign funds brought in by foreigners (like me) can create inflated pricing structures and a "false economy." I believe the housing prices in Mozambique are a consequence of all of this...but I am still experiencing sticker shock and questioning the rational behind it all - but that is too deep for a blog post and I wanted to share a story of a lighter nature...

While looking at apartments the realtor is speaking Portuguese. Thanks to my background in Spanish I am able to understand quite a bit of what is being said in Portuguese. Now, repeating what I heard is an impossible task. So, we are at an apartment and the realtor is speaking Portuguese.

Realtor: Parking is around back and there are three parking spaces. There are four bedrooms in this apartment. Over here is the kitchen. There is a bathroom off the back for the helper. This bedroom has a private bathroom...etc.

I am translating all of this in to English for Kenyon. I must have been doing a pretty good job because the Realtor suspects nothing. He just keeps going with his presentation. Then he asks me a question I don't understand.

I say in English, "Sorry. I don't understand. I don't speak Portuguese."

He looks perplexed. He says in English, "you don't speak Portuguese?"

I respond, "No, sir, but I know some Spanish."

I have hope that I will be more conversational in Portuguese than I was able to become in Khmer. I also have hope that I may become literate in Portuguese since they use recognizeable Roman characters. I had no hope of reading the beautiful squiggly lines of Khmer - I can tell you from experience it is difficult to go through life illiterate, there is so much I missed as a result (like a much needed road sign).

We hope to move in to our new apartment this month. The language learning will take much longer.