If you're feeling newish, there's always someone Jewish...

L'Shana Tova, and Happy New Year! Year 5771, to be exact.

Not surprisingly, there aren’t any synagogues in Swaziland, although to be fair, there was a legitimate Jewish tribe in Uganda. Still, lo and behold, there are still a number of Jews in Swaziland. There are a few of us among the expat community, and on Friday night we held a Rosh Hashanah dinner for over a dozen people. The four or so Jews in attendance helped preside over a brief service, complete with homemade challah and plenty of apples and honey. At the dinner, a couple people mentioned another overnighter trip to Maputo for the following night, and I figured, why not—in keeping with my personal motto of “always go, never leave” ☺

I awoke the next day to a misty, foggy, rainy view out my window and was confirmed in my commitment to flee towards the warmer potential of Maputo. After a smooth 3 and a half hour trip, we arrived in Maputo and made our way to the Cinema Avineda, which was hosting a local African film festival. It was nice to sit in a movie theater again (there is none to be found in the whole of Swaziland, although rumors have it that one is on the way in just a few months!). After an early evening cappuccino, we made our way to the house of some friends of those I was traveling with (doctors who had lived in Swazi and now reside in Maputo in a huge house right off the main street.



Even though I haven’t been away all that long, the rest of the evening was quite a treat in a return to some things I’ve been missing and craving—Thai food and tennis. We walked to a Thai restaurant for a very delicious dinner, then headed to the bar next door to watch the Federer-Djokovic semi-final, which ended up being quite the match! Finally, after taking in some late night local music at a cool bar, Gil Vincente, we crashed, only to wake up (not late enough) the next morning head out to the beach to play Frisbee. And by play Frisbee, I mean watch other people play Frisbee. Frisbee playing is no joke here—and at that morning practice, despite a strong wind along the beach, the players were not messing around. A local player kindly gave me a brief instruction on how to improve my throw (no where to go but up!) and then I lounged on the beach until it was time to hit up the craft market and grab a delicious gelato on the way out of town.

All in all, another great, if brief, to Maputo. Swaziland really is a little gem of a location in Southern Africa, and it seems only appropriate to take advantage of the proximity to some other fascinating countries.