Mango Gate

I’ve been remiss in not posting so here is a quick TIA tale. 

We were in northern Mozambique for a week. On the beach at Coral Lodge for 4 days and on Ilha de Mozambique for 3. I will write more about these adventures soon with photos. 

The big news is that it’s mango season in the north. Bags of delicious mangos are $2.00 for each bag. As we drove back to the airport there were loads of people on the side of the road to Nampula selling fresh mangos.  We bought two big shopping bags of mangos to bring home with us. Delicious!!!

We were late to the airport so  we carefully put the two bags of mangos in one of our carrying bags. 

No problem with check in. Note to travellers: families with kids and old people go to the front of the line in Mozambique. 

At the gate heading to security the attendant who checks tickets told us that our bag with the mangos was over the allowed weight. We said but there are three of us and the total weight of our bags isn’t anywhere near the limit as stated on the chart. No said the lady. You must reduce the weight in the bag. We said but the total is under, this is a make work project. She became increasingly insistent and stated, no we must reduce the weight in the bag. So to keep things moving we started transferring mangos from one bag to another to get to the “correct weight”. After weighing our bag several times we eventually passed go and once on the other side in full view of the guard we transferred the mangos back to the original bag. Not a word was said. She just turned her back to us with a toss of her head. 

But wait.  We aren't done. The next stop is all carry on bags go through the X-ray as is done everywhere. Nearby there is the universal chart, with photos,  which illustrates prohibited items, also as is done everywhere. Oh, but  the guard by the machine says very sternly, no mangos in open carry on. I am stunned.  Sierra says where does it say that?  Again, he says very sternly, no mangos allowed in open carry on. Sierra looks at me, says "watch this"  then points to the chart and says (loudly in Portuguese) there is nothing here that says no mangos.  He says no mangos. She says Show me where it says no mangos.  He says no mangos.  She very loudly says get me your supervisor or we are going through now and she put our bags on the belt and we walked through.  We were fuming! 

And now for the irony: almost every passenger who transited on the flight we took back to Maputo had an open bucket of fresh strawberries. The plane smelled like fresh strawberry jam. So much for open fruit on the plane.  

You gotta have a sense of humour to live here.  Oh, and my knee replacement didn't bing when I walked through the metal dectector....

The intrepid travellers