The saga of finding a new flat and the countdown to moving day continues...
The last weekend in February, Rico and I went by the flat to sign the rent contract and pay our $1350 pre-payment. We decided to pay part of the amount in cash and part by check to avoid walking around the streets of Maputo with our pockets loaded. Prior to the day of the payment, Ricardo went to the bank and asked for his current account statement. “Perfect,” we thought, “there is enough in the account to pay $1000 to Dona Flávia and still have a couple hundred leftover.”
So Rico made out a check, I handed over the cash, and we signed the contract. The apartment was ours! Dona Flávia assured us that she’d be out of the flat by the 2nd, that she was going to move to a new place over the weekend. Despite the fact that there was absolutely no sign of Dona Flávia making any preparations for the move, we took her word in good faith. Crazy things happen all the time here in Africa – cleaning out a jam-packed apartment in 2 days, space-print velour couches and all, wouldn’t be such a stretch…
So Rico and I left to enjoy our weekend and make plans for our upcoming move. We decided to go window shopping at Game, the South African department store north of the city, to check out prices on stoves and refrigerators (houses do not come furnished with kitchen appliances here in Mozambique). We were browsing around the store when Rico’s cell phone rang. It was Dona Flávia. In the overly formal way Mozambicans announce a problem, she let us know there had been a constrangimento, a constraint. It took me a while to learn this linguistic quirk, but now that I know constrangimento means shit’s hit the fan, I seem to hear it all the time. Anyhow, the constraint in our situation was that Rico’s check had bounced. What??? We knew there were sufficient funds in the account – we’d just gotten a bank statement before writing the check. Ricardo apologized profusely to Dona Flávia and we immediately called the bank manager to see what was going on. The manager, who is an acquaintance of ours back in Chimoio, checked Rico’s balance even though it was a weekend. To our dismay, he confirmed that the account balance was zero!! Panic!!!
Ricardo and I hopped in a taxi and headed home to check the statement we’d received from the teller the previous week. Already our minds were busy creating theories to explain the missing money. Maybe someone from the bank embezzled it? Maybe someone at Agrolink got access to the account number and withdrew funds without authorization? Maybe Dona Flávia made a mistake… We got home and searched frantically through the stack of papers and receipts on the kitchen table for the bank statement. We finally found it. Just as we’d thought, the statement confirmed a balance of more than enough to cover the rent check. Ricardo and I stared at the statement, thoroughly confused. Suddenly Rico started cursing, “Filho da puta imbecil! Caralho, merda!” What a stupid son-of-a-bitch! He pointed to an ink stamp in the corner of the bank statement. It read “01/01/05 – 26/02/05.” January to February of 2005. The teller had managed to get the statement from the wrong year!!
We called Dona Flávia and explained that the bank had made a mistake, and that we’d personally bring her the money the next day. Thankfully Rico and I were able to pool enough in cash to make the rent payment. Even so, we were more than embarrassed about the situation and aware that our slip-up could make us lose the flat.
When we arrived the next morning to deliver the cash, Dona Flávia answered the door and let us know that her husband, who we’d not met yet, would deal with us in the living room. Dona Flávia’s husband got right to the point. “Irresponsible young expats are a dime a dozen here in Maputo. People who are just not serious about commitment, who are not trustworthy renters.” He also added that since Dona Flávia wasn’t able to cash the check, they weren’t able to make the 3-month deposit on their new home and the landlord had rented it to another family. They would have to search for a new home, and until they found a new flat we wouldn’t be able to move in. Ricardo and I apologized up one side and down the other…
More to come soon...
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