Explosive Afternoon

Today we had a new experience as a result of the heat of the Mozambique summer. In the late afternoon we started hearing rumbling that sounded like thunder, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. After a few minutes we realized that the sounds were more like explosions than thunder. It wasn't long after that realization that the "booms" were loud enough to begin breaking windows in our neighborhood, including one in our house.

We started calling and searching for information trying to understand what was happening. It seems that all the excitement was caused by obsolete weapons waiting for destruction at a site near the airport in Maputo. The explosions were apparently heat-induced weapons explosions. We are all fine and the only damage we experienced was to the one window. It's still early, so we don't have a lot of information and are not sure if anyone has been hurt near the weapons site. All this happened shortly after we greeted a new team member who arrived at the airport today. I can only imagine what she is thinking with this being her first day in Maputo.

This is the second time it has happened in the last two months. The first time was in late January and only lasted for about 45 minutes. Today's explosions lasted for a few hours with mushroom clouds visible at times from some of the explosions. We were watching Mozambique's national television channel, which was providing coverage of the explosions and fire from the site. There were images of people running for cover and unexploded shells laying on the ground blown around the area surrounding the weapons site.