speeding

So we got stopped twice for speeding…the first was on day 3 on the way to Pemba…Ute was driving. Being in Mozambique of course the officers only speak Portuguese...and we don’t (though we do understand some with our French and Spanish)…he hands us a little print out that states the allowed speed limit (60kph), the allowance (6kph), and how much over we were (9kph), and the time…though nothing specific to our car really. So we were going 75…ok. We can’t argue (as we don’t speak the language and we were speeding). He keeps repeating “excesso” and “multa” (or whatever is Portuguese for fine) but we don’t know that word…yes and how much we try to ask in our portu-spanglish…but he doesn’t answer that either…just more repeating…finally he gets fed up with it and just lets us go telling us to slow down (of course we understand that).
The next stop was in Zimbabwe on the way to Harare…in zim they speak English…and I was driving. I thought (seriously) that we had left town and that there just weren’t the limit signs telling you that you could speed up again…I was wrong. 97 in an 80 zone…but the officers (3 of them) were very friendly and we even laughed quite a bit…I asked to see the speed gun since I’ve never actually seen one…looks like the guns in the movies for finding out the speed of a baseball pitch…so again nothing that says it was our car—though of course it was. I asked about calibration—it goes every 6 months to South Africa and is due in on 31 Jan…so I tried to point out that it must be off and that at home they have to be calibrated every morning…well how fast do you think you were going? Probably 90 I had to admit…yes well does your car get calibrated everyday? Um, no but it is Malawian…good laugh and then I had to hand over $20. I guess that’s ok. Then I got my ticket saying I’d been arrested and I was free to go—after he had filled it out…he’d given me back my license so had to ask about the address and all other relevant info…and his last question before getting me to sign was whether I had facebook…at least that is what I think I heard as I didn’t answer and he didn’t repeat or even look up…but then we were free to continue…

they really all wear those neon sleeves...only the sleeves...these are the yellow gree instead of the orange