one size fits all

Our favorite cultural tid bit that we’ve adopted as our own has by far been the capulana. It’s a piece of cloth that can be used for basically anything. It’s most common uses are clothing, especially skirts, and baby slings, although it is also quite handy as a head wrap, bag, sheet, tablecloth, hot pad, rag, blanket, diaper….you get the idea. They come in all sorts of patterns and if you’re really hip then you would even by them for elections and specific holidays such as the upcoming “Dia 25 de Junho” capulana for Independence Day or for Christmas.

It’s such a big part of the culture here—they’re EVERYWHERE! Even before we got off the plane I read an article about the significance of the capulana and how they can even be a euphemism for chastity. Mothers instruct their daughters to “tie their capulanas well” or if a woman is kind of loose you can say that “she doesn’t know how to tie her capulana.”

Quite useful, quite fun, and one way we can partake in the life of the Mozambican.

*Photo also by Tim.