Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Mingas Concert, Death & Birth and being sick while it has 37°C

On Thursday, 10th I joined Mathias to the airport in the afternoon. I loved to have him here! It just felt as if a part of Austria would visit me here in Mozambique and it was good to spend time with him as I missed him and I really enjoyed it a lot!


On Friday, 11th, I went to a concert at the Franco Mocambicano. It seems this is getting a Friday tradition with my friend Adao. Mingas was playing. Although Adao booked tickets in advance the lady at the front desk already sold them by the time we arrived. With the help of a little corruption (it's sad I know, but what else can you do to enter a concert?) and some connections he has, we were able to see her. The show was nice! After the concert we went to the bar on the other side of the road, Gil Vicente, where another band played live.


On Saturday the day started quite normally. My best friend celebrated her 25th birthday in Germany and I sent her a text message as my Internet connection is quite bad so I am not even able to call somebody. After taking a nap in the afternoon, I went to the other block in my district and visited my friend Samito. They were sitting outside of his appartment, drinking some beer. After a while the others left and only Samito, Nelson and I stayed. At around 6:00 pm Samito received a call from his cousin who told him that her brother just died.


We couldn't realized what he was saying. I have to admit, I cannot handle anything that has to deal with death. Since I've been here one of the sentences I heard the most is: "He/she is already dead." The big difference was, that this day I was involved. We drank more beer and didn't talk. I had to imagine, one of my cousins whom noone is over thirty would have died. I couldn't hold my tears back. After a while, we knew we had to go. Nelson and Samito changed their clothes and we drove to the district of Magoaine which is quite outside of Maputo. Another district where there are basically no roads and only sand. As we reached the house, his cousin was already waiting for us. I was happy I could use some words I know in Changana. For example Boa noite in Portuguese (Good evening) is "Lipelile" in Changana. His family appreciated that I greeted in Changana.


All of the men were sitting on chairs in front of the house, while the women were sitting on strawmats in the sand. Something which I already got used to. Samito, Nelson and I entered the house. It is one of those small houses that you see everywhere. It only had an entrance door, the other rooms (two) were "closed" through Kapolanas (huge scarf that is used for all different kinds, I'll soon upload a picture!).
The mother of the deceased cousin was lying on a strawmat that was covered with some blankets. I shaked her hand, not knowing what to said. I could only say I'm sorry. I sat on one of the other strawmats, together with the other women. We listened to the words of the daugther of the house who explained us in every detail the very last two hours of Samito's cousin.


I was only able to cry with them. I cannot remember for how long we sat there. From times to times the mother tried to sleep while then she screamed desperately for her son. I had no idea how I could help her. There was no way of helping anyway. We only sat there and didn't talk. I guess two hours passed or more, I cannot remember anymore. We had to go back to the city and we said goodbye to everybody. We gave the mother a kiss on her cheeck and hold her hand for the last time.

As we drove away we had a problem with the car. Another time we stucked in the sand. Me and Nelson jumped out of the car and pushed the car as much as we could until Samito was able to drive away. After we bought a beer we drove back to our district. Arriving there, we met some friends who told us that Nelson's wife called and she was on the way to the hospital as she expected to give birth to her baby.

I couldn't believe the words I heard from my friends. We just came back from a family who was in deep sorrow and now we heard that Nelson is about to be a father! Life sometimes is crazy...My best friend celebrates her 25th birthday in Munich, while I am sitting together with an African family on the floor, crying for a cousin I have never met in my whole life and only some hours later, a new baby is born.

Besides this very sad experience, I cannot report much more. Last week I basically stayed at home as I had a little cold which now got worse. Saturday I stayed with some friends in our "zona", we dranked a little bit and later in the night we went to the club "Macaneta". I was quite confused when my friends told me: "Let's go to Macaneta." - there's also a beach which has the same name. It was my first time in the club and I liked it a lot! Need to go there more often.

On Sunday I spent my day together with Anne in Catembe. This time there was way more trash on the beach than last time, what a pitty! Later in the evening we met with some friends in the bar next door for a drink before we finally went to sleep.

Today I stayed at home as my cold got worse and you have no idea how exhaustive it is to work with children while it has 37°C and you're sick. I need to buy some more medication later on and just hope it gets better so I can go to work tomorrow.

All the best & lots of love from Maputo! Be good!
BEIJO!
Melanie

1 comment:

  1. wow - you have made some big experiences so far, hun. but exactly those moments will make you stronger in the end & also make you appreciate your life more. i am really proud of you.

    just continuing to give your best & everything else will go its way ;-).

    big hugs & take care,
    mel**

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