Not a straight line
I don't have much to say in a straight line, so I'll just include separate things that might help to give you a picture of the culture and life here– A popular story that explains livestock behavior:
There once was a cow, a goat and a dog that took a bus ride. The cow paid the fare full and fair; the goat got off at his stop without paying at all; the dog paid too much but the driver refused to give change. So that's why the cow doesn't move from the middle of the road when a car comes-- he paid his fare. Goats, on the other hand, run like crazy when a car comes because the goat knows he still owes. And the dog chases after the car trying to get his money back.
I was told this story (and found it to be very true) when last week I went on a trip to the districts of Chicualacuala and Chigubo. 25 hours of driving on very bumpy roads, all in three days. Chigubo especially is completely rural. One of our group from northern Mozambique who speaks great English, is just hilarious and lives with the expats-- put it this way: When I worried whether we had enough emergency money for anything that might come up while we were in Chigubo, he replied, "Even if you had one million US Dollars (that’s a lot of zeros in meticais), it wouldn't help you in Chigubo, because there's nowhere to spend it."
On a more sober note, many people--children, actually-- are dying around here. Mainly from Malaria. It seems every few days we find out about another of our employees whose child or nephew has died. One of them I had met the previous day, as his mother carried him around on her back while she worked. Every time I've told someone about that death, I've unconsciously held out my arms to indicate "he was this big/long" rather than saying he was about 4-yrs-old.
I count 6 deaths in the last month, plus 2 more very sick children, and 2 adults (including my humorous friend who went on our trip with us) who had bouts with Malaria but are better now. Just yesterday (after we'd already come to Maputo) we found out from Amos, my assistant who's just the dearest man in the world (I plan to write a character sketch sometime), that his granddaughter had just died.
There once was a cow, a goat and a dog that took a bus ride. The cow paid the fare full and fair; the goat got off at his stop without paying at all; the dog paid too much but the driver refused to give change. So that's why the cow doesn't move from the middle of the road when a car comes-- he paid his fare. Goats, on the other hand, run like crazy when a car comes because the goat knows he still owes. And the dog chases after the car trying to get his money back.
I was told this story (and found it to be very true) when last week I went on a trip to the districts of Chicualacuala and Chigubo. 25 hours of driving on very bumpy roads, all in three days. Chigubo especially is completely rural. One of our group from northern Mozambique who speaks great English, is just hilarious and lives with the expats-- put it this way: When I worried whether we had enough emergency money for anything that might come up while we were in Chigubo, he replied, "Even if you had one million US Dollars (that’s a lot of zeros in meticais), it wouldn't help you in Chigubo, because there's nowhere to spend it."
On a more sober note, many people--children, actually-- are dying around here. Mainly from Malaria. It seems every few days we find out about another of our employees whose child or nephew has died. One of them I had met the previous day, as his mother carried him around on her back while she worked. Every time I've told someone about that death, I've unconsciously held out my arms to indicate "he was this big/long" rather than saying he was about 4-yrs-old.
I count 6 deaths in the last month, plus 2 more very sick children, and 2 adults (including my humorous friend who went on our trip with us) who had bouts with Malaria but are better now. Just yesterday (after we'd already come to Maputo) we found out from Amos, my assistant who's just the dearest man in the world (I plan to write a character sketch sometime), that his granddaughter had just died.
posted by Art Shotwell at 8:56 AM
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