...at first I thought that theyre following us and singing a song in the dialect. That was until someone "translated" and I started hearing that the song is in english... "hello teacher, how are you?"... If you are a muzungu(white person in the local dialect-sena) and go to Lamego, then everywhere you pass the kids will follow you and sing that. No matter if youre a teacher or not. Probably it means the same thing here.
Two and a half months in Moçambique have passed like a blink of an eye. Last time I wrote I was North of Moçambique in Nampula. But now Im in the center, Sofala province. Its probably the poorest part of the country. Before coming here I thought for a moment that Africa is paradise. But then I started my work in the central province... going to the communities and seeing the reality of it. People dont die on the roadsides, they die in the hiding of theyr homes. One day I was visiting a ill man and, two days later I heard that he had died. I saw a brother of a collegue in good health and the next he was dead. Just like that.
My work as a volunteer-supervising the people who go to talk to people about hiv/aids- is at times very rewarding and interesting and at other times its draining me of energy. But I would not change this opurunity to see the everyday life of another culture for anything.
At the moment my house is situated in an interesting triangle- in one part there is a mosque, in another a church and in the third a kuranderu( something like a witchdoctor or natural medicine man). Some evenings I hear the beating of a drum and singing dedicated to god; other mornings and evenings I hear a man singing from the depths of his soul; and sometimes half of the day and a whole night one can hear beating of a drum, singing and dancing in the hope of comunicating with the ancestors. Usually people go to a kuranderu in the hope to find a cure to a disease(the cause of an illness is thought to be a curse), finding a thief(for that the kuranderu can beat his drum the whole night and in the morning the ancestors will provide him with a name); cursing someone they dont like or finding protection(a protection for life costs around 700 000 meticais which is more or less 30$).
Moçambicans are very warm hearted people and like another volunteer says: "these people are too good"... which ofcourse doesnt mean that they would miss a chance to charge muzungu double of the price for almost everything. And theyr culture and way of thought is so different that I can not accept it, all I can do is try to understand somehow. When I(as a european) think one way then they think the exact opposite. But no wonder as our lives are tremendeously different.
Moçambique used to be a Portuguese colony and gained its independence in 1975 but from there on the civil war started lasting until 1992. Since then the people are trying to build things up again from the scratch. The population of the country is around 19,5 million and some statistics say that there are about 1.5 million living with hiv/but that number is just an estimation as I know from my own work that there arent so manypeople who go for a test(if they know what hiv/aids is in the first place).The grimmest statement I heard coming from some medical workers is thatduring the next 10 years 50% of the sub- saharan African population willdie.But at the sime time the days keep on passing and the people keep on beingfull of life.
