amateur african almanac, 19 January 2008

There's a cholera epidemic spreading through Central Moz. Joseph arrived this morning and reported they're stopping all buses in Inchope, midway between Beira and Chimoio, a crossroads for the four major highways in the country, and making all passengers wash their hands in a bucket of bleachwater before continuing on. Sara got ill yesterday with diarrhea and  also woke up last night to vomit, so we've pulled out the Where There Is No Doctor book and are keeping an eye on things. Could also be malaria. Our empregada's baby is sick too with constant vomiting and this morning she asked us to pray over her. We did, and then sent them both on to the hospital.

Catercia, Paula's baby, when she's healthy

It sounds scary, and it is serious; but this is really common in Moz during the rainy season. And believe me, it is still raining, raining, raining, though now interspersed with steamy hot days of fierce sunshine. I swear you can watch the maize growing. It must be close to ten feet tall in places.

The season is just beginning to taper out now, but a month ago at the glorious height of mango ripening, I developed an allergy to it: horribly itchy, painful bumps between all my fingers, to the point that they woke me up in the middle of the night and I'd scratch until they bled. I was hoping it was scabies. But no - the agony - a mango fast finally cured the problem. One begins to question the whole point of living in a tropical climate if you can't even enjoy a mango smoothie.

In other non-almanac news, we hosted a birthday dance party last night for two of Sara's closest Mozambican friends, Cappasura and Felex. "Billy Jean" and "Thriller" provided the best dance music, with Felex pulling out some seriously impressive Michael Jackson moves. My improvised Latin vibe drew a lot of applause (its all in the hips). Then they taught us passada, which is a simple, playful dance for couples. Though if your partner is shorter than you, has been drinking slightly, and keeps trying to rest his head on your chest, its hard to keep from laughing.

It was tremendous fun, listening to the rain fall outside while getting down inside, even if Sara had to run periodically to the toilet.