Unexpected Tragedy

Our second week of classes began with an unexpected tragedy. As we approached school on Monday, we encountered an unusual silence… no students. We figured it was some Mozambican holiday we didn’t know about. Actually, there had been a terrible minibus accident on the road the evening before and sixteen passengers were killed, including our vice-principal’s nephew, whom he had raised as a son since the child had lost both parents. School had been cancelled and most of the school personnel had spent the day and previous night helping prepare for the burial, such as finding transportation to retrieve the body, going to Malawi to procure a coffin, digging the hole for the grave, and making rope to secure the coffin to a stretcher for transportation to the cemetery and lowering it into the hole. By the time we got to our vice-principal’s house most people were just sitting, segregated by gender, as close female relatives entered the house where the body lay and wailed while the men sat quietly in the yard. When all the preparations were complete we all accompanied the casket to the graveyard, just as a huge storm broke and began to pour buckets of rain. We all got very wet on the 20 minute walk and shivered through the ceremony. It was a very sad affair. The young man was 25, just like Janet, and had made it through 10th grade and was just starting at the teacher preparatory school. He had been traveling to finalize some paperwork for enrollment. Everyone in town was talking about the crash, and it seemed like everyone stopped by the ouse or went to the cemetery to show solidarity during this tragic episode.