Infelicidades

We live in a small community so anytime anything happens, everyone
knows. This is especially true when something sad happens, which
people refer to as 'unhappinesses', or 'infelicidades' in Portuguese.
Our neighbors are a young couple, a border guard, Batota, and his
wife, Bia. They were expecting their first child, but sadly had a
miscarriage at 4 months this week. Bia had been carrying twins. Even
more common are premature deaths due to AIDS. One of our other
neighbors is sick in the hospital with AIDS-related complications, her
husband already died. The other day on our way to the mini-bus stop we
crossed branches placed across the path - the sign that a death has
just happened there. One of Luka's adult students had lost his sister,
leaving behind 5 young orphans. While people rarely disclose it was
AIDS, often just saying 'she had been sick', it was most likely, since
she was of child-bring age, the most affected age group. When someone
dies the community gathers at the home and sits in solidarity in
gender groups, the men together and the women together. People don't
talk very much on such occasions, they just sit together for some
hours and support each other. So with our young neighbors' tragedy,
people came in and out of the compound in shifts, being together and
helping the young couple through this difficult challenge.