Valencia-Casa do Gaiato:1-1?

Boa noite,

This time I decided to let the pictures speak for themselves...the impressions of last Saturday's excursion to Boane (at one hour distance from here), more concretely to a village where the orphanage, Casa do Gaiato, is located, are just too overwhelming...not that we ended up visiting the orphanage itself ( a pity, I must say!!! I definitely still want to go there!), but instead we went to the 'inauguration' of a new football field (try to imagine the Ambassador of Spain kicking off a game between the village/orphanage people and the Valenciano group we had met two days ago and all this in a killing heat!:)) and a fair exhibiting agricultural and other products the local community was producing in projects mainly supported by the Spanish Cooperation here in Mozambique. Eventhough the whole morning and afternoon was a great example of Mozambican happiness and party spirit (people were dancing, singing and lauging non-stop and 'en masse'- something we found impossible to imagine to happen in a random European village...), the HIV/AIDS 'ghost' was never very far away..."Remember", "we are all seropositive until the contrary has been proven", were painted in dark red at the walls of the surrounding houses...Sitting on the ground, I found myself surrounded by a whole bench of kids watching a very educative theatre play. Amidst this colourful spectacle with even more colourful spectators, women wearing capulana of all kinds of colours, kids hanging at mum's breast drinking thirsty, boys playing with wheel and stick (the o so (stereo) typical image of Africa!) and so much more, I suddenly got struck, or better shocked by the image of the little boy (5 years?) sitting right in front of me...his eyes were 'dead', sweat pearls dropping from his face, his head falling down, very slowly, like if he were to fall asleep (or loose consciousness?) at any moment...Alarmed I drew Sergio's (one of the sweetest and most humble down-to-earth doctors I ever met in my life!) attention to the kid and asked him to verify whether I was not just 'panicking'...but no,no, the kid was ill, definitely with fever, and Sergio gave him water, a neighbour woman refreshed his face and Sergio asked the boy's friends to take him home, something they did...I remained seated, confused, feeling powerless, trying to imagine the kid's living conditions, his chances to be cured (to survive?), trying to avoid the thought he had Aids or malaria, and hoping he had 'just' one of those 'normal' diseases every kid has once in a while. However, the latter resulted difficult with slogans like "Remember" and "We are all seropositive until the opposite has been proven" right in front of my eyes...Imagine you see those kids on a daily basis appearing in your office...I am afraid I would be too 'softie' to deal with that..."Chapeau" for those who are doing!

Enjoy the pictures and...remember...

beijinhos,
Katarina,xxx.

Sandra and Sergio walking-dancing

Remember

"We are all seropositive until the contrary has been proven."

Kapulana, the typical skirt

Happy girls, asking me to take a picture...