Why men should stick to one woman...

Swaziland, "find the crocodile!" :)

In my previous posting I already talked about senhor Miguel, well this time I'ld like to introduce senhor Mambo to you. Senhor Mambo is the taxidriver who I see most of the times, he is used to work with cooperation people, and thus knows more or less the places I need to go to...(it happens often that I (!) have to look on the map and to explain where this or that institution (and even street) is to be found). Moreover, he is plus/minus reliable, in 90 percent of the cases he arrives at the hour we agreed upon (his boss, I call him 'xefe', tends to forget me quite often and tries to make up for this by flirting and saying things every woman wants to hear like "you are such a sweet woman" , "you are so special, really unique", and "you are so beautiful", and of course (!) I can't be angry with him:)), but sometimes things still can go wrong...Like last week. He had dropped me at an organization, and when I sent him a sms asking me to come to pick me up, he called me to say he was already waiting for me. Big was my surprise when I went outside and I didn't see him anywhere...When I called him to ask him where he was he said he was 'coming' ("ha de vir"- the verbal construction " ha de+infinitive" is a very frequently used one:) and refers to a kind of uncertain and far away future...), but me and my colleague from Spanish cooperation have been waiting for him for another 15 minutes...Apparently, according to him, he had been waiting for me in front of the institution where he had dropped me the day before...And again, even without the sweet words, I just couldn't be upset with him, senhor Mambo being such a sweetie himself...Let me tell you some anecdotes to illustrate this...
Some weeks ago I went on a mission to Lilongwe (capital of Malawi) for one week; upon arrival senhor Mambo (around 55 years old or even more) came to pick me up and the first thing he said was (and really, this sounded very genuine): "tive saudades de voce" ("I was missing you", but as said, 'ter saudades' means much more than only 'missing')...After a week of hotel and being outside Maputo, I couldn't have had any warmer 'welcome' than this...

During that same taxitrip from the airport to my house, we started chatting about polygamy in Mozambique-the latter still exists, and surely more in the northern and rural areas of Mozambique. Well, according to senhor Mambo, it is totally clear that to sleep with more than one woman explains the reason why polygamic men tend to live less time than monogamic men: "they are just much faster burnt-out and 'used' ('usado') than monogamic men". I had difficulties not to burst out in laughing, but I fortunately controlled myself and told him I found his theory very interesting...But, he might be right, but for another reason, when one is not talking about polygamy stricto senso but in the sense of having several partners... In a country where the HIV/AIDS-prevalence is extremely high, where around 16% of the population is infected, (this percentage is depending inter alia on province and age and can thus be much higher), sleeping with several partners can perhaps lead to a quicker death...Moreover, the use of condoms, even though it is being encouraged by NGO's, international organizations and government, isn't as widespread as one would ideally want...
Later, already at home, I remained with a question:"Senhor Mambo, and what about 'polygamic' women? Is there also risk of a shorter life?" I am not sure but perhaps this is more of a taboo than the looser sexual lifestyle man can have here in Mozambique. Need to read and talk more about this subject in order to be able to share this with you...boa noite...