night

this past tuesday night has got to be the freakiest and funniest night in mozambique as of yet.

i live by myself in a quaint and cozy two-bedroom house located in a farm community called maforga. though at times i wish i had company in the house, i've never really felt "by myself"; many visitors visit, and the farm accommodates missionary families and other young volunteers with whom i frequently fellowship. and with the exception of bug situations, i've never really felt scared staying in the house "by myself," either.

that is, until this past tuesday.

it was cloudy and had been raining on and off the entire day. power was also extremely unstable; lights in the house would flicker and suddenly go off every hour or so. i was in my room on my computer at around 8 o' clock at night when i start hearing strange noises outside of my bedroom window. not really audible, but occasional deep whispers. i choose to ignore it. winds were howling, leaves on the trees were rustling, owls were hooting. sounds of nature, sure. i was able to brush off the noise for a good hour or so until at one point, i actually hear an audible voice. not too loud -- a deep murmer in some other language -- but clearly human. then i hear footsteps on my porch just outside my window!

my mind starts to race and my heart starts to pound. it's 9pm at night; by this time, most africans are asleep. the voice sounds like that of a woman -- a deep and husky female voice. what was a woman doing outside on my front porch? if this person were male, i would've assumed him to be a security guard resting on my porch from the rain. it seemed too late to call my 80-year-old-next-door neighbor. my imagination runs wild and takes into account every possibility -- the real, the unreal, and mostly, the absurd. the first thing that actually came to mind was -- is it a witch doctor?? or a witch doctor's assistant?? i've heard stories of witch doctors stealing babies at night, using babies' body parts in their practice. what if this time, this witch doctor needs not a baby, but the body parts of a mazungu (white person)??

the power/electricity situation was making it worse. on and off. off and on. doors were creaking, and whenever the power went out, i was half-expecting somebody to jump out from the dark through my closed bedroom door. absurd and quite ridiculous, i know, now that i think about it. well, even while i was thinking it, i knew it was ridiculous.

but my fear was quite real. i tried to calm myself down from this idea, as the voice actually died down. 'maybe she left,' i thought. i continue to write e-mails on my computer, more intentionally and more furiously than ever, trying to avoid any sort of confrontation or encounter with this mysterious being lingering outside my bedroom window. but after another hour, i hear her voice and footsteps again! dilemma.

maybe it was out of unconscious courage that i spoke up. or maybe it was out of unconscious (or rather, uncontainable) fear that i spoke up. but i found my mouth suddenly blurting out, "who's out there!"

nothing.

"who is it? hello??" still, no answer. "hello???" i don't even dare to get up from my bed to peak outside my window to see who it is. i try calling out in portuguese. nothing. nothing but silence and nature.

after a few moments, though, i finally hear a groaning/mumbling in some language that doesn't sound like portuguese or even shona. i hear her mumbling and walking closer to the opening of my window. even at this point, though, i'm too scared to draw the curtains to see who it is. she says something indistinct, deep, and slurred, and i can't understand her. through the closed curtains, i try asking her in portuguese what her name is and what she's doing outside my house at this hour. she just mumbles something. i finally draw the curtains. it's a woman all right. i don't recognize her, and she doesn't look at me in the eye when speaking. i ask her these questions again, but she continues to mumble something, and i have no idea what she's saying. she doesn't look harmful. in fact, she looks scared, helpless and confused. so i walk outside of my room, and open the house door. her belongings are outside -- a jacket, a blanket, a plate, and a cup. i wonder if she's from one of the neighboring villages needing a place to stay. she continues to mumble something, but she doesn't look at me in the eye. she's blind.

it finally registers. i've heard of a blind lady who lives in maforga. i've never seen her until now. i call carlos to ask for some help, and he just chuckles, "oh. it must be maria. just take her to the security guards, and they'll take her home."

there are lot of details in between, but to make a long story short, the security guards and i ended up going on an hour-and-a-half-long search for maria around maforga in the middle of the night because... i ended up losing maria on the way. -_- how i lost a blind lady while walking together down the road, i do not know.

anyway, it was pitch-black, misty, cold, and raining, and this adventure was, at some points pretty frustrating, but i think i actually had a lot of fun. the only time i really got startled was when a security guard popped out of the dark while another guard and i were walking down the road. i jumped up and screamed, but we all just ended up laughing, the guards with their ak-47s in their arms, and me, with a dinky flashlight in my hand.

we finally found maria, lying in a ditch on the side of the road that leads away from maforga. i later discovered that maria is also sick and mentally ill.

that explains a lot. -_-

after this little emprise, i came back home wet and stinky.

but most of all, thoroughly amused.

haha.
only in africa.

moon and purple sky on one of the brighter mozambican nights.