No More photos, and final thoughts on Mozambique

Unfortunately, things are wrapping up on a sour note with a series of thefts: my camera, my i-phone, Phillips' camera, and quantities of cash ranging from about $50-150 have disappeared sequentially. It looks like someone is getting into our apartment, and taking small items on a continuing basis.

Though not entirely unexpected event when travelling in places like this, it is disheartening. Most people here are desperately poor, and though most are honest, I am sure that to some we seem like fair targets. it is nevertheless unsettling and leaves me with a bad feeling, like I have been violated. Though the camera can be replaced, the photographs on the memory card cannot. And the iphone I had hoped to use as my backup camera, as well as calling home using Skype, and of course the many other things I use it for. One consolation is that I have nothing else of value left to be stolen.

There is plenty more I had hoped to write about: The medical students I’ve been working with, the “Medicina Verde” (green medicine) project which makes traditional herbal medications which we prescribe in the clinic (things like eucalyptus cough syrup, pepper based salves for joint pains). The severity of some of the illnesses I’ve seen people with here, and how long they go before they seek medical attention, the many wasted, broken bodies ravaged by HIV, tuberculosis, and cervical cancer, among others. How stoic and accepting of their fate many are. These will have to wait for another time.

Tomorrow I leave for South Africa: As I write this, Tia is flying south from Paris to meet me in Johannesburg tomorrow. We will travel for a couple of weeks, in Kwa Zulu Natal, and Capetown, before meeting Danny and Anelise in Boston.