Funeral

Yesterday Elias John Mucavel and I were standing at a crossroads bridge in Xilembene watching the canal waters of the great Limpopo flow and chatting as we waited patiently for an important meeting to start.

Suddenly a crowd of people was coming right for us, slowly. They were coming right towards us, Machamba Mama's and all. It looked like a sea of Mozambicans headed right for us, John and I knew what this was-- a funeral procession.

John said to me: "Quick, let's hide"

Then we saw, it was too late.

The procession had already seen us, so we had to participate. So we spent the next hour participating in the procession, we walked to the cemetery, sang beautiful songs in Machangana heard the service and made our way back to have our meeting.

You see, when a funeral happens here, everything shuts down (not like they have much going on any way bless their souls) and everyone participates. The procession gradually grows until it reaches the cemetery.

As it turns out, it was John's cousin that had died. What nerve he had to try and dodge his cousin's wedding, right? C'mon now, funerals are a common thing here, plus, who isn't John's cousin in Xilembene, right?