Thu 9 July

Monire mose,

I was woken up around midnight last night with a commotion outside my room - it was Fr. Banda shouting Fr. Chunda. I then heard a car driving away and knew something was wrong in the parish. Fr. Chunda informed me before Mass this morning that a teacher in St. Peter's Primary had committed suicide. It's very sad as he has left a wife and children and nobody knows why he did it. He was at school as normal yesterday. After school he went for a drink, went home, had his supper and then when his wife went to bed he went into the kitchen and hanged himself. The group who were here may remember him as he was the only male teacher apart from the Headmaster.

Unfortunately there is not a lot of sympathy for him among the people but the priests have been very supportive. Usually the neighbours would gather outside the house for prayers straight away but they refused because it was suicide. It is very much frowned upon here and as a result his wife will not be treated very well by his relatives. I tried to explain that to be in that state of mind means he was not mentally sound and that it should be treated as any other illness. I told them that at home the family would receive even more support from relatives and friends because of the circumstances. It led to a very interesting discussion about cultural practices and burials. They told me that in the villages is someone hangs himself from a tree then a pit would be dug below and he would just be cut down to fall in the pit with no proper burial or funeral.

Ive just been to visit my old neighbours the Mhangos. It was a good 50 min walk, mostly over rough terrain, into a very poor area where they are not used to seeing mazungu. It was a bit disconcerting walking through the village with everybody staring and shouting azungu! Thankfully I managed to find the primary school where the mum works but she wasn't there so another teacher took the youngest,Emmanuel, out of class to take me to their house. Can you imagine a total stranger arriving at a primary school in Scotland and being allowed to take a 7 year old child away? I felt like Madonna walking through the village with Emmanuel holding my hand - cue even more stares! It was good spending time with the kids and giving them their gifts from Scotland. If I can remember Eric's instructions I'll try to add some photos tomorrow.

Tonight I have Irene and one of the nuns coming to watch my sister's wedding DVD. There will be much laughter when they see Fr. Naz in a kilt!

Pawemi,
Bernadette