The past 2 days I've been reading quite quickly, a book called "April 1865". It's an excellent novel about the making of America via the Civil War. How racial barriers were overcome, people overcame violence and learned how to live with each other again.
And it's mirrored the last two days of local melodramatics.
Yesterday, I came home to find Artimisa, Albertina's half-sister, skinny and distraught, sitting down in our living room. Her husband had just beaten her, and being four months pregnant, she wasn't going to put up with it (again). She came to find her sister.
So Blake, Albertina, Artimisa, the Canadians and I all went to her house to get her clothes so she could escape. We knew her husband was on his way, so we tried to move things along.
Artimisa had a key to the house, so I stood outside while Albertina helped out inside. The others stayed around the car. Before long, the husband rode up on his bicycle, passing his resting father who had been sleeping on the ground outside due to the heat.
When he entered the house, I did too, to make sure he wouldn't get violent - it didn't seem like he would, given the company, and also since he had asked permission to enter the house.
When he got in, he started to ask what was going on. Albertina explained that her sister was packing her bag with clothes so that she could leave. He stood between Artimisa, her bag and the door, effectively preventing her from leaving. Charles entered the house, grabbed the bag, and the husband started to follow. Artimisa squeezed through the opening and Albertina and I kept her outside. The husband got the bag back and in the room - we agreed that enough was enough and we'd just get out of there, getting clothes from elsewhere.
The husband didn't relent, though, and continued to yell after us "What's the problem? What do you have to do with this?" Blake stood up to him and grabbed his shirt, saying that hitting women IS our problem. We calmed him down before it got messy and drove off.
Today, Artimisa seemed to be much more relaxed and eating somewhat better. She looked through my pictures several times, and I could tell she was trying to get her mind elsewhere.
Her brother came and together with Albertina, they went to her family's house about 30 minutes away. Their mother told Artimisa that this is the last time she'd help (this is a recurring pattern), and if she went back to him, there would be no home to go back to (with her mother). She laid down the law.
And then the husband did the same for us. After threatening to do so, he went to the police, saying that we stole money and physically harrassed him. He delivered a sheet of paper, officially stamped but riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, that said we had to answer the charged at 8:30 PM. The clock read 7:30 PM.
So Blake got the neighbor to watch the house and I went to the Canadians to see if they wanted to go with us. Albertina was formally charged (though her name was incorrect as was her place of residence) with Blake being "requested" to be present, as her "husband".
Charles and Annie had visitors from Maputo, who were more than willing to join us, so the five of us left for the police station while Blake and Albertina met up with Dinho, Albertina's older brother.
We met at the station at 8:30 and waited 10 minutes for the husband and his young friend (who had also been outside last night during the struggle). The officer first asked what his story was, then ours. Dinho, being of the coolest head, spoke for us.
That is, after he translated. Though the husband speaks Portuguese just fine, he chose to speak Changana after being prompted by the officer "You can speak in whatever language you feel comfortable in." And what if it had been English? German? Zulu? It was clear that they wanted to exclude us as much as possible, making things difficult. I held my tongue. We all did.
And what Dinho translated was that we had stolen money, entered his house without his permission, and beat him up.
What happened over the next half hour was out-and-out intimidation. The officer asked us our story. Then questioned the validity of it, asking for specifics, and judging why "white people who don't have anything to do with this" were involved. He asked where the wife was - we said she had stayed away because he had beaten her. The officer brushed this off, as acceptable. He confirmed that we had entered the house without the husband's permission - yet when we asked what the law was concerning a woman's right to let in whom she pleases, the response was clearly that the law says one thing and practice says another. The woman has no right to let anyone enter the house, but not in so many words. Annie said we were looking out for Artimisa's safety, but it fell on very deaf ears. The entire debacle was very deliberately run in an attempt to muscle us into coughing up money to the police and her husband - there was even a threat that because the "forced entry" and "assault" were criminal matters, thatit would be tried as a criminal case. And the sum money - 7 million Met ($280) - was never properly accounted for. The officer was told it was in the bag, but both parties agreed that the bag had never left the house. Accepted without a word.
And tomorrow there's a summons for Artimisa to come and speak her mind.
Peace
John
