slept with her she was cheating on her boyfriend. That means that she went out with many other men apart from me. I could only get it from her.”
But Rita was still a virgin when he met her. When they met each other, she had just quarreled with her boyfriend because he wanted her to sleep with him as a proof of love. Then Rita met the charming Paulo. Confused and sad, she offered herself to him. That was her first time.
“No, she was still clean,” Paulo spoke to himself.
Then he recalled that before he met Rita, he had slept with Maria, a woman who he met at his friend’s birthday party. Maria had a bad reputation. Everybody knew her for the occasional romantic affairs she had with different men. She never went out with a man long enough to call him her boyfriend.
Paulo started to remember this woman, who he slept with only once, that night when they were both full of alcohol. The memories started to come to his mind quickly, and they confirmed that he had slept with her for sure.
“Maria passed away three months ago. She probably couldn’t fight against the disease,” Paulo said to himself.
Paulo´s lips become pale and got cracks, and his eyes became red.
“She was infected,” he muttered to himself.
While Paulo remembered his romantic affairs, the blood was running through the slide. It had already run half of it and a horizontal line started to appear. Paulo sweated more and his heart beat faster and faster as he glanced at the slide.
“Calm down, Paul, don’t worry so much, we will help you,” the doctor said, trying to comfort Paulo.
“What do you mean? You think I am positive?” questioned Paulo.
“I don’t know, let’s wait for the result,” replied the doctor.
“Of course I am, but you don’t want to tell me,” said Paulo.
The silence was back again. And Paulo continued the discussion with himself.
He remembered in detail everything that had happened at that party. He recalled that his friend, Ricardo, had given him three condoms and the next morning he didn’t have them.
“If Ricardo gave me three condoms, and they were not in my trouser pocket the next morning, that means that I used them,” Paulo said to himself with a sort of smile on his face.
The blood had passed the middle of the slide now, and the result could almost be seen.
One thing stole his smile away again. It was his memories about his relationship with Joana. Joana was a good and responsible woman. When Paulo dated Joana he trusted her. She respected him and was loyal to him. But the problem is while they were having their affair, her ex-boyfriend passed away and the doctors said that he was infected with the disease. That was the reason why Paulo and Joana split up. He was sure that she was infected too.
Paulo knew the result before the doctor said anything. At least within the five minutes of the test, he was able to reflect about his life. And he could work out the result himself.
“If I was given another chance I would be more careful,” he said.
Paulo didn’t want to wait for the result anymore. He grabbed his bag and walked out of the room. When he was opening the door, the doctor called him and told him that he was negative.
He couldn’t believe her. But that was the test result, so that was his real status.
He remembered that Joana once called him and told him that when she dated her ex- boyfriend she never slept with him, but he never believed her.
“That makes sense, Joana was right,” Paulo said.
Paulo’s life had just been renewed. He had been given another chance. He decided to have only one girl and be loyal to her.
The Craziness of Love
by
Facílio Francisco Eden
Melça Zeferino Mulombo
Maura Noë Matimbe
Macamo and Murache Tafula were living in Inhambane province.
One day Macamo met Murache and he tried to persuade her to be with him and she accepted. So they have been dating each other since 2001. Macamo had only grade 9 when they started dating and Murache was in grade 7. Because of his financial condition Macamo left his studies. He used to cut reeds from the river just to survive and support his mother and his girlfriend.
In 2002 Murache went to Homoíne to continue grade 8 and Macamo was the one who supported her at school. In 2003 Macamo decided to introduce himself to Murache’s family in order to marry her, but Murache’s family wanted 14,000mt for the wedding. Macamo said, “14,000mt is too much. I’m poor, so what I need at this moment is only to introduce myself. I can’t afford this money.” But Murache’s family didn’t change. They only advised him to pay the lobolo price.
Murache and Macamo are fine together and are a very good couple. Macamo decided to go to South Africa to look for a job and organize the money for their wedding.
When Macamo left Mozambique for South Africa, Murache cried a lot, but after two weeks she forgot. After two days Macamo called her to say he had arrived in South Africa and got a job as a gardener and he will earn 500Rand each month. Macamo took two years organizing the money for the lobolo.
But while Macamo was in South Africa, her father got involved with her and they had a son. Sometimes girls are forced to do that.
After two years Macamo came back and he met his girlfriend carrying a child on her back. He asked whose that child was. Murache started to cry and she didn't give a real answer, just saying, ''My father, my father, my father…” Murache cried because what had happened was that she was forced by her father. But Macamo didn’t reject her because he loves her so much. He paid the money for the lobolo and returned to South Africa to organize the money for their house. This took two years more.
But during that time Murache had a relationship with Bento, Macamo’s friend, and they had another child. When Macamo came back he met his girlfriend carrying a child and he asked, “Whose is that child?” and Murache said, “Bento’s”. Macamo cried, cried, cried. But he loves Murache and he married her with her two children because of love. Now Macamo supports both, and he treats the first child as his brother-in-law.
Macamo had good reason, with the two children, to go to South Africa again, and he has worked there until today.
What do you think will happen this time?
How Cumbana´s Wife Bewitched Him
by
Casimiro Armando Chissico
Ildo da Silva António Cumbane
Joaquim Tomás Bië
In 1996 Cumbana got married to his wife. Two years later his wife died and he married another wife.
Some years later he started to see strange things. His life came to be difficult because of witchcraft. He tried to do something but it was hard to succeed, because his wife had done something to him. She went to a medicine man. She took some medicine and she put it in the food to put a spell on him. Then he began to look like someone who was struck down with passion for her. He didn't have any way to survive except to respond to his wife! The man's life got harder and he had nothing but failure and he didn't have the means to make any changes.
Three years later his family discovered that his wife had been doing sorcery on him. The family decided to take him away from his wife. But he wouldn't go, because he was under a spell. During his life, he was suffering a lot. He kept a distance from his family; he won´t talk with his brother, parents, even his friends. Sometimes he won´t go to the work, and his colleagues started to be worried about him. They used to go to visit him but he ran away.
He started to isolate himself from other people, even his children. Finally the family decided to take him, to force him to leave the house and his things. He was taken to the witchdoctor to try to look after him. But the witchdoctor couldn't do it because his wife had done stronger sorcery on him. Then the family took him to the hospital and the analysis was malaria, but the analysis was wrong because he was suffering in his soul. It wasn´t something physical but something in his soul.
Then Cumbana got raving mad at his wife. In the hospital she
sent him some more of that bad medicine that she likes. He began to go crazy with that magic.
A month later his family tried to find another way to make him better. They went to the Mazione priest to pray and prophesy over him. They discovered that he had been “bottled,” which means someone has imprisoned your soul in a bottle.
The Mazione man explained to him the underground things that his wife had done. He told him to go under the bed and take out some small bottles containing drugs. The man goes and takes the things that were hidden under his bed, containing many different kinds of sorcery, many different colours. The Mazione man was still worried about the power of the magic so he ran quickly and sang a song that went, “Jesus, save him, save him…”
Cumbana was a polite man; he didn´t know anything about these things; he was very honest. The Mazione priest said, “We must solve it at once, solve it at once!” because Cumbana had had many problems in his life without ever finding the guilty person.
The Mazione man told him to pray, and told him some strange words to say, such as: “My mad wife, God will punish you because you didn´t follow the good way that God gave us. God is our father and he will punish those who hate him and that person is you, my mad wife!”
One week later the man was saved and followed a good life, and his wife died because of the sorcery.
About the Authors
These stories were written by students at the Universidade Pedagógica Sagrada Família in Maxixe, Mozambique. The authors are secondary-school English