Parties, babies and owls

May 26

Well, I missed my dive this morning. No, I wasn’t hung over, I felt ill during the night, as did my roomie, Leslie. After imbibing a lot of alcoholic substances, the group went to Tofo Tofo, a restaurant in the village. Dinner was delicious, I think it was the ice that made me ill. Ice can be a danger as we all know. I should have stuck with the bottle. I managed to “sneak” away after dinner, Daniela had quite a few cocktails and insisted I go to Fatimas with them to dance with her.

I asked Patty to distract her, which wasn’t a problem, and I headed home, taking the shortcut through the woods. Leslie insisted on walking me to the fork, and it is good that she did, because I would have missed it. It was a fun evening! Some of them cannot remember much about it today, though. LOL. 

Suzanne is the only housemate who is not on the ocean project, she is volunteering at the orphanage in Inhambane. She has told some very sad stories, and today the children came to Casa Barry for a day by the ocean. I watched the children play for while, and then held and fed a little girl named Denicea. She has bedsores from not being turned over often enough in her crib, and her nappy (diaper) was basically a dishcloth. At 8 months old she can barely hold her head up. There were 4 or 5 babies there, and they did not cry or react at all, they just sat there. They have learned that crying or cooing gets them no attention, so they don’t make a peep.

By the end Denicea and the 7 month old baby (who was no bigger than a 2 month old) Katie was holding were reacting a bit, smiling a little, and cooing. They want the food just shoveled into their mouths they are so hungry. The other, older, children, who live on rice and water, enjoyed hamburgers and chips with soda and ice cream. I’m sure a few of them will be ill tomorrow, but they really enjoyed it today. Many of them did not know what the vegetables were on their plates. Needless to say, it was a sobering event, although it is not helpful to be sad around these children….I saved that for after they left. I took a long walk on the beach. I plan to give money to Martina, a volunteer at the orphanage who is married to Steve, the dive shop owner here, so she can buy fresh fruits for the children.

Donations directly to the orphanage do not get to the children, sadly enough, so it has to go in a roundabout fashion. How can anything ever change here, or anywhere else? There just seems to be so little will to make improvements, for anyone or anything. I admire the volunteers and scientists so much, whether they are working for the environment, the animals, the children, or education, they work against impossible odds. 

A salad for dinner, made by Daniela, followed by exhaustion and the desire for early bed. However, the electrical outlet has stopped working in our room, so I am moving downstairs. GRRRR. I am certainly not moving all of my stuff, and I will ask at Casa Do Mar if they have a room for tomorrow night. I’m ready for some pampering, a washing machine and an air conditioner! 

This evening Leslie came in to tell me there was an owl in the yard. Sure enough, an owl was sitting on one of the fence posts. It makes me terribly sad. Owls are highly emotional birds, and are very, very bonded to their mate. Often they can be monogamous and have been known to die of melancholy when their mate is lost. I’m sure the owl of tonight is wondering why his mate’s scent ends at our yard. It just kills me, and the memory of what happened serves to make me angry and sad at the same time.

Tomorrow, I dive.