Bex in Moz

Back at last

Swisslil has tweaked my conscience. She's in bed suffering from hideous morning, afternoon and night sickness and is likely to be so for some time and yet she manages to update her blog. I have no excuse.

Or maybe one. Joaquim is sick, again. Respiratory tract infection, maybe laryngitis. If it were not for the reassurances of the paediatrician, I would be really quite worried, as it seems he gets everything going. In fact, the next time we spend a long period in Europe, I may take him to a homeopath and try to discover if there is some underlying cause for this tendency to have terrible coughs. We've had a couplke of bad nights, but it's not all bad, he's taking his meds and improving daily.

As is our house. While we were away, little happened. Nothing unusual there. Since we got back however, the roofers have been thatching like crazy and it's really starting to look fantastic. Builders still have a long way to go: no bathrooms, kitchen or floor yet, but it's coming together. Our carpenters have made some solid, handsome doors, and the electrician has finished his installation. A few mistakes have been made, inevitably, but it's starting to look like the house I was dreaming of when I first sketched it many months ago. I even know where I'm going to put the beautiful hand-painted tiles I bought in Portugal.

Work is fine. Again, not much progress made in my absence, more being made now. I have not yet lost that just-back-from-holiday enthusiasm and energy, so I must make the most of it while it lasts. Going out to check progress next week.

One shocking piece of news though. Our housekeeper's daughter - early 20s and 8 months pregnant with her second child - is HIV positive. She just found out. Her mother is calm, as she is an HIV-AIDS activist for her church and as such well-informed, but nonetheless it's a terrible blow. Pemba, as the Provincial capital, has an anti-retroviral treatment programme for those who develop AIDS, so in that way she's lucky, but luck has really nothing to do with it. My fear is that there are so many more young people out there, infected but without knowing it, and nobody seems to be changing their behaviour. Sorry to be grim.

To end on a cheerful note, my sister's book, Gods Behaving Badly, has reached number 19 on the bestsellers'list. Fantastic or what? Get out there and buy a copy, if you haven't done so already. It's a rollicking good read.

Labels: AIDS, Joaquim, new house, sisters

posted by Rebecca @ 2:31 pm