Something from Khongoloti

Yesterday I exited my quarters in the morning to find that the imaginative and competitive play which I have by now become quite familiar with in the form of uninhibited shrieks just outside my window some hours before I finally decide to wake myself, was presently engaged in by a troop of 8-3 year-olds ceremoniously dressed for bath time. The children here are bathed two at a time by the Mozambique Tias ('Aunts' in Portuguese) that work here but for some reason, perhaps out of solidarity or maybe just simplicity on behalf of the Tia's, they all uniformly adorn their birthday suits from the get-go and stay that way till after they've all been bathed. The grandeur of their attire, fit indeed to decorate the most famously suggestible of emperors, exercised no noticeable influence over their behavior, and the careless festivities of their everyday youth were carried out blissfully unhindered by the vain conscience of self-perception. It's not uncommon in these parts to witness children mindlessly enduring utter exposure, but the scene of 15 or so naked 8-3 year olds tromping about the area that serves as one's front porch was novel enough to commit to this journal.

Later that day I returned from my participation in the construction work to find two or three of the smaller children seemingly engrossed with a new play-thing. As I neared, the leader of the pack exultantly displayed for me their precious new entertainment source and I beheld in his miniature fingers a brightly colored florescent green arranha approximately the size of a US 50cent piece ('arranha' [if I spelled it right] is the Portuguese word for spider). The unfortunate creature was caught by one of its excessive appendages and was futilely (I hope) endeavoring to sink his fangs into the child's surprisingly resilient skin. The child received unremmitent delight from releasing his victim and, unexpectedly at first, watching it float just below his arm on an invisible string. The mixture of fear and ecstasy audibly emitted from the child upon first discovering that instead of following the expected gravity-inspired trajectory toward the ground the spider preferred a lofty position hovering just in front of the child's belly and would in fact pursue this notion of proximity upon any attempt by the surprised child to retreat was indelibly satisfying to observe. Children have a knack for presenting the essence of life unguised. More experimentation unveiled the mechanism of the creature’s magical powers and the child triumphantly expostulated to me 'cordel!' 'cordel!' which means twine or string in Portuguese. Having determined that any likely danger inherent in ongoing scenario was either too far past due to currently exist (i.e. the spider being dangerously venomous) or else (as in the case of the spider's clearly broken leg) already manifested, I left the children to further quiz their prey's survival mechanisms.