African Funeral

I’m not sure there is anything more tragic than the death of a child, even in a place like this – where death is so common. Thankfully, the death was not one of “our” kids, but a neighbor of ours and a classmate of theirs. The girls told us about it one afternoon when we were playing on the playground – they kept taking the climbing rope and putting it around their neck. We gathered after asking enough questions at that time and later that evening when we heard a woman yelling and crying, that a boy around 11 years old had hung himself, and they saw the body. Abby and I were both horrified, but also not sure how much we missed in translation.

The next day, when we were with our friend Gloria, she told us what happened to the boy. Apparently the little boy was trying to recreate a kung-fu move he had seen Jackie Chan perform in a movie. He had tied up bed sheets in a tree, and was swinging around on it – somehow the unimaginable happened trying to reenact a move.

The day after the accident, we saw at least 100 chairs on the boys parents property, and people slowly filling them all up and every spare inch of space surrounding them. The boys’ schoolmates were even escorted to the funeral by teachers. It was such a tragic accident, and hearing so clearly the mothers heart wrenching cries, made for a solemn few days at Tudor.

-- Sara