a) We were chatting before dinner tonight when someone came over the prayer speaker and shut us all up. A little girl, about 5, has been missing since this morning. The man on the speaker asked anyone who "has her over" to please send her home, and others to keep a lookout.
That leaves you with a sick feeling in your stomach. This place is pretty small, so she can't be far. I hope she is ok. When I said that at home we usually worry that someone "stole" the missing child, everyone told me that doesn't happen here.
b) There is a rumor going around that people are offering gifts of cash or clothes in crowded areas, like the nearby market town. If you take the gift home you die. Simple as that. So don't accept gifts.
I told my family that was a rumor and we didn't have to worry. They didn't harp on it, which has me wondering. Dorothy and Kelly's families were supposedly frantic over the "death gifts," telling them a whole day before my family told me. Is my family more level-headed or less concerned about my safety?
c) When the Imam banned speakers at baptisms he had my full, enthusiastic support. So I was dismayed today when I thought a family was disobeying the edict. It's ok though, I've been assured they're just Catholics and don't have to obey the Imam.
Since the Pope hasn't weighed in on speakers, to my knowledge, I really have no grounds for resentment. Still, I pouted a bit at the celebration tonight because I thought I was done with that torture.
d) A gossip session with my host-sister Thaine was interrupted today by a loud wailing from a couple compounds over. Later I learned a man died last night when his hut burned down.
About an hour later someone stopped me in town to say that a mutual acquaintance of ours had lost all his belongings in a separate hut fire last night. There were no injuries, but I admit to briefly thinking "oh no! they accepted gifts," (see item "b").