I don’t particularly like children. I’m not the kind of person who comes over to someone’s house and immediately picks up their baby. It’s not in my nature to sit down with a bunch of preschoolers I don’t know and read them books. Little boys who deliberately mimicked me and seemed to take pleasure in […]
Let’s talk
I am calmness
I am calmness. He poured a bottle of honey down the sink. I am calmness. He lay on top of his younger baby brother and then covered his head with a blanket. I am calmness. He put the block in the olive oil his older brother had poured on his plate. And the older brother […]
Analog
I’m a little afraid. I’ve been trying to understand that fear—to name it, define it, look for where it comes from instead of drowning it out with noise. I’m a little afraid to put my phone down and simply be present. That fear surprised me when I decided that tomorrow I’d leave my phone in […]
Not I
How tiring it is, what the world talks about today. I, I, I, and always I. My needs. How I feel. What I’m missing. How to take care of myself. A narrative. It’s easy to succumb to it. It’s easy to justify it. And it’s easy to desire it. Because, of course, it’s about me. […]
His ways
When we were there for the first time, the road was long and tedious. It was probably the tiredness of that day. Or maybe a bit of the delight of the new place and its details, which stopped me every now and then. We left the car on the red ground, ploughed by deep holes, […]
The white
I will always be white. I used to think that after some time, I would become a local. I used to imagine a house without walls or security. A place where anyone could come. I used to imagine myself in the yard, like other Mozambicans, surrounded by people. Today, I live in a house with […]
No photos
I’ve seen it many times. A smiling Westerner who embraces and hugs a Mozambican with emotion. But with one hand. Because in the other one he holds a phone and is taking a selfie. I’ve seen it more than once. A Mozambican who can’t say “no” because he’s just been given a gift. So it’s […]
How good it is here
At first I felt relieved that I could drink tap water. And that it wouldn’t give me diarrhea. Or worms. Not to mention typhoid or cholera. Relief that I didn’t have to look for an open store with mineral water to drink at 11 p.m. Right after we entered my apartment in Gdansk, I turned […]
Inconvenient church
What if we would deprive the Sunday service of the nice form? If we would not meet in a nice place, with decorations, lamps and comfortable chairs? What if this place would be too warm or too cold? What if after the service it would be not possible to drink coffee and eat a good […]
(Un)equal
I am afraid that through these words I may widen a gap. But what I want them to do is to make it smaller. I am sorry if I do this carelessly. I learn along the way. I was brought up in such a way that I do not divide people according to the color […]