SADNESS

A little kid has hung himself in Nairobi. The family learns of it via a neighbours phone. They do not posses a mobile phone yet. I wonder how the bearer of the news mustered enough guts to go tell a mother that her son  has hang himself. Screams pierce the night, the whole village comes to investigate. All the women who come end up shedding tears and wailing loudly. The men huddle in groups with the father of the child talking in low tones. No one cries among the men. The other little kids just look in confused and wondering why there are so many people in  their compound. Some of them are crying because their mother is crying. It is dusk. Soon the majority people will go away and leave  the bereaved; they will be back tomorrow though.
The family is poor. It is apparent. There is one grass thatched house and another one with an iron sheet roof but the walls are made of mud. It has been decorated with white clay and it looks nice. In the living there are three arm chairs and a dining table that serves many purposes. The women sit on the ground sorrounding the mother. A tin lamb is lit as the sun sets and it becomes dark.
The boy had been living with his sister in Nairobi. The sister is married. She had taken him there so he might go to school. Tommorrow, the men will travell to Nairobi to make the funeral arrangements and to transport the body back home. They do not have enough money so they are collecting it among themselves and from all families in the village.
The women weep and wail, the cry kids themselves to sleep, hungry and exhausted. The men talk on in low tones. There is not a laugh to be heard anywhere. The mood is sombre! The moon peaks weakly from behind the clouds. It might rain during the night.