The mechanic’s wife - Part 4

Kisangani - Being woken up at five o'clock by a fanatical preacher didn’t give me the feeling that today was going to be a good day. It wasn’t.

On the sixth day since my arrival in this port we were finally scheduled to leave. Mean looking policemen spent the morning checking the boat, without doing it too rigorously. With two deadly boat accidents (With thirty and one hundred deaths) in one week recently,  I’d expected them to be a bit more serious.
Praying for survival
But we don’t go. It becomes 8, 9, 10 o'clock and I start to wonder what is wrong. Then we are told that the wife of the mechanic is ill, but that we’ll take off soon. This is sad news. Yesterday I had spent the entire afternoon with this friendly man, Mister Boniface. He told me proudly about his boat, and was looking forward to departure. He didn’t tell me then about his wife.
Late afternoon we visit the clinic, only to find the woman in a serious condition. It turns out that she isn’t his ‘official wife’ as they call it here. She is ailing, and lies with her neck in a strange position, as if it were broken. Only the white of her eyes is visible. A nasty sight, and there is nothing we can really do. Despite warnings by the guard that there should not be too many distractions, the visitors start to pray loudly.

Yet even in Congo, where time doesn’t seem to matter, the passengers are now demanding to set off immediately. “Why should 150 people wait for one?” The decision is taken that we will be leaving tomorrow, without Boniface. He will stay with his woman. The next day she dies, while the MB Sowidaja takes off from Kisangani.
to be continued...

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