From the Water's Point of View Life During the Floods as Seen from a Canoe

By Pamela Zintatu Ntshanga

I will stay here, don't worry about picking me up," shouts Mr. Paulino as a group of ACT staff members in Mozambique passes his house in a wooden canoe outside the town of Caia. He goes to and fro between the houses and what used to be the field salvaging the maize that has not yet rotted.

On a small table made from what appears to be a freshly felled tree are maize cobs sprawled out for drying. The two chickens that have been spared from the floods peck and feed on the maize, seemingly picking the best cobs.

Mr. Paulino doesn't seem to mind losing his food to the chickens. "It is better with two fattened chickens than none at all," he says. He is happy with managing to salvage some of his belongings and staying behind to guard the little of his possessions that haven't been swept away by the water.

Until two weeks ago, his house was about four miles away from the river. Now the water is moving closer and closer. His family, on the other hand, has moved further away to an accommodation center in the outskirts of Caia on the southern side where tents stretch along the red gravel road.

No, I am fine, don't worry about me," he says after he has been told about the possibility of rising water level, a common response in the areas of Namacurra in the Zambezia province.

Those people who feel they don't need rescuing have been telling us to go and help other people." This is the experience of Jorge Samuel, coordinator for the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM). "We are concentrating our efforts on those who are most desperate. We can't force people to accept our help," he adds.

Mr. Paulino is one of the lucky few. As we paddle on, he gestures to a canoe full of goods tied to a mango tree. He is a man with an escape plan.

March 2001