we were comparing notes in the staffroom

yesterday about our comparative treatment of our family members. The expectatyion here is that the young will care for the elderly and the widows like it says in the Bible - but not for the biblical injunction but for the traditional way their society has been structured. One of the staff described how she had said "wrong things about her grandfather's children who had not looked after him" and this was not regarded as proper because she was a generation removed and so they had to do a purification of the area of the wrong with the tying of shell money and other gifts to the trees nearby. It is important that children take the body of a deceased relative back to their spirit land where their ancestry is and this can be very expensive.
My eyes are being opened to the value of learning from each other. Materially poor comparatively but spiritually rich. On the way home at Eriku the other day I waited for a Unigate PMV and a gentleman saw me there. It turned out he used to be a policeman and he was annoyed the police were not doing their job of making the PMVs go their designated route. He accompanied me on the bus as he wanted to make sure I got away from Eriku safely. There is always this protectiveness and kindness of people.