Witch children

I heard it in BBC africa this morning, and I could not believe it, so
I did a fast search in google, here you got the three first results.
In Congo and Angola many children are accused of being witches and are
beaten or abandoned...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/13/africa/witches.php

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=59665

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/575178.stm

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Back to Africa..

I am back from South Africa! My meeting was very good, and I have
made a couple of good connexions. Hopefully i'll be able to start a
research project while I'm here, but I still have to set up a lab
so... pangono pangono. A lot of people came to see my poster, but I
don't know if it was scientific curiosity or they just wanted to know
how I end up working in Malawi..

Appart from work, I loved the country (or at least, the little part
that I saw). Very mediterranean feeling. I felt like back home, and
not in Africa! I suppose that many people would agree with me,
specially if you live in the untamed part of the continent. Only when
you pass the townships in the outskirts of the cities you realise of
where you are, but the motorways, the cars less than 10 years old, the
pavement... made me feel that I was in Europe and not in Africa. It
took me a while to get used to everything, specially the presence of
good roads and traffic lights, and the amount of stuff that you could
buy at the shops.

The course was held in Hermanus which is a village quite popular in
winter because whales visit their coast to have their babies. We were
not in the right time of the year, and we only had a group of dolphins
visiting us one day, but still it was great to enjoy the breaks from
lectures looking at the sea or walking along the cliffs. We were 50
participants from all over the world, and we had a lot of fun,
specially at the end of the week when we started to know each other.

Some of us spent the last two days touring in Cape Town. We visited
Robben island, Table Mountain, Chapman's peak and of course, Cape
Point, the end of the continent. We swam in the sea, and a seal came
to show us how to surf the waves.. it was amazing.
Cape Town itself has many different faces. One face is industrial and
an important harbor. Then down Town Cape Town is beautiful and
touristic, with many European style buildings and great atmosphere.
One of the poorest faces is the many townships around the city where
people survive. South africa receives loads of immigrants from other
african countries, trying to find a better life, but many of them will
end up living non legally and in horrible conditions. Like most
tourist, we spent some time at the waterfront in Cape Town, which is a
huge shopping mall where you can find all the same high street shops
of Europe.. may be after all, that is what development os about??

Now, back to real Africa, work work work, Malawian social life, and
plans to spend Easter on the lake!
I hope to spend some time this week end sorting out the pictures in my
new computer (yes, I bought one!!) and I'll share them soon in my site.