two

It was in the water in Popa Falls where I lost my awareness of space and time, my sense of self, the notion that I had a body. My mother tells me she was supposed to give birth to me in the water, I wonder if my affinity with water would have been bigger if that had happened. The river has a mesmerizing effect, it’s as if the gentle flow hypnotizes you and pulls you in. I recall a myth my mother once told me about rivers, she said if your children go missing in the river, you mustn’t cry otherwise your child will die. But if you don’t cry your child will come back to you with mystical powers. She told us this story the night we heard our neighbors crying because they lost their child to the river, when I came to Maun and saw the water that memory flooded my mind. I overheard people saying the Kavango river has healing powers, for some reason I believe it. Before I swam in the water in ndam dam I had swollen hands, and when I left the water, my hands were less swollen. It could be a placebo effect or something else. Swimming against the river stream I felt like I was stuck in-between, in-between two countries, in-between time. Perhaps it was then when I understood why Kavango means our place.

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