lethal weapons/wives

my rusty old bush knife

See this fellow? Can be lethal. There was a bit of a commotion in my neighbourhood last Friday. A friend was walking home, saw the crowd, went up to see what was going on and – too late, action over – there was a lot of blood and underneath that a dead woman. I heard the story at work on Monday; it goes something like this:

X has two wives. Friday he learns the father of his second wife – a Chimbu woman – has died; he joins her male relatives, they’re raising money for a coffin, planning the trip up to Chimbu etc. First wife – a Lufa lady – hears about this on Friday afternoon. She’s on the main road out in the town’s west (an area which has a little bit of a reputation, but isn’t too bad); she sees wife number two and whether or not there are words is unclear. But wife number one’s upset that her husband’s forgotten her in all the commotion. She goes into a store and buys a bushknife (newer and sharper than mine), comes straight back out and stabs the Chimbu woman several times. It’s quick, and the latter is soon dead.

But at work I laughed when someone made a quip about jealous wives. And that it’s lucky we’re not on a connecting road between Lufa and Chimbu, because there’s bound to be payback. And when I found out that within minutes people were trying to hail a pmv to take the body to the morgue (that’s a public bus). (I wonder if one stopped, who’d want a bloody carcass on board? And wouldn’t that suck: dead, shoved onto a pmv: going out with no style at all.)

Only writing this down I realise I’ve lost my sensitivity to these things. Should I be alarmed? Where is my empathy? Is this lack of…response, good or bad?

I suspect it’s nothing to do with either. It’s more like adaptation, getting accustomed to the rhythms of lives here, adjusting to their own cultural logic, rather than expecting to find your own. and no jokes about strange mutations. though they're possible too. least i won't have any trouble on the lethal wives front.