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 By Paul VugtsBeira's Praya Nova ('new beach') is full of shipwrecks: reddish brown rusty carcasses of what once were coasters that entered and left Moçambique's second biggest harbour. Wrecks are nothing special in Beira, where streets and squares are overloaded with broken cars, lorries and even trains and airplanes. But this one is: it's the home of 'the boys of the boat'. The fifteen street urchins live in the wreck for over a year, since the police send them out of a ruin in another part of Beira. Neighbours pointed them out after a serie of burglaries, and the police told them they would be arrested as soon as they showed their faces again. Now that the eldest boys Joâo (18) are in prison for burglary, Bebe Vasco (17) is in charge on the ship. Sided by Paolo Venacio (13) and Armindo Joè (14) he proudly shows their territory. A walk trough the ships toilet (the afterdeck) and a bit of climbing leads to sala grande: the main part of the boat where the boys light a fire at night and whre they hit a punchball made of plastic bags and rags. Even at daytime it's dark in the rusty inside of the former engineroom, but at night it's fairly cosy, Armindo assures. Off course the kids fight sometimes, but the danger in the streets and the boat binds them together. Especially when the Tanzanian illegals who sometimes use the boat as wel - get drunk and come to beat them up, they have to fight on each others side. But what most binds them together is history. The war between the Renamo-rebels and the Frelimo governmental army ripped their families apart. All the boys have their own tragic background of parents who were raped and killed before their eyes or whose limbs were cut of. Some boys have been forced to fight as well and lost hands of arms. But the deepest scars are scratched in their soul. The main goal of the kids is to forget the past and start a new life. The boat, with the excellent view over the Indian Ocean, is a perfect place for them to dream about a nice job and family. But from now on, there's only one issue: staying alive. Casa Re-om is a big help: a Cristian orphanage in the center of Beira where street urchins go to school, have dinner and a shower and where volunteers try to offer them some perspective on a better future. But most of the boys are not ready to start a new life yet. The bandidos (that's how the Renamo-rebels are called) still rule their minds. From now on the boys just try to stay alive and out of prison. They spend their days begging for money and quarding cars, and off course sometimes they remove some stuff, Armindo admits smiling. |
