Today has been a day of faffing… We woke up quite late and decided to go down town to buy some clothes for our holiday in Croatia. I also had to pick up my new passport and unregister [or register as an emigrant depending on how you view this]. It felt a bit strange to do this also because it’s so definite. I had pictures taken for my new passport and did not really like them but when I saw my passport I was very happy with it.
The ‘new’ design is awesome and I’m happy to get one before I leave. Next time, which will be in another ten years I will receive the digital passport which will be introduced in October this year. Weird new rules apply for having pictures taken and one of them is that you are no longer allowed to smile. A shame really, people will look quite grumpy then, don’t you think? Also if you wear glasses you will have to take them off. I think it’s a bit exaggerated to be honest. Anyway I have mine and it looks great, if I have my scanner set up again I will try to scan it [which is probably illegal but who gives a shit] 
I need to register as an emigrant in order to cancel all my insurances over here. AS. already took care of insurances abroad so we don’t have to worry about it, including health insurance which is great because I wasn’t sure about what type of insurance I had to apply for but this is arranged through the company he’s going to work for. I still have to write a few letters and mail them off asap, that will be the last thing to do, last bit of paperwork over here. I will receive some tax papers once we’ve moved but that won’t be much of a problem. I’ll bring over all the papers that I’ll need anyway.
We went to town to buy some clothes at Esprit. I saw a beautiful dress and AS. wanted to give it to me but I thought it was way to expensive. I’d rather go to this second hand store, they sell stuff that is sometimes brand new and I’ve found some really nice things on several occasions. My gut feeling is telling me to go and see what is there because so far I’ve always succeeded. I could buy about five dresses for the one we saw at Esprit. So on our way back home we drove by the second hand store but unfortunately the owner had to go to the hospital so he was closing earlier. I’ll try again another day.
We ended up being stuck in a traffic jam so we went to DM.’s studio instead which is just around the corner. We had coffee and stayed for a while having a relaxed day for a change…
Cannibalism
[See also previous post] Chantal told me about this so I Googled:
The Bambala, these missionaries found, regarded as special delicacies human flesh that had been buried for some days; also a large, thick, white beetle grub found in palm trees… and human blood boiled with manioc flour. The women of the tribe were forbidden to touch human flesh, but had found many ways of circumventing the tabu, and were particularly addicted to human flesh, extracted from graves and in an advanced state of decomposition.
Garry Hogg, Cannibalism and Human Sacrifice, p. 114
For various reasons, the custom was kept secret, and even members of the [Bagesu] tribe were not permitted to look on during the ceremony, which was performed by night. Yet the custom was known to all, and each family was aware of what was going on, though they never sought to watch their neighbours’ doings.
When a man died, the body was kept in the house until the evening, when the relatives who had been summoned gathered for the mourning. In some exceptional instances it took one or two days to bring the relatives together, but as a rule all was ready by the evening of the day of death, and at sunset the body was carried to the nearest waste ground and deposited there. At the same time, men of the clan hid themselves in different places round about and, as darkness deepened, they blew upon gourd horns, making a noise like the cry of jackals.
The villagers said that the jackals were coming to eat the dead, and the young people were warned not to go outside. When darkness set in, and it was felt to be safe to work without intrusion from inquisitive onlookers, a number of elderly women relatives of the dead man went to the place where the body lay, and cut it up, carrying back the pieces they wanted to the house of mourning, and leaving the remains to be devoured by wild animals.
For the next three, or sometimes four, days the relatives mourned in the house in which the death had taken place, and there they cooked and ate the flesh of the dead, destroying the bones by fire and leaving nothing. There was no ‘purification,’ or ‘shaving’ when this mourning was ended; sometimes an ox was killed for a feast when the heir was announced, but as a rule the people simply returned to their ordinary life without any ceremony. The widows, however, burned their grass girdles, and either went about naked or wore the small aprons used by unmarried girls.
John Roscoe, The Bagesu and Other Tribes of the Uganda Protectorate, The Royal Society, 1924 Read more –>