Olga's Frayed Nerves

I was reflecting this week on a question that I asked in a posting back in July. Before setting foot in Mozambique, I wondered what remnants I would find of a protracted civil war that has certainly, I thought, left some emotional and physical scars on this country and its people.

This week, I heard a story involving Olga, whose wedding we were at in the fall, that reveals an interesting example of the frayed nerves with which some people still struggle.

Last Sunday, Olga was injured and briefly hospitalized in what she believed was the resumption of the country's once-protracted and bloody civil war, which ended with a ceasefire in 1992.

She wasn't wounded by fighting; instead, her injuries were sustained as she jumped out of the window of the minibus taxi that she was riding in when she heard the eruption of explosions and gunfire. Fearing for her life, she desperately wanted to flee.

As it turns out, she need not have been alarmed. The country is still at peace, but ringing in her ears were the haunting noises of the civil war era: for 45 minutes on Sunday afternoon, obsolete mortar shells and other military equipment exploded in a fire apparently started by the heat of the African summer.

The scars of battle are deep. And for some people, like Olga, fear simmers just below the surface.