The Girl Who Smiled Beads

Back in Africa, Clemantine imagines every night how she’ll fight if a man attacks her. She plans to use her whole body as a weapon, physically, emotionally, and verbally. She never accepts help, especially from a man, because accepting help allows the other person to demand repayment.

Clemantine’s rage at losing her Mickey Mouse backpack consumes everything. The men walk into Tete to find help while the women wait. Clemantine tries to sleep, wanting to escape the world. Suddenly, women emerge in nun’s habits and offer them food. A little later, more women arrive and tell them that the immigration police arrested three of the men, including Rob. Clemantine and the group follow the nuns to an old soldiers’ camp, where they are given more food and baby supplies.

In the morning, the nuns walk the women to the prison. They wait on a bench, attacked by mosquitoes, until a guard comes and locks them in a small windowless room. Claire screams at the guards that they should be ashamed of themselves. Clemantine joins in. She is still furious about her backpack, but relieved to be away from Rob. However, Clemantine and Claire need Rob: he is their shield against other men. Finally, a guard who speaks Swahili unlocks the door and gives them money to take a bus to a camp in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. That night, they sleep again with the nuns, and the next day the men are released.

Clemantine knows that Rob hates her and wants to leave her behind. When the family arrives in Maputo, immigration guards take them to a surprisingly nice camp run like a hostel. There are cots to sleep on, they are treated like people, and they are given plenty of food. On Fridays, the Italian owners give them pasta. However, children still cry for their mothers at night.

Many people in the Maputo camp have lived there for 20 years. Claire asks one of these old-timers to bring her into Maputo. In town, Claire asks a general store owner if he’ll pay her for pasta from Italy. She shows the store owner a sample, and he offers her a price. Back at camp that evening, Claire pays the refugees for their pasta. She returns to Maputo the next day, sells the pasta, and purchases soap and milk. She then has Clemantine sell these goods at the camp, starting a small black-market economy. Claire gives Rob some money to go to South Africa to get a job. Clemantine starts to feel happy and safe, but Claire is afraid of getting too comfortable.