The village was lonely but there were lot of plants to eat and enjoy seeing and enough water. But from 1958 things changed because seven years drought. The trees withered, the moss became dry and hard, the ground turned a powdery black and white.
People, at first, looked their situation as not so miserable. Then drought didn't end rain was rare, people began to worry and only they thought was when it rained.
Mokgobja, the villager, a 70-year-old man, also desperately waited for a rain fall. His two daughters broke down and wailed loudly at night. His two granddaughters, however, were playing cheerfully. They made children from sticks around which they tied rags, and scolded them severely in an exact imitation of their mother.
"You stupid thing, when I send you to draw water, why do you spill half of it out of the bucket!" "You stupid thing! Can't you mind the porridge pot without letting the porridge burn!" And then they would beat the rag dolls on their bottoms with severe expression.
The adults didn't care what children were doing. They just sat waiting for rain. Mokgobja began to think about his experiences of his youth. He remembered a rain-making ceremony. Finally he consulted in whispers with his youngest son who was two girls' father. They agreed with each other and decided to sacrifice their two girls to make a rain.
Children didn't know anything about what their father and grandfather were planning, and they continued their game.
Then two girls bodies were spread across the land.
Still no rain.
People soon noticed two girls were missing. They asked why, but the family told girls just died at the land and they buried them there. People were suspicious about their death.
Then police came around. The family explained two girls death as they told to village people. Then the police asked to see their graves. At this, the mother of two girls broke down and told everything.
They were sentenced to death without considering the ritual ceremony and their terrible situation.
People of the village thought they could have done the same thing as the family did. Only a hair's breadth had saved them form sharing a fate similar to that of the Mokgobja family. Sometimes severe nature makes people loose their minds.

This is a story of a drougt-affected village and the family who sinned in such an extreme situation.
The village had been stricken with drought for 7 years, and many of people there chose to death.
They desired the rain.
The rain came in early November of that year, but it was thin, scanty, and misty.
The beginning of the rainy season meant the beginning of the ploughing season so that they left for the lands to plough.
The family of the old man, Mokgobja, was one of those who went to the lands to plough.
They ploughing, the land was waiting for crops.
But in mid-November the rain suddenly flew away.
The day after day the land was parched in the sun.
The family felt despair.
Finally, an ancient memory stirred Mokgobja to a certain action; a ritual murder.
He and his son, Ramadi, carried out the old cruel ritual that is to offer the sacrifice of the bodies of kids to a god to make the rain fall.
That is, they killed two girls of their family.
However, the rain did not fall.
They were sentenced to death for that.
Their sufferings were not admissible in court, but all of dwellers could not accuse the two man and thought they could have done the same thing.

＞Papers and photos were spread across the floor. He spread the map out on the desk.
a table spread with a white cloth

ごえべえさん、調べてくれてありがとう。
勘違いかもしれませんが、spreadされるものが複数あるときってacrossになることが多いのかな？

＞生贄がバラバラ死体って、変ですもんね。

あはは。どうでしょうね。
マヤ文明では、生贄が死に絶えないうちに取り出したイキの良い心臓を奉げていたそうです。
全然関係ないけどご参考まで＾＾

今回の課題は7年も続いた旱魃で、精神的な限界を超えてしまい、昔の儀式、雨乞いのために家族である少女二人を殺してしまったお話でした。
なんとも悲惨なお話。
アフリカの話はTerminal （初回の勉強会）以来。どちらも深刻な暗いお話。アフリカの明るい話、出会ってみたいものです。
7年も旱魃が続き、作物も取れず、ヤギもお乳を出さず、お金も底をついてしまったら、どうすればいいのだろう。さっさと、土地を捨てて、違うところに移るのが一番なんでしょうか。
何代も住んできた土地を離れるのはつらく、中々できないことなのかもしれません。
雨さえ降れば・・・
そう Mokgobjaは思いつめてたのでしょう。もし、少女たちの犠牲で雨が降っていたら、どうなったんでしょう。
家族を失っても、作物が取れれば、食いつなぐことができれば救われるとは思えません。
そんなことをやってしまった彼らを哀れに思う気持ちはあっても、忌々しくは思えませんでした。
限界状態、そんなこと死ぬまでに経験するかどうかわかりませんが、 Mokgobjaのようなことだけは避けたいと（当たり前だけど）思います。

さて、今回は記念すべき20回でしたが、Summaryの提出は四人。ううううん・・・。英文、一ヶ月に一度は書いて、英語力アップにつながりますよ！　と胸を張って、みんなにアピールしたいけど、TOEICの点、それほどあがっていないし、言いづらい・・・
でも、次回はたくさんのSummaryを読んでみたいです。
一人一人、書くことが微妙に違っていて、いろいろな気づきがあり、勉強になります。
Summaryを書いてくださってみなさん、ありがとうございました！