He bent over the bucket and looked into it closely: yes, it was indeed a naked baby, only skin on its little bones.
He slipped an arm inside and touched the baby's head with his fingertips; he heard a faint wail.
"It is not possible. They left him in here to die?"
He looked with disgust towards the huts at the end of the path of mud and frogs. A wall of rain fell in the middle.
A gash of anger clawed at her belly.
That morning they had decided to leave the hotel and go exploring the surroundings of the town. There were several African villages in the bush, a few kilometres from the sea: small human settlements where people lived a simple, traditional life.
Giorgia was tired of spending her days at the beach, she had not come to Africa just to get a tan and buy souvenirs: she was there to discover something authentic, something that would excite her.
And Edward felt the same way.
She had told him that she felt she was wasting precious time being shut away in a golden enclosure all day. The room on the ocean had become too small for her desires.
Africa was out there, all she had to do was open her eyes wider and lengthen her steps.
"There must be something truer beyond the gate."
"I know, let's go tomorrow and see what's in the forest."
"Over there where the sun sets every night?"
"Over there where the sound of the drums comes from."
And she had lit up with joy and energy.
Evening had fallen, in the darkness they watched the stars as they sat on the little beach wall, their legs dangling and their ankles brushing against each other.
Giorgia said she was excited about the planned trip, she couldn't wait to see how the Africans lived. From the documentaries on TV she had learned a lot, but it was not the same.
"I read that they live in huts made of mud and dung. And they make their roofs out of palm fronds."
"I read that too. They have no light or water. Do you know that?"
"And they all cook together over a communal fire outside in the open."
"They live in the past, it's crazy isn't it? If you think that another part of humanity lives in skyscrapers of steel and crystal."
They stood in silence for a few minutes, each deep in thought.
"It can't be an easy life." Said Giorgia after a while.
"Of course, they lack everything."
"It depends on what one really needs."
"Meaning?"
"I mean if you need a few things to feel good, you don't look for more. If you have always been used to living a simple, poor life, that can be fine too."
But Edward shook his head, not looking too convinced.
"But what do you think, that they don't know that there is a more affluent way of living? Quite a few Africans work in hotels and white people's homes. The difference between them and us is tangible and they have it before their eyes every day."
She shrugged, maybe he was right.
Maybe the nomadic and isolated tribes, up there in the highlands, far from civilisation, did not need anything else and lived a serene and Spartan life without wanting anything more.
There on the coast it was different, they realised this immediately.
On the beach there were several boys who pestered them with requests for money and gifts. They were intrusive and obstinate; they demanded mobile phones, watches or sunglasses. Some dressed in Western fashion, and almost everyone they talked to had a dream: to go to Europe and make a lot of money.
Edward laughed at this and tried to make them understand that it was not paradise, Europe, and that many Africans were treated badly in his country. But someone had told him that he was tired of living in a hut made of cow shit. So he had said no more, because it was not right to shatter other people's dreams.
"It must be frustrating."
"What?"
"To want something badly and not be able to achieve it. To dream of leaving and always staying here. Not having the choice."
Giorgia stroked his shoulder.
"I was told that an Italian girl who worked in our hotel years ago lived in a giriama village for some time."
"You mean with them inside a hut?" He asked in amazement.
"Yes, she married one of the tribe and moved in with them. That must be an intense life experience." And he sighed.
"It's too radical a choice; I don't think I could make it you know?"
"For love you face a thousand difficulties. Even for you it may not have been a walk in the park, but you did it. I admire certain choices."
Edward nodded, and thought his wife was an incurable romantic.
"Alright, then you know what I propose? Let's spend the last three days of our holiday in a bush hut. Screw the five-star hotel, the beauty farm, the lavish buffet and all that. What do you say?"
She burst out laughing because she knew it was a provocation.
Her Edo would never abandon the luxury and comfort of the hotel for four walls of dung and a thatched roof.
"Love there are snakes and spiders, you know that right?"
And she teased his knee with her fingertips.
He hugged her tightly and called her my darling, and cuddled her under the stars.
The tide was rising, now the waves reached almost under the low wall. They were alone, everyone else was watching an entertainment show in the amphitheatre.
Every now and then a guard would pass by on patrol, shine a light on their backs, wave to them and continue along the fence.
The beach was deserted. There were only the crabs enjoying themselves rolling in the waves, while during the day they kept cool by hiding in their hundred holes.
Down there, on the dark skin of the ocean, the dim lights of the fishermen's boats could be glimpsed. It was thanks to those men that they found fresh fish every day at the buffet.
"Can you count them?"
"No, they appear and disappear all the time. There must be about 20 of them."
"They come out every night. Have you seen their boats? They look like shells, they make them themselves by digging out the logs."
"I'd be scared shitless to go in them, and they venture out into the open sea without fear."
"If they want to eat they have to go out there. The fish are free and abound, just go and get them."
They both thought about the sea in silence.