Retelling of the play: Mateso (Sufferings)
Performed by the Bongo Camping Theatre Group

1. Scene 1 shows us a funeral weeping over the deceased parents who have now left behind their 2 young children.

2. Scene 2 describes how the step parents in the village drive the 2 children to hardship instead of sending them to school. As a cause of this hardship, the children one day decide to run off and seek life in the big city.

3. In scene 3 we get to know how the main character, Mateso, becomes integrated into the city milieu, and how he becomes familiar with alcohol and sex. With a swahili word, it is Matesos life with his new "washikaji" (homies).

4. Scene 4 shows us how Mateso now returns to the village, after becoming ill. In this scene the step parents act out a fight over the treatment of the boy: Should they send him to the traditional healer, or to the modern hospital? The father decides to try out the local medicin man, "mganga wa kienyeji".

5. In scene 5 the traditional healer is present, and Mateso gets an awe inspiring treatment of an occultus character. The medicine man forces the boy to admit that he now feels much better.

6. But in scene 6, after seeing that Mateso has still not recovered, the step parents have taken the boy to the modern doctor. In the doctor´s office, Mateso, the step parents, and the audience as such get to know what the boy is suffering from: AIDS. In a slow and enlightening scene, the play ends with the doctor´s advices about how to live a life with AIDS.

7. At last the play features a rap song about Mateso – with the local rapper Martin Godfrey performing the bitter song of Mateso: "Cheki nilivyokonda" – "See, how thin I´ve become now!".