Mutual fate The three young women had committed the same sin and were therefore destined to suffer the same fate. Standing at the water's edge, they had decided to jump in and thus avoid many days of further suffering. On the count of three two of them jumped. Mauda had a last minute change of heart. Something inside of her was telling her that this was not the end. And so she stood there and watched as her new found friends sank into the dark depths of lake Bunyoni. Seeing a future Three days passed without food or water, and Mauda's hopes were fading fast. Then on the third night she heard a sound in the dark. She was not alone on the island any longer. In between the tall grass she made out the figure of the man who was to become her future husband.

Mauda's life Mauda is now eighty-five years old and lives in the tiny village of Burimba overlooking Punishment Island.

As she sits in a chair by the window of her small, dark hut, she recalls having had a good life. She and her husband enjoyed raising seven children, one of whom passed away too early. Her husband also passed away a few years ago, but her many children and grandchildren, one of whom teaches people in the community to swim, are always around to keep her company. She still thinks about the baby she lost at the hands of her own father, and as she talks about it and describes her pain to me with tears in her eyes, she signals for her daughter to leave the room.