Mozambique: take two

I can’t believe that I have now been back in Mozambique for a month.  I have 10 ladies living with me from Africa, Europe and the States ranging from 19-49 years old.  My roles for this school have increased and so I am being kept pretty busy!  My work includes overseeing all the families with includes 16 adults and 17 children…they are a great bunch and I am enjoying helping make their experience a positive one in the middle of bad plumbing, lack of running water and electricity!  It sure does make you very appreciative of all that the UK has to offer and keeps you humble.

Mandela land

So after my adventures in Sierra Leone I headed to South Africa for a ‘working break’!  As well as doing lots of admin work for the next school, I got to spend some time in Cape Town as well as in Robertson.  I loved Cape Town and seeing old friends and spending a couple of days sightseeing including a trip up Table Mountain….spectacular beyond words!

I then spent a few days in Robertson which produces some of the best wine I have ever tasted and got to a climb up to a waterfall and live in a cottage with no internet or phone access.  Beautiful!  I also spent many hours preparing for the next school which is now well under way.

A very thankful and proud daughter

The absolute highlight of my time in Sierra Leone and the highlight of 2013 was being able to visit the village where I had lived as a child. After a long bus ride and hairy motorbike ride (first time on a motorbike..and of course there was no helmet or proper road for most of the journey!!) I arrived at the village.  The local Methodist minister happened to be available as we drew up on the motorbikes and when he knew about my family history he immediately stopped what he was doing and took us to the hospital where my father had worked as a doctor and we had lived as a family.

As I stepped onto the hospital grounds memories came back to me and the tears started….and the very first man we met was a gentleman who had remembered my family from over 30 years ago and said with a big smile ‘your father was a great man and a good surgeon’ – I thought my heart would burst with pride!  He also said that I had grown somewhat!!!

After meeting new and old friends I was able to walk round the grounds and visit some of the wards and take plenty of photographs for my parents.  And then we were offered free accommodation in the hospital overnight as we had nowhere else to stay!  The effects of the civil war can still be seen from the holes made by very large bullets into the village’s water tank to the hospital’s generator now locked in a shipping container, hopefully preventing it from further attacks.  Thankfully with generous funding from the West, the hospital is now back on its feet and is training local nurses and treating patients.  My only regret was that my parents were not with me in order to be able to share in the experience but it was still an incredibly special time.

Lawrence of Sierra Leone

So after my first few months in Mozambique I was asked to lead a team back to Sierra Leone, where I spent my earliest childhood memories due to my parents working there.  I ended up going by myself as there was no team..which ended up being a special treat for me!

I spent most of my time in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital city.  I lived and worked with Andrew and his family who lead our charity’s base and church there.  My time was very special and I got to preach, visit some families in the slums by the river and visit the school run by Iris Ministries as well as help edit a book.

It was in the school out in the bush that I met one of my now heroes: Lawrence.   Lawrence was previously a high ranking customs official who during Sierra Leone’s civil war suffered terrible tragedy.  He was late to work one morning by a few minutes and when he arrived he found all of his colleagues bodies strewn on the road as they had been murdered just a few minutes previously.  Having already lost his wife to the war he knew that in order to survive he needed to flee and so ended up in Belgium due to having some connections there.  He made a new life for himself but felt restless and so returned to his native Sierra Leone once the war ended.

Lawrence felt very strongly that he should put his education to good use (he’s clearly very bright -he used the words ‘buffered’ and ‘perplexed’ in the same sentence..and English isn’t even his first language!) and for understandable reasons could not return to his previous customs role.  Instead he retrained as a teacher and rather than accepting a post in a good school in the capital with a decent salary he chose to work for our charity in a small village outside the capital. Lawrence said that these young people needed him more and that he has chosen to live in the school so that he can offer his support to the families also.  I felt so honoured and humbled meeting him and being able to encourage him.