7/8th Feb The Journey Begins

Well it’s been a long time coming but the journey to return to Mozambique has begun! What these few weeks will hold is anybody’s guess and truly only God knows. So LHR to Lisbon, and then onto Maputo via J’burg! Never really wanted to be in SA again but hey. TAP so far have proved a good airline. Great food and free drinks or cerveja! Another 7 hours till Jo’burg so plan to sleep.

J'burg! Am back. Its only seems like yesterday. Have an hour to kill will look round shops! Oh! Almost missed flight to Maputo due to it showing wrong place – Lisbon, so that was interesting. Well got picked up at the airport, we flew in over Maputo but we also flew in over the Boccaria, What a sight from the sky.

Stepping off the plane the heat hit me, but so did the smell of the dump. Anyway I just couldn’t stop smiling. Now I was finally back. This feels amazing.
Passport and visa were fine. I had my bag searched thoroughly – Lord don’t let them take the Green Curry sauce!
Everything got through ok.

Driving back to the centre was so amazing with all the familiar sights and smells. The centre has changed – at least the outside, the wall has been fixed.

Well I am back in my own bed – History Makers room, bottom bunk of the middle bunks- at the moment sharing with 2 girls. It feels so weird being back.

The compound has been on lockdown because of the fuel riots this week. They were rioting right outside the centre and some of the kids have been looting things and no ministries have been happening. The word today is that there is no Shoprite trip (western supermarket) which I really need. So have gone straight to the baby house to see old friends.
Its amazing to be back. Oh on my way there I saw Ailsa, She has or is growing into a beautiful young woman.

The Baby House – where do I start……….
Vasco, Lucy, Sina, Luis and Nemias are all walking!
The girls are much more lively that their male peers, the boys are beautiful anyhow. Sam and Agustino are real characters. Thelma and Martina are beautiful. Sina has a real wild side – very mischievous, stirs it up then stands back to watch it unfold. I love her. There are a few new kids/babies. A 4 wk old girl.Eliana. She is lovely. The hospital rang Iris to see if they could take her in. She arrived malnourished and jaundiced, I don’t understand how you tell if a black baby is jaundice, but I have to trust them. They now have Irene an albino baby girl and Alfredo a baby boy with enchelipitus. I remember reading about him arriving and getting excited about it being Alfredo from the hospital, but its another. To take photos of them somehow seems wrong, but will see how I feel in a few days.
Went to lunch with the girls after helping to feed in the baby house – it’s just a riot in there at meal times. Tino seems not to be here.

Lunch in the hall was excellent. I met Jentrude again – this time with very short hair. Found out Olga is in hospital with some sort of cough. Everything inside me want to go and be there like the last time when she was sick.
Lunch time over and I head for a lay down – much needed with heat and travelling I am wipped out. I was kindly woken by someone to say a truck was going to Shop rite so there was no delay from me! I was in there.
I have bought enough food and water that if the riots should break out again I will have enough.
Only in Africa does pineapple Fanta taste good. On the drive into the city the evidence of the riots is everywhere. Chapa’s (local transport) burnt out, tyres on fire, smoke and burn marks on the road. This morning driving past the Boccaria (rubbish dump) a guy had dumped bags of paper – now someone was sifting through them trying to find something to sell.
There is a greater police presence that I remember before. The smell of the trash in the city does not leave your nostrils. People aimlessly standing around – where is the hope, why do they keep living. What is there to live for?
The kids standing on the top of the dump watching the world go by, these images will never leave me. I came home to rest for a bit but found that it lasted till nearly morning. So I have made it to Mozambique again. Who knows what lies ahead in these two weeks.